Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Pronunciation Guide
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 On Being Tribal in the Malay World
- 3 Tribal People on the Southern Thai Border: Internal Colonialism, Minorities, and the State
- 4 Developing Indigenous Communities into Sakais: South Thailand and Riau
- 5 Organizing Orang Asli Identity
- 6 Traditional Alliances: Contact between the Semais and the Malay State in Pre-modern Perak
- 7 Forest People, Conservation Boundaries, and the Problem of “Modernity” in Malaysia
- 8 Engaging the Spirits of Modernity: The Temiars
- 9 Against the Kingdom of the Beast: Semai Theology, Pre-Aryan Religion, and the Dynamics of Abjection
- 10 Culture Contact and Semai Cultural Identity
- 11 “We People Belong in the Forest”: Chewong Re-creations of Uniqueness and Separateness
- 12 Singapore's Orang Seletar, Orang Kallang, and Orang Selat: The Last Settlements
- 13 Orang Suku Laut Identity: The Construction of Ethnic Realities
- 14 Tribality and Globalization: The Orang Suku Laut and the “Growth Triangle” in a Contested Environment
- 15 The Orang Petalangan of Riau and their Forest Environment
- 16 Inter-group Relations in North Sumatra
- 17 State Policy, Peasantization and Ethnicity: Changes in the Karo Area of Langkat in Colonial Times
- 18 Visions of the Wilderness on Siberut in a Comparative Southeast Asian Perpective
- 19 Defining Wildness and Wilderness: Minangkabau Images and Actions on Siberut (West Sumatra)
- 20 Gender and Ethnic Identity among the Lahanans of Sarawak
- Index
8 - Engaging the Spirits of Modernity: The Temiars
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 November 2017
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Pronunciation Guide
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 On Being Tribal in the Malay World
- 3 Tribal People on the Southern Thai Border: Internal Colonialism, Minorities, and the State
- 4 Developing Indigenous Communities into Sakais: South Thailand and Riau
- 5 Organizing Orang Asli Identity
- 6 Traditional Alliances: Contact between the Semais and the Malay State in Pre-modern Perak
- 7 Forest People, Conservation Boundaries, and the Problem of “Modernity” in Malaysia
- 8 Engaging the Spirits of Modernity: The Temiars
- 9 Against the Kingdom of the Beast: Semai Theology, Pre-Aryan Religion, and the Dynamics of Abjection
- 10 Culture Contact and Semai Cultural Identity
- 11 “We People Belong in the Forest”: Chewong Re-creations of Uniqueness and Separateness
- 12 Singapore's Orang Seletar, Orang Kallang, and Orang Selat: The Last Settlements
- 13 Orang Suku Laut Identity: The Construction of Ethnic Realities
- 14 Tribality and Globalization: The Orang Suku Laut and the “Growth Triangle” in a Contested Environment
- 15 The Orang Petalangan of Riau and their Forest Environment
- 16 Inter-group Relations in North Sumatra
- 17 State Policy, Peasantization and Ethnicity: Changes in the Karo Area of Langkat in Colonial Times
- 18 Visions of the Wilderness on Siberut in a Comparative Southeast Asian Perpective
- 19 Defining Wildness and Wilderness: Minangkabau Images and Actions on Siberut (West Sumatra)
- 20 Gender and Ethnic Identity among the Lahanans of Sarawak
- Index
Summary
In a Chinese logging camp at the edge of the forest in Kelantan, Malaysia, piles of logs await pick-up for their final journey out of the jungle and into the global economy. The camp complex, constructed out of wood and covered with the zinc roofing common to hastily built, commercial forest enterprises, includes dormitories for predominantly Chinese timber workers and truck drivers, kitchen, coffee shop, and grocery store. Forest-dwelling Temiars from surrounding settlements drop in periodically to buy food and sundries, or eat in the coffee shop. Logging trucks roll in, emptying their loads, and the jungle's spoils accumulate like jewels in a dragon's lair.
Back behind the living-quarters, the run-off from bathing structures and latrines fouls a small rivulet emerging from a limestone outcrop about three metres upstream. The limestone cliff is pocketed with caves worn by falling water, so soon to be polluted by the effluvia just downstream. From the spirit of this waterfall, the Temiar shaman and headman Ading Kerah has received a song during his dreams. The spirit emerged in the shape of a young Chinese woman, who stepped out of the cab of a passing logging truck, stylishly dressed in a miniskirt. The stench, filth and – from the viewpoint of a Temiar forest-dweller rather than a timber company executive – devastation of the logging industry are concentrated in the camp's gathering of workers and products. Yet from this site, Ading Kerah was able to receive a dream-song gift. This song could then be used in ceremonies to call upon the spirit of the waterfall for help in healing – or for the many other uses to which dreamsong ceremonies are directed: to mark important moments in the agricultural cycle; to welcome or send off travellers; to mark a mourning period's end; or merely to celebrate the experience of dancing, trancing, and singing with the spirits.
The miniskirted Chinese lumber-camp cave spirit, with her gift of song for use in healing, comprises one of many instances in which Temiars engage the spirits of modernity for their own purposes.
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- Information
- Tribal Communities in the Malay WorldHistorical, Cultural and Social Perspectives, pp. 185 - 205Publisher: ISEAS–Yusof Ishak InstitutePrint publication year: 2002