Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T08:28:50.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Prior Transcripts, Divergent Paths: Resistance and Acquiescence to Logging in Sarawak, East Malaysia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2012

J. Peter Brosius
J. Peter Brosius
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In 1987, there was an uprising of sorts in the remote interior headwaters of Sarawak, East Malaysia, on the island of Borneo. In March of that year, Penan hunter-gatherers in the Baram and Limbang Districts of Sarawak suddenly erected more than a dozen blockades against logging companies. Since that time, scores of Penan have been arrested for resisting the activities of these companies by erecting more blockades and engaging in other acts of civil disobedience. In doing so, they have achieved a great deal of international reknown among environmentalists, indigenous rights activists, and the Euramerican public at large. Their story has received broad international media coverage, and scores of celebrities, from politician Al Gore and musician Jerry Garcia to Prince Charles, have spoken out on their behalf. The Malaysian government has responded to these efforts with a vigorous media campaign of its own and, in the process, has come to play an increasingly visible role as a critic of what is portrayed as neocolonialist attempts at control over environmental affairs in the South.

Recently I have been examining the international campaign that emerged around the Penan issue in the late 1980s. In a series of interviews with European and American environmentalists, Penan resistance to logging was repeatedly cited as an important influence in the growth of movements promoting rainforest preservation and indigenous rights. Virtually everyone describes the Penan as exemplars of how an indigenous people can assert control over their own destiny and, in the process, halt the loss of global biodiversity. In short, the Penan have become an icon of resistance for environmentalists worldwide.

Type
Structures of Resistance
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 39 , Issue 3 , July 1997 , pp. 468 - 510
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anonymous. 1936. “Third Division News [Report on tour of the Belaga area, June 1936].” Sarawak Gazette, 66:996, 224–6.Google Scholar
Aplin, H. D. 1913. “Baram (Report for April, 1913).” Sarawak Gazette, 43:630, 120.Google Scholar
Arnold, Guy. 1958. “Nomadic Penan of the Upper Rejang (Plieran), Sarawak.” Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 31 (Pt. 1). 181. 40–82.Google Scholar
Belaga Station Diary. 1938–1951. Document deposited in the archives of the Sarawak Museum, Kuching, Sarawak.Google Scholar
Brosius, J. Peter. 1986. “River, Forest and Mountain: The Penan Gang Landscape.” Sarawak Museum Journal, 36:57 (New Series), 173–84.Google Scholar
Brosius, J. Peter. 1988. “A Separate Reality: Comments on Hoffman's The Punan: Hunters and Gatherers of Borneo.” Borneo Research Bulletin, 20:2, 81–106.Google Scholar
Brosius, J. Peter. 1990. “Penan Hunter-Gatherers of Sarawak. East Malaysia.” AnthroQuest, 42: 1–7.Google Scholar
Brosius, J. Peter. 1991a. “Foraging in Tropical Rainforests: The Case of the Penan of Sarawak, East Malaysia (Borneo).” Human Ecology, 19:2, 123–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brosius, J. Peter. 1991b. “Thrice Told Tales: A Review of The Nightbird Sings: Chants and Songs of Sarawak Dayaks.” Borneo Research Bulletin, 22:2, 241–67.Google Scholar
Brosius, J. Peter. 1992a. “The Axiological Presence of Death: Penan Geng Death-Names.” Unpublished Doctoral disser., Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Brosius, J. Peter. 1992b. “Perspectives on Penan Development in Sarawak.” Sarawak Gazette, 119:1519, 5–22.Google Scholar
Brosius, J. Peter. 1993a. “Contrasting Subsistence Ecologies of Eastern and Western Penan Foragers (Sarawak, East Malaysia),” in Hladik, C. M. et al. , eds., Food and Nutrition in the Tropical Forest: Biocultural Interactions and Applications to Development. Paris: UNESCO, Parthenon Man and the Biosphere Series.Google Scholar
Brosius, J. Peter. 1993b. “Penan of Sarawak,” in State of the Peoples: A Global Human Rights Report on Societies in Danger, Miller, Marc S., ed., Boston: Beacon Press (for Cultural Survival, Inc.).Google Scholar
Brosius, J. Peter. 1995a. “Bornean Forest Trade in Historical and Regional Perspective: The Case of Penan Hunter-Gatherers of Sarawak,” in Fox, J., ed.. Society and Non-Timber Products in Tropical Asia. East-West Center Occasional Papers: Environmental Series no. 19. Honolulu: East-West Center.Google Scholar
Brosius, J. Peter. 1995b. “Signifying Bereavement: Form and Context in the Analysis of Penan Death-Names.” Oceania, 66:2, 119–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brosius, J. Peter. 1995–1996. “Father Dead, Mother Dead: Bereavement and Fictive Death in Penan Geng Society.” Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 32:3, 197–226.Google Scholar
Brosius, J. Peter. 1997. “Endangered Forest, Endangered People: Environmentalist Representations of Indigenous Knowledge.” Human Ecology, 25:1, 47–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collier, Jane; and Yanagisako, Syliva J., eds., 1987. Gender and Kinship: Essays Toward a Unified Analysis. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Crespigny, C. C. de. 1883. “Baram (Report for January 1, 1883).” Sarawak Gazette, 13:207, 35–38.Google Scholar
Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. 1979. Kainus Dwibahasa. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Kementerian Pelajaran (Ministry of Education).Google Scholar
Douglas, R. S. 1906. “Baram (Report for December, 1905).” Sarawak Gazette, 36:482, 68.Google Scholar
Douglas, R. S. 1912. “Baram (Report for August, 1912).” Sarawak Gazette, 42:623, 256.Google Scholar
Ermen, C. E. A. 1927. “Fourth Division (Baram District Report for April, 1927).” Sarawak Gazette. 57:886. 184–5.Google Scholar
Faubion, James. 1996. “Kinship is Dead. Long Live Kinship. A Review Article.” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 38:1, 67–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaventa, John. 1980. Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Harrisson, Tom. 1949. “Notes on some Nomadic Punans.” Sarawak Museum Journal, 5:1 (New Series). 130–46.Google Scholar
Hudden, D. C. 1936. “Fourth Division News (Report on Tour of Upper Baram, January 1936).” Sarawak Gazette, 66:991, 96.Google Scholar
Hudden, D. C. 1936. 1949. “The Baram District (Reprint of 1939 District Report).” Sarawak Gazette, 75:1093, 78–79 and 75:1094, 109–11.Google Scholar
Huehne, W. H. 1959. “A Doctor Among ‘Nomadic’ Punans.” Sarawak Museum Journal, 9:13–14 (New Series), 195–202.Google Scholar
Kedit, Peter M. 1978. Gunong Mulu Report: A Human-Ecological Survey of Nomadic/Settled Penan within the Gunong Mulu National Park Area, Fourth/Fifth Division, Sarawak. Sarawak Museum Field Report Series No. 1. Kuching: Sarawak Museum.Google Scholar
Kedit, Peter M. 1978. 1982. “An Ecological Survey of the Penan.” Sarawak Museum Journal (Special Issue), no. 2, 30:51 (New Series). 225–79.Google Scholar
Kelly, Raymond C. 1993. Constructing Inequality: The Fabrication of a Hierarchy of Virtue among the Etoro. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Langub, Jayl. 1972a. “Adaptation to a Settled Life by the Punans of the Belaga Subdistrict.” Sarawak Gazette, 98:1371. 83–86.Google Scholar
Langub, Jayl. 1972b. “Structure and Progress in the Punan Community of Belaga Subdistrict.” Sarawak Gazette, 98:1378, 219–21.Google Scholar
Langub, Jayl. 1974. “Background Report on Potential for Agricultural and Social Extension Service in the Penan Community of Belaga District.” Sarawak Gazette, 100:1395, 93–96.Google Scholar
Langub, Jayl. 1975. “Distribution of Penan and Punan in the Belaga District.” Borneo Research Bulletin, 7:2, 45–48.Google Scholar
Langub, Jayl. 1984. “Tamu: Barter Trade between Penan and their Neighbors.” Sarawak Gazette, 110:1485. 11–15.Google Scholar
Langub, Jayl. 1989. “Some Aspects of Life of the Penan.” Sarawak Museum Journal (Special Issue), no. 4, Part III, 40:61 (New Series), 169–84.Google Scholar
Langub, Jayl. 1990. “A Journey through the Nomadic Penan country.” Sarawak Gazette, 117:1514, 5–27.Google Scholar
Ministry of Primary Industries. 1992. Forever Green: Malaysia and Sustainable Forest Management. Kuala Lumpur: Ministry of Primary Industries.Google Scholar
Needham, Rodney. 1954a. “A Penan Mourning Usage.” Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 110, 263–7.Google Scholar
Needham, Rodney. 1954b. “Penan and Punan.” Journal of the Malayan Branch, Royal Asiatic Society, 27:1, 73–83.Google Scholar
Needham, Rodney. 1954c. “Reference to the Dead among the Penan.” Man, 54:10.Google Scholar
Needham, Rodney. 1954d. “The System of Teknonyms and Death-Names of the Penan.” Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 10: 416–31.Google Scholar
Needham, Rodney. 1965. “Death-Names and Solidarity in Penan Society.” Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, 121: 58–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Needham, Rodney. 1972. “Punan-Penan,” in Lebar, Frank M.. ed., Ethnic Groups of Insular Southeast Asia, vol. 1: Indonesia, Andaman Islands, and Madagascar. New Haven: Human Relations Area Files Press.Google Scholar
Nicolaisen, Johannes. 1976a. “The Penan of Sarawak: Further Notes on the NeoEvolutionary Concept of Hunters.” Folk, 18:205–36.Google Scholar
Langub, Jayl. 1976b. “The Penan of the Seventh Division of Sarawak: Past, Present and Future.” Sarawak Museum Journal, 24:45 (New Series), 35–61.Google Scholar
Langub, Jayl. 1978. “Penan Death-Names.” Sarawak Museum Journal, 26:47 (New Sersies), 29–41.Google Scholar
Ortner, Sherry B. 1995. “Resistance and the Problem of Ethnographic Refusal.” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 37:1. 173–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owen, H. L. 1925. “Fourth Division (Baram District Report for February, 1925).” Sarawak Gazette, 55:859, 85–86.Google Scholar
Richards, Anthony. 1981. An Iban-English Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ritchie, James. 1994. Bruno Manser: The Inside Story. Singapore: Summer Times Publishing.Google Scholar
Scott, James. 1985. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Scott, James. 1990. Dominion and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Urguhart, Ian A. N. 1950. “More Pleasures and Tribulations in the Ulu.” Sarawak Gazette, 76:1112, 278–80 and 76:1113, 303–7.Google Scholar
Urguhart, Ian A. N. 1951. “Some Notes on Jungle Punans in Kapit District.” Sarawak Museum Journal, 5:13 (New Series), 495–533.Google Scholar
Urguhart, Ian A. N. 1956. “Excerpts from Administrative Officers' Reports for the First-Half of 1956: Fourth Division (Baram District Report).” Sarawak Gazette, 82:1185, 292–4.Google Scholar
Urguhart, Ian A. N. 1957. “Some Kenyan/Pennan Relationships.” Sarawak Museum Journal, 8:10 (New Series), 113–16.Google Scholar
Urguhart, Ian A. N. 1959. “Nomadic Punans and Pennans,” in Harrisson, Tom, ed., The Peoples of Sarawak. Kuching: Sarawak Museum.Google Scholar
Wong, James. 1992. Hill Logging in Sarawak. Privately published by James Wong, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia.Google Scholar