Dayak people

Dayak
Regions with significant populations
	Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei
Languages
	Dayak languages
Religion
	Shamanism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism
Related ethnic groups
	Bidayuh, Iban, Negrito

The Dayak (or Dyak) are indigenous occupants of Borneo. The name, meaning 'upstream' or 'inland', was applied by the mainly Islamic coastal population as a blanket term for over 200 tribal groups, each with its own language and culture. Traditionally, each group lives in a communal longhouse. There are about 3 million Dayaks (est. 2003) on Borneo.

The Dayak are called La-kia by Sarawakian Chinese, but the name is considered insulting by the Dayak.

History

It is believed that the indigenous peoples on Borneo, including the Dayaks, are descendants of Austronesian peoples from Asia who are believed to have arrived about 3000 years ago, displacing or assimilating the previous population. The immigrants spoke Austronesian languages from which the Dayak languages are descended. About 2400 years ago, the inhabitants learned metalworking skills from the Asian Dongson culture. In the 1950s, the Dayaks were still using metal and stone tools.

The main Dayak people of Sarawak, on the northwest coast of Borneo, are the Iban. The Iban Sea Dayaks have a good record of their history, partly in writing.

Economy

The Dayak practice slash and burn agriculture. The jungle is burnt down to produce rice paddies. Each farm plot is the property of a family-group (Iban bilek) who live together in a longhouse. To be the first to cultivate a plot of primary jungle is the source of enormous prestige. After the jungle has been burnt down and the area cleared, the men dig holes and the women plant the seeds in them. In the morning, offerings are made to Simpualang Gana, the God of the land.

To prevent over-exploitation through slash and burn, a patch of land is only worked for a few years and then left fallow for preferably at least ten years. However, overpopulation in the Apo Kayan highlands has brought the Kenyah to break this rule, thus empoverishing the land to the extent that only a tall grass (alang alang) can grow there.

Religion

The Dayaks believe in a dragon goddess named Aso. They believe that Aso is guardian of the dead and that she oversees the journey of the dead from one world to the next.

The Dayak indigeneous religion is called Kaharingan, which is a form of animism, although for official purposes it is categorized as a form of Hinduism. Some Dayaks have converted to Christianity , Islam and other religions. Although Dayaks live in two mainly religious countries (Indonesia and Malaysia), these religions have never really gained a foothold with them, largely because of certain taboos (e.g. the consumption of alcohol and pork) and the prohibition of several traditional practices.

In the past, Orientalists mistakenly categorized the Traditionalist Dayaks, and Dayaks who has converted to Christianity, as 'Dayaks'. In recent years, many Dayaks who had joined Islam and other religions returned to their heritage and categorized themselves as Dayaks, since many major tribes consist of up 60% Muslims.

Society

Kinship is traced in both the male and female line. The existence of famous ancestors increases prestige and can increase the bride-price asked for a woman. Teknonymy (calling the father or mother after the child) is common practice.

Headhunting was an important part of Dayak culture. In contrast with South American practices, not the shrunken head (the skin without the skull), but the skull was kept. The captured enemy heads were triumphally brought back to the settlement, received by the women, tied with rattan and hung in bundles from the ceiling of the longhouses. The skulls were placed over the hearths. Each community had a special warrior (Tau serang) who led the raids against the enemy. But besides such massive raids, there were also individual retaliation attacks or they could be the result of chance encounters in the forest. There has also been occasional cannibalism for spiritual reasons.

Dayaks like to party. Not only during festive occasions like weddings, but also impromptu, such as for the arrival of a guest (with the advent of tourism this is, however, either not done for every visitor or made into a tourist attraction). A very potent liquor is served on such occasions and one is supposed to get thoroughly drunk. Ceremonial dances are performed in very colourful dresses and feather headdresses with elaborate parangs.

Another popular drug beside alcohol is tobacco, which is grown locally and can be of high quality. The use of sirih (betelnut) is also fairly widespread.

Metal-working is quite elaborate and especially used for making parangs (machetes). The blade is made of a softer iron, to preven t breakage, with a narrow strip of a harder iron wedged into a slot in the cutting edge for sharpness. The parang is fairly short and serves both a weapon and for trailcutting in dense forest. It is holstered with the cutting edge facing upwards and at that side there is an upward protrusion on the handle, so the parang can be drawn very quickly with the side of the hand without having to reach over and grasp the handle first. The ceremonial parangs used for dances are as beautifully adorned with feathers as the dresses are.

Politics

In 2001 the Indonesian government ended the colonisation of Kalimantan that began under Dutch rule in 1905. Under Indonesia's transmigration programme, settlers from densely-populated Java and Madura were encouraged to settle in Kalimantan, but their presence was, and still is, resented by the Dayaks. Economic development of the region, particularly logging, is also damaging the Dayaks' land and sacred sites. It can be argued that the Dutch colonisation has been replaced by an Indonesian one.

From 1996 to 2003 there were violent attacks on Madurese settlers, including a resurgence of the beheading practises and cannibalism, though not done in the traditional way (partly because the Madurese didn't play by the Dayak rules [1]; "there has not been one conflict out of many between the Dayak and the Madurese that did not involve the killing of a Dayak person by a Madurese, and then the refusal of the Madurese to submit to Dayak adat"), so this can not be seen as a resurgence of the practises.

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