Borneo's Dayak handicraft, the beauty of ancient tribal arts and handmade crafts
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One feature, religion, is clearly relevant to the indigenous peoples themselves and allows for a Moslem vs non-Moslem distinction. Other equally relevant features distinguish among peoples on the basis of technology and way of life.

The Indigenous Peoples of Borneo


Geneticists, linguists, ethnologists - each using different criteria - endlessly dispute exactly what an ethnic group is. Native ethnic categories - that is, the way people conceive of themselves and their neighbors - cannot be used to get a general overview of this large island. An ethnic group's culture is not a coherent system, but is rather a set of various features put together and showing no consistent association with one another, so our classification must combine these features in order to make a complex situation accessible.

One feature, religion, is clearly relevant to the indigenous peoples themselves and allows for a Moslem vs non-Moslem distinction. Other equally relevant features distinguish among peoples on the basis of technology and way of life: sea-bound people, like the coastal Malay fishermen and the sea-nomadic Bajau Laut collectors; hill-rice cultivators, like the lban, Murut, Kayan, Ot Danum, or the upstream Ngaju; irrigated-rice cultivators, such as the Kadazan of Sahah or the Kelabit of Sarawak; nomadic forest hunters and gatherers, collectively called Punan; sago-palrn cultivators, like the Melanau; those whose activity is riverine trade, like the Bekumpai of the Barito, or the control of trade like the people of the sultanates; finally, those who have in recent times turned to cash-crop cultivation, or to wage earning.

Linguists agree that all Bornean languages belong to one branch of the Austronesian language family. However, they distinguish those located in Sabah and farther south along the east coast and related to Philippine languages; those related to Sumatran and Malayan Malay languages, such as Iban and others in the west and northwest parts of the island; those seemingly related to languages of South Sulawesi, like Taman and Maloh in the Kapuas; those of the Barito Group in the southern half of the island, of which that of the Ma'anyan is related to the languages of Madagascar. Still other features, mainly cultural, could also be considered, like the ways people treat their dead, the types of social organization, or the existence of rituals related to headhunting.

The Indigenous peoples: Major ethnic groups, Conclusion to the Dayak tribes.

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