Ritual revitalisation as adaptation to environmental stress: skull-blessing in Bidayuh communities of Borneo

Abstract

Ritual revival can be a powerful way to organise social response to environmental stress. This case study examined how Bidayuh communities in Borneo sought to revitalise a skull-blessing ritual (Gawea Nyobang) as an adaptive social response to environmental stress. A mixed-method approach of literature review, semi-structured interviews, participant observation and collaborative ethnography was applied to this study. Results suggest that the ritual revival addresses both environmental and social factors, and possibly relies on polycentric governance and multiple-leadership. Based on these findings, a framework for an emerging revitalisation movement is developed, which is adaptive, pragmatic, and visionary.

Keywords:

• Borneo
• ritual
• revitalisation
• Indigenous
• Bidayuh
• adaptation

Acknowledgements

This research would not have been realised without the kind support and acceptance from the Gumbang and Sebujit communities, for which I thank them with all my heart. My late father played a larger than life role in this research, and his vast knowledge and passion for the Bidayuh culture and people spurs me on, even in his after-life. I dedicate this paper to him. I also thank the reviewers for their very helpful comments and encouragement. Any mistakes made in this paper are solely mine alone. This research was facilitated with travel grants from Oriel College, and the Department of Geography and Environment, University of Oxford, and a UK Chevening scholarship. I thank Jonathan Aronson for the making of the maps, and Christine Moore for her assistance.

Notes

1. Wallace, “Mazeway Resynthesis”.

2. Ibid., 12.

3. Harkin, Reassessing Revitalization Movements.

4. See note 1 above, 279.

5. See note 1 above.

6. Ibid.

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.

9. See note 3 above.

10. Roth, “Is History a Process?”.

11. Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies; Mbembe, Decolonizing Knowledge; and Todd, “An Indigenous Feminist’s Take”.

12. Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies.

13. Ibid., 39.

14. Ostrom, “Polycentricity (Part 1)”; and Ostrom, “Beyond Markets and States”.

15. Interview with a Gumbang descendant in Gumbang, July 2014.

16. Willow, Strong Hearts, Native Lands.

17. King, “Revitalization Movements in Kalimantan”.

18. See note 12 above.

19. Marcus, “Ethnography in/of the World System”.

20. Geddes, The Land Dayaks of Sarawak.

21. Formerly known as the ‘Land Dayak’ during the White Rajah rule from the mid-1880s in Sarawak. The White Rajah was a dynastic monarchy of the Brooke family from England that ruled Sarawak for three consecutive generations up until the Second World War.

22. Shari et al., Internal Migration Study.

23. Bevis, Borneo Log.

24. Grijpstra, Common Efforts in the Development.

25. See note 15 above.

26. Harris, “Growing Gods”.

27. Interviews with a Gumbang descendant, and villagers in Gumbang, June 2014.

28. Couderc and Sillander, Ancestors in Borneo Societies.

29. See note 20 above; see note 25 above; Lindell, “The Longhouse and the Legacy of History”; and Nuek, A Dayak Bidayuh community.

30. See note 20 above.

31. Ibid.

32. See note 15 above.

33. Bulan, “Native Customary Land”.

34. See note 20 above; Freeman, Iban Agriculture; and Richards, Sarawak, Land Law, Adat.

35. See note 32 above.

36. See note 22 above.

37. Interviews with Sebujit villagers in Sebujit, July 2014.

38. Cramb, “Agrarian Transitions in Sarawak”; and Dove, The Banana Tree.

39. Curran et al., “Lowland Forest Loss”.

40. Bennett et al., “Saving Borneo’s Bacon”.

41. Baer, “Women and Health,” 42.

42. See note 40 above.

43. See note 1 above.

44. See note 32 above.

45. See note 15 above.

46. See note 15 above; and see note 36 above.

47. See note 26 above.

48. Ibid.

49. Ibid.

50. Ibid.

51. Ibid.

52. See note 10 above.

53. Ibid.

54. See note 3 above.

55. Holling, “Resilience and Stability”.

56. cf. Fienup-Riordan, Boundaries and Passages.

57. See note 1 above.

58. Ibid.

59. Ibid.

60. Ibid.

61. See note 26 above.

62. Geertz, “Ritual and Social Change”.

63. See note 61 above; and Kertzer, Ritual, Politics and Power.

64. See note 26 above.

65. See note 61 above.

66. See note 26 above.

67. Ibid.

68. Ibid.

69. See note 36 above.

70. Ibid.

71. Kertzer, Ritual, Politics and Power.

72. See note 1 above.

73. See note 61 above.

74. See note 70 above.

75. See note 1 above.

76. cf. see note 61 above.

77. Durkheim, The Division of Labor.

78. See note 70 above.