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The Iban Dairies of Monica Freeman 1949-1951. Including Ethnographical Drawings, Sketches, Paintings, Photographs and Letters, Laura P

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The Iban Dairies of Monica Freeman 1949-1951. Including Ethnographical Drawings, Sketches, Paintings, Photographs and Letters, Laura P Moussons Recherche en sciences humaines sur l’Asie du Sud-Est 17 | 2011 Les frontières « mouvantes » de Birmanie The Iban Dairies of Monica Freeman 1949-1951. Including Ethnographical Drawings, Sketches, Paintings, Photographs and Letters, Laura P. Appell- Warren (ed.) Philipps: Borneo Research Council, monographs series n° 11, 2009, XLII + 643 p., glossary, appendix, biblio-graphy, illustrations (maps, figures and color plates) Antonio Guerreiro Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/moussons/642 ISSN: 2262-8363 Publisher Presses Universitaires de Provence Printed version Date of publication: 1 September 2011 Number of pages: 178-180 ISBN: 978-2-85399-790-4 ISSN: 1620-3224 Electronic reference Antonio Guerreiro, « The Iban Dairies of Monica Freeman 1949-1951. Including Ethnographical Drawings, Sketches, Paintings, Photographs and Letters, Laura P. Appell-Warren (ed.) », Moussons [Online], 17 | 2011, Online since 25 September 2012, connection on 19 April 2019. URL : http:// journals.openedition.org/moussons/642 Les contenus de la revue Moussons sont mis à disposition selon les termes de la Licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pas d’Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International. 178 Comptes rendus / Reviews The Iban Dairies of Monica Freeman under Leach’s supervision at Cambridge’s 1949-1951. Including ethnographical University Department of Anthropology2. drawings, sketches, paintings, pho- While in the field, at the end of 1949, tographs and letters, Laura P. Appell- Derek Freeman decided to concentrate on his Warren (ed.), Philipps: Borneo Research ethnographical and ethnogical notes while Council, monographs series n° 11, 2009, Monica was to write the ieldwork’s dairies. XLII + 643 p., glossary, appendix, biblio- Although she had no formal training in art, she made beautiful and very detailed ethno- graphy, illustrations (maps, figures and graphic drawings, sketches and paintings. In color plates). the course of ieldwork she developed her By Antonio Guerreiro * own style of sketching, quite different from the basic ethnographic drawing. Derek Free- Few anthropologists have yet published their man assigned her the task of systematically ield dairies; until now Malinowski’s dairy drawing Iban longhouse life, she became an is considered as one of the most fascinating “oficial artist” as she put it. Some paintings piece of ethnographical writing. Monica Free- were made later when the Freemans were man’s dairies document the Freemans’ long living in Australia. A number of drawings do Iban ieldwork in Sarawak (June 1949-May portray Iban individuals with much talent. 1951), at the time a Crown colony (the State M. Freeman’s hand-written dairies were irst joined the Federation of Malaysia in 1963). transcribed in Australia by a typist and prepa- This book is a welcome addition to both red for publication. However, the book pro- Anthropological litterature and Iban Studies. ject did not materialize. In the meanwhile, the Derek Freeman (1916-2001), coming ori- Borneo Research Council publication project ginally from New Zealand, had just completed was launched. Monica Freeman’s letters to a thesis on Samoan social structure (1948) at her mother were added to the volume, giving London University, under the supervision of a much more accurate and lively account of Professor Raymond Firth. He was selected to the days spent in the ield. The editor, Laura include the team of anthropologists who were P. Appell-Warren, a noted anthropologist spe- to engage in ield research in Sarawak, fol- cialized in Malaysian Borneo, has been instru- lowing the pionneering report of Edmund R. mental in expanding the scope of the book. Leach1. According to Leach’s conclusions, the She added information in footnotes and in her top priority projects included the Iban’s shif- preface to the volume. A host of Iban scholars ting cultivation system, the urban and rural have also contributed precisions to the editor. Chinese, the Melanau (A Liko) sago produc- The letters have been integrated chronogically tion, and the Bidayuh or “Land Dayak” socio- to the dairies as the illustrations’ (Monica’s economic variables. As Freeman had began drawings, sketches and photographs), which to learn Iban language while in London, he prove very effective in recreating both the was given the two year Iban project. Monica anthropologists’ longhouse life in Sungai Sut Freeman came from England to meet her hus- and the conditions of Sarawak at the time. The band, who had arrived in Sarawak in January diaries do span a long period, starting from 1949. He started ieldwork in the longhouse Monica’s arrival at Sibu in June 1949 to June community of rumah Nyala. The longhouse 1951, when she left for England with Derek was located on the Sungai Sut, a tributary from Singapore aboard the Ulysses. In the of the Batang Baleh, upriver from the town diaries and the letters, Monica, refers affec- of Kapit. A separate house, connected to the tionatly to Derek as Bec, while she signed her open platform (tanju’) of the longhouse main letters to her mother by the nickname Moc. building was built before Monica’s arrival. The structure of the book is practically After returning to England, the Freemans organised, after a comprehensive introduc- spent two years at Cambridge. Derek wrote tion by Monica Freeman–touching such his report on Iban Agriculture for the Colonial topics as cash crops cultivation, presence Ofice and worked on his Ph.D dissertation of logging companies, the penghulu system, Moussons n° 17, 2011-1, 165-188 Comptes rendus / Reviews 179 the bejalai practice, Iban adat law–, and the tings, swidden rice farming, feasting (gawai), editor’s preface, it presents the full text of various ritual practices, dreams and beliefs. Monica’s dairies, numbered 1 to 6 (1-608). The oral literature of the Iban, of whom the The letters she wrote to her mother while in bards (lemambang) and shamans (manang) the ield and in town, and the many drawings are the specialists, was intensely studied by and B&W photographs, are well integrated Derek, texts, including timang invocations into the text, while the colour plates (41) and genealogies of deities, were recorded, are collected at the centre of the volume (in transcribed and translated in the longhouses fact these are also duplicated in B&W in the with the help of an educated Iban research main text). The book reads fairly well, and it assistant, Patrick Ringkai from Bau (1912- is a mine of ethnographic details, focussing 2009). Not suprisingly, the dairies describe at on the Iban lifestyle in the early 1950s. The lenght the pauses and leisure during ieldwork bulk of the sketches, B&W photographs and (reading magazines and weeklies, waiting for paintings (141 in all), done by Monica’s have the mail and writing letters, ailments and been included in the text. Besides, three treatments, cooking, eating, replenishing sup- maps, 2 igures and additional photographs plies in the bazaars...) besides transportation (5) being part of the introduction. A compre- to other longhouses or towns on the Rejang or hensive glossary (611-632) provides the most Baleh and its hazards, a leitmotiv in the day to important Baleh Iban words and concepts day entries. Signiicantly Kana, the Freemans’ mentioned in the text and the letters, with driver, is honored by a phototograph (ig. 13, comparisons from the Sutlives’ Handy Refe- 36). Monica gives the daily entry according rence Dictionary of Iban and English (1994) to the place she wrote it, i.e. “Rumah” (lon- and A. J. N. Richard’s Iban-English Dictio- ghouse) or “Dampa (swidden farm)”, followed nary (1981). The appendix lists all Monica’s by the personal name of the individual, in drawings, some were published before as town she indicates Kapit, Kanowit, Sibu, illustrations in Derek Freeman’s articles and Betong or Kuching. Then Derek’s research is books (633-640). well represented by the writting up of notes, The Freemans’ base during fieldwork interviews, meetings with informants, visits was rumah Nyala, situated a little distance to other longhouses in the Baleh and places upstream of Kapit, but they did stay in other in upper Sarawak (the upper Rejang and Baluy Iban communities as well : upriver on the area, Simanggang now Sri Aman, Betong right hand tributaries of the Baleh, at rumah and Sungai Paku in the Saribas), documen- Sibat (sungai Tiau) and rumah Tungku, on the ting Iban social system, gawai rituals, farm sungai Melinau (Iban longhouses are named work and other activities, e. g. pua’ weaving3, after the headman’s or tuai rumah name). It manang curing rites. Then Monica’s adopted should be noted that the volume gives a pre- pet gibbon was an interesting addition to the cise picture of the Baleh Iban society, before Freemans’ household, she even took it back important social and cultural changes took to England with them. place in the mid-1960s. Elements of material The dairies provide a knowledgeable culture are particularly well represented in account of the on-going researches taking the drawings (tools, tatoo (ukir) and ikat pat- place in Sarawak at the time, in connection terns, wall paintings, architecture, carvings, to meetings with such igures as W.R. Geddes weaving...). However, Monica’s detailed notes and I. Morris. Many Sarawakians, expatriates restitute also the social dynamics of the Iban and visitors are mentioned, such as Reverend household (bilek), the basic social unit–bilek B. H. Baughman in Kapit, a Methodist mission- meaning “apartment” or “room”–, against nary, the D.Os and other Sarawak administra- the background of gender, kinship, and espe- tive oficers, inter alia I. Urquart, B. Smythies, cially kindred relationships (kaban) in the M. Macdonald–the Colonial Governor in longhouse. The Iban ritual and customary Singapore who was found of Dayak peoples law (adat) is considered through everyday and of the Iban in particular–, T.
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