Book Reviews - G.N
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Book Reviews - G.N. Appell, Michael B. Leigh, Checklist of holdings on Borneo in the Cornell University Libraries. Made with the assistance of John M. Echols. Data paper: Number 62, Southeast Asia Program. Department of Asian Studies. Ithaca, Cornell University, 1966. 62 pages. - R.E. Downs, P. Middelkoop, Headhunting in Timor and its historical implications. Oceania Linguistic Monograph No. 8. The Univeristy of Sydney, Sydney, 1964. 423 pp. - M.G. Swift, Rosemary Firth, Housekeeping among Malay peasants. London School of Economics Monographs on Social Anthropology, No. 7. The Athlone Press, London 1966. Pp. xiv and 242. - Umar Junus, Harsja W. Bachtiar, Negeri Taram: A Minangkabau village community in Koentjaraningrat, ed., Villages in Indonesia. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 1967. 445 pp. - William R. Roff, Judith Djamour, The Muslim matrimonial court in Singapore. London School of Economics, Monographs on Social Anthropology. No. 31. Athlone Press, London, 1966. 189 pp. - Paul Wheatley, O.W. Wolters, Early Indonesian commerce: A study of the origins of Srivijaya. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 1967. 404 pp., 4 maps. - M.P.H. Roessingh, Th. P.M. de Jong, De krimpende horizon van de Hollandse kooplieden. Hollands Welvaren in het Caribisch Zeegebied (1780-1830). Van Gorcum en Comp., Assen, 1966. 352 pp., 2 ills., 1 krt. Oorspr. proefschrift Groningen, met een voorwoord van de schrijver; tevens verschenen als Anjerpublicatie nr. 9, met een woord vooraf van de promotor, Prof. Dr. H. Baudet. - M. Leifer, James de V. Allen, The Malayan Union. Yale University, Southeast Asia Studies, 1967. Monograph Series No. 10. XIV + 181 pp., with appendices. - P. Voorhoeve, M.A. Jaspan, Folk literature of South Sumatra. Rejang Ka-Ga-Nga Texts. Australian University Press, Canberra 1964. 92 pp. In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 124 (1968), no: 2, Leiden, 279-304 This PDF-file was downloaded from http://www.kitlv-journals.nl Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 07:35:11AM via free access BOEKBESPREKINGEN MICHAEL B. LEIGH with the assistance of JOHN M. ECHOLS, Checklist of Holdings on Borneo in the Cornell Univer- sity Libraries. Data Paper: Number 62, Southeast Asia Program. Department of Asian Studies. Ithaca, Cornell University, 1966. 62 pages. Price US. $ 2.00. The Cornell University Libraries contain one of the most complete collections of Borneo materials in the United States. This very useful and welcome checklist itemizes the books and serials in that collection by two geographical areas: "Indonesian Borneo" and "Malaysian Borneo and Brunei". For those attempting to locate and consult items from Cotter's exhaustive bibliography of Malaysian Borneo and Brunei or from Kennedy's bibliography, this checklist is a very useful source particularly since the library call number for each item is included. It should be noted, nevertheless, that while the compilers have at- tempted to identify books and serials that have relevance to Borneo but which may not have been: catalogued as such or identified as relevant by title, there apparently are several minor omissions such as Alfred Russel Wallace's work and Delacour's study of the birds of Malaysia. This failure ito include the unobvious manifests itself also in the serial section. For example, the Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (now Malaysian Branch) is not listed although in it there appears significant material for Bornean research, and surely it must be present in the Cornell Library system. Thus no reference is found to those issues of this Journal that are devoted entirely to Borneo such as Gossens' dictionary of Papar Dusun and Banks' work on the mammals of Borneo. In addition, a briet perusal of this checklist indicates that there are some minor omissions in CorneU's holdings such as Smythies' work on Sarawak trees; Bruce's memoirs; the agricultural census of North Borneo; Glyn-Jones' study of the Penampang Dusun; some of Woolley's excellent but brief studies of customary law; and some of the minor publications of the Borneo Literature Bureau. With. regard to the latter it would be extremely useful to have located in one library the complete collection of these publications. However, some of these omissions may be accounted for by the apparent delay between receipt of an item and its accession. For example, the mimeographed dictionary of the Rungus language prepared by my wife and myself does not appear in the check- list although it was received by the Cornell Library almost a year previous to the cutoff date at which the list was compiled. In conclusion, during a recent trip to Cornell I was informed by Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 07:35:11AM via free access 280 BOEKBESPREKINGEN. Giok Po Oey, the Southeast Asian Bibliographer, that the Library is aggressively expanding its Borneo collection and any ommissions brought to his attention will be welcomed and quickly reotified. Thus we are assured of the continuing excellence of CorneU's Borneo holdings. We must indeed be grateful to Giok Po Oey and to the various members of the Southeast Asian Program for building up such a superb Borneo collection, and we must also be most graiteful to Leigh and Echols for preparing this useful checklist and making the extemt of the Borneo holdings in the Cornell Libraries known to other scholars. Peabody Museum, Harvard University G. N. APPELL P. MIDDELKOOP, Head Hunting in Tintor and its Historical Implications. Oceania Linguistic Monograph No. 8. The University of Sydney, Sydney, 1964. 423 pp. Price $ 6.00. The book consists basically of a number of texts recorded by Dr. Middelkoop and others from native informanits on Timor between 1925 and 1956, most of them dating from before the Second World War. Both the original texts and English translations of them are presented, and most of them are accompanied by introductary notes. In addition there is an initial section in which a number of aspects of head-hunting in Timor are discussed by the author. The occasion for the recording of most of the texts was the con- version of the informants to Christianity and consequent renunciation of their "pagan" ways. The accounts were offered mostly in conneotion with the various objects of "enemy magie" associated with headhunting which they were handing over to the missionaries. The majority of the texts give accounts of actual headhunting clashes between various groups on the island and are therefore of value in reconstructing historical relationships between them, and in addition offer considerable detail on the ritual practices involved in headhunting. There is, further, much of interest and significance in Dr. Middel- koop's introductory discussions and explantions of the texts, but he has not attempted to provide in them a comprehensive analysis of headhunting and its various ramifications on Timor, nor has he con- sistently related his material to that reported by others. As a result there are several intriguing indications in the texts as to possible symbolic significances of headhunting which cannot be satisfactorily followed up. For example, reference is made to a distinction between "itame" and Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 07:35:11AM via free access BOEKBESPREKINGEN. 281 "wild" enemies (pp. 19 f.) and it is associated with one between "male" and "female" groups, or moieties as they are called on p. 241. There is also an unexplained reference in one of the texts (p. 147) to "male" and "female" headhunters (meo). "Tame" enmity is said to have obtained between Oematan (male) and Amfoan (female) (p. 19), and this also appears to be true of Nai Toto (male) and Nai Mela (female) (p. 241). However, "tame" enmity supposedly obtained as well between Oematan of Netpala and Oematan of Numbena who are both classified as "male" (p. 20), and the "male-female" classification is not applied at all to Molo and Amanuban, who were "wild" enemies. Cunningham, however, merely states that wars within a princedom are with a tame enemy and those with another princedom are with a wild enemy (Cunningham, 1964:64). One wonders, furthermore, what connection there might be between these categories and affinal links between headhunting groups. There are several references in the texts to a connection between headhunting and marriage and fertility, and it is said that the conclusion of peace involved the exchange of women in marriage (pp. 45, 61, 293). Elsewhere (p. 77) two groups are said not to be enemies because one traditionally provided women for the other, yèt Kruyt once reported (1923, p. 431) that the death of a member of the ruling lineages of Amanatun and Amanuban, who were possibly linked by marriage (Kruyt 1921, p. 790), required the killing of someone from the other district and that both had to attend each other's funerals. Of cour'se, the long period of time which elapsed between the recording and publication of most of the material must have made it impossible for Dr. Middelkoop to pursue all the important leads to be found in it, and as it stands it does provide first-hand information on headhunting in Indonesia of a kind which is all too rare. One must be very grateful to the author, therefore, for not only having recorded the texts in the first place, but for having had the perseverancé neces- sary for recovering them af ter the war on Timor, where they had been hidden during the Japanese occupation, and for having finally made them generally available. I do believe, however, that the value of the material would have been greatly enhanced if it had been presented somewhat differently and if the author had been better served by his publisher. Most of the explanatory remarks are in the form of introductory notes without precise references to the passages in the texts themselves, and given the length of most of the texts, one has the greatest difficulty in keeping the two together in one's mind.