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History, Headhunting and Gender in Monsoon Asia

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History, Headhunting and Gender in Monsoon Asia History,headhuntingandgenderin MonsoonAsia Comparativeandlongitudinalviews BarbaraWatsonAndaya Abstract: Inwhatmustberegardedasapreliminaryforayinto thesubject,thispaperconsidersthetopicof‘headhunting’inSouth East Asia in relation to three separate but interconnected historiographicalquestions.First,towhatextentisitpossibleto makecomparativegeneralizationsacrossregionsseparatedbythe academiccreationofareastudies?Second,whatmethodsareavail- ableforreconstructingthepastofpoorlydocumentedandremote communities?Third,howwouldthepictureof‘traditional’war- fareshiftifhistoriansweretoconsidertheimplicationsofconflict fromagenderedperspective?Inresponsetothisfinalquestion,the paperarguesthatwhileheadhuntingwasclearlyimportanttomen, whoacquiredgreatstatusintheirowneyesandintheeyesofother men,womenalsosawthosewhoparticipatedasmorevirileand thushighlydesirableaslovers,husbands and potentialfathers. Moreover,womenplayedasignificantpartintheritualsthataccom- panied headhunting,whilethesexualityimplicitinheadhunting guaranteedtheirfertility,thefertilityoftheircropsandthehealth oftheirchildrenandkinsfolk. Keywords: women;headhunting;gender;warfare;fertility;South EastAsia In1848theJournaloftheIndianArchipelagopublishedapaperby JamesLoganinwhichheidentifiedseveralculturalfeaturessharedby the‘hilltribesborderingonAssam’ and those foundintheMalay– Indonesian archipelago. In particular, Logan commented on the similaritiesbetweentheBorneo‘Dyaks’andNagagroupsfoundinthe mountainousareasofcontemporarynorth-eastIndia,mostnotableamong whichwasheadhunting.1AlthoughotherobserversendorsedLogan’s 1 Logan,J.R.(1848),‘CustomscommontothehilltribesborderingonAssamand thoseoftheIndianarchipelago’,JournaloftheIndianArchipelagoandEastern Asia,Vol2,pp229–236. SouthEastAsiaResearch,12,1,pp.13–52 14 SouthEastAsiaResearch views,J.H.Hutton,DeputyCommissionerintheNagaHillsandlatera reputedanthropologist,putthecaseparticularlystronglyina1928article, suggestingthattheheadhuntingofAssamwas‘intimately connected withsimilarcultsinsouth-easternAsiaandIndonesia’.2Overthepast 50years,theuneasyacademicboundarylaiddownbetween‘South’, ‘East’and‘SouthEast’Asiahasmilitatedagainstthecomparativein- stinctsofearlyethnographers,butrecentlyarenewedinterestin‘crossing borders’hasencouragedeffortstothinkoutsidetheintellectualboxes thatareastudieshavecreated.3InthewordsoftwoauthoritiesonBor- neo, FromtheuplandregionsofTaiwan,asfarwestasAssam,andextendingsouth- wards to Sulawesiandthe outerislands ofthe Indonesian archipelago, the purposefultakingofheadswasadominantfeature.4 Exponentsofthewiderviewwouldbethefirsttowarnagainstoverly confidentgeneralizations,sinceheadswere takenfornumerousand oftenoverlappingreasons:toenhancecommunitystatus,toendaperiod ofmourning,tovitalizeanewlonghouse,toinitiatemanhood,toassert territorialclaims,toaffirmachief’sprestige,tochallengerivaltribes, toensurethefertilityofcrops,ortogainrevenge.5Allcontemporary commentatorsareagreed,nonetheless,thattheinternecineraidingassoci- atedwithheadhuntingwasonceofenormousculturalimportance,and inmanyplacesstilltodayinformscommunalmemory.Yetthisconclu- siondoesnotfiteasilyintodiscussionsofconflictfoundinstandard textsonpre-modernAsia.Withtheirconcentrationon‘greatstates’, suchhistorieshaveaccordedlittleattentiontosmalltribalgroups,and 2 Elwin,V.(1969),TheNagasintheNineteenthCentury,OxfordUniversityPress, London,p107;Hutton,J.H.(1928),‘ThesignificanceofheadhuntinginAssam’, JournaloftheRoyalAnthropologicalInstituteofGreatBritainandIreland,Vol58, July–December,pp406–407. 3 See,forexample,Jacobs,J.(1990),TheNagas:Society,CultureandtheColonial Encounter,ThamesandHudson,London,pp11–12;Stirn,A.,andvanHam,P.(2000), TheSevenSistersofIndia:TribalWorldsBetweenTibetandBurma,Prestel,Mu- nich;Fiskesjö,N.M.G.(2000),‘ThefateofsacrificeandthemakingofWahistory’, PhDdissertation,UniversityofChicago,IL. 4 Davison,J.,andSutlive,V.H.Jr(1991),‘ThechildrenofNising:imagesofheadhunting andmalesexualityinIbanritualandoralliterature’,inSutlive,V.H.Jr,ed,Female andMaleinBorneo:ContributionsandChallengestoGenderStudies,Williamsburg, VA,andBorneoResearchCouncil,p153. 5 Goslings,J.F.W.L.(1933),‘DeToradjasvanGaloempang’,KoloniaalTijdschrift, Vol22,p59providesanearlyoverview;seealsoRousseau,J.(1990),CentralBor- neo:EthnicIdentityandSocialLifeinaStratifiedSociety,ClarendonPress,Oxford, pp275–279. History,headhuntingandgenderinMonsoonAsia 15 havetendedtointerpretwarfareintermsofacquisitionofterritoryand peopleratherthanasadynamicelementinacommunity’ssocialand politicalculture.6 Inwhatmustberegardedasapreliminaryforay,thisessayconsiders thetopicof‘headhunting’inSouthEastAsiainrelationtothreesepa- ratebutinterconnectedhistoriographicalquestions.First,towhatextent isitpossibletomakecomparativegeneralizationsacrossregionssepa- ratedbytheacademiccreationofareastudies?Second,whatmethods areavailableforreconstructingthepastofpoorlydocumentedandre- motecommunities?Third,howwouldthepictureof‘traditional’warfare shiftifhistoriansweretoconsidertheimplicationsofconflictfroma genderedperspective? Methodologicalconsiderations DespitethefascinationheadhuntinghaslongheldforWesternobserv- ers,acomparativeviewacrossSouthEastAsiawasonlyattempteda fewyearsago,undertheeditorshipoftheanthropologistJanetHoskins.7 Inadditiontoits scholarly content,thebookalsoprovided a useful workingdefinition,characterizingheadhuntingas‘anorganized,co- herentformofviolenceinwhichtheseveredheadisgivenaspecific ritualmeaningandtheactofheadtakingisconsecratedandcommemo- rated’.8Despitethecollection’scomparativelens,however,itcontained noreferencetothetribalareasofIndiaandeasternMyanmarthatat- tractedtheattentionofLogansomanyyearsago.Nordiditincorporate anydiscussionofgroupsclosertohand,suchastheheadhuntingsoci- etiesofcoastalNewGuinea,orthoseoncefoundinTaiw an.Certainly, scholarsarejustifiedinpointingtothedangersofunduesimplification thatcanresultfromemployingawidercanvas.TheNaga,forexample, speakaround30languagesbelongingto the Tibeto–Burmanfamily, andtheheadhuntingpracticestheyfollowarebynomeanssimilar.9In 6 Junker,L.L.(1999),Raiding,Trading, andFeasting:The PoliticalEconomyof PhilippineChiefdoms,UniversityofHawai’iPress,Honolulu,p336. 7 Hoskins,J.,ed(1996),HeadhuntingandtheSocialImaginationinSoutheastAsia, StanfordUniversityPress,Stanford.ApredecessorwasthearticlebyRichardDowns, published30yearsearlier (1955), ‘Head-huntinginIndonesia’,Bijdragentotde Taal-,LandenVolkenkunde(henceBKI),Vol111,pp40–70.Lesscitedisanother comparativearticle,Patuleia,M.J.C.S.(1992),‘Headsforforce:ontheheadhunting complexinSoutheastAsiaandMelanesia’,AnaisUniversitàrios,Vol3,October,pp 113–130,whichtouchesonseveralpointsdevelopedinthispaper. 8 Hoskins,supranote7,‘Introduction’,atp2. 9 See,forinstance,Elwin,supranote2,atpp538–580. 16 SouthEastAsiaResearch linguistictermstheyarealsoquiteseparatefromtheWa,anothererst- whileheadhuntingpeoplewhostraddlethemodernChina–Burmaborder andspeakanAustro–AsiaticlanguagerelatedtoMon-Khmer.10Fora historian the problem iscompoundedbyill-balancedsources,since thereareonlyscatteredreferencestoheadhuntinginSouthEastAsia inearly times.Althoughoncemorecommonthanstandardhistories suggest,thepracticewasregardedaskancebytheworldreligionsthat supportedSouthEastAsia’smostpowerfulkingdoms,andreferences inofficiallysponsoredmaterial arethusrare. Whereasarelieffrom Angkor’sBayontempleshowstwowarriors presentingheadstothe king,11theAyutthaya chronicles attributethe takingofheadsin the greatbattlesofthesixteenth century totheirallegedlylesscultured enemies,theBurmese.12SouthEastAsianrulersappliedthesamehier- archy asimperialauthoritiesinChina,whodeemedWa groupsthat offeredslainanimalstothespiritstobe‘morecivilized’thanthosethat continuedtobuyoractivelyhunthumanheads.13AnepisodeinaBru- neiepictellingofalegendaryleader’srejectionofheadstakenbyhis followershasthus been interpreted as symbolically differentiating betweentheevolvingMuslimstateanditsanimistsubjects.14 AlthoughdocumentationrelatingtothehighlandsofwesternBurma andthenorth-easternareasofcontemporaryIndiabeforethenineteenth centuryisalmostnonexistent,the materialdidexpand asEuropean controlbegantospreadintoisolatedareaswhereheadhuntingwasstill partofaculturalcomplex.Theinventionofthecameraalsosupplies anotherresource,andanearlyphotographfromSarawakportraysIban womendancingwiththeskullstheirforebearshavetaken.15Butthe historicalwindowshutsquickly,foraprimaryaimofcolonialregimes 10 Fiskesjö,M.(2002),‘ThebarbarianborderlandandtheChineseimagination:travel- lersinWacountry’,InnerAsia,Vol4,No1,p81. 11 QuaritchWales,H.G.(1952),AncientSouth-EastAsianWarfare,BernardQuaritch, London,pp22,104;Chandler,D.P.(1974),‘Royallysponsoredhumansacrificesin nineteenth-centuryCambodia:thecultofMeSa(UmaMahisasuramardini)atBa Phnom’,JournaloftheSiamSociety,Vol62,No2,pp207–221. 12 Cushman,R.D.,trans,andWyatt,D.K.,ed(2000),TheRoyalChroniclesofAyutthaya, TheSiamSociety,Bangkok,p34. 13 SaoSaimongMangrai (1965),TheShanStatesandtheBritishAnnexation,Data Paper57,CornellUniversitySoutheastAsiaProgram,Ithaca,NewYork,p271. 14 Day,T.(2002),FluidIron:StateFormationinSoutheastAsia,UniversityofHawai’i Press,Honolulu,p254;Maxwell,A.R.‘Headtakingandtheconsolidationofpoliti- calpowerintheearlyBruneistate’,inHoskins,supranote7,atp115. 15 Hose,C.,andMcDougall,W.(1993–reprintof1912edition),ThePaganTribesof Borneo,2vols,OxfordUniversityPress,London.SeeVol2,plates102and105. History,headhuntingandgenderinMonsoonAsia 17 wastoendtheperiodicraidingtheysawasalientothecivilization and economy they sought to promote. In Minahasa (northern Sulawesi),officials ofthe Dutch EastIndiaCompany(VOC)had
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