DOCSLIB.ORG

Impact of the Gutta Percha Trade – Opportunity

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Impact of the Gutta Percha Trade – Opportunity chapter 7 Impact of the Gutta Percha Trade – Opportunity The dyaks have for many months past been actively engaged in searching for gutta and rattans … Many of these Dyaks had never come downriver so far in their lives before and, as they obtained good prices for their gut- ta, they went away much pleased with their visit.1 sarawak gazette, 1 September. 1890 ∵ Who benefited and who suffered when local economies were drawn into the world-system in the colonial era? What evidence might be used to find an- swers to questions about whether globalization was a good or a negative fea- ture of the nineteenth century world? Such questions are addressed in this and the following chapter. One way to determine the effect is to identify and measure the things people traded, reflecting both the extent and possible causes of change and the motivations to trade. For example, this reveals that collectors traded gutta percha for subsistence items like rice or cloth, but also sought opportunities to trade for prestige goods that enhanced social standing and the sense of spiritual wellbeing. In this chapter, evidence from the histori- cal record is matched with trade data to reveal connections between traders and the external economy. While much is made of the way peripheral econo- mies and populations have been affected by the force of global trade and the spread of empire, surprisingly little use has been made of the statistical trade evidence to identify patterns of change, a previously missed opportunity noted by Cleary.2 That opportunity is taken here. Statistical and narrative evidence also gives some voice to otherwise unheard communities, provided it is used with caution when interpreting that evidence.3 1 Sarawak Gazette (hereafter sg), 1 September 1890, p. 118. 2 M.C. Cleary, ‘Indigenous trade and European economic intervention in North-West Borneo c. 1860–1930’, Modern Asian Studies, Vol.30, no.2, 1996, pp. 301–324; M.C. Cleary, ‘From hornbills to oil? Patterns of indigenous and European trade in colonial Borneo’, Journal of Historical Geography, Vol. 23, No. 1, 1997, pp. 29–45. 3 For historiographical reasons, this material is presented as annual trade figures which can be compared with specific evidence from the documentary record – as a means of establishing, © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���8 | doi �0.��63/9789004357�80_009 <UN> Impact of the Gutta Percha Trade – Opportunity 209 Interaction with the External Market Collectors alternated between collecting gutta percha and other forest produce according to changes in the market place – this can be seen in the documentary record which provides examples that report how collectors quickly adapted to changing market prices or collecting conditions – as Dunn suggested, they were well aware of market demands.4 One example of this can be seen when comparing the connection between the gutta percha and rattan trades. Rattan was one of the most valuable of the forest produce trades after gutta percha. Rattans (sometimes known as rotan) were types of cane collected from palms growing in Sarawak and most of Southeast Asia (they are also found in other equatorial regions of the world). Rattan was useful because of its flexibility, strength and lightness and featured in items such as basketry, furniture, and structural support. The international trade in rattan expanded in the nine- teenth century, although it had a long history in the Southeast Asian region be- fore that time.5 Rattans from Borneo were, according to Hugh Low, ‘esteemed finer’ than those produced anywhere else in the world.6 As an important for- est resource, rattan was a likely choice for collectors to turn to if the external market or local conditions changed. Collectors switched to working rattans instead of gutta at Lundu, for example, when the price of gutta fell relative to that of rattan, but elsewhere at the same time others were collecting gutta to pay for padi when their crop had failed:7 that is, each group was responding to local market, collection and crop conditions and balancing their choices ac- cordingly. In 1887, the Sarawak Gazette noted that Muruts were holding back and at times measuring, connections in a process of globalization. This process was not always a parallel and steady process of integration and trade relationships over the four de- cades of data shown here, that would necessarily result in strong theoretical, statistical cor- relations. Therefore, correlation graphs are not used. Rather, certain significant or spasmodic events are connected that link various types of evidence, both documentary and trade, from various sources. The intention is to point to inter-connections rather than to look for long term trends in the form of strong statistical correlations. 4 F.L. Dunn, Rain-forest Collectors and Traders: A Study of Resource Utlilization in Modern and Ancient Malaya, Monographs of the Malaysian Branch, Kuala Lumpur, Royal Asiatic Society, No. 5, 1982. 5 Summarised from J. Dransfield and N. Manokaran, (eds), prosea: Plant Resources of South- East Asia 6, Rattans, Bogor Indonesia, prosea, Yayasan Obor, 1994, ‘Introduction’, which in- cludes an historical overview of the global rattan trade; see also F.W. Foxworthy, ‘Minor forest products of the Malay Peninsula’, Malayan Forest Records No. 2, 1922, pp. 154–155. 6 H. Low, Sarawak. Notes During a Residence in That Country with H.H. The Rajah Brooke, London, Richard Bentley, 1848, Reprinted 1988, Singapore, Oxford University Press, p. 42. 7 sg 1 June 1874. <UN>.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Nepenthes Argentii Philippines, N. Aristo
    BLUMEA 42 (1997) 1-106 A skeletal revision of Nepenthes (Nepenthaceae) Matthew Jebb & Martin Chee k Summary A skeletal world revision of the genus is presented to accompany a family account forFlora Malesi- ana. 82 species are recognised, of which 74 occur in the Malesiana region. Six species are described is raised from and five restored from as new, one species infraspecific status, species are synonymy. Many names are typified for the first time. Three widespread, or locally abundant hybrids are also included. Full descriptions are given for new (6) or recircumscribed (7) species, and emended descrip- Critical for all the Little tions of species are given where necessary (9). notes are given species. known and excluded species are discussed. An index to all published species names and an index of exsiccatae is given. Introduction Macfarlane A world revision of Nepenthes was last undertaken by (1908), and a re- Malesiana the gional revision forthe Flora area (excluding Philippines) was completed of this is to a skeletal revision, cover- by Danser (1928). The purpose paper provide issues which would be in the ing relating to Nepenthes taxonomy inappropriate text of Flora Malesiana.For the majority of species, only the original citation and that in Danser (1928) and laterpublications is given, since Danser's (1928) work provides a thorough and accurate reference to all earlier literature. 74 species are recognised in the region, and three naturally occurring hybrids are also covered for the Flora account. The hybrids N. x hookeriana Lindl. and N. x tri- chocarpa Miq. are found in Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo, although rare within populations, their widespread distribution necessitates their inclusion in the and other and with the of Flora.
    [Show full text]
  • Mount Kinabalu-Abotanist'sview Rhododendron Volume 35,No.2,Spring1981 Dr
    Mount Kinabalu - a Botanist's View Dr. L. K. Wade from the Journal of the American Rhododendron Society Volume 35, No.2, Spring 1981 Ever since a mid-1960's fifteen month sojourn at 11,600 in the Pindaunde Valley of New Guinea's 14,793' Mt. Wilhelm, I have cherished am ambition to visit Borneo's Mt. Kinabalu, at 13,455' the highest mountain between New Guinea and the Himalayas. The two great peaks have much in common, their height and great physical mass, their locations on very large tropical islands near or on the equator, their almost unbelievably rich floras, in both cases derived from both Asian and Australian origins, and of perhaps greatest interest here, their rhododendron floras. Although the islands Borneo and New Guinea are separated by about 800 miles of island-studded sea, both are part of the botanical province of Malesia, which consists, in contrast to the political entity of Malaysia, the Malay Peninsula, the Philippines, and New Guinea with its associated islands. Perhaps nowhere else on earth does such a mixture of www.vireya.net plant genera of northern temperate, southern temperate, and tropical affinities occur as on the high mountains of this great botanical province, making these mountains objects of unequalled biogeographical interest. One of the prominent genera of distinctly Asian origin found in the mountains throughout Malesia is of course Rhododendron, which, according to Sleumer, numbers in this region some 280 species. All but five of these belong to the lepidote section Vireya, which interestingly enough has only two species outside Malesia.
    [Show full text]
  • An Early History of Vireya the People, Places & Plants of the Nineteenth Century
    An Early History of Vireya The People, Places & Plants of the Nineteenth Century Chris Callard The distribution of Rhododendron subgenus Vireya is centred on the botanical region known as Malesia – an area of south-east Asia encompassing the Malay Archipelago, the Philippines, Borneo, Indonesia and New Guinea and surrounding island groups. It is for this reason that vireyas have sometimes in the past been referred to as ‘Malesian Rhododendrons’, although nowadays this is not considered a strictly accurate term as a small number of the 318 species in subgenus Vireya grow outside this region and, similarly, a few species from other subgenera of Rhododendron are also to be found within its boundaries. Broadly speaking, the Vireya group extends from Taiwan in the north to Queensland, Australia in the south, and from India in the west to the Solomon Islands in the east. Much of the early recorded history of the plants of Rhododendron subgenus Vireya came about as a result of the activities of European nations, particularly Britain and Holland, pursuing their colonial ambitions across the Malay Archipelago and, later, east to New Guinea. As their Empires expanded into these previously unexplored territories, settlements were established and expeditions mounted to survey the natural wealth and geography of the land. Many of these early explorers had scientific backgrounds, although not always in botany, and collected all manner of exotic flora and fauna found in these unfamiliar surroundings, to ship back to their homelands. The Vireya story starts in June 1821 when the Scotsman, William Jack, one of “a party of gentlemen”i, set out from Bencoolen (now Bengkulu), a settlement on the south-west coast of Sumatra, to reach the summit of Gunong Benko (Bungkuk), the so-called Sugar Loaf Mountain, “not estimated to exceed 3,000 feet in height”.
    [Show full text]
  • From Po-Li to Rajah Brooke: Culture, Power and the Contest for Sarawak
    From Po-li to Rajah Brooke: Culture, Power and the Contest for Sarawak John Henry Walker International and Political Studies,University of New South Wales Canberra, Australia *Corresponding author Email address: [email protected]. ABSTRACT This article explores Sarawak’s remoter past from the emergence of an early Indianised state at Santubong until the accession as Rajah of Sarawak of James Brooke. Through an analysis of Sarawak Malay oral histories, the Negara-Kertagama, Selsilah Raja Raja Sambas and the Selsilah Raja RajaBerunai, the article confirms and extends IbLarsens’s findings, that extensive periods of Sambas’s rule over Sarawak has been overlooked by successive scholars. The article also explores the ways in which Malay oral and traditional histories can be used in western historiographic traditions to illuminate the remoter past. Keywords:Indianisation, Sarawak, Sambas, Brunei, DatuMerpati, Sultan Tengah Prior to the expansion of its meaning in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the term ‘Sarawak’ referred to a negri(country) which encompassed the Sarawak and Lundu River basins, and the coast and adjacent islands between the mouths of the Sarawak and Lundu Rivers, an area known in the scholarly literature as ‘Sarawak Proper’, to distinguish it from the more expansive Sarawak which we know today.1 AlthoughSarawak achieved its present boundaries only with the transfer of Lawas from the British North Borneo Company in January 1905,2 it has a long and contested, if intermittently documented, history. In 2012, Ib Larsen suggested that large parts of present day Sarawak had been ruled for significant periods of time by Sambas rather than by Brunei.
    [Show full text]
  • Orientalia II Malaysia · Singapore · Borneo
    Orientalia II Malaysia · Singapore · Borneo John Randall (Books of Asia) [email protected] First printed edition of the finest literary work in the Malay language 1 Abdullah bin Abdulkadir, editor. Sejarah Melayu. , [Singapore]. First edition, 8vo, pp. [1]-7 (preface), [1, blank], [1, title], [2], 4-368. Malay text in Jawi (Arabic script). With Bibliotheca Lindesiana bookplate and pencil inscription: Malay Books No.3. [205244] SOLD The Sejarah Melayu, or Malay annals, (in Arabic, Sulalat al-Salatin or Genealogy of kings) was composed in the early 16th century by Tun Seri Larang, an official at the court of Sultan Mahmud Shah. It records the history of Malacca from its foundation by the Srivijayan prince Parameswara around 1400, through its rise to become the richest entrepot in southeast Asia, to the Portuguese conquest in 1511. The Sejarah Melayu is the finest literary work in the Malay language, written by Tun Seri Larang, the greatest Malay author of the classical period. They are moreover the most important Malay historical text, providing a handbook of Malay statecraft and outlining the relationship between ruler and subjects. While there are more than thirty extant manuscripts of Sejarah Melayu there are only four recorded copies of this first printed edition. Two are at the Library of Congress, one known to have been purchased for $3 in Singapore in 1842 by the United States Exploring Expedition under Wilkes, one at Leiden, and one at the National Library of Malaysia. No date of publication appears in the text. Our copy was in the Bibliotheca Lindesiana, the celebrated collection built by Lord Lindsay (1812-1880), 25th Earl of Crawford, and his son James Ludovic Lindsay.
    [Show full text]
  • Data-Gathering in Colonial Southeast Asia 1800-1900 Asia Southeast Colonial in Data-Gathering
    Noor Data-Gathering in Colonial Southeast Asia 1800-1900 Farish A. Noor Data-Gathering in Colonial Southeast Asia 1800-1900 Framing the Other FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS Data-Gathering in Colonial Southeast Asia 1800-1900 FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS Data-Gathering in Colonial Southeast Asia 1800-1900 Framing the Other Farish A. Noor Amsterdam University Press FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS Cover photo: Farish A. Noor, based on the author’s collection, 2019 Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden Typesetting: Crius Group, Hulshout isbn 978 94 6372 441 8 e-isbn 978 90 4854 445 5 doi 10.5117/9789463724418 nur 692 © Farish A. Noor / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2020 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS To my wife Amy, As always FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intel- ligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.1 H.G.
    [Show full text]
  • Report on the Federated Malay States and Java
    0= 190 6. 5=; THE PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALLl 8 REPORT ON THE FEDERATED MALAY STATES AND JAYA; TUEIE SYSTEMS OF GOVERNMENT, METHODS OF ADMINISTRATION, AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, BY SENATOPv THE PIONOEABLE STANIFORTH SMITH. Presented by Command ; ordered by the Senate to be printed, 20th June, 1906. Printed and Published for the Government of tlie Commoito-ealth of Acste.\ua by J. Kemp' Acting Government Printer for the Stjit« of Victoria. No. 32.— F. 6615. A 1906. THE PAIlLLyiKNT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALU. REPORT ON THE FEDERATED MALAY STATES AND JAVA; THEIR SYSTEMS OF GOVERNMENT, METHODS OF 1-ADMINISTRATION, AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, SENATOE THE HON OHABLE STANIFOHTH SMITH. Presented by Command ; ordered by the Senate to he printed, 20th June, 190G. D^to [Cost of Paper. —Preparation, h(7 ; copies; approximate cost of printing; and publishing, £55.] Printed and Puljlished for the (iovEUNiiKNT of the Commoxweai.tii of ArsTr:Ai,iA by J. Kfmp, Acting Government J'rintcr for t!ie State of Victoria. No. 32.—F.6615. ——— r^ CU.N TENTS. iN'ritonucTORV. Pa««. PART I. THE FEDERATED MALAY STATES. The System of Government, Mictikjus ok Auministkatiox, and Economic l>KVKr,oi'MENT. CHAPTER I. GOVERNMENT'AND LEOISI.ATrOW. System of (ioverniiiLiit - MeLluul of Legislation —Taxation —Revenue and Expenditure—Land Laws Mining Laws .. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 7 11 CHAPTER II. Administration. Administrative Civil Service —Clerical Service—Classification —Departments—Police and Military ... 11-15 CHAPTER III. Economic Conditions. Character of Country— Soils —Climate—Population —Diseases —Labour Sujiply .. ... ... ... 15-20 CHAPTER. IV. Development. General Development- -Live Stock—Agricultural Development—Mineral Development—Principal Exports 20-26 CHAPTER V.
    [Show full text]
  • Decisions Made on the Development of the Hill Station of Cameron Highlands from 1884 Till Present Day
    Journal of Surveying, Construction and Property (JSCP) Volume 7, Issue 1 2016 ISSN: 1985-7527 Decisions made on the Development of the Hill Station of Cameron Highlands from 1884 till present day Robert C.M. Weebers1 & Hanizah Idris2 Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Department of Southeast Asian Studies, Universiti of Malaya, Malaysia. [email protected], & [email protected] ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to show which decisions were taken to direct the development of Cameron Highlands with regard to the usage of the area from 1884 till the present day. Is the character of Cameron Highlands maintained as a hill station for relaxation and health as intended by the British or does the development take another direction. The development of Cameron Highlands is well planned and organized by the British. The hill station is meant to be a sanatorium, for relaxation, amusement and agriculture (tea plantations and vegetable farms). Decisions are made on the construction of roads, the lay-out of the area, distribution of land for residential or agricultural use, on the establishment of townships and the erection of buildings. Present day development of Cameron Highlands is linked to tourism (agro-tourism, eco-tourism and cultural and heritage tourism). In the last years a dramatic increase in the development in Cameron Highlands takes place where areas of forests are cleared for vegetable and flower growing as well as for housing development. This has resulted in soil erosion problems, siltation of lakes and rivers. There is an urgent need for conservation, agriculture, watershed protection and resort development.
    [Show full text]
  • The Making of Race in Colonial Malaya: Political Economy and Racial Ideology
    The Making of Race in Colonial Malaya: Political Economy and Racial Ideology Charles Hirschman Comell University The conventional interpretation of the "race problem" in Penin- sular Malaysia (Malaya) is founded upon the supposedly inevitable frictions between ethnic communities with sharply divergent cul- tural traditions. In this view, assimilation between the indigenous Malay population and the descendants of immigrants from China and India was always a remote possibility. In this paper argue that modern "race relations" in Peninsular Malaysia, in the sense of impenetrable group boundaries, were a byproduct of British colonialism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Prior to 1850, inter-ethnic relations among Asian populations were marked by cultural stereotypes and occasional hostility, but there were also possibilities for inter-ethnic alliances and acculturation. Direct colonial rule brought European racial theory and con- structed a social and economic order structured by "race." A re- view of the writing of observers of colonial society provides a crude test of this hypothesis.* "The idea of race is a situational imper- ative; if it is not there to begin with, it tends to develop in a plantation society because it is a useful, maybe even necessary, prin- ciple of control. In Virginia, the planta- tion took two peoples originally differ- entiated as Christian and heathen, and before the first century was over it had made two races." -Thompson, 1975:117 Ethnic inequality and conflict appear to be widespread, if not ubiq- uitous phenomena in plural societies around the globe (Heisler, 1977; Horowitz, 1985; van den Berghe, 1981). Ethnic frictions and antagonism are recurrent problems in developing societies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America as well as in the industrialized countries of Europe and North A revised version of a paper presented at the Malaysia Society Colloquium on "Malaysian Social and Economic History" at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, June 8-10, 1985.
    [Show full text]
  • Handbook of the Federated Malay States
    Qass. Book . £41 \^bZ. : HANDBOOK OP THE FEDERATED MALAY STATES. COMPILED BY H. CONWAY BELFIELD, British Resident of Selangor, LONDON EDWARD STANFORD, 12-14, LONG ACRE, W.C. PRICE 2/6 : HANDBOOK OF THE FEDERATED MALAY STATES. COMPILED BY H. CONWAY BELFIELD, British Resident of Selangor. LONDON EDWARD STANFORD, 12-14, LONG ACRE, W.C. PRICE 2/6. I desire to acknowledge my obligations to those friends and brother officers who have assisted me in the task of compilation by collecting and arranging material for my work. Their con- tributions have been of the greatest value to me, and have supplied the many interesting local details which form the most attractive features in the text of this Handbook. H. 0. B. Junior Carlton Club, Pall Mall, S.W. May 1st, 1902. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/handbookoffedera01belf 15 30 30 — PART I. FEDERATED MALAY STATES. The Federated Malay States of the Malay Peninsula consist of the four States of Perak, Selangor, the Negri Sembilan, and Pahang. An Agreement was signed in July, 1895, by which these States were confederated for administrative purposes and a Eesident- Greneral appointed, with an official residence at Kuala Lumpur, Selangor. The following is the agreement : Agreement between the Governor of the Straits Settlements, acting on behalf of the Grovernment of Her Majesty the Uueen, the of the following Empress of India, and Rulers Malay States ; —that is to say, Perak, Selangor, Pahang, and the Negri Sembilan. 1. In confirmation of various previous Agreements, the Sultan of Perak, the Sultan of Selangor, the Sultan of Pahang, and the Chiefs of the States which form the territory known as the Negri Sembilan, hereby severally place themselves and their States under the protection of the Pritish Grovernment.
    [Show full text]
  • Don't Mention the Corpses the Erasure of Violence in Colonial Writings on Southeast Asia History May Be Written by the Victors, but What They Conveniently
    BIBLIOASIA JUL - SEP 2019 VOL. 15 ISSUE 02 FEATURE Don't Mention the Corpses The Erasure of Violence in Colonial Writings on Southeast Asia History may be written by the victors, but what they conveniently leave out can be more telling. Farish Noor reminds us of the (Left) Native Dayaks (or Dyaks) in Sarawak using sumpita, or blowpipes, to defend themselves from a coastal violent side of colonial conquest. attack led by James Brooke, the White Rajah of Sarawak. Image reproduced from Brooke, J., & Mundy, G.R. (1848). Narrative of Events in Borneo and Celebes, Down to the Occupation of Labuan […] (Vol. II; 2nd ed.) (facing p. 227). London: John Murray. (Microfilm no.:NL7435). (Above) The court of the Sultan of Borneo, with the audience chamber filled with natives, all well-dressed and armed. The sultan sits cross-legged on the throne at the upper end of the chamber. Frank Marryat describes him as being bald and dressed in a “loose jacket and trousers or purple satin, richly embroidered with gold, a close-fitting vest of gold cloth, and a light cloth turban on his head”. Image reproduced from Marryat, F.S. (1848). Borneo and the Indian Archipelago: With Drawings of Costume and Scenery (p. 109). London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. Retrieved from BookSG. Mundy’s account in Narrative of Events in onslaughts will achieve nothing beyond a Borneo and Celebes, Down to the Occu- present and temporary good”.8 pation of Labuan (1848);5 and Marryat’s Violence was thus a constant leitmotif Borneo and the Indian Archipelago (1848)6 in many of the works written by colonial – would become the most widely read authors who arrived in Southeast Asia in accounts of the so-called “war on piracy” in the 19th century.
    [Show full text]
  • Prolonged Multilingualism Among the Sebuyau: an Ethnography of Communication
    Prolonged multilingualism among the Sebuyau: An ethnography of communication by Stan J. Anonby M.A. (Linguistics), University of North Dakota 1997 B.A., University of Saskatchewan 1989 B.Th., Horizon College (CPC) 1987 Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Linguistics Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Stan J. Anonby 2020 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Summer 2020 Declaration of Committee Name: Stan J. Anonby Degree: Doctor of Philosophy (Linguistics) Thesis Title: Prolonged multilingualism among the Sebuyau: An ethnography of communication Committee: Chair: Chung-hye Han Professor, Linguistics Panayiotis Pappas Supervisor Associate Professor, Linguistics John Alderete Committee Member Professor, Linguistics Donna Gerdts Committee Member Professor, Linguistics Roumiana Ilieva Internal Examiner Associate Professor, Education Lindsay Whaley External Examiner Professor Departments of Classics, Cognitive Science Program and Linguistics Program Dartmouth College ii Ethics Statement iii Abstract This thesis describes the Sebuyau language and seeks to explain how this small group as maintained their culture and way of speaking in the shadow of very large languages like Malay, English and Chinese. I use the ethnographic method to study this ethnic group. Specifically, I based this ethnography of communication on two texts told by twenty-four people, who all belong to the community of practice of Keluarga Church. The study is divided into two broad areas. Part of the thesis is more synchronic linguistics, and describes the lexicon, phonology and morphology of Sebuyau. The conclusion is that Sebuyau is a variety of Iban. The lexicon exhibits considerable borrowing from languages that are no longer spoken in the area – such as Sanskrit.
    [Show full text]