Definitions
The
Melanau have no name to cover all Melanau-speaking people: they refer to
themselves as "A-Liko X," meaning "the people of a river, a
district, or a village," according to context. "Melanau," they
assert, was given to them by the Malays of Brunei. The name possibly signifies
"coast-dweller" in contrast to "inland-dweller."
Location
The
areas of Sarawak inhabited by Melanau speakers stretch from Bintulu on the
northwest coast of Borneo to the Rajang Delta in the southwest, and up the
Rajang River to Kanowit. Beyond Kanowit are closely related Kajang peoples, who
also are found on the River Baluy. The inhabitants of the coastal area live
along rivers (Balingian, Mukah, Oya, and Igan) that run parallel to one another
through dense tropical-rain-forest swamp, and frequently are referred to as the
Coastal Melanau to distinguish them from Melanau speakers on the Rajang. The
swampy environment, in which the only reliable food crop is the sago palm, is
frequently flooded during the northeast monsoon from November to March, which
virtually stops fishing from the coastal villages in January and February.
Demography
In
1980 the population of Sarawak was 1,233,103.
The Melanau numbered 69,578, of whom 53,689 were Muslim; 8,486 were Christian;
1,749 were tribal; and 5,328 were registered as having no religion, which in
practice means they adhered to tribal religion.
Linguistic Affiliation
Melanau is an Austronesian language of the
Western Malayo-Polynesian Branch. It has no standard orthography; today
individuals use their own spelling and the roman script. The Melanau language
is divided into dialects, not all of which are mutually intelligible. The
Coastal and Rajang dialects are linguistically related to those of the Kajang
groups and groups on the coast between Bintulu and Brunei and the interior, groups
sometimes referred to as Kelemantan. All Melanau people, even Muslims, speak a
Melanau dialect, although today most are bilingual in Malay and Melanau
History & Cultural Relation's
Few
reliable historical records of the Melanau exist before the nineteenth century,
although European travelers and map-makers placed names not unlike
"Melanau" on the northwest coast of Borneo .
There are also probable references to the Melanau even earlier in Chinese
records. The Coastal Melanau and the Kajang groups in the interior relate that
their ancestors migrated from central Borneo
and founded a Kajang kingdom from which the Coastal Melanau broke away. The
Coastal Melanau believe that much of their culture and many of their
institutions are derived from the legendary empire of the folk hero Tugau, who
was overthrown in a struggle with Brunei. Some historians suggest that these
events occurred in the fourteenth century, others, as early as the seventh. In
1861 the Melanau coastal district was ceded to James Brooke, the rajah of
Sarawak, by the sultan of Brunei .
The Rajang Delta was already under the control of Sarawak .
The cession was made to gain control of the export of sago flour to Singapore . The
trade was essential for the survival of the regime of the rajah of Sarawak . So as not to disturb the flow of trade, the
rajahs interfered as little as possible with the local social and political
organization. During World War II the third rajah sold the country to the
British government, which, until Sarawak
became a part of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963, instituted a number of
modernizing economic and educational changes, accompanied by further
developments in representative government and administrative institutions.
Settlements
Modern
villages vary in size from 300 to 1,000 inhabitants. Houses, averaging 7 by 10
meters, are built on durable wooden frames in a ribbon pattern along both banks
of a river and stand some 3 meters above ground. Walls are of plank or sago
bark, and roofing is of palm thatch or wooden shingles. In some areas, notably
on the River Tillian at Mukah, villages were closely adjacent, and today the
banks of the river are a continuous line of housing with several thousand
inhabitants. Administratively the villages are still separate. Traditionally a
village was made up of two, sometimes three longhouses, each with a population
of about 300 people. A longhouse, consisting of separate apartments with a
common veranda in front, facing the river, was essentially a fortress on
ironwood piles, some 10 meters above the ground. They were often sited on the
bank of the main river opposite the mouth of a tributary stream, which allowed
them to see enemies approaching on the water. At the mouths of the main rivers,
where representatives of the sultan of Brunei nominally held suzerainty
over the river to its source, villagers had by 1830 already begun to build
small separate houses, but still retained longhouses for defense. By the
beginning of the twentieth century the rajah of Sarawak
had successfully put an end to intertribal warfare and most longhouses were
abandoned. Sago gardens were cultivated as near the village as possible, and a
communal rice field was organized annually by village elders, with a strip
allocated to each household.
Economy
Hunting
and gathering, combined with the cultivation of sago gardens (normally about 4
acres in area) and the export of sago biscuit and forest products (gums,
resins, rattan, timber) in exchange for metal goods, weapons, ceramics, and
cloth traditionally formed the basis of the Melanau economy. The cultivation of
sago gardens was supplemented by growing swamp rice (padai paya )
and orchards on the levees of the rivers. Floods at the end of the northeast
monsoon frequently ruined the rice crop, which could not be relied on for
subsistence. Villages on the coast, where the water of the estuaries was too
saline for extraction of flour from the sago palm, depended primarily on
fishing and on the import and export trade.
Trade
During the northeast monsoon, when access to the
rivers was limited and fishing was dangerous, expeditions upriver from the
coastal villages with dried fish, salt, nipa palm sugar, and craft
products palm leaf thatch, mats, baskets, and hats were undertaken to exchange
these items for sago biscuit, fruit, canoes, and timber. A similar intrauterine trade for forest products and rice was also maintained with Iban
settlements in the hills beyond the swamps. Traditionally sago biscuit was
exported under the auspices of aristocratic leaders from both inland and
coastal villages and of Malay traders from Brunei and elsewhere. With the
foundation of Singapore
in 1819 and the demand from the European and American cotton industry for cheap
industrial starch, the nature of the sago-export trade altered. After the
conquest of the coastal district by the rajah of Sarawak
in 1861, Melanau and Malay carriers and traders were replaced by Chinese
immigrants, who also entered into the production of flour to the extent that
they were allowed. The government, however, did not permit the sale of land to
immigrants; the primary production of flour remained in the hands of Melanau
villagers until after World War II, when all production was mechanized and only
the gardens remained in Melanau ownership. Even though the primary production
of flour remained in the hands of the Melanau until then, by 1900 the economy
had become dependent on the single cash crop, and extensive changes had
occurred in the social system.
Division
of Labor
Male tasks include
clearing the forest and planting and maintaining sago gardens, felling the ripe
palm and bringing the trunk to the villages, and stripping the bark off the
segments into which the stem has been cut, before rasping the pith inside into
a rough sawdust. The sawdust is given to the women to wash on a platform over
the river. This rasped pith is placed on a fine-woven mat on the platform,
mixed with water, and trampled by the women; the water with the flour in
suspension is forced through the mat and a thin straining cloth onto draining
boards leading to a trough below the platform, where the crude flour settles
and surplus water is drawn away. The sale of this crude flour to a Chinese
dealer is also the work of women. The proceeds of the sale are divided in
various ways between the owner of the palm, the male feller, and the female
trampler of the pith. This cottage industry, in which men and women controlled
their own labor and profits, came to an end in the 1950's when Chinese dealers
mechanized all aspects of the industry, except the growing and felling of
palms. The Chinese dealer did not usually pay cash, but entered the transaction
in his books and allowed goods to be bought on credit from his retail shop,
thus ensuring that his clients could be kept at regular work and that he could
supply his creditors with a regular and predictable supply of flour for export. Because
only Melanau are allowed to own sago land, only those with sago gardens now
have any part in the production of sago. Many of the crops are mortgaged before
they become mature. A large part of the male population is forced to leave the
villages as migrant laborers in the lumber industry; others migrate
permanently. Women are no longer economically independent.
Industrial
Arts
In the cottage industry
most of the necessary equipment was made locally or acquired through the
intrariverine trade. Ironwork and weaving ceased with the advent of a cash
economy at the end of the nineteenth century.
Land
Tenure
Every village
collectively owns a delimited territory that it was formerly ready to defend
against all outsiders. Within that territory sago gardens and orchards,
carefully delimited, are individually owned. Joint tenancy is possible,
especially if a single garden is inherited by two women, for gardens are almost
never subdivided. Such an arrangement is not thought satisfactory; other
solutions are preferred.
Kinship
Kin
Groups and Descent
Theoretically,
descent is patrimonial in the allocation of rank, but is not used in the
formation of groups. Three types of groups in which kinship is an important
factor are found: (1) households made up of separately catering individual
families, with occasional stem families (tegen ); (2) sections of
the modern ribbon-like villages largely consisting of relatives, and known
as a-sega —a term also used for close relatives up to second
cousin; and (3) ad hoc groups of kin assembled from both paternal and maternal
lines of descent for specific tasks (e.g., weddings, funerals, trading
expeditions).
Kinship
Terminology
Kin terms are
bilateral, with one term, male and female alike, for each of five generations;
but the individual family is lineally set apart from other kin. In some
districts seniority and gender in the parental generation and in Ego's siblings
are terminologically distinguished. Kin terms are given to all relatives up to
the second cousins; relatives up to fifth cousin are recognized, but
connections beyond are strangers. No term is used for the kindred.
Marriage and Family
Marriage
Although polygamous marriage, with the consent of the first wife, is permitted, it is very rare and usually leads to divorce. The population of a village is divided into aristocrats (a-menteri ), commoners (a-bumi), and slaves (a-dipen). Ideally marriage should be with a second cousin (patrior matrilateral) within the same rank; but in small, politically independent communities the need for talent has always favored cross-rank marriages. The father of a bride is covertly permitted to choose the bride-wealth and rank he desires for his daughter through any line of descent. A wedding is the most important public occasion on which upward or downward mobility is recognized and validated. Theoretically, all first marriages are arranged by parents, but the wishes of the proposed partners are usually taken into consideration. Parents do not arrange second marriages. For a period after the wedding, uxorilocal residence is ideal, but economic advantage often overrides the ideal. One child, usually the youngest, is expected to remain with the parents. Divorce is by mutual consent, and property acquired since the marriage is divided equally.
Domestic
Unit
People who cook and cater
together are considered to be a family (tegen) ; but a household may consist of
several separate catering and cooking units. Six or seven people constitute an
average household.
Inheritance
Property is divided equally among surviving
children and the offspring of any dead children. The
former
longhouse apartment or the contemporary house, in addition to a share of other
property, is usually allotted to the child who remains with the parents.
Gardens and orchards are divided as whole units and are not subdivided.
Socialization
Infants and children are reared by both parents,
by siblings, and by other household members. Physical punishment is very rare;
it is regarded as a debased practice of the Chinese. Individual independence is
highly valued, but not at the expense of custom and respect for elderly people.
Sociopolitical Organization
Sarawak
is a state in the Federated States of Malaysia ; it consists of divisions,
each of which in turn is divided into districts under the supervision of
district officers.
Social
Organization
Formerly a village
was an independent unit governed by a group of self-appointed aristocrats known
as a-nyat, or elders. The rajah of Sarawak
appointed one of them as headman, answerable to the district officer. Today the
influence of the elders varies with local circumstances; their power is now
primarily ceremonial, concerned with validating social mobility at weddings.
The suppression of endemic tribal warfare by the rajah of Sarawak
allowed people other than aristocrats to acquire wealth by planting sago
gardens; the gradual introduction of a cash economy permitted commoners and
even slaves to acquire wealth and make claim to higher rank and even enter the
group of governing elders.
Political
Organization
Village headmen
today are minor magistrates and try certain civil suits in addition to
collecting taxes. Criminal offenses are a matter for the district officer,
native officers under him, and the police. Districts vary in size and, in
coastal areas, are comprised of Iban and Malay people as well as Melanau. In
addition to administrative services, the state government today provides schools,
dispensaries, hospitals, land surveys, and various advisory services. It also
maintains highways, canals, and bridges, and subsidizes mosques and churches.
Social
Control
In villages social
control is largely a matter of adat, or custom, supervised and
administered by the headmen and elders. The Coastal Melanau Adat, an attempted
codification of many village adats, is followed by headmen and elders in cases
of family and personal dispute, short of homicide or criminal theft, but each
village claims its own version of the adat and often does not adhere to the
official codification. Social control, however, is maintained primarily by a
value system that places a high premium on respect for seniority, rank, and the
proper order of things as embodied in the adat, any violation of which entails
civil penalties imposed by the elders and automatic supernatural penalties that
can be averted only by correct reparation.
Conflict
Conflict is usually seen as a disregard of
proper respect, and children are brought up to avoid conflict at almost any
cost.
Religion and Expressive Culture
In 1980 53,689 Melanau
were Sunni Muslim, 8,486 were Christian, 1,749 were tribal, 5,328 were listed
as having no religion (but were probably all tribal), and 326 were listed as
miscellaneous. For Muslims, Christians, and tribals alike, the world consists
of this, the middle world, the upper world (the sky), and the world below.
Traditionally the world was egg-shaped, seven layers or worlds above and seven
below the middle world, the whole being balanced on the head of a buffalo
standing on a snake, all surrounded by water. The breathing of the buffalo
caused the ebb and flow of the tides. For some people the land of the dead was
an underworld; others thought it elsewhere, but did not know where. Its
topography was exact, but differed for Muslims, whose view was shared by
Christians.
For
Muslims, Christians, and tribals alike, the world, the sun, the moon, and the
stars were created by Alla-taala, but how is not known. He is remote and little
interested in human affairs. All "layers" of the world are inhabited
by spirits (tou), who, together with humans, animals, and plants, share
this middle world. Every being has its own proper place in the world, which is
ordered by adat. Overstepping boundaries causes trouble, and most human illness
is caused by trespassing on some spirit's living space. Spirits are of many
kinds: earth, air, water, forest, etc. Sometimes they are referred to as ipu', who
are less malevolent than tou, and may indeed be invited to reside in and
protect dwellings. Supernaturals live on the moon and punish disorderly and
disrespectful behavior by men, especially mockery of animals. A female guards
the entrance to the land of the dead. People are reluctant to call such
supernaturals "tou" or "ipu'," but no other term exists for
such demigods. Muslims and some pagans call them melaikat.
Religious
Practitioners
No pagan priests
exist. Expert carvers of spirit images, or bilum, diagnose
what spirit (sometimes also called "bilum" and not "tou")
is likely to have caused an illness and, in a short ceremony, forces the spirit
into its carved image so that it may be taken to its proper place and forbidden
to harm the patient for at least three days. Spirit mediums, with the help of
familiar spirits, also cure illness and practice divination. Every village,
Muslim and tribal alike, holds an annual cleansing ceremony, kaul, to
call uninvited spirits that have taken up residence in the village to a feast
before they are sent home to their proper places.
Ceremonies
Apart from the annual kaul, private ceremonies
of increasing complexity and expense are held for the curing of illness by
spirit mediums. Ceremonies for the safety of a child two months before its
delivery initiate a series of taboos, culminating in the birth. There are also
ceremonies at the wake of a dead person; they may continue for several months,
until a secondary burial.
Arts
Among most Melanau groups, tattooing was never
widely practiced. Strongly built longhouses, fortresses thirty feet above
ground, were traditionally decorated with elaborate wood carving. Bilum carved
in sago pith were widely used and are a sophisticated form of sculpture.
Ceremonies were accompanied by gong orchestras with distinctive chants and
music; bards recited and sang epics, legends, and myths of considerable poetic
merit at ceremonies or simply for entertainment.
Medicine
Most illness was attributed to an attack by a
spirit, but certain ailments, mostly minor, were attributed to a failure to
keep a proper balance between hot and cold conditions in the body. Herbal
medicines existed to restore the balance, most of which have been taken over by
practitioners of Malay medicine.
Death
and Afterlife
An individual's
funeral is one of the most important events in the life cycle. At death the
soul begins a boat journey, accompanied by attendant spirits—usually called
"tou"—to the land of the dead. Chants, ceremonies, and games during
the wake ensure the soul a safe journey. Once admitted, the soul is sent to one
of seven pagan villages, appropriate to the manner of death, and lives a life
similar to that of this middle world. Eventually a second death occurs, and
many believe that the soul then becomes dew. Muslims and many Christians also
believe that the soul sets out for the land of the dead by boat or, according
to some, along a road that comes to a place where the path becomes a sword
across a pot of blazing fire. An individual who has led a good life can walk
along the flat edge of the sword; the sharp edge of the sword ensures that one
who has led a bad life falls into the pot. Beyond the sword is the land of Mohammed , Jesus Christ, and the pagans.
Bibliography
Crocker,
W. M. (1876). "A Short Account of the Melanos of Sarawak ." Sarawak Gazette (Kuching), no. 119.
Morris,
H. S. (1953). A Report on a Melanau Sago Producing Community in Sarawak . London :
H.M.S.O.
Morris,
H. S. (1978). "The Coastal Melanau." In Essays on Borneo
Societies,edited by Victor T. King, 37-58. Oxford :
Oxford University Press.
Morris,
H. S. (1981). "The Melanau View of Their Environment." Sarawak Museum Journal 27 (5).
Roth,
Henry Ling (1896). The Natives of Sarawak and British North
Borneo ; Based Chiefly on the mss. of the Late H. B. Low,
Sarawak Government Service.London:
Truslove & Hanson. Reprint. 1980. Kuala Lumpur :
University of Malaya Press.
H.
S. MORRIS
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