Word: berawan
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...groups which may put conflicting demands upon him. To the government he is their man--they appointed him, after all. To the community he is their spokesman, against the administration if the need arises. A case in point was the recent development scheme proposed by government agencies for the Berawan. The Berawan did not like the scheme at all and expected the headman to speak out against it. The government officials expected just the reverse. They assumed that his duty was to wean the community out of its backward conservatism. As with the tua kampong, loyalty to the home community...
...presumed influence in the community but other criteria also enter into the choice, such as pleasantness of manner and perhaps the ability to write. The tua kampong is primarily an intermediary between the longhouse and an external political power that has no place in the traditional organization of Berawan society. The resident tutor at the co-op is likewise a representative of an outside and alien power, Harvard's housing system. The egalitarian ideology of the community has no place...
...Berawan longhouse is a single vast wooden building extending along a river bank and raised up on stilts. It is a jungle metropolis containing between 200 and 400 souls and humming with activity. It is also a military complex, for the days of headhunting are not so far distant as to have been forgotten. The co-op house also manages a siege mentality at times, since we are even more prone to vandalism and burglary than the average Cantabrigian. Its structure also consists of wooden buildings--two large and charming old frame houses. Although our total population of 35 undergraduates...
When I first began fieldwork in Borneo I was disconcerted by the total lack of formulae of greeting. "Good morning" cannot be translated into Berawan. In the longhouse everyone is up and about soon after dawn, and since there is no plumbing the day often begins with a trip to the jungle. Every morning I met someone coming the other way as I wandered blearily down one of the tracks that lead away from the house. I would fumble for some simple form of greeting but invariably the person spoken to would look surprised and come to a complete halt...
...finish, let me justify the word tribal in my title. The Berawan longhouse was traditionally a sovereign political unit. No power reached from one community to another, and consequently anyone from outside the longhouse might be an enemy. Berawan houses never fought among themselves or took each others' heads, but they did suspect each other of witchcraft and other antisocial behavior. The hostility of the outside world maintained the solidarity of the Berawan community and gave rise to their own sense of identity, their feelings of superiority and their idiosyncratic ritual...