Word: borneo
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...coziness of it all. But slowly I perceived that there was more to my ease than merely returning to a place where I had lived before. There are striking resemblances between the community I now found myself in and the one I had just left in far-off Borneo. A couple of examples will illustrate the varying levels at which I noted similarities...
When I attended talks in William James Hall, or gave them, I was disconcerted by the way one person spoke continuously. My vocal Berawan friends in Borneo never allow such a thing to happen; no one lectures them. I found myself aching to interrupt other speakers and tongue-tied when an audience stared mutely back at me. At the co-op, things were much more to my liking. Even at our most solemn corporate event--a full House meeting--it is hard for any speaker to hold the attention of the audience for long before suffering a barrage of interjections...
...example of a different kind. In Borneo, evidently, I had forgotten my manners. I helped myself to other people's cigarettes. I omitted "please" and "thank you" from my conversation and seldom said "good morning" or "hello" or even "hi;" instead I grunted. At the same time, I had developed a new awareness of body language, as it is called. I had made an adjustment to Berawan etiquette, and I found Bostonians childishly assertive and threatening in their posture and way of talking. No one acquainted with Berawan history, full of warfare and headhunting, could accuse them of being sissies...
...they have a rigid class system with endogamous social strata, as some of their neighbors do indeed have. But the terminology of class is only borrowed and hitched onto a system of rank, which depends primarily on standing within the community and hence allows considerable mobility. In Borneo, a geneology studded with famous men of past generations and free of slaves, known reprobates and the illegitimate, makes for an aristocracy. But if the individual fails to play a part in community affairs or drinks too heavily, his position is slowly eroded. Upward mobility is also possible within limits. The best...
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...