Making Sense of The Landscape: Eastern Penan Perspectives.
|
THE SARAWAK MUSEUM JOURNAL |
|
Title :
Making Sense of The Landscape: Eastern Penan Perspectives. |
|
Author :
Jayl Langub |
|
Abstract:
This article explores the ways the Eastern Penan2 establish their relationship with the landscape, sculpting it in the process, to make a living, and maintain a long-term relationship. As they move across the landscape, they establish a series of campsites (lamin) which they leave behind as Ia’a (old campsites) representing their footprints’ (uban). The Ia’a often associated with events, such as deaths, births, even humourous occurrences, become significant uban of both the group and individuals linked to these episodes. Movements across the landscape within an area or specific river systems are motivated by the cycle of resource availability. As they harvest resources they establish tenure (olong) over them to ensure systematic management and husbandry. Thus, what appears as a natural environment is, in fact, one that has undergone the process of human activities by way of methodological sculpting. As Brosius (1986: 174-178; 2001: 134-139) noted some years ago, what appears to be an empty space is instead a landscape that encapsulates history and way of life. In numerous conversations with Penan, they often express the view that they are part of the landscape as much as the landscape is part of them; thus what is territoryis a space of belonging, our space, okoo ami’.Within the context of this human-environment interaction, the relationship of the nineteen Eastern Penan settlements - six nomadic, six semi-settled and seven settled - located in the area between the Mulu National Park and Pulong Tau National Park, in the upper Tutoh basin, with the world in which they exist will be discussed.
|
| DOI: XXXX |
|
How to cite:
Jayl Langub. (2011). Making Sense of The Landscape: Eastern Penan Perspectives. The Sarawak Museum Journal, LXIX (90): 79-110 |
|
References
|
