‘Sea Dayak’ and ‘Iban’: The History of Two Ethnonyms.
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THE SARAWAK MUSEUM JOURNAL |
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Title :
‘Sea Dayak’ and ‘Iban’: The History of Two Ethnonyms. |
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Author :
Allen R. Maxwell |
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Abstract:
The current ethnonym ‘Iban’ was not always used to refer to members of the largest ethnic group in Sarawak. There is now available enough material to be able to try to clarify the history of the ethnic labeling of this group. The ethnonym ‘than’ is a classic example of an exonym, that is, an ethnic label used originally not by the people themselves, becoming an endonym (or autonym), an ethnic label used by the people themselves to refer to themselves (Rousseau 1990: 11, 52). Before modern times, there was no single term used to designate this large population. As Pringle, author of the major work on the Ibans under Brooke rule, has put it: “... before the Ibans came into contact with Europeans they had no word which expressed their own relative cultural unity, any more than did the members of the other tribal societies in Sarawak” (1970: 19; see also Hose and McDougall 1912 II: 249)1 Howell and Bailey put it more specifically (1900: 34): The Sea Dayaks call themselves, as a rule, after their river or country (e.g., Kami Undup. We are Undup Dyaks. Kami Balau. We are Balau Dyaks. Kami Ulu Ai nitih ka adat aki ini. We Up-river Dyaks follow the customs of our ancestors), and occasionally, when contrasting themselves with the Malays speak of themselves as Daya and of the Malaysas Laut.
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| DOI: XXXX |
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How to cite:
Allen R. Maxwell. (2001). ‘Sea Dayak’ and ‘Iban’: The History of Two Ethnonyms. The Sarawak Museum Journal, LVI (77): 213-234 |
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References
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