Pantang Iban: A Description and Analysis of Iban Tattooing
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THE SARAWAK MUSEUM JOURNAL |
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Title :
Pantang Iban: A Description and Analysis of Iban Tattooing |
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Author :
Steve Kurzman |
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Abstract:
A noticeable upsurge in the popularity of tattooing has occurred in the Western world during the past decade. Many of the newer designs are monochromatic, abstract in shape, and more integrated into the body’s musculature than ‘traditional’ Western flat plane tattoos. These are characteristics of what has been termed ‘neo-tribalism’,an avant-garde style which has enjoyedsome of this recent popularity (Hardy, 1988). The new tribal designs come from a variety of sources but much of their original inspiration and influence was borrowed from the tattoos of the Iban and other Bornean peoples such as the Kayan and Kenyah. While a study of the cross-cultural appeal and translation of the neo-tribal tattoos (and the current popular fascination with neo-primitivism) is certainly worthwhile, I was drawn to questions concerning the role(s) of the original tattoos in Bornean cultures. Do the Iban still tattoo? What is or was the significance of the designs which was lost with the cross-cultural translation? With these thoughts in mind I conducted fieldworic in Sarawak, East Malaysia for ten weeks during the winter of 1990-1. What I found, in short, is that the Iban no longer tattoo themselves with what we call ‘traditional’ Iban designs. In fact, if they tattoo at all, it is with Western designs. I met very few men younger than sixty years old wearing pantang Iban (Iban designs), and I expect that these designs will die with their wearers.
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| DOI: XXXX |
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How to cite:
Steve Kurzman. (1993). Pantang Iban: A Description and Analysis of Iban Tattooing1. The Sarawak Museum Journal, XLIV (65): 69-80 |
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References
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