Long term Development of Kejaman Subsistence: An Ecological Study.
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THE SARAWAK MUSEUM JOURNAL |
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Title :
Long term Development of Kejaman Subsistence: An Ecological Study. |
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Author :
S.S. Strickland |
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Abstract:
After spending over one year in Sarawak, A.R. Wallace visited other parts of the Southeast Asian archipelago and his observations on the island of Ceram include an account of the exploitation of the sago palm Metroxylon sp. He states: It is trulyan extraordinary sight to witness of whole tree-trunk, perhaps twenty feet long and four or five in circumference, converted into food with so little labour and preparation. A good-sized tree will produce thirty tomans or bundles of thirty pounds each, and each toman will make sixty cakes of three to the pound. Two of these cakes are as much as a man can eat at one meal, and five are considered a full day’s allowance; so that, reckoning a tree to produce 1,800 cakes, weighing 600 pounds, it will supply a man with food for the whole year. The labour to produce this is very moderate. Two men will finish a tree in five days, and two women will bake the whole into cakes in five days more; but the raw sago will keep very well, and can be baked as wanted, so that we may estimate that in ten days a man may produce food for the whole year. This is on the supposition that he possesses sago trees of his own, for they are now all private property. If he does not, he has to pay about seven and sixpence for one; and as labour here is fivepence a day, the total cost of a year’s food for one man is about twelve shillings. The effect of this cheapness of food is decidedly prejudicial, for the inhabitants of the sago countries are never so well off as those where rice is cultivated. Many of the people here have neither vegetables nor fruit, but live almost entirely on sago and a little fish. Having few occupations at home, they wander about on petty tradingor fishing expeditions to the neighbouring islands; and as far as the comforts of life are concerned,are much inferior to the wild hill-Dyaks of Borneo,or to many of the more barbarous tribes of the Archipelago. (1869/1890: 291—92)
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| DOI: XXXX |
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How to cite:
Strickland, S. S. (1986). Long term Development of Kejaman Subsistence: An Ecological Study. The Sarawak Museum Journal, XXXVI (57): 117-172 |
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References
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