The Iban in Historical Perspective.
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THE SARAWAK MUSEUM JOURNAL |
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Title :
The Iban in Historical Perspective. |
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Author :
Vinson H. Sutlive, Jr. |
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Abstract:
A major contribution of 19th century scholarship was to demonstrate the futility of searches for origins. While this may scarcely seem major today, it was a giant step in the history of science generally and anthropology particularly. “Science”, wrote Wilhelm von Humboldt, “is the substitution of one error for another”. The same thought was put another way by Charles Darwin who wrote, “... to kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishment of a new truth or fact”. Any attempt to consider the Iban m historical perspective must, then, begin with records from the 19th century. Even then, there is much we do not know nor shall we ever know it. Literate chroniclers did not provide records, and the oral traditions of the preliterate Iban did not survive them. Historiography by its nature, and the availability of its data, must be selective. Therefore, this treatment is by no means exhaustive. It draws upon records early and late, upon well-known histories of the Iban such as the late Benedict Sandin’s The Sea Dayaks of Borneo and Robert Pringle’s Rajahs and Rebels. But the intent and spirit in which it is offered is to celebrate the altogether remarkable people called Iban.
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| DOI: XXXX |
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How to cite:
Sutlive, V. H. (1989). The Iban in Historical Perspective. The Sarawak Museum Journal, XL (61): 33-44 |
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References
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