II - POPULATIONS AND SETTLEMENT

All the coastal areas and lower river valleys are settled by populations that are not indigenous to Borneo (though they have sometimes settled there as early as the 16th century) : Malays (however, 'Malay' may refer to islamized indigenous populations such as the Dayak), Chinese, Javanese, Buginese, Madurese, etc. They control trade. Swidden cultivators, often carrying out intensive cultivation live on the lowlands further inland ; they grow cash crops (hevea, pepper, coconut, cloves, coffee, etc), and make up large ethnic groups with high population densities. The most famous are the Iban (in Sarawak and Western Kalimantan) or the Ngaju (in Kalimantan).

Further inland again, along the rivers, populations are dispersed and population densities are low. Many populations of the interior are occasionally referred to as a group as Orang Ulu (in Sarawak). These lowland populations are in contrast with the Highland groups though some of them might originally have lived in upland areas.

Yet further inland, nomads and settled nomads occupy the higher river basins and the river headwaters between Kalimantan (Indonesia) and Sarawak ; on account of the various migrations throughout history, they often originally come from a valley in a different political zone. Political borders need not therefore be taken into account when looking at the traditional way of life of these populations.

Borneo : Official boundaries (after ROUSSEAU, 1990)

Borneo : Physiography (after SELLATO, 1989)

There are over 150 different languages spoken on the island, but, demographic proportions are not in favour of indigenous populations. In 1980 in Sarawak, 30% of the population were Iban, 29% Chinese, 20% Malays, whereas 'other indigenous populations' only made up 5% of total population (KO TEE HOCK 1986).

Various all-embracing names are used to designate several groups that are put together for the purpose : for example, Dayak is the name used by Muslim Malays to designate any non-Muslim Borneo aborigine and in Sarawak it refers only to the Iban (Sea Dayak) and the Bidayuh (Land Dayak) ; in an everyday context it designates all sedentary cultivators, but these same cultivators call Penan the nomad groups or those descending from nomads. Most of these names (such as Iban, Ngaju, Land Dayak, Dusun,...) are used by others, whereas the people themselves refer to their own population with geographical terms. However, these names may also be used to express a cultural identity by opposition to populations coming from the outside (to Malays or Chinese for example).