The Temuan (RACHMAN, DUNN) (syn. Mantera, Belanda/Biduanda, Benua) live in the states of Negri Sembilan, Melaka and north Selangor. They also live in the Riau Lingga archipelago, on Bangka and Rempang islands and in some eastern districts of Sumatra (LOEB). Their language belongs to the Mon-Khmer family.
The Jakun (LEBAR, 1964) ( syn. O. hulu, O. kanag) live in low altitude tropical rainforest in the south of Peninsular Malaysia (states of Selangor, Melaka, Negri Sembilan, Johore and Pahang). Their language belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian family.
The Orang Seletar, O. Kuala and Desin Dolaq live on the coasts of south and south-western Johore and Selangor ; and are the Orang Laut, or 'sea men'. Johore dialects belong to the Malayo-Polynesian family.
The Temiar (BENJAMIN, 1966; ENDICOTT, 1979a; COLE, 1959a). They live in north-east Perak, and south-west Kelantan.
The territory
The territory of each tribe is defined but has no precise boundaries. In an ethological sense, it can be considered as an expansion of the home range. The indigenous populations do not defend their land against intrusions from the outside. These societies ignore the use of warfare as a device to acquire more land (Semai, FIX,1977 : 16).
Land never belongs to an individual person or to a family group, and it is not considered a scarce commodity. However, each group has its own hereditary territory (teiq sakaq) on which to prepare its plots. But any individual or group of individuals may enter the camp, settle down and start their own fields, without facing any opposition from the resident group. After a while, these newcomers take on the name of the camp ; they retain their links with their prior habitat but have full rights over the land in their new environment (Semai, FIX, 1977 : 16). For the Tapah Semai, property rights only cover the period during which the plot of land is being cultivated. When the fields are left fallow, the land becomes once again public property.
For the Temiar, land cannot be owned, and only the produce from the soil and the constructions on the land are considered property. Thus an individual's rights over a plot cease when the exploitation of the plot does. The only form of lasting property concerns fruit trees and ipoh (poison used for arrowheads). Theoretically, one person has rights in more than one village if his parents and grandparents come from different villages. In practice, one chooses the village one wishes to live in, and rights in other villages are no longer taken into account. Clearing work and its produce is shared at village or group level (ENDICOTT, 1979 a).
However, with the emergence of cash crops, the concept of property has evolved in these communities. Planting trees that will yield a cash revenue has introduced the idea of permanent private property over tii' land which can be inherited from both parents.
Habitat
It ranges from semi-nomadic life-style (Benua or Temuan) to long houses (20% of Semai according to DENTAN 1975 ; Temiar, ENDICOTT, 1983). The groups are autonomous but gather together along the river valleys, important arteries for transport in mountainous regions and containing rich soil. The forest on the slopes of the valley is where the hunting and gathering is carried out. In the west, villages move every 2 to 4 years (DENTAN, 1968 b).
Socio-political organization. The nuclear family farms its field and is a self-sufficient unit. There is a hierarchy of ranks and titles with quasi political duties attached to them. The chief, batin, acts as umpire, priest and magician (Jakun). In general, there is amongst most groups a three-tier system of socio-political organization, a headman for external affairs, another for internal affairs and a third for ritual curing. This latter category may include many practitioners (MORRIS, pers. comm.).
Ladang swidden agriculture predominates
(ngnriik is the Semai equivalent of ladang)
They all grow manioc and cash crops such as rubber.
The Semai : groups 1 to 4 (live in at high altitudes, small camps on mountain slopes, isolated, the most traditional) grow mainly mountain rice, millet, maize. They hunt, fish and gather. - groups 5 to 6 live lower down and grow mainly mountain rice - groups 7 to 15 are quite adapted to Malay society, live even lower down the mountains cultivate mountain rice and wet rice.
The swidden plot must be of easy access
size
|
clearing
|
cultivation
period
|
fallow
period
|
| 0,13
to 0,69 acres/pers., in altitude (DENTAN,1971)
|
3
months (April-July)
|
1
to2 years
|
12
years minimum
|
The big fields are first planted with several varieties of rice (of which the red cultivar increases soil fertility) combined with maize ; millet is planted around the edges of the field, and sweet potatoes and pulses are isolated. Manioc, often at a distance, is scattered in areas of loose soil covered in debris (Semai).
A 12 year fallow allows for proper forest regeneration, and is crucial to regenerate the soil (Semai, DENTAN 1979; Tapah Semai, high levels of acculturation, GOMES, 1991). The size and value of the plots depends on the nature of the forest that grew on it : compared to primary forest, only a quarter or half the amount can be planted in fields cleared in secondary forest areas (Tapah Semai)
Plants grown on the swidden plot :
Rice, maize, millet (Setaria italica), finger millet (Eleusine indica), banana, Job's tears (Coix lacrymajobi), manioc, taro, sugar-cane, marrows, yam, sweet potato, cucumber, pulses, snake gourd (Trichosanthes anguina), wax gourd (Benincasa cerifera), chili peppers, pineapple, amarantes, garlicks, eggplant, papaya, durian, areca (for cashew nuts), jack tree, bread fruit, coconut, mangoustan, Garcinia prainiana, Lansium domesticum, Nephelium glabrum, rambutan (N. lappaceum), N. mutabile, Parkia speciosa, Sandoricum indicum, ginger, curcuma, tobacco, betel (Piper betel), Cleome viscosa (Semai). Besides swidden agriculture (maize, manioc, sweet potato, chili peppers, pulses, bananas, cucumbers, tobacco) some groups also have permanent wet rice cultivation (Jakun).
Hunting : with blowpipes, snares, traps, barriers, and more recently with guns.
Species include : deer, wild pig, dwarf deer, monkeys, snakes, frogs, wild pigeons, partridges and pheasants (Jakun, Semai) ; Temuan : some 70 species (maybe 80 or 90) of mammals including bats, and approximately 150 species of birds, excluding sporadic migrant bird populations.
Fishing (carried out by men, women and children) : several dozen small species of fish (2,5 to 5 cm) ; implements : net and harpoon, hook and line, basket trap, nets, poison, weirs and harpoons (Jakun and Temuan). The tilapia is one of the bigger fish (Semai).
Gathering provides an important part of their staple diet :
Ferns (53 known species, 11 of which are edible and 12 of medicinal and magical value)
Many fruits (104 species are used, 30 of which are completely wild and picked in the forest, the other 74 being cultivated wild species or cultivated species ; and these are only a few of the species they are familiar with).
Others : gingers, larvae, medicinal plants, bamboo shoots (Temuan).
Everything the forest has to offer may be eaten
Pigs, snakes, frogs, leaves and tubers. Sago and rice can be got through exchange (Benua or Temuan).
Some populations eat 11 species of ferns, many different fruits, larvae, bamboo shoots, a lot of fish and game (Temuan).
Trade is based on forest products
Rattan (approximately 100 species including 7 Genera, 11 species are traded) is by far the most important marketable product, bamboos (8 Genera), sago, coconut, betel, Nipah (roofing material), ebony (5 species), eagle-wood, lacquer, sandalwood, camphor, benzoin, sappan wood (Caesalpinia sappan, for dyes), gambir, dragon's blood, pandanus (approx. 60 species), cotton, spices (ginger, pepper, cardamon, cinnamon, nutmeg (introduced), cloves (introduced)), seeds of Parkia speciosa, bananas, jack trees. Also minerals : gold, semi-precious stones, and products of animal origin : ivory, rhinoceros horn, civet, bezoar, birds' nests, monkeys, the spines of porcupine, bird plumes, hornbill mandibles, parrots, bee's wax, honey, stick-lac (from an insect, Tachardia lacca), for dyes, big frogs (which they do not eat themselves) (Temuan, Tapa, Jakun, Semai).
Some cash crops of fruit, the main ones being petai (Parkia speciosa), and durian (Durio sp.), and less important ones being larah (Baccaurea griffithii), rambai (B. motleyana), jering (Pithecellobium jiringa) and langsat (Lansium domesticum) among the Tapah Semai. The Temuan plant hevea and collect rubber on old plantations.
National policy and its problems
The government is putting a lot of pressure on cultivators to stop swidden agriculture, settle and become agricultural labourers within the cash crop system (rubber, oil palm, wet rice) (Semai since 1969). The tin mines in the state of Perak, exploited since 1850, have turned vast lowland areas into barren lands while depriving the Orang Asli of the rights to the land and creating major problems for them in their use of forest resources (Semai, FIX, 1991 : 77).