The_Batek_of_Malaysia

The Batek The Batek are one among a dozen diverse cultural groups of the Orang Asli people of central Malaysia. They are an indigenous people who live in the rainforest of peninsular Malaysia. The name Batek means ‘original people’ and is assumed to be first used by Austronesian-speaking settlers who arrived by boat from the islands of Southeast Asia. They now largely inhabit the Taman Negara National Park, as a result of intrusion. They are nomadic hunters and gatherers and so the exact locations of their settlements change within the general confines of the area where they inhabit. The Batek have survived for centuries as a nomadic foraging-gatherer society and have managed to create and sustain a considerably distinct culture from the socio-structural precepts of the general population. The Batek Life Traditionally, Batek subsisted primarily on gathered tubers from the forest. Fruit, leaves, shoots, fish, and small game such as monkeys supplied to their diet. They have started depending on commercial foods such as rice, sugar, tinned sardines, biscuits and tea as a result of the addition of cash to their economy. Though the utilization of wild food sources decreased, they depend on collected food also for their subsistence. Its availability strongly affects the Batek's movements through the forest. Rivers and streams also play a vital role in Batek life. They use water for their household uses and also for bathing. They collect fish from rivers and they also serve as natural territorial boundaries for the Batek. Because of these reasons, The Batek prefer to camp in the vicinity of a stream or river. The Batek has a moral obligation to share food which they have gained. The person who gathers the food item will first give to their immediate family. Then they will share it with their extended family and finally to the rest of the camp. Everyone is giving to everyone else so that everyone has food to eat, even if any family is unable to acquire food for them. In many occasions, the camp may have a large amount of food because of the hunting and butchering of meat. The Batek has formal and ritualistic way of dividing it. For example if a monkey is caught the members of the hunting party eat the offal and tail, and then the cooked meat is divided to portions adjusted according to the size of the family so that each family in the camp gets almost equal share. For the Batek sharing of resources is not an act of kindness as they believe that the person who happens to be in possession of food items which is owned by the forest, has a moral obligation to share it. Their dwellings are not made with much storing capacity as they don’t hoard food without others knowing about it. Somebody who is hungry can take food from another members’ place, as it is not considered as an action of theft. It is documented that the primary means of subsistence of the Batek was hunting and gathering. They also used to trade forest products for agricultural products and manufactured goods. They shared their territory with Malay farmers who lived along the major rivers between the late 1800s and the end of World War II. During the 1970s a number of Batek families moved to Post Lebir, a federal resettlement project sponsored by the Malaysian Department of Aboriginal Affairs because of the threat of the Communist guerillas then operating in the remote jungle areas. Since the 1950s the Batek have been the only permanent inhabitants of this area. Although these lands are their traditional homes, they do not have any legal title or control over them. Legally, the land belongs to the state, and the Batek are only unlawful tenant. However they have been allowed to occupy state land when it was not being used. At Post Lebir they joined a small number of Batek of other dialect groups who were already settled there. About 160 Batek were living there by 1981 at least part of the time. The Government has built a school, medical post, and other facilities at Post Lebir and has supplied the settlers with seeds and facilities for growing rubber trees and food crops. The Government agency has also provided a small herd of cows as a start for a different life style. The Batek settled at Post Lebir now derive a portion of their subsistence from their crops and a part from rations and wages given by the Government. Still most of their income comes from the collection and trade of forest produce. Batek mostly collect rattan and gaharu wood used in making perfume and incense. Many of the men from Post Lebir spend at least half of their time collecting forest produce. Some Batek women also engage in collection of forest products. The remainder of the Batek has continued to lead a fully nomadic subsistence in the upper reaches of the Lebir, Aring, and Relai rivers. They are also engaged in the collection of rattan and gaharu wood. They also depend on purchased foods such as rice and flour for their subsistence. But their major sources of subsistence include wild tubers and fruits collected from the forest. Fish and game remain their major sources of meat. Thus both the semi-settled and nomadic Batek depend upon the natural resources of the tropical rain forest. After the independence in 1963, the natural rain forest in the Malay Peninsula has replaced with commercial export-producing crops like rubber trees and oil palms as a part of development of the area. This is because of the Malaysian strategy of using natural resource for agriculture than to use as forestry as agriculture is always economically superior. The loss of the forest will definitely bring difficulties to the Batek and probably will lead to a decline in their standard of living. Presently they have two possible avenue of retreat. Those who are willing to agree to a sedentary way of life can join their settled relatives at Post Lebir so that the Government will arrange additional land there to accommodate them. There the Batek has to suffer an increased intervention from outsiders and government agencies. For the Post Lebir Batek, the end of the forests means the end of the major source of cash income. They will be forced to subsist entirely on their own crops and the Government supplements. Such a situation may cause malnutrition and a general demoralization which will lead young Batek to leave the settlement. It is noticed that a number of young men from Post Lebir have recently joined the Malaysian army. So there is a chance for more young people moving to towns seeking employment. The more traditional Batek living in the headwaters of the rivers may not be willing to seek the new environment. They will continue to follow a system of mixed foraging and trade in forest produce for their subsistence as they did for years. As the forest is cut, they are gradually retreating and some groups have to spend most of their time in the national park. Their possibility of continuing their preferred life style depends on the Government’s decisions about logging of forest and agriculture developments. Taman Negara national park is Malaysia's oldest one of its kind and was established in 1939. It is located in the interior of the Malay Peninsula and contains 1,300 km of primary jungle. In the late 1960s, tourism to Taman Negara began to increase progressively. This attracted the Batek's interest in obtaining work as jungle guides at Kuala Tahan. In 1979, the Malaysian government began to force the Batek to reposition at a government-subsidized settlement established at Kuala Atok, outside the park boundaries. There are several factors behind this government decision. The first concern was that with their semi-nomadic existence, Batek would come into contact with communist terrorists hiding in the jungle and may be forced to give them economic and intelligence backing. The Government authorities perceived their semi-nomadic existence as primitive and another goal of the development project was to persuade the Batek to give up their life style. Yet another reason was to remove the Batek from Taman Negara as the collection and selling of natural resources do not conform to park regulations. During a certain course of time, one of the Batek's main sources of income was jungle-guiding. At first, the Batek had a monopoly over this as there was no competition for this work. Jungle guiding was the most rewarding short term work for the Batek as it amounted to almost US $ 15 per day. As local Malays obtained experience as guides, the Batek were in difficulty and they found fewer opportunities for this work. According to an informal tourist brochure published by the national park, Batek rarely work as guides because this work has taken by local Malay people of Kuala Tahan. It also states that Batek now spends more time in settlements outside the Park boundary where the government has provided land for them to cultivate. The Malaysian law has assigned certain special rights to the indigenous population. These include the right to hunt protected species of game for their own consumption. Because of this exclusion, The Game Department which administers the national park has taken a lenient approach to the Batek. They don’t object their exploiting the natural food products or their peaceful living in the park. Presently they are not even prohibited from extracting rattan and gaharu wood for trade. But the case may not be the same if the number of Batek families increases there. If more people live permanently in the park with their traditional lifestyle of hunting and gathering, it may greatly affect the ecology of the park. In such situation, the Game Department would have to prohibit or regulate the Batek activities. It means they may be prohibited from those activities which are the essentials of their nomadic subsistence. Then more of them would be forced to settle at Post Lebir. Others might join another group of Batek people who work as guides and firewood collectors at the national park headquarters at Kuala Tahan in Pahang. So it is almost sure that in the face of deforestation, national park cannot prevent the termination of the traditional Batek way of life persisting there. Political Organization The Batek normally live in domestic groups. Mostly they live in tents and lean-tos forming a camp of about ten families. The Batek do not have a perception of private land ownership. Though each encampment has power of the land immediately around it, they consider themselves to be the caretaker of the land, rather than its owner. Batek normally lead a peaceful life. There is no internal leader or adjudication system, each adult member of the camp is equal. Batek don’t have a formal procedure of resolving conflicts. If a conflict arises between any members, they will discuss the matter privately. If still it persists, each will publicly share their side of the argument so that other members of the camp may suggest a resolution. .If a solution does not come out, one party usually moves away until tempers cool. Once, most of the usable wild plant resources have been used up they will move to another spot, within their habitat. The Batek economy is very complex and distinct one. They have no right of ownership with some things such as land. There are some things that are considered personal property, such as a man's blowgun, radios, tobaccos or a woman’s hair comb. But still it is common for them to be lent or even borrowed without the owner's knowledge Social norms guide them to share many things with the entire society such as food found by foraging. Batek laid emphasis on the autonomy of individuals and nuclear families. Nobody in the group is assigned with a certain position of power or any authority over the rest of others. Though there is always a coordination and consultation among the members, Couples take their decisions on their work and moving. Sometimes somebody who is an expert in a certain activity may emerge to be leader but otherwise they don’t require leadership for their activities. A Government agency, the Department of Aboriginal Affairs appoints ‘headmen’ as liaisons between the Government and the Batek. The Government always chooses somebody who is agreeable to the Government’s goals. It is noted that these liaisons don’t have much influence in the Batek They can influence the Batek mostly if they are the natural leaders of the Batek. Gender Relations The male-female relations of the Batek are highly egalitarian. Their primary mode of subsistence, hunting and gathering has influence in their gender concepts as it has in many other concepts. Both women and men among the Batek procure and share food. Batek women usually gather vegetable foods and men concentrate on hunting of games and collection of other forest products. Still, if any woman wishes to go for hunting she can do so and a man can collect fruits and vegetables if he wants. Batek consider the contributions of each sex to the food supply as equally important. Each individual has direct and equal role in the sharing system that distributes food in a camp. The activities of the Batek are not separated between the sexes by any rigid rules. If at all a leader is emerged from the group, the criterion is personality and ability. For leadership, gender is not considered as a criterion. Women and men engage in collecting and trading rattan, which is one of their main economic activities. When the Batek are willing to join the Government’s schemes, both sexes participate equally in agricultural activities. The egalitarian structure of their culture obviously reflects in the nature of marriage among the Batek. Adult men and women choose their own spouses on the basis of affection and compatibility. The husband and wife jointly make decisions about food-gathering and camp movements. Men and women live highly integrated lives often working together and spending time together. Mostly spouses tend to be good friends and co-workers. When the relationship breaks down, either spouse may initiate divorce. After divorce, both men and women manage themselves with the sharing network of the camp. Either of them may build shelters and their children also will be supported by others in the camp. The cultural and religious beliefs of the Batek convey the idea that women and men play equal roles in the accurate order of the world. In brief, Egalitarian sex relations are an integral part of Batek life. Values and Beliefs The Batek believe that various superhuman created the earth as a disk of land surrounded by the sea (Endicott, 1979). They believe that the superpowers created the humanity on earth and separated the Batek from other people. These super humans created the plants and animals of the forest to meet their needs. They ask for abundant of food products and thank them for sending it. They will also ask for curing from sickness to the super humans. The Batek feel an obligation to give when they are asked for something. This feeling is because of their belief that to refuse a request can cause super-natural harm to the person who refused. The Batek believe that if a requested favor is refused, the misfortune harms not only the single person but the whole people of the camp get affected. The Batek believe in powerful shamans who have tiger bodies. They believe that when on the night, the shaman sleeps and the shadow soul enters into body of a tiger. The tiger shaman care for his companions from attacks of wild animals. Conclusion The Batek of Taman Negara has been finding solutions to the problems of encroachment by the modern world, over the years. Their interest of maintaining mobility and flexibility have made them minor entrepreneurs rather than subsistence farmers. Agriculture is not suitable for most of the Batek as it involves a heavy investment of time and energy before the results may be enjoyed. They prefer to do wage-labor as it involves same-day payment with the end of the work period in sight. This shows that they accept changes in such a way maintaining the important elements of their culture. Current governmental policies do not help much for economic self-sufficiency of the Batek. The removal of the Batek from their traditional homeland and a lack of practical economic alternatives will place them in a feeble position. Like other indigenous peoples of different countries, the Batek should also be able to enjoy the benefits of development. Decisions such as subsistence strategies and relocation must not be forcefully implemented on them. They must be made aware of the benefits of living in integration with the larger Malaysian society and allowed to take decisions of their own. If they desire to continue their hunting and gathering existence within their ancestral territory, they should be allowed to do so. References Batek. Retrieved on December 30, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/ Many Mothers, Many Fathers: The Meaning of Parenting Around the World. Retrieved on December 30, 2010 from http://ww.scu.edu/ethics/publications The Cambridge encyclopedia of hunters and gatherers By Richard B. Lee, Richard Heywood Daly. Retrieved on December 30, 2010 from http://books.google.co.in The Effects of Logging on the Batek of Malaysia. Retrieved on December 30, 2010 from http://www.culturalsurvival.org The indigenous peoples issues and resources Retrieved on December 30, 2010 from http://indigenouspeoplesissues.com UC Press E-Books Collection, 1982-2004. Formerly e Scholarship Editions. Retrieved on December 30, 2010 from http://publishing.cdlib.org We play in the black jungle and in the white jungle’. Retrieved on December 30, 2010 from s.ianthro.tw/node/31/file