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The Political Economy of Ending Headhunting in Central Borneo: Inter-colonial and Kenyah perspectives on the 1924 Kapit Peacemaking Agreement and its aftermath*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2017

DAVE LUMENTA
DAVE LUMENTA*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Universitas Indonesia, Kampus UI, Depok, 16424, Indonesia Email: dave.lumenta@ui.ac.id
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Abstract

This article, largely based on archival research, highlights two contradictory outcomes of colonial state formation in central Borneo. The first is characterized by territorial consolidation and efforts to neatly sedentarize peoples within each colonial territory, while the second is characterized by pacification that unwittingly liberalized the flows and movements of people and commodities transgressing colonial state boundaries. The 1924 Kapit Peacemaking Agreement in colonial Sarawak is often noted for its significance in bringing a final end to the practice of inter-ethnic headhunting, principally between the Iban of Sarawak and the Kenyah from Dutch Borneo. While it marked the successful outcome of a long phase of colonial pacification and territorial consolidation for both colonial states in Borneo, the agreement's outcome simultaneously highlights the contradictory inter-colonial motives and expectations regarding the resulting increase of cross-border flows of people and commodities. The presented case highlights challenges facing Dutch colonial state formation when attempts to subjugate and sedentarize riverine peoples, who were geographically tied to fluid commodity chains and flows, directly undermined the former's own efforts to establish authority in its borderland frontier.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 51 , Issue 4 , July 2017 , pp. 1070 - 1098
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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Footnotes

*

This article was written based on fieldwork in Sarawak and North Kalimantan from 2000 to 2015. Additional archival research was conducted at the Nationaal Archief in Den Haag, The Netherlands (2006) and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) at Kyoto University (2011), both funded through a grant made available through CSEAS Kyoto University. I wish to thank Noboru Ishikawa, Prof Rashid Abdullah, Jayl Langub, and the Institute for East Asian Studies at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak for hosting the writing process of this article from November to December 2012. I wish to extend a posthumous gratitude to Reed L. Wadley for his early encouragement and endless support for me to undertake archival research on Dutch colonialism in Borneo.

References

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12 Ishikawa, Between Frontiers, p. 7.

13 For accounts on trade links between the Sulu Sultanate and central Borneo, see Warren, The Sulu Zone, pp. 87–88.

14 Tagliacozzo, Secret Trades, Porous Borders.

15 The personalized approach of Sarawak officials in handling the undocumented influx of peoples from Kalimantan continued well under British and Malaysian rule. Personal interview with Jayl Langub, Belaga, August 2013.

16 Eilenberg, At the Edge of States.

17 For example, see Freeman, D., Report on the Iban (new edition), Athlone Press, London, 1970 Google Scholar; Vayda, A. P., ‘The study of the causes of war, with special reference to head-hunting raids in Borneo’, Ethnohistory, vol. 16, no. 3, 1969, pp. 211–224 Google Scholar; George, K. M., Showing Signs of Violence: The Cultural Politics of a Twentieth-Century Headhunting Ritual, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1996 Google Scholar; Schouten, M. J. C., Leadership and Social Mobility in a Southeast Asian Society: Minahasa 1677–1983, KITLV, Leiden, 1998 Google Scholar.

18 See Rosaldo, R., Ilongot Headhunting, 1883–1974: A Study in Society and History, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1980 Google Scholar; Hoskins, J., ‘The heritage of headhunting: history, ideology and violence on Sumba, 1890–1990’, in Headhunting and the Social Imagination in Southeast Asia, Hoskins, J. (ed.), Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1996, pp. 216–248 Google Scholar; Roque, R., Headhunting and Colonialism: Anthropology and the Circulation of Human Skulls in the Portuguese Empire, 1870–1930, Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke, 2010 Google Scholar.

19 Roque, Headhunting and Colonialism, pp. 18, 33–39.

20 Ibid., p. 41. Links between the financial situation of the Brooke state and the use of auxiliary soldiers are also mentioned in Walker, J. H., Power and Prowess: The Origins of Brooke Kingship in Sarawak, University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 2002 Google Scholar; Wadley, R. L., ‘Trouble on the frontier: Dutch–Brooke relations and Iban rebellion in the West Borneo borderlands (1841–1886)’, Modern Asian Studies, vol. 35, no. 3, 2001, pp. 623–644 Google Scholar; and Wadley, R. L., ‘Punitive expeditions and divine revenge: oral and colonial histories of rebellion and pacification in Western Borneo, 1886–1902’, Ethnohistory, vol. 51, no. 3, 2004, pp. 609–636 Google Scholar.

21 A. M. Sierevelt, Memorie van Overgave van de Onderafdeling Apau Kajan, KIT 1066, 1927. Sierevelt, the 11th Dutch administrator of the Apo Kayan since 1911 was aware that any Dutch man in the Apo Kayan would be addressed by the generic term ‘Tuan Bio’ (‘Big Man’) given the frequent rotation of officials (pp. 46, 81). This is unlike conditions in Sarawak where long-term stationed Brooke officers are usually remembered by their personal localized names. See also Reece, The Name of Brooke; and Rousseau, Central Borneo.

22 See Riwut, T., Kalimantan Membangun, Jayakarta Agung, Jakarta, 1979 Google Scholar. A reproduction of the Dutch-sponsored Tumbang Anoi peacemaking agreement of 1894, showing a signed peace declaration on document, is included in this book.

23 Wadley, ‘Trouble on the frontier’.

24 See Rousseau, Central Borneo, p. 281. Rousseau stated that ‘in central Borneo headhunting took place because of the religious requirement for fresh head trophies and as an avenue to prestige’.

25 Freeman, Report on the Iban. A similar causal link between headhunting and social status in the context of Minahasa (North Sulawesi) has been discussed in Schouten, Leadership and Social Mobility.

26 Irwin, G., Nineteenth-Century Borneo: A Study in Diplomatic Rivalry, Donald Moore, Singapore, 1955 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27 ‘Resolution of the Governor-General of Netherlands India regarding the Dutch Possessions in Borneo, dated Buitenzorg-Batavia, February 28, 1846’, attached appendix to ‘Correspondence respecting the Question of the Limits of the Netherlands Territory on the North-East Coast of Borneo: 1882–84’, CO 874 191.

28 Wadley, ‘Trouble on the frontier’.

29 See also Irwin, Nineteenth-Century Borneo. Irwin described a former incident in which the Dutch authorities found James Brooke selling weapons to the Sultan of Makassar, which stirred further anxiety on part of the Dutch regarding James Brooke's ambitions in the region.

30 While Irwin's study focused on the first phase of diplomatic rivalry between the Dutch and British/Brooke governments over Borneo, the second phase of diplomatic engagement that followed the 1891 Convention dealt more with fine-tuning certain boundary adjustments and to a lesser extent cross-border arrangements pertaining to trade and human mobility.

31 See attached map to the Memorie van Toelichting Betreffende het Wetsontwerp Houdende Bekrachting van de Conventie met Groot-Brittanië over de Grensregeling op Borneo [Memoranda Regarding the Legal Enforcement of the Convention with Great Britain over the Boundary Arrangement on Borneo], 1891.

32 For details on these expeditions, see Nieuwenhuis, A. W., Quer Durch Borneo: Ergebnisse seiner Reisen In der Jahren 1894, 1896–97 und 1898–1900, E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1904 Google Scholar.

33 For a detailed analysis on Brooke economic policies towards the indigenous populace in Sarawak, see Gin, O. K., Of Free Trade and Native Interests: The Brookes and the Economic Development of Sarawak, 1841–1941, Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur, 1997 Google Scholar.

34 See Reece, The Name of Brooke; Rousseau, Central Borneo.

35 Lumenta, ‘The making of a transnational continuum’, pp. 116–117.

36 See Black, I., ‘The “Lastposten”: Eastern Kalirnantan and the Dutch in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, vol. 16, no. 2, 1985, pp. 281–291 Google Scholar; and Doel, H. W. Van Den, ‘Military rule in the Netherlands Indies’, in The Late Colonial State in Indonesia: Political and Economic Foundations of the Netherlands Indies 1880–1942, Cribb, R. (ed.), KITLV Press, Leiden, 1994, pp. 57–78 Google Scholar.

37 Both Kapit (1879) and Belaga (1884) were initially established as military frontier posts by Charles Brooke to check and curb Iban migratory expansions and headhunting raids to the Upper Rajang and Upper Balleh rivers. On the establishment of Belaga, see Maxwell, A. R., ‘Balui reconnaissances: notes on the oral history of the Belaga Malay community and early Belaga’, Sarawak Museum Journal, vol. LIV, no. 79, December 1999, pp. 143–181 Google Scholar. For the history of Brooke policies pertaining Iban expansion in the Rajang and Balleh rivers, see Pringle, Rajahs and Rebels, pp. 255n–257n. On the general role of Chinese pioneers in the Sarawak trade, see Chew, D., Chinese Pioneers on the Sarawak Frontier, 1841–1941, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1990 Google Scholar.

38 The present districts constituting the new province of North Kalimantan (Kalimantan Utara) have been disaggregated from the former province of East Kalimantan (Kalimantan Timur) in 2012.

39 See Lawai, L., ‘Sejarah Suku Kenyah Leppo’ Tau dan Perkembangan Struktur Masyarakat di Kecamatan Kayan Hulu, Apau Kayan’, in Kebudayaan dan Pelestarian Alam: Penelitian Interdisipliner di Pedalaman Kalimantan, Eghenter, C. and Sellato, B. (eds), WWF Indonesia, Jakarta, 1999, pp. 333–356 Google Scholar; R. Armstrong, ‘People of the same heart: the social world of the Kenyah Badeng’, Ph.D. thesis, University of Sydney, 1991.

40 See Elshout, J. M., Over de Geneeskunde der Kěnja-Dajak in Centraal Borneo in Verband met Hunnen Godsdienst, N.V. Johannes Müller, Amsterdam, 1923 Google Scholar; H. L. Whittier, ‘Social organization and symbols of social differentiation: an ethnographic study of the Kenyah Dayak of Kalimantan (Borneo)’, Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 1973; Eghenter, C., ‘Towards a casual history of a trade scenario in the interior of East Kalimantan, Indonesia, 1900–1999’, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, vol. 157, no. 4, 2001, pp. 739–769 Google Scholar.

41 See Whittier, ‘Social organization and symbols’; W. W. Conley, ‘The Kalimantan Kenyah: a study of tribal conversion in terms of dynamic cultural themes’, Doctor of Missiology Dissertation, Fuller Theological Seminary, 1973.

42 See Eghenter, ‘Towards a trade scenario’; Sellato, B., Forest, Resources and People in Bulungan: Elements for a History of Settlement, Trade, and Social Dynamics in Borneo, 1880–2000, CIFOR, Bogor, 2001 Google Scholar.

43 See Elshout, Over de Geneeskunde; Eghenter, ‘Towards a trade scenario’, p. 761.

44 See van Walchren, E. W. F., ‘Eene Reis naar de Bovenstreken van Boeloengan (Midden Borneo)’, in Tijdschrift van het Koninklijk Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap (KNAG), E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1907, pp. 755–844 Google Scholar.

45 See Warren, The Sulu Zone, pp. 87–88. In addition, no Dutch report has indicated that bird nests were traded by the Apo Kayan Kenyah. Personal interviews in Long Nawang (August 2013) also suggest that bird nests were rarely extracted by the Apo Kayan Kenyah in the past.

46 Sarawak Gazette (henceforth SG), 2 June 1884. It must be noted that the Apo Kayan was not officially colonized until 1911.

47 SG, 2 August 1882.

48 See also Nieuwenhuis, A. W., ‘Ten years of hygiene and ethnography in primitive Borneo’, in The Effect of Western Influence on Native Civilisations in the Malay Archipelago, Schrieke, B. (ed.), G. Kolff, Batavia, 1929, pp. 10–33 Google Scholar. Nieuwenhuis wrote, based on his 1900 visit, that ‘On their trading trips to the Batang Rajang and the Baram rivers, they had hitherto always been ambushed by Ibans of these territories’, p. 32.

49 Report by C. A. Bampfylde, Resident 3rd Division, SG, 1 April 1889.

50 Report by C. Hose, Resident 5th Division, SG, 3 January 1899.

51 Report by H. F. Deshon, Resident of Kapit, SG, 1 July 1898.

52 See Beccari, O., Wanderings in the Great Forests of Borneo (1986 Reprint), Oxford University Press, Singapore, 1904, p. 362 Google Scholar. Beccari, an Italian naturalist, by mistake identified this Kenyah group as ‘Kayans’.

53 SG, 1 March 1901.

54 See Whittier, ‘Social organization and symbols’, pp. 33–34; Smythies, B. E., ‘Dr. A.W. Nieuwenhuis: “A Borneo Livingstone”’, Sarawak Museum Journal, vol. 29, 1955, pp. 493–509 Google Scholar.

55 See Smythies, ‘Dr. A.W. Nieuwenhuis’; Nieuwenuis, Quer Durch Borneo; Whittier, ‘Social organization and symbols’.

56 Eghenter noted that local Dutch administrators of the Apo Kayan tacitly approved local trade with Sarawak circumventing higher government efforts to divert trading activities into its own controlled territories. See Eghenter, ‘Towards a trade scenario’, p. 763.

57 SG, 1 October 1924. See also Reece, The Name of Brooke, who also lent focus on MacBryan's life history and the latter's personal interests in playing a role to organize the peacemaking ceremonies.

58 SG, 1 October 1924.

59 The spearing of pigs is common to central Borneo rituals, hence the peacemaking ceremony is colloquially known until today among Ibans as bebanchak Kapit. Among the Kenyah, the peacemaking is known as petutung Kapit, which denotes negotiations and deliberations as central to the peacemaking process.

60 Mailrapport No. 1055x/1924: Politieke Verslag, 24 December 1924, “Letter from the Chief Secretary of Sarawak on the Kapit peacemaking”, ARA (Algemene Rijks Archief).

61 SG, 1 December 1924.

62 See Gin, Of Free Trade, on the anti-capitalist policies of the Brookes in the interior.

63 Lumenta, ‘The making of a transnational continuum’.

64 See Elshout, Over de Geneeskunde; Eghenter, ‘Towards a trade scenario’, p. 763.

65 Sierevelt, A. M., Memorie van Overgave van de Onderafdeling Apo Kajan, KIT 1067, 1929, p. 22 Google Scholar. Henceforth, the Dutch orthography used for ethnonyms and toponyms in the original texts are adjusted to contemporary conventions.

66 Ibid., p. 22.

67 Ibid., pp. 22–23.

68 Scheffelaar, S., Memorie van Overgave van de Onderafdeling Apau Kajan, KIT 1070, 1931, p. 26 Google Scholar. One faction of this village did indeed move over to Sarawak in 1982.

69 Ibid., p. 26. Officer Abang was the native Sarawak officer stationed in Belaga.

70 Ibid., p. 16. The Marong river was the location where the Uma’ Baka were living at this period.

71 Ibid., pp. 17–18.

72 See Sierevelt, Memorie van Overgave (1927), pp. 54–59; Sierevelt, Memorie van Overgave (1929), pp. 10–11.

73 Field interviews, Long Nawang, February 2003.

74 See Reece, R. H. W., Masa Jepun: Sarawak under the Japanese 1941–1945, Ampang Press, Kuala Lumpur, 1998 Google Scholar.

75 The Sarawak Gazette started to report massive Iban requests for travel permits to Sarawak's north-east—a pattern of circular labour migrations that continued into the 1960s. See Lumenta, ‘The making of a transnational continuum’.

76 Conley, ‘The Kalimantan Kenyah’; Whittier, ‘Social organization and symbols’.

77 Hoskins, ‘The heritage of headhunting’, p. 216.

78 I have not been able to locate any handover memoir written by Capt. Molenaar, in both the Dutch and Indonesian national archives as of 2015.

79 See Rosaldo, Ilongot Headhunting, p. 37. Rosaldo has warned us about the ‘false dichotomies’ between oral history and histories written by outsiders.