The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

30 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap.
Mohammedan religion and civilisation, and on the
other hand the pagan peoples. In Bruni and in
all the coast regions the majority of the people are
Mohammedan, have no tribal organisation, and call
themselves Malays (Orang Malayu). This name has
usually been accorded them by European authors ;
but when so used the name denotes a social, political,
and religious status rather than membership
in an ethnic group. With the exception of these
partially civilised *' Malays" of the coast regions
and the imported elements mentioned above, all
the natives of Borneo live under tribal organisation,
their cultures ranging from the extreme simplicity
of the nomadic Punans to a moderately developed
barbarism. All these pagan tribes have often been
classed together indiscriminately under the name
Dyaks or Dayaks, though many groups may be
clearly distinguished from one another by differences
of culture, belief, and custom, and peculiarities of
their physical and mental constitutions.
The Mohammedan population, being of very
heterogeneous ethnic composition, and having
adopted a culture of foreign origin, which may be
better studied in other regions of the earth where
the Malay type and culture is more truly indigenous,
seems to us to be of secondary interest to the
anthropologist as compared with the less cultured
pagan tribes. We shall therefore confine our atten-
tion to the less known pagan tribes of the interior
and when we speak of the people of Borneo in
general terms it is to the latter only that we refer
(except where the *' Malays " are specifically mentioned).
Of these we distinguish six principal
groups: (i) Sea Dayaks or Ibans, (2) the Kayans,
(3) Kenyahs, (4) Klemantans, (5) Muruts, (6) Punans.
A census of the population has been made in
most of the principal districts of Sarawak and of
Dutch Borneo ; but as no census of the whole
;