Asian Forest Peoples

Human Inhabitants

ASIAN PEOPLES OF THE RAINFOREST

Asia is by far the most populous region on earth, and population pressures have pushed people into forested lands where they interrupt the lives of the few remaining forest people. The original inhabitants of Southeast Asia were dark-skinned, frizzy-haired, broad-nosed Australoids, some of whom moved into Australia. They were hunters, not farmers, but nonetheless used a wide variety of plants for food, medicinal remedies, and other useful products. These people since have been pushed into the extreme reaches of the rainforest by waves of immigration. Today the original people of Asian rainforests are found only in remote parts of forests of the Malay peninsula, Borneo, the Andaman islands, the Philippines (Palawan island), and New Guinea.

The Australoids were pushed farther into the forest by the arrival (about 7,000 years ago) of better farmers, the Proto-Malays from India and Burma who had brown skin, wavy hair, and more Caucasoid facial features. These people were pioneers of the domestication of plants. From 5,000 to 3,000 years ago, the Deutero-Malays arrived from southern China. They have Mongoloid features and today are the dominant people of Southeast Asia; almost none are found in the rainforest.

Because of the tremendous population of Asia, very few rainforest peoples continue their fully traditional way of life. Even so, those that do follow their forest beliefs have rich traditions. Like forest peoples of other regions, many Asian forest dwellers believe in close spiritual ties between human and animals. In fact, many believe that their souls interchange into the bodiesof animals during sleep or at death. Shamans, the so-called "witch-doctors" of tribal rainforest peoples, claim the ability to communicate with animal spirits through trances. Often shamans claim to take the form of a tiger, much as the shamans of the New World often take the form of a jaguar.

A Brief Social History of Borneo

ASIAN FOREST PEOPLES TODAY

As mentioned earlier, the forest peoples of Asia are few, existing in a few traditional enclaves, because of historic migrations and encroachment on their lands due to overpopulation. Some of the few remaining groups are directly threatened by the Indonesian transmigration program, which is working to move millions from crowded Java, Bali, and Lombock to Sulawesi, Sumatra, Borneo, and Irian Jaya. The stated goal is to reduce population pressures from highly populated central islands and to develop outer islands through road, communication, and city construction. The people who suffer most from this program are the original inhabitants of these outer areas. The program has resulted in great deforestation for fuelwood and building materials for colonists' needs. In addition, the program has contributed to stirring up the anti-Indonesian feelings of those residents of the lands conquered by Indonesia during its aggressive expansion campaign of the late 1960s. In East Timor, for example, tensions between the Indonesian military and locals who desire independence led to violence and eventual UN intervention. Large-scale logging throughout Indonesia, especially in Borneo and New Guinea, has displaced thousands of tribal peoples.

Review questions:

Why is the traditional lifestyle of native forest dwellers threatened in Asia?

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Continued: Structure of the tropical rainforest—part II

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