From Equality to Inequality: Social Change among Newly Sedentary Lanoh Hunter-Gatherer Traders of Peninsular Malaysia

374 Pages·2011·3.19 MB·English

by  Csilla Dallos

FROM EQUALITY TO INEQUALITY
Social Change among Newly Sedentary Lanoh
Hunter-Gatherer Traders of Peninsular Malaysia
How does inequality emerge in previously egalitarian societies? This question
has occupied generations of anthropologists since the nineteenth century. In spite
of the various theories explaining processes leading to inequality and the
development of social complexity, we still have a limited understanding of the
problem. This is partly because research has focused primarily on exogamous
factors, and partly because the process of emerging inequality has been
notoriously difficult to study empirically.
In this book, Csilla Dallos presents the results of ethnographic fieldwork
among the hunter-gatherers in Peninsular Malaysia that addresses these issues. It
provides rich empirical data on the effects of internal processes deemed
significant in developing inequality, such as sedentism, integration, leadership
competition, self-aggrandizement, marginalization, and feuding of kinship
groups. By studying and interpreting social change in this previously egalitarian
community of Lanoh forager-collectors, Dallos argues that, to understand
emerging inequality, and to integrate anthropological models of equality and
inequality, scholars need to review the conception of politics in small-scale
egalitarian societies. Based on her findings, the author proposes a new model of
developing inequality, one that is congruent with the principles of complexity
theory.
(Anthropological Horizons)
CSILLA DALLOS is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at St
Thomas University.
ANTHROPOLOGICAL HORIZONS
Editor: Michael Lambek, University of Toronto
This series, begun in 1991, focuses on theoretically informed ethnographic
works addressing issues of mind and body, knowledge and power, equality and
inequality, the individual and the collective. Interdisciplinary in its perspective,
the series makes a unique contribution in several other academic disciplines:
women’s studies, history, philosophy, psychology, political science, and
sociology.
For a list of the book published in this series see page 337.
From Equality to Inequality

Social Change among Newly
Sedentary Lanoh Hunter-Gatherer
Traders of Peninsular Malaysia
CSILLA DALLOS
© University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2011
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
Printed in Canada

ISBN 978-1-4426-4222-5 (cloth)
ISBN 978-1-4426-1122-1 (paper)

Printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper with
vegetable-based inks.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Dallos, Csilla, 1963–
From equality to inequality : social change among newly sedentary
Lanoh hunter-gatherer traders of Peninsular Malaysia / Csilla Dallos.

(Anthropological horizons)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4426-4222-5 (bound). ISBN 978-1-4426-1122-1 (pbk.)

1. Indigenous peoples – Malaysia – Social conditions. I. Title. II. Series:
Anthropological horizons

GN635.M4D34 2011 305.89′928 C2010-907616-8
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the
Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the
Aid to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its
publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts
Council.

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support of the
Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for its publishing
activities.
Contents

List of Maps and Figures
List of Tables
Preface and Acknowledgments
1 Equality, Inequality, and Changing Hunter-Gatherers
2 Interethnic Trade and the Social Organization of Pre-resettlement Lanoh
3 The Changing Context of Interethnic Relations: From Power Balance to
Power Imbalance
4 Withdrawal from Contact and the Development of Village Identity
5 Leadership Competition, Self-Aggrandizement, and Inequality
6 Pre-resettlement Organization, Village Integration, and Self-Aggrandizing
Strategies
7 Understanding Equality and Inequality in Small-Scale Societies
Language Notes and Glossary
Notes
References
Index
Maps and Figures

Maps

1.1 Distribution of Orang Asli subgroups
1.2 The Lanoh Area, Upper Perak, West Malaysia
Figures

1.1 Lanoh resettlement village of Air Bah, 1998
1.2 Malay-style plank house with Temiar-style extension in Air Bah
1.3 Malay-style plank house with Lanoh lean-to shelters in Air Bah
2.1 Young Lanoh men in temporary forest camp
3.1 Blowpipe making
3.2 Blowpipe maintenance
3.3 Gua Kajang, Sumpitan
4.1 Going into trance during sewing
4.2 Women’s workload increased after sedentism
6.1 Lanoh elders returning by raft from a visit to Cenawi
7.1a The structure of delayed-return egalitarian society
7.1b The structure of immediate-return egalitarian society
7.2a The structure of emerging inequality (in delayed-return society)
7.2b The structure of emerging inequality (in immediate-return society)
7.3 Embedded, self-similar structure of complex society
7.4 Fractal of increasingly complex embedded structures
Tables

4.1 Gender Differences for Time Spent Outside the Village
4.2 List of Cultivars Planted by Men and Women in Air Bah
4.3 Distribution of Work by Gender in Air Bah
5.1 Age Categories and Age Roles of Adult Men in Air Bah
5.2 Lanoh Referential Kinship Terms
5.3 Household Clusters and Male Heads
5.4 Land Ownership and Cultivation by Age in Air Bah
6.1 Specialization in Competing Leaders’ Households in Air Bah
6.2 Comparison of Gender Roles in Air Bah Households