Reforming Religion in Borneo
In the 1940s a religious reform movement transformed life in several Central Borneo societies, including that of the Kayan. Known as 'adat Bungan', it eliminated many of the onerous taboos and practices under the old religion, now called 'adat Dipuy'. Within a decade, elements of the old ways had crept back as both aristocrats and priests sought to regain their control over Kayan society and religion.
By REED L. WADLEY
In this encyclopaedic account of Kayan religion, anthropologist Jérôme Rousseau describes the early stages the Bungan revolution and its subsequent transformation as a reform of the old religion. He devotes separate chapters to the religious environment of everyday life, religious beliefs, ritual specialists, the rituals of the annual rice-farming cycle, the rituals of the domestic unit, curing and protective rituals, and the rituals of the life cycle. In each he provides a comparison of adat Bungan as practised during his fieldwork in the 1970s and adat Dipuy as remembered by the Kayan.Throughout the book Rousseau makes very clear the great importance of understanding Kayan stratification. This is seen, for example, in the history of the new religion. Adat Bungan came at a critical time in central Borneo. Dissatisfaction with the old religion among commoners was high as a result of rapid social change brought by colonial penetration. Subsequent epidemics, missionary activity, and the deprivation during Second World War lead many to question the efficacy of the old ways. Beginning as the religion of commoners, Bungan did away with many of the burdensome taboos and other practices in adat Dipuy (such as time-consuming augury), but it also challenged the authority of both chiefs and priests. Rather than opposing the newly-popular religion and risk losing their authority entirely, most aristocrats and priests chose to accede to the revolution while slowly reintroducing elements of the old that had bolstered their positions in the past.
The author is mindful that his descriptions are not of a monolithic Kayan religion, but are drawn instead from a particular set of Kayan at a particular period of history. To reinforce the point of variation in practice, he provides useful comparisons with other Kayan people elsewhere in central Borneo. Rousseau is also aware of his own role as ethnographer and provides valuable information about his fieldwork techniques. He shows that the Kayan with whom he worked viewed him as being interested in adat Bungan in order to convert Europeans and that his priestly Kayan name made his work easier. However, throughout the book, he keeps the focus on the Kayan view of things, rather than on himself as has become the fashion in some recent anthropology.
There is a wealth of detail in this book, detail about ritual that will be fascinating to some, daunting to others, and perhaps excruciatingly boring to some others. At times the prose becomes a bit monotonous, but the description is sufficiently broken up by anecdotes, excerpts from prayers, and commentaries to keep the interested reader moving forward. Students of religion and of central Borneo societies will find the book useful, but it is likely they will also have points of disagreement with it. The parts I found the most interesting were the history of the Bungan reform movement and the chapter on Kayan beliefs. In the latter, Rousseau also deals with Kayan disbelief and scepticism, important subjects that have been too often ignored in traditional ethnography. In addition, as an anthropologist working in Borneo with the Iban (a society very different from the Kayan), at every turn throughout the book I found myself comparing Rousseau's descriptions with my own experience. There are even several prayers asking, for example, that Kayan spears be like lightning to the eyes of the Iban. Despite the ending of hostile relations long ago, memories of the old enmities are still preserved in ritual, as they are among the Iban.
KITLV Press and its editors are to be thanked and congratulated for having published such a comprehensive ethnography. Nothing is perfect, however, and the one thing I found most lacking was a table of contents for the photographs scattered throughout the book. Photos might appear several or dozens of pages away from their references in the text, making them especially troublesome to locate. But this minor matter should not detract from the content of the book itself, which will surely come to be widely used in studies of Southeast Asian religion. It will also likely be of great interest to the Kayan themselves who might look to Rousseau's work as a source for understanding their past as well as for shaping their future. *
Jérôme Rousseau
KAYAN RELIGION
RITUAL LIFE AND RELIGIOUS REFORM IN CENTRAL BORNEO
Leiden: KITLV Press, Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 180, 1998
Dr Reed L. Wadley, is a research fellow atthe IIAS. He can be reached at e-mail:
rwadley@let.leidenuniv.nl.