The Forest, Source of Life

A study of the way in which the Kelabit utilise raw materials from the rainforest to construct a socially ordered world. Catalogues of the collections made by the author for the British and Sarawak Museums are included and there are numerous photographs of items being made and in use. The volume will be of interest to scholars of Borneo, and to those interested in the social and symbolic significance of material culture. Contents: Preface; Acknowledgements; Introduction; The Kelabit: background; Clothes, hair and personal adornment; The Kelabit language; The Kelabit hearth; Kelabit agriculture; Kelabit use of the wild; Life force from the wild: Lalud ; Irau feasts: statements of status, rice-growing success and potency; Rice and the wild: gender, the Rice Meal and the generation of Ulum ; Conclusion: crafting a human world; Plates; Appendices; Notes; Bibliography.