READING HUMAN ACTIVITY IN THE LANDSCAPE

Monica Janowski · Huw J. Barton

14 citations0/0 files storedIndonesia and the Malay World

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Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies Landscape and Cultural Studies Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory

Abstract

For the Kelabit and Penan peoples of interior Borneo, cosmic power is believed to coalesce in the form of stone. This occurs through both natural processes and human manipulation. What is believed to be ‘natural’ includes what is seen as the petrification of human dwellings, to produce what archaeologists would regard as natural formations; and also the formation of ‘thunderstones’ - cylindrical stones on which archaeologists have found traces of sago starch and which they interpret as ancient sago pounders formed by human hand. The ability to manipulate the landscape, including stone, is seen as an expression of the possession of cosmic power, and is valorised by the rice-growing Kelabit. The hunter-gatherer Penan are more cautious about manipulation of the landscape.

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References

1995The Anthropology of Landscape 2010The Malay Archipelago 1997The Anthropology of Landscape: Perspectives on Place and Space.2011Why cultivate? Anthropological and Archaeological Approaches to Foraging-Farming Transitions in Southeast Asia 2012Imagining Landscapes Past, Present and Future 2011The reversed fortunes of sago and rice, Oryza sativa, in the rainforests of Sarawak, Borneo 1999The Ambonese Curiosity Cabinet 1928Papers on the Ethnology and Archaeology of the Malay Peninsula

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2015The cultural antiquity of rainforests: Human–plant associations during the mid-late Holocene in the interior highlands of Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo 2016Imagining the Forces of Life and the Cosmos in the Kelabit Highlands, Sarawak 2020Stones Alive!2016The Ngorek of the Central Highlands and ‘Megalithic’ Activity in Borneo 2018Lightning teeth andPonari sweat: Folk theories and magical uses of prehistoric stone axes (and adzes) in Island Southeast Asia and the origin of thunderstone beliefs

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