The Berawan people comprise of four large longhouses in the Tinjar and Tutoh rivers. These are both major tributaries of the Baram River. The people of the Long Teru and Batu Belah share identical languages. People in the Long Jegan longhouse can speak to the other two but with difficulty. Finally, citizens of the Long Terwan cannot be understood by the other three yet they are all grouped because of some linguistic classification. This study is mainly about the people living in the Berawan longhouse at Long Teru.
There are many reasons for the donor parents to give the child for adoption. In most cases, they cite magic and religious reasons concerned with bad omens or bad luck as reasons for adoption. A child born face downward (sangakam) is considered a bad omen. Oddly, any other birth mode passes without comment.
Often, the decision to adopt the child usually begins after childbirth but sometimes no decision is made unless the child is frequently ill. Then the original bad omen birth will be remembered and a search for a new home is begun. The bad omen of the sangakam birth affects the parents. If they fail to give away the child, then the parents could suffer bad luck or early death.
Occasionally, a bad omen before birth will cause the search for receptive parents immediately after birth.
One father recounted seeing the
decomposing remains of a large animal while his wife was pregnant. Another father remembered recurring bad dreams. All of these omens indicate probable illness or bad luck after birth. Adoption is scheduled to attempt to escape evil fortune.
Sometimes a shaman will be consulted. The shaman makes a diayung (consultation with the spirit helpers). He proceeded to select the parents with a deck of playing cards. With prospective parents and others being present he deals out three cards. The shaman then determined a high score by totalling the numbers on the cards. The “winner” was a young unmarried man. Unfortunately, the child died that night. At another session, the winner was disqualified because he had been born face downward (sangkaman).
The motive for adopting the children is simply to recruit children into a family that has none or very few children. In 55% of the cases, the parents had no children. One older couple was rewarded with adopting one. Two cases involve unmarried couples. One case involved the adoption of an unmarried man who had leprosy. Finally, one woman was allowed to adopt two males even though she was divorced. In only one case was the child adopted by a family of several children. The Shaman determined the ill child would have the best success of survival if he was adopted in a teeming household.
The general tendency is that no-one remains childless. There seems to be a high rate of barrenness among individual genetic lines. So many marriages seem to end in a childless marriage.
The authors could not figure out which sex was responsible for the sterility.
The shame and disgrace of illegitimate birth is and was greatly feared by the parents but at the same time premarital sex was allowed. It is thought that older ladies used herbs that induced an abortion which possibly caused sterility in women.
Adoptees were in two cases, arrangements were made with a neighbouring Iban tribe to take the child after birth. Small presents were exchanged and an elaborate ceremony took place to ensure the permanence of the bond. In one instance, the purchase of a Chinese female was arranged.
One interesting case concerned an illegitimate child. The pregnancy and the arrangements were secret and the newborn was rushed off to another part of the Baram district. Probably, other pregnancies were handled in this way with the newborn sent off to a distant part of the district.
The ritual of adoption according to the “old religion” begins with the saying of prayers to the Supreme Deity in front of the longhouse. The adoptive father squatted nearby in the shade holding the child. A chicken was sacrificed and blood put on the prayer site. Another chicken was consecrated but not killed.
Everyone moved onto the veranda in front of the room of the adopting parents. Here, trays had been prepared, one for each of the shamans officiating in the ceremony. The trays contained cooked and sliced eggs, some tobacco, betel nut, cooked rice in small bamboo packets, a glass of arack ( rice wine) and some yellow rice. Besides, there was a small amount of money that the shaman will retain as his fee. On another tray was a sarong, parang and a brass betel box. These were given to the parents. Finally, there were bottles of arack to be served to everyone after the ceremony.
When the shamans had taken their seats wearing the headbands and beads, the shaman waved the consecrated chicken over the head of the child. The chickens head was then cut off and a little of the blood from the knife was placed on the wrist of the child. The next three blue beads were tied on the child’s wrist. This is to tie the child firmly to the family.
The other brothers and sisters of the adoptive parents were also brought in to the ceremony. To keep their souls from wandering away from their bodies in a fit of jealousy at the adoption, the shaman held a gong over the child’s head and said small quick prayers. Meanwhile, the parents and guests enjoyed the arack while the shamans consulted with the spirit helpers. Yellow rice was then cast in the direction of the adopted child, the parents, the children of the adopted parents and the assembly as a whole.
In a Christian ceremony involving a boy, a teenage girl read from a prayer book provided by the missionaries. The adoptive mother then tied a rather valuable bead to the boy’s wrist. As she did this, the other women, in chain fashion, held onto the wrists of each other. Next, the adoptive mother waved a brass betel box over the head of the child while reciting a prayer. Finally, she took a sarong and wiped down the boy’s arms and chests. The sarong and the brass box were given to the adoptees’ parents.
From: Berawan Adoption Practices by Peter Metcalf in The Sarawak Museum Journal, December 1974
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