Cannibalism and Borneo

The Iban or Dyaks began their conquest of Borneo from the Kapuas River and pushed north into the hinterland. Unfortunately, there were already tribes of people living in the areas they wished to occupy. They did not speak the same language as the raiders. To acquire more land, the Dyaks began raiding the other tribes. The Iban would attack, take heads and then withdraw quickly. There was no time to stop and cannibalize the remains.

The elders of the tribe, to encourage these raids, promised the young warriors fame for the tribe. The more heads they took the greater the glory for the warrior. They were probably boys moving into manhood and peer pressure from the group ensured the taking of heads. Sexuality and raging hormones were probably a good part of this action. As the boys grew into men, the taking of heads became a competition with each other. The stronger and more fierce the man the more heads he took but it was still in the raiding sense, hit and run. This is probably why any head, man, woman or child was counted towards his total.

When the raiders returned, the heads were handed over to the women for processing. They smoked the heads and set them on shelves just as modern-day ladies place sports trophies on display. I have seen hundreds of these heads.

As an added incentive for these boys-men, the ones that acquired the most heads received the affection of the most desirable girls. Although vigorously denied by many people, I feel this was part of the growing process of the adolescent, the possibility, either imagined or in reality, of acquiring the most desirable lady. 

One cannot walk through an Iban village without running into a spook of some kind. They are listed and categorized in articles throughout the literature. The anthropologists would have us believe that people could not make a move without the permission of one of them. I will concede there are probably omen birds which govern their actions but I think that’s about it. 

Some anthropologists or historians would have us believe it was the semangat which motivated the people to take heads. This mystical and incomprehensible concept is only in the realm of the historian or anthropologist who dreamed it up. If one explained the concept to an Iban or Malay he would agree with you with no idea what the anthropologist was talking about. I have no idea what he was talking about either.

As for cannibalism, there was no time to butcher the remains to place in the stew pot. The raids were done quickly with time for taking heads only. I do not believe the accounts of the early Europeans who describe such actions. 

The war between the Dyaks and Madura in the early 2000s was the result of the Indonesian government’s relocation policy. Madura was and is a barren island and the people needed to relocate so the government suggested the Sambas region of Borneo. The people from Madura took over the economy of the Dyaks and became resented. Although the economy was probably ojek riders(people who rent the back end of a motorcycle to travel from house to market) or a fruit tree in the forest, these built up to a flash point. Heads were taken and used as footballs in the villages. People have told me that and I believe them. There was no cannibalism as reported by the Western press. 

Was their cannibalism on Borneo? I think not. The head-taking was the result of a coming-of-age process and the desire for a pretty girl.

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Cannibalism exists among the Dyaks. While in the interior, we saw individuals whose teeth were filed to a point like the teeth of a saw, giving them a ferocious appearance. The practice is said to be common in the tribe to which they belong, who ate noted cannibals. This unnatural custom probably prevails to some extent among other tribes. They do not eat indiscriminately all parts of the human frame but select the brain, the tongue and other parts considered delicate and throw the remainder away. The young are taught early to accustom themselves to this horrid practice. The taste of human flesh is given to the young warrior when he enters his career to nerve his arm and make him courageous. “How could we be brave,” said one “if we never tasted human blood”? A Malay who we conversed had seen them making a meal from the human frame.

From an Eastern Missionary Journal 1845 

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Facts and Details TRIBAL PEOPLE OF BORNEO: LONGHOUSES, SAGO AND HEADHUNTING 

“Historians’ research on cannibalism in Borneo attempts to prove the accuracy of the accounts witnessed by Europeans. J.H. Hutton uses travelogues to examine the “diverse causes” of cannibalism and its existence pattern. Peter Metcal challenges reports of cannibalism, calling them “malicious slurs” and the product of lazy anthropologists’ “gullibility.” John Crawford argues even with an “adequate food supply” cannibalism was practised and masked by religion.

John Crawfurd, “On Cannibalism in Relation to Ethnology,” Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London, 4 (1866): 105-124

 

Just like Keppel, St John did not witness any Kayans practising cannibalism during his time in Sarawak. Sir Hugh Low wrote that the Kayans were hastily stigmatised as cannibals and added: “Nor does any race practising the horrid custom of feeding on the bodies of their species, exist on the island.”

This tribe are cowardly, untruthful, and treacherous, and is capable of committing many horrors, but the gravest attached to the Kayans, I feel confident, is without foundation, namely, that of cannibalism. For, during the expedition of 1863, there was no sign of it, and I had abundant opportunities of making strict enquiry in the very heart of the country.

Kajo Mag 17 July 2019

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From this point, Herr Bock diverged from the Mahakkan, to visit the lake district and observe the Dyak inhabitants. He has made several sketches of these savages, many of whom are cannibals. The most dreaded tribe are the Tring Dyaks, whose chief, by name Sibau Mobang, Herr Bock summoned to meet him in the name of the Sultan. This man is most villainous in looks and told our traveller that he frequently cut off the heads of either sex for the sake of eating the brain, which was sweet, as were also the palms of the hands, but the shoulder was bitter; and he presented him with his shield, covered all over with tufts of human hair. At the last village in the Malay part of his dominions, Moara Pahou, the Sultan summoned a large number of the Dyaks to accompany him and accumulated a body of some 600 in all, of whom 75 accompanied Herr Bock one or two days’ journey in advance. The Dyak tribes are constantly at war with each other to obtain heads, and the Malays look down on them as savages, and by this means the terror of their name is increased. 

Exploration of Borneo Nature 1880

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A few miles away, a group of a dozen Dayaks were roasting and eating another body which lay dismembered on a wall. A young Dayak man boasted that he had taken part in four killings of Indonesian settlers from the island of Madura. “We caught one of them this afternoon,” he said, “and we killed it and we ate it because we hate the Madurese.”

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Independent Carnage and Cannibalism in Borneo as ethnic conflict rages 24 March 1999

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A few miles away, a group of a dozen Dayaks were roasting and eating another body which lay dismembered on a wall. A young Dayak man boasted that he had taken part in four killings of Indonesian settlers from the island of Madura. “We caught one of them this afternoon,” he said, “and we killed it and we ate it, because we hate the Madurese.”

Headhunting, Cannibalism Return to Borneo News Wise University of Arkansas 9 April 1999

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On Tuesday morning, the mayor of the town of Sampit, which has been the site of some of the most severe clashes, said that 103 corpses were found dumped near a government office. The discovery has raised the death toll to more than 400 since the ethnic fighting began on Feb. 18. Almost all the victims have been Madurese, and many of them were beheaded by the Dayaks, who are descendants of a tribal group in Borneo known for practising headhunting and cannibalism until the late 19th century. Some of the dead also had their hearts cut out.

The Washington Post 27 February 2001

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Parry wrote: “We drove back through the town market where a charred femur lay on the raid among the embers of a fire. A Dayak man approached, holding a lump of what he said was human meat. He popped it into his mouth. I asked him the first thing that came into my head, and he said: ‘Delicious.'”

Peter Metcalf, “Wine of the Corpse: Endocannibalism and the Great Feast of the Dead in Borneo,” Representations no. 17 (1987), 96-10p.

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