essay

Keeping the peace in an island world: the Sama Dilaut of Southeast Asia

Keeping the peace: conflict resolution and peaceful societies around the world (8)Published In 2004 • Pages: 123-147

By: Sather, Clifford.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This exploration of the social and cultural mechanisms by which a boat-dwelling Sama-Bajau community maintained internal peace and order emphasizes the community’s longstanding experience of resolving disputes and grievances through publicly spoken words instead of physical violence. Maintaining the peace was made possible through a corpus of collectively enforceable norms governing social relations and individual behavior in different domains of life. Community elders played important roles in averting violence by providing means for offenders to flee or find shelter, if only by remaining strictly silent until a reconciliation is reached.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Settlement patterns
Community structure
Community heads
Informal in-group justice
Social control
Legal norms
Avoidance and taboo
Purification and atonement
Ethnopsychology
Status and treatment of the aged
Kin relationships
Family relationships
Nonfulfillment of obligations
Theory of disease
Luck and chance
Social personality
Ethos
Sanctions
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Sama-Bajau
RegionThe area the document pertains to
Asia
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Southeast Asia
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
essay
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Anthropologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
4: Excellent Secondary Data
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
Teferi Abate Adem ; 2020
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1964-1965, 1974, 1979, 1995
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
1880-1995
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Semporna district, Sabah, Malaysia
NotesAdditional notes
Clifford Sather
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
2003008813
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Bajau (Southeast Asian people)