essay
The children of NISING: images of headhunting and male sexuality in Iban ritual and oral literature
Female and male in Borneo : contributions and challenges to gender studies • 1 • Published In 1991 • Pages: 153-230
By: Davison, Julian, Sutlive, Vinson H..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Davison and Sutlive re-examine the significance of headhunting as a male institution or prestige system, operating within the framework of traditional Iban society. The authors discuss headhunting not only as an institutionalized channel for the expression of male aggression, but also from the standpoint of a ritual activity associated with the promotion of fertility, particularly in reference to the fertility of crops and women. Although in most respects there is parity between men and women in Iban society, men have traditionally claimed center stage in public life because of the status they achieve in headhunting. In contrast, women's status has been generally marginalized or passed over in silence, with the exception of their accomplishments in weaving. Weaving, therefore constitutes an area of '…Iban social life in which the role of women is both positively valued and from which men are entirely excluded. In this respect weaving provides Iban women with a prestige system through which they too can compete for status and influence in a way comparable to male headhunters' (p. 207). Both systems are examined here.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Internal migration
- Cereal agriculture
- Woven and other interworked fabrics
- Paint and dye manufacture
- Division of labor by gender
- Status, role, and prestige
- Gender status
- Instigation of war
- Aftermath of combat
- Organized ceremonial
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Iban
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 1995
- 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.
- Ethnologist
- 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
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- no date
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- not specified
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Sarawak, Malaysia
- NotesAdditional notes
- Julian Davison and Vinson H. Sutlive Jr.
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 222-230)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 91072229
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Ibans (Bornean people)