Rungus Dusun

By G. N. Appell and Ian Skoggard

Rungus, Rungus Momogun, Rungus Dusun

The Rungus are a people of northern Borneo inhabiting the Kudat Division of Sabah, Malaysia between 6 degrees, 36 minutes and 6 degrees, 53 minutes north latitude and 116 degrees, 37 minutes and 117 degrees, 14 minutes east longitude. Rungus identify themselves, their customs, and their dialect group (isoglot) by the autonym "Rungus". A number of other self-ascribed Dusunic-speaking ethnic groups live in the Kudat Division, including the Nulu' and Gonsomon both of which are sometimes mistakenly identified as Rungus.

Approximate number of 10,000 in 1960. Estimated population as of 1990 is 25,000.

The Rungus dialect is a member of the Dusunic language family.

The peoples of Borneo were early influenced by the Chinese either directly or by trade through intermediaries. Antique Chinese ceramics are common. Contact with South Indians appears most saliently in some linguistic cognates with Sanskrit, the most important being DIVATO', spirit familiar of the Rungus priestesses. In the 16th century Islam was spread along the coast of Borneo by Muslim traders. Prior to the British arrival in 1881, the Rungus were under the economic influence of the Sultanate of Brunei and the leaders of various coastal Muslim groups including Brunei Malay residing along the Kudat coast. These occasionally gave honorific titles to Rungus leaders, validating their position in the political hierarchy, and they also adjudicated disputes that could not be resolved at the local level. Slave raids and plundering by southern Philippine peoples were greatly feared, but headhunting by Dusunic groups in the Kudat area ceased prior to the arrival of the British, probably as a result of the influence of the Coastal Muslim.

Chinese were brought in by the British for labor on tobacco plantations near the Rungus area. With the demise of these plantations in the early 1900's, the Chinese assumed a variety of agricultural pursuits including the planting of rice, rubber and coconuts. Chinese and Sino-Dusun established shops at key points on the edges of Rungus territory. As a result of Chinese plantation interests, sections of traditional Rungus lands fell into Chinese hands. European missionaries entered Sabah following the British; and by the mid-1950s a Basel Mission began to focus on the Dusunic peoples of the Kudat Peninsula. The British administration and the missionaries affected the socioeconomic base of the Dusunic peoples by introducing cash crops. These agents of change encouraged the Dusunic peoples to abandon their indigenous settlement pattern of longhouses for dispersed residence by individual households on newly acquired plots of land. The government ignored the traditional system of land tenure forcing individuals to take up government title to these lands.

The first sketchy and inaccurate accounts of the Rungus occur in Rutter (1922, 1926). Little is recorded of the Rungus till the work of the Appells. Staal (1926) is the first and last to identify the Rungus by their traditional name, Rungus Momogun, till the research by the Appells in 1959-1960, 1961-1963, 1986 to present. The cultural profile of the Rungus presented here refers to the period of the late 1950s and early 1960s before major changes occurred.

Villages consist of one or more longhouses scattered in hamlets along rivers and streams. The village controlled an area that encompassed a drainage system of one of the small streams and rivers that flow east or west from the spine of the Kudat Peninsula.

Traditional subsistence was based on the cultivation in swiddens by the domestic families of dry rice, maize, cassava, and a variety of vegetables, melons, and pineapples, including taro and sweet potato. Bananas, papaya, LANGSAT, NANGKA, mango, and a variety of citrus fruits were obtained from planted and cultivated fruit tree groves.

A domestic family raised pigs, chickens, and occasionally a water buffalo (KERABAU). Pigs and chickens were used for sacrifices and then eaten. Additional protein and fat were obtained by fishing, hunting, and small amounts of forest collecting. Fishing was done by throw nets, fish traps, fish scoops, poles, and by poisoning. The hunting of wild pigs (TEMBADAU), barking deer, and sambar deer was done with spear and dogs. Spear traps and spring pole traps were also used to capture the larger animals. Smaller traps were used to catch monkeys, tree shrews, and squirrels. With the exception of tree shrews, these mammals were eaten, as well as mice, snakes, and an occasional gibbon. Forest collecting included nuts, fern tips, roots of wild yam, the pith of the palm Arenga undulatifolia, berries, and birds by liming. Fish was also obtained by trade of swidden produce and fruits for the catch of the Coastal Muslim at weekly markets.

Basketry containers of a variety of types were made by Rungus men. One or two men in each village knew how to use the Malayan forge and made knives and other cutting implements. Women raised cotton, dyed it, and, using a belt loom, wove skirts of several different designs, and a variety of clothing with ritually significant patterns, including male jackets, female blouses and formerly male trousers. Females who were skilled in this weaving achieved a higher ritual status, and weaving skills were closely associated with the role of priestess and spirit medium.

Weekly markets were held at the high point of navigation along the rivers. Here the Coastal Muslim exchanged fish, items of local manufacture, such as headcloths, for the agricultural products of the Rungus. Iron for the making of tools was purchased from Chinese shops. Surplus rice was the exchanged for gongs, brassware, and jars. Sailing trips to Brunei in the past on coastal Muslim crafts with rice to exchange for gongs and brassware are recounted.

DOMESTIC

PROPERTY ACCUMULATION

While the sex roles are not identical, they are equivalent and both behaviorally and ideologically are of equal importance for societal functioning. Male and female roles are thus interlinked forming a whole. It is difficult for an adult man or woman to operate a household without a spouse. Conflict between the sexes is minimal. Husband and wife should MITIMBANG--"balance each other". The symmetry of roles and their balance is also symbolized in there being only one term to refer to both husband and wife, SAVO'.

BIRTHING AND CHILD REARING

AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES

RITUAL

CARE AND RAISING OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS

POLITICAL ACTIVITIES

HUNTING AND GATHERING

Each village held rights as a corporate jural entity, over its territory, the "village reserve". Only members of the village could cut their swiddens in this reserve each year. Individual domestic families held temporary rights over the area of forest they cut for a swidden until the last crops were removed. This system has been termed "circulating usufruct". Rights to fruit trees, however, if not previously divided up among the planter's children, could be claimed from both parents. Those rights are not held by a social group, and the descendants never interact as the rites were held in severalty.

Rungus society was cognatic, specifically of the bilateral type as there were no cognatic descent groups. The kindred was not present. The establishment of a kin tie also was not necessary for longhouse or village membership.

Cousin kinship terminology is of the Eskimo type, although in certain situations the Hawaiian type may also be used to indicate social solidarity. The terminology for parents' siblings is lineal.

When a son wished to marry, a substantial bride-price was provided for him from the accumulated assets of his domestic family. The bride-price items were held corporately by the bride's domestic family and were used to provide bride-prices for sons. The bride-price, as well as the other institutions which lead up to marriage and the eventual foundation of a new domestic family, is justified by the major value premise in Rungus society that all sexual relations are potentially deleterious for the participants, the rest of the society, the domestic animals, the crops, and the countryside itself unless they are properly entered into through marriage. The amount of bride-price in each case was determined through extended negotiations and was based on the wealth of the groom's family, the wealth of the bride's family, beauty and skills of the bride, the desire of the groom's family to consummate the marriage, and how anxious the bride's family was for the marriage to take place. Marriage is generally monogamous. Residence after marriage is uxorilocal, i.e., living in the wife's family longhouse and village. Polygamous marriages involving two wives, rarely three, occur in cases of wealthy men and when an adulterous relationship arises with the wife's unmarried sister. In cases of polygamous marriages separate longhouse apartments for each wife are preferred.

The newly married pair resides until the next agricultural season with the bride's domestic family. They then found a new domestic family by building a separate family apartment, ideally onto the longhouse where the bride's family resides. The Rungus domestic family most frequently consists of a husband and his wife--the two founders--and their children. This domestic family may also be joined by the parents or a widowed parent of one of the two founders on the dissolution of the parental domestic family after the marriage of its last child. The domestic family was the only producing, consuming, and asset-accumulating social unit of Rungus society. It was thus the most important corporate entity in the economic, jural, and ritual realms.

Surpluses from the domestic family's swiddens and from their livestock production were converted into brassware, gongs, ceramic ware, and female ornaments, consisting of ritual clothing, old beads, earrings, and brass wire coiled around the legs, arms, waist, and sometimes the necks of young girls and women. The corporateness of the domestic family was symbolized in the religious system. A number of sacrifices were made to cure illness in the family or to create an enhanced ritual state between the family and members of the spirit world who are responsible for protecting the family from illness and harm and for promoting fertility in the swiddens and fecundity of the family's domestic animals.

Men and women inherited from both sides of the family, although some items were passed down from mother to daughter and from father to son.

Children were highly valued. Socialization was permissive and supportive. Men were closely involved in the process. Learning was by imitation. There were no formal procedures for socialization.

The major social units were the domestic family, the longhouse, and the village. The longhouse came into existence through the lateral accretion of individual domestic family apartments. No section of the longhouse was jointly made and collectively owned by the constituent members. It was in essence a condominium. The members of a longhouse were not involved in any economic activities. They did take collective, but not corporate, action to protect themselves against pathogenic spirits (ROGON). The longhouse was not considered to be a structural isolate, i.e., a ritual entity, in most activities of the ritual realm, with but one minor exception. Nor was it considered a jural isolate in seeking restitution after a ritual delict has been committed against its members. The village was the fundamental political unit of Rungus society. It was not jurally a kin grouping.

The village was considered to be both jurally and ritually corporate. But unlike the family the village was not an operating social entity. It did not have the capacity to enter into economic relations or accumulate assets, with the exception of the goodwill of the gods. Through jointly organized sacrifices of its members the village could increase the state of ritual goodwill between it, as a corporate entity, and the gods to improve the fertility of its reserve, its plants, animals, and inhabitants.

The number of inhabitants of a village varied from approximately 40 to 400 people.

The largest political unit was the village and the village headman was the highest political leader. From time to time an important leader arose, and served as a focus for intervillage relations and the resolution of dispute. This role was not inherited. Unresolved disputes were taken to leaders in coastal Muslim villages for resolution. Important coastal Muslim leaders were offered gifts of rice and produce on occasion by Rungus individuals to insure their interest and to obtain good luck from them.

Disputes were resolved at the village moot, consisting of the village male elders. Fines were levied in property, which was paid to the injured party. The amity of kin was another source of social control. One of the most important sources was the role that supernaturals played in controlling behavior. Gods, spirits, and demigods of the social and physical environment were potentially dangerous. If their rules and social order were transgressed they became angered and caused illness and death. In the past the determination of the guilt party was sometimes done though trial by ordeal.

Conflicts arose over petty theft, intrusion into the family's fields, harvest theft, inappropriate behavior towards women, and especially inappropriate behavior to another's spouse. Incest was rare and involved the death of the perpetrator.

Celestial gods, OSUNDUW, provided help to humankind through the work of the spirit medium/priestess, BOBOLIZAN. These gods contrasted with ROGON, who were the embodiment of the social and physical environment and who could be harmful to humans. ROGON were found in aspects of the landscape that had distinctive features: a landslide, a large group of boulders, a grove of trees with a spring or wet place, banyan trees, etc. They were the most salient OSUNDUW in everyday discourse as they were the most dangerous to human beings. They were capricious, irascible and caused afflictions if they were not properly treated or if their living space was intruded upon. ROGON, like human beings, had families and engaged in the same activities as human beings. Invading the living space of a ROGON, such as cutting a grove of trees in which a spirit dwelt, could anger the spirit, and he would in turn cause illness in the family of the perpetrator. Other ROGON could also cause misfortune and infertility. These afflictions could only be removed by a sacrifice of pigs and chickens to re-establish the state of goodwill. In the past a human sacrifice to remove the afflictions of a whole village occurred occasionally.

There were also the wandering ROGON who brought epidemic diseases. In addition to these and the ROGON who personified the natural world, there were ROGON called RUSOD who mirrored the social organization of the household. On the birth of a child, his RUSOD came into being. These dwelt in the longhouse apartment along with the domestic family. The RUSOD were the guardians of the proper cultural order in the household and protectors of the household members. The RUSOD could be offended by violating the any of the rules that governed the household order. The RUSOD thus would not only cease to protect members of the family, allowing other ROGON to make a household member ill, but also they themselves would actually cause a member to become ill, until propitiated by ceremonies and sacrifices.

Rice spirits (ODU-ODU) mirrored the social order of the family, reflected its social and jural substantiation, and provided good harvests if treated well and sacrificed to. There were celestial counterparts of the individual that dwelt in the lower level of the upperworld who provided protection when the individual was in danger.

An individual had three to seven souls, which were prone to wondering during a dream and could be captured by ROGON. This caused illness. There is one main soul of the body, and the other souls reside in the joints.

Female spirit mediums/priestesses existed who provided explanations for illness and designated which of the spirits needed propitiation. The full explanation of the nature of the RUSOD counterpart could only be obtained from BOBOLIZAN in whose hands lay the placation of the RUSOD and their care and feeding. In the trance performances of the BOBOLIZAN and the ritual texts she sang over sacrifices the RUSOD was defined and described. The celestial counterparts of living or deceased individuals could become spirit familiars of practicing BOBOLIZAN particularly if they are or were efficacious BOBOLIZAN or individuals of renown.

The term LUMA'AG referred to any spirit familiar, god, ROGON, or celestial counterpart, that communicated with a spirit medium. And thus the cover term LUMA'AG was frequently used also to refer to the celestial counterpart of a living individual, male or female. However, only BOBOLIZAN obtained replies from their celestial counterpart when they were called upon in trance. It was through the help of these LUMA'AG that a BOBOLIZAN while in trance diagnosed illnesses and obtained information on the proper sacrifice to achieve cures, which then involved the performance of hymns to the gods and spirits over sacrifices of pigs and chickens. The primary LUMA'AG of a BOBOLIZAN was usually her own celestial counterpart, although sometimes it could be that of her mother or teacher.

Males performed the agricultural ceremonies that ensured a good harvest, and these involved the sacrifice of chickens to the rice spirits and the ROGON who represented agricultural pests.

There were ceremonies involving sacrifices of pigs and chickens at marriage to dispel any ritual heat of the union. Ceremonies involving sacrifices were also held to cure illness, to renew the fecundity of the household, and to renew the fecundity of the village. These were managed by the BOBOLIZAN who indicated the recipient of the sacrifices and the number of pigs and/or chickens to be given. These BOBOLIZAN recited and sung over the sacrifices ritual texts formed in couplets.

The primary art form was in the use of the language and the texts accompanying ceremonies.

Skilled males assisted in births. A knowledge of medicines from forest plants were used by male and females.

The corpse was buried with no secondary treatment. The souls of the dead tended to hang around the household and village longing for their kin till the final ceremony. A series of ceremonies involving pig sacrifice were held prior to this to dispel the malevolence of the souls of recently dead, who try to get the souls of loved ones to follow them, and to remove the restrictions on behavior of the surviving spouse. When enough supplies had been accumulated a final ceremony was held a year or two after death to send the main soul of the body to Mt. Kinabalu, where it would dwell with other souls in a mirror image of the Rungus world but with less cares and troubles. The souls of the joints came and went to the living world but dwelt near Mt. Kinabalu.

Documents referred to in this section are included in the eHRAF collection and are referenced by author, date of publication, and eHRAF document number.

There are 14 documents in the Rungus Dusun file, all written by members of the Appell family, who carried out field work there in the years 1959-1960, 1961-1963, 1986, 1987, 1990, and 1992. The major ethnography on the Rungus Dusun is G. N. Appell's dissertation (1965, no. 1) based on the earlier fieldwork period 1959-1963. A good summary of the dissertation is found in G. N. Appell (1978, no. 2). In subsequent articles based on his dissertation G. N. Appell writes about Rungus social structure, property system, and ritual practices (G. N. Appell 1976, no. 4; 1988, no. 5); Dusun language groups (G.N Appell 1968, no. 8); the domestic developmental cycle and residence (G. N. Appell 1966, no. 13); the Rungus cognatic social system (G.N. Appell 1967, no. 14); and the impact of modernization (G. N. Appell 1985, no. 3). After his return to the field in the late 1980s and 1990s, G. N. Appell wrote about Rungus sexual behavior (G. N. Appell 1991, no. 6) and the impact of Christianity on Rungus conservation practices (G. N. Appell 1997, no. 7). Laura Appell has written on Rungus gender relations (Laura Appell 1991, no. 10) and menstruation (Laura Appell 1988, no. 11) George and Laura co-authored an article on Rungus female spirit mediums (Laura Appell and G. N. Appell 1993, no. 12). Their daughter Amity Appell Doolittle (1991, no. 15) wrote an article on the Rungus version of the famous Malaysian LATAH behavior.

For more detailed information on the content of the individual works in the file, see the abstracts in the citations preceding each document.

The culture summary was written by G. N. Appell, August, 2000. Ian Skoggard wrote the synopsis, October, 2000.

• ADAT--customary law--671

• AKADANGAN--property violation--865

• BAHAZAN--virtuous--577

• BOBOLIZAN--spirit medium--756, 791

• DAPU--durable goods--422, 583

• HATOD--soul--774

• INDOPUAN DO NONGKOB--domestic corporate property--423, 422

• IVANUM--parents-in-law--602, 606

• KAMAMAN--Parent-in-law who looks after orphaned nieces and nephews--604

• KOMOMOLI--an act that infers someone has died--688

• KORIVA--extreme example of komomoli--688, 784

• KOTUAAN--oldest male and female siblings--561, 593

• KOVUSUNG--mystical sanction--576, 683, 784

• LABUT--malevolent spirit--776

• long-house--342, 621

• LUMA'AG--spirit familiar--776

• MANGAMBO--incantation--5310

• MONGIMBUHAL--insult, reference to genitalia--831, 578

• MONGINAN--male founder of a long-house--624

• NABALU--afterworld--772, 775

• NONGKOB--household--592

• OBINGSALA--latah--154, 158

• ORINTADAN--violation of food taboo--262, 264, 784

• OSUNDUW--celestial gods--776

• ROGAN--malevolent spirits--776

• RUSOD--protector spirit--776

• SURUPU--mystical power--778

• TAMBAGA--brassware, female property--422

• TANDON--child who takes care of parents--596, 888

• TINUNGKUSAN--inherited property--428

• TUMUTUM--sexual modesty--864

• TUMURON--sacrifice--782

Appell, G. N. Residence and Ties of Kinship in a Cognatic Society: The Rungus Dusun of Sabah, Malaysia. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 22:280-301. 1966.

Appell, G. N. Observational Procedures for Identifying Kindreds: Social Isolates Among the Rungus of Borneo. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 23:192-207. 1967.

Appell, G. N. The Dusun Languages of Northern Borneo: Rungus Dusun and Related Problems. Oceanic Linguistics 7:1-15. 1968.

Appell, G. N. Methodological Problems with the Concept of Corporation,Corporate Social Grouping, and Cognatic Descent Group. American Ethnologist 10:302-11. 1983.

Appell, G. N. Methodological Issues in the Corporation Redux. American Ethnologist 11:815-17. 1984.

Appell, G. N. Emergent Structuralism: The Design of an Inquiry System to Delineate the Production and Reduction of Social Forms. In Choice and Morality in Anthropological Perspective: Essays in Honor of Professor Derek Freeman, G. N. Appell and T. N. Madan, eds. Buffalo: State University of New York Press. 1988.

Appell, G. N. Individuation of the Drives of Sex and Aggression in the Linguistic and Behavioral Repertoire of the Rungus. In Female and Male in Borneo: Contributions and Challenges to Gender Studies, Vinson H. Sutlive, Jr., ed. Borneo Research Council Monograph Series Volume 1. Williamsburg: Borneo Research Council. 1991.

Appell, G. N. The History of Research on Traditional Land Tenure and Tree Ownership in Borneo. Borneo Research Bulletin 28:82-98. 1997.

Appell, G. N. (editor). The Societies of Borneo: Explorations in the Theory of Cognatic Social Structure. Special Publication 6. Washington: American Anthropological Association. 1976.

Appell, G. N. (editor). Modernization and the Emergence of a Landless Peasantry: Essays on the Integration of Peripheries to Socioeconomic Centers. Studies in Third World Societies. Publication No. 33. Williamsburg, Virginia: Studies in Third World Societies. 1985.

Appell, G. N. and Laura W. R. Appell. To Converse with the Gods: The Rungus Bobolizan--Spirit Medium and Priestess. In The Seen and the Unseen: Shamanism, Mediumship and Possession in Borneo, Robert Winzeler, ed. Borneo Research Council Monograph Series, Volume 2. Williamsburg: Borneo Research Council. 1993.

Appell, Laura W. R. Sex Role Symmetry Among the Rungus of Sabah. In Female and Male in Borneo: Contributions and Challenges to Gender Studies, Vinson H. Sutlive, Jr., ed. Borneo Research Council Monograph Series Volume One. Williamsburg: Borneo Research Council. 1991.

King, Julie K. and John Wayne King (eds.). Languages of Sabah: A Survey Report. Pacific Linguistics Series C - No. 78. 1984.

Rutter, Owen. British North Borneo: An Account of its History, Resources and Native Tribes. London: Constable & Co. 1922.

Rutter, Owen. The Pagans of North Borneo. London: Hutchinson. 1929.

Staal, Rev. Father J. The Dusun Language. Anthropos XXI:938-51. 1926.