Lifestyle

The majority of Dayaks live in the centre of Borneo and no longer carry out the traditional semi-nomadic lifestyle. However, many do continue to practice swidden agriculture, whereby ‘hill rice’ is cultivated for a short season and then the plot abandoned to be reclaimed by natural vegetation.
The staple of rice is supplemented with gathering (fruit and plants), fishing and hunting (bearded pig, deer, monkeys and fowl). Historically, blowpipes were the weapon of choice for hunting in the forest canopy, and spears were used to hunt herds of pigs, but the use of guns is now widespread. Rattan, a cane made from a species of palm, is gathered from the forest and widely used in building and daily life.

For the less-nomadic tribes, communal longhouses (up to 12 metres in height and sometimes hundreds of metres long) often housing over 100 families were the traditional dwellings. Family apartments were distributed along a central hallway; communal living during times of tribal warfare offered ‘safety in numbers’. Many longhouses are still in use, particularly in the Iban community, although modernisation has seen many Dayak families move into individual houses.

The forest surrounding Dayak settlements was divided into tribal territories – community members had the right to hunt and fish in certain areas. Usually, permission was sought from within the community before expending very valuable resources – such as cutting down a large old-growth tree – which might be ‘owned’ by another individual or family.

Dayak village territories are often divided into segments: open communal forest used for hunting and gathering, farming areas, a settlement area, and “tana’ ulen”, a restricted forest area. Laws and rules governing the community used to be generated from within, but are increasingly being diminished by external influences.

The Dayak culture possesses some written history and a lengthy oral history. Colonial accounts of Dayak culture have also been useful to anthropologists in understanding the complex socio-economic and political relationships which existed between tribes.