The Batek of Malaysia

The Batek are Semang or Malaysian negritios, numbering 700- 800 in 1995. During the 1970’s the general period of the following description, they lived mainly in the watershed of the Lebir River in the peninsular Malaysian state of Kelantan and doing the northern tributaries of the Tambling river in Pohang state (Malaysia(2006). Batek, like other Semang, are typically shorter than most Southeast Asians, with dark brown skin and curly to woolly hair. They lived in the rain forest of Malaysia. The Batek is known to be one of the oldest groups in Malaysia the name Batek means, the original people of Malaysia(cite). They were kind of their own small world. They developed their own language, they had their own style, and they never really change the tradition. Their families consist of a typical family with a mother, father, and children. They are also a foraging society that hunt and gather food. Culture shapes the meaning people make of their life as well as how people experience movement throughout life course through beliefs and values , economic organization, religion, and social change.
The Batek have a complex economic organization that revolves around hunting and gathering and trading. They were known for having a conjugal family. Where they would live with up to 15 people in one camp. And sometimes different sets of couples change daily. They explored with while foods like while you damn and certain fruit. The Batek were very family oriented and more laid-back. The Batek people live in harmony with one another and have the communal spirit in them and even through the way they carried out their day activities (Endicott(1984). They believe the land was created for all people to use both Batek and none Batek and no one has the right to exclude anyone else from living or working anywhere they wish. In the Bay tech community everything that was UN harvest was considered freely available to anyone who wants to harvest them. Regardless of where they are located or who’ll found them. Sharing food is an absolute obligation to the Batek, not something the giver has much discretion over. Sometimes the whole sharing with everyone becomes a hassle. Because if you didn’t take whatever food you caught the group back to the camp, everyone would be angry with you. The reason behind all of this is that the Batek believe that the long so the rain forest and if they share, it is a way of avoiding punishment by the supernatural. The living space was very limited. The frame of the huts from the assortment of hardwood and bamboo makes the walls of the huts and pitch roofs of the huts are in a way that overhangs the walls (Endicott(1984). The way the villages were built was in a rectangular shape the rising of the hearts was allowing good movement of air being move. Humidity there ranges from 30 to 90% and because of that, the men wore little clothing. The shape and the size of the huts are determined by the limit roof pan and by Palm with. The structure is made from assorted Harwood branches lashed together, while the walls are bamboo, which is hammered flat and held in place by two sticks on either side. Roofs are pitched in overhang the bamboo walls. The Batek called the place of their childhood called ”pesaka” which means inheritance. It was basically the person’s actual place of birth. Which to them have strong sentimental ties.
The Batek really don’t have an actual religion. But what they do believe is that the jungle and the river are spirits. When someone dies in the village the Batek people have to move into another village. Then they have to put the dead person in a hut and then they place food reserve for the spirits. They then have to live away from that village for three years. And once they decide to move back as a signal for the rest of the people to return to the village they have to take one skeletal then bury it.
“The Batek believe that one of their decease Ke’oy, consist of fever, depression, shortness of breath, and weakness is called when someone is angry with another without justification. While there are some spells that may help, the cure for the disease is for the person who is angry to control his or her feelings, so the victim can recover. The person responsible for the problem treats the victim with various folk remedies, tells the victim’s heart to be cool, and blows on his or her chess for the cooling affect. And then grab and froze away the disease. This belief in zke’oy helps ensure that the Batek treat each other well, since victim receive group backing and angry people, who causes disease, may lose social support and be ostracized(Endictt2008).”
The men and women in Malaysia have their differences in the way they perform and provide to the village life. The men in the Batek community, had more of the building and construction role. They were responsible for making structures of the huts and even the walls of the huts, except for the roof. They also made the blowpipe’s, which is very time consuming and a lot of work in itself. There is a making of darts in such a way that when there is use of blowpipe’s to blow them a hit the target accurately(Endicott92008). The way they kill their prey, they dip the tip of the dark into this natural poison, that’s found in the rain forest. This natural poison is known to paralyze or even kill a person. The men are also known for this hunting game, where the men get into groups and hunt on one animal. The winners get to eat the tale and then they all take the animal back to share with the village. The men also take a huge part when mating with their women. They believed the more children you have, the more of a hard worker you are. And if you have less than eight kids, you were looked at as a lazy person. The women of the Bay tech community spent most of their time indoors. They spent their time making the roofs of the huts. The roof thatching makes the roof where there is removal of the leaves on the plant and is sewn again into a tile(Endicott(2008). The women were also responsible for planting the vegetables, gathering the fruits, and other stuff that was needed from the rain forests to cook for their families. But in some cases women used to hunt to. They sometimes took the roles of a man, and a hot and made blowpipe’s just like the men would. They were even called chiefs in some villages. The Batek really didn’t see gender, they looked at how brave you were, how much wisdom you had, and how much authority you gave. Women observe beauty and that date do not share their hair call with any man, which is a personal belonging as the blowpipe is to a man(Endicott(2008). There is no determination of leader, the leader emerges naturally through age and wisdom and strength. The villages were made up of people who weren’t related to each other in any way. But because they lived together they were kind of obligated to get along and protect each other they will plan to do activities together, and they would also fit and talk about different issues they had. They relied on each other especially the older ones to give them their experience, judgment, and advice. The Batek identified themselves as sports people: the forest is their true home. Their shelters are scattered about wherever they decided to camp, with no symbolic defense from the forest. They preferred the fourth because it is cold, they feel free, and healthier than women in the heat of the clearings(Boulding E.2005) On the other hand, the rich heritage of the Batek people does not receive the attention it deserves by the government. The policy of the government only strives to integrate the Batek with the mainstream communities in society and overlooks the fact that they need recognition. This makes them uncomfortable and they even retaliate in demanding they want to be lead by people who have the indigenous knowledge as much as the level of education of the people set out to lead them. As urbanization is spreading the individual traditions and lifestyles of the Batek and the mainstream society are always against each other. The Batek community has a sparse population in the forest and they continue to battle with the question of whether it is safe for them to integrate or accept assimilation. “Archaeology studies change in forager societies over time yet relies on ethnology for much of its understanding of how these societies are organized. The prevailing model of forager societies in ethnology emphasizes their affluence, flexibility and equality, but these properties are now questioned; moreover doubts have implications for the validating of certain ethnological inferences and for our understanding of the nature of ethnographically documented foragers’ societies. Significantly, the issues can only be settled with the aid of archaeological data” (Shott, 1992). The social change in the Batek community is evolving. The practice of hunting and gathering affected the lifestyle of the Batek people as the rain forest is a threat now for which they are unable to hunt for animals and even gather fruits. The rain forest bare is known for their higher quality timber. So now there are leading companies who want that timber. So once they cut the trees, there would be little cover for the soil in the areas and sent such parts of Malaysia are so popular in flights there will be rivers that would hinder the living area for the Batek people. When the logging of the forest becomes so extensive that the Batek can no longer forage for a living, they will have to come to some new accommodation with Malaysian society. The JOA has been trying, through education and resettlement schemes, to prepare them for such a time. How they will fare under new conditions is a matter for speculation. Judging from past behavior, the Batek will probably continue to forage in the forest as long as they can.(cite). The government of Malaysia is also trying to educate the Batek by putting up boring schools is not that far away from the villages. But it hasn’t really been that successful because the Batek people believe by putting their children in school they may forget their original culture. It was even said that children were starting to drop out of school, because they were getting picked on for not looking like the other students. So most of the time the children will go back to enroll into school a much older age.
For some this will mean moving permanently into Taman Negara, the national park. But they will probably have to supplement their foraging more and more through wage labor, working for the logging companies or the new plantations. Some of these jobs will no doubt be available only to men, thus making them the major breadwinners for their families. This pattern can be seen in the few families in which the husband works regularly as a logger. In recent years, also, a number of young Batek men have joined the Malaysian army. Their wives, who stay at the JOA-sponsored settlement at Kampong Machang on the lower Lebir River, subsist mainly on their husbands' salaries. Such conditions may lead to a decline in status and the loss of the independence of Batek women. But there are wage-earning jobs on plantations, such as tapping rubber or cutting grass, which are held by women, mainly estate-living Tamils, at present. Probably Batek women will be able to get such jobs in the future and thus retain some of their economic independence(Lampell E.(2010)
I conclusion, the Batek still follow a nomadic lifestyle. As with other tribal groups, urbanization, development and the logging of their traditional habitats has resulted in their numbers falling and has pushed them deep into the protected national park of Taman Negara. There are an estimated 750 remaining Batek living in this dense rainforest in an area over twice the size of London. The best way to access the remote region is by water, down the Sungai Tembeling River on a traditional wooden long boat. The journey is lengthy, but it offers the chance to contemplate the density and vastness of the rainforest. The Batek tries very hard to keep their culture crisp and original to this day they are still known for being a very free culture. They are still their own small world. They still have their own language, their own style, and they are still sticking to tradition. As far as my research goes their family still consists of a typical family with the mother, father and, children I believe that that is the beauty of having many different cultures around the world. Culture shapes the meeting people make of their life as well as how people experience movement throughout life course through beliefs and values, economic organization, religion, and social change.

References:
I.VI.5 The Batek of peninsular Malaysia. (2006). In the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/entry/cuphg/i_vi_5_the_batek_of_peninsular_malaysia
Endicott, K. (1988). Property, power and conflict among the Batek of Malaysia. Hunters and gatherers, 2, 110-127.

Adhikary, K. (1984). "Hunters and Gatherers in India: A Preliminary Appraisal of their Structure and Transformation." Journal of the Indian Anthropological Society 19: 8-16

Bruce D. MLS, 1969 (University of Maine). Associate Librarian Emeritus, Pennsylvania State University. Book: Peaceful Peoples: An Annotated Bibliography (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1993). Several journal articles and papers about peaceful societies.

Endicott, K.M & Endicott, K.L (2008). The headsman was a woman: The Gender Egalitarian Batek of Malaysia.

Endicott, K. L (1984). The Batek De' of Malaysia. Cultural Survival, Quartely 8(summer), 6-8

Wawrinec, C. (2010). Tribality and indignity in Malaysia and Indonesia. The Stanford journal of East Asian Affairs
Lampell, E. (2010). The Batek De’of Malaysia
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/malaysia/batek-de-malaysia