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Home >> Methodology Papers >> Guide to the Varities of Oral Literature in Borneo

Guide to the Varities of
Oral Literature in Borneo¹

G. N. Appell, Ph.D.

INTRODUCTION

The societies of Borneo are changing so rapidly that we have now reached the stage of doing salvage ethnography. We can no longer observe cultural behavior uninfluenced by modernization. Thus, to understand how Bornean societies functioned prior to the loss of their traditional cultural ecology and prior to the loss of their religion that punctuated, symbolized, and sanctioned their traditional ways, the ethnographer has to rely only on accounts of individuals who are well into or past middle age and on their repertoire of various forms of oral heritage.

But this oral heritage is also rapidly eroding. With regard to many religious texts it is now difficult to find individuals who can provide a satisfactory exegesis of them and their ritual symbolism. In five to ten years most of this critical oral heritage will be lost. Yet much of the oral literature that accompanies religious performances is incredibly beautiful in terms of imagery, metaphor, and poetic construction so that they rank with some of the great literatures of the world.

As a result of this rapid loss of tradition, there has been an upsurge in interest in the recording of oral histories, oral accounts, and oral literature. To assist in the process of preserving this oral heritage, I thought it would be useful to provide a list of the types of oral heritage that one might encounter in attempting to make a collection of recordings. This is to serve as a guide to those individuals who have not had the time to become familiar with a particular cultural tradition to be aware of the forms of oral heritage that are found in that society. This guide is also to suggest what types of accounts would be profitable to record.

Much of the oral literature of Borneo was an integral part of religious performances in which various symbolic and ritual items and paraphernalia were included. These were presented to the gods and spirits in coordination with the performance and manipulated to punctuate it in order to secure help from the gods and spirits, or achieve success in sorcery and witchcraft. Therefore, I have included ritual behaviors in connection with this list of oral heritage as they are integral to the recording and full understanding of the oral literature.

This is a preliminary guide and I would welcome criticisms, suggestions, and additions to it as we attempt to preserve the oral heritage of Borneo before it is too late.

Historical Accounts

Migration accounts
Warfare accounts, including information on what ethnic groups constituted the enemy and what ethnic groups were allies
Accounts about the arrival of colonial governments
Accounts of rebellions against the colonial governments
Accounts of the Japanese occupation
Accounts of natural disasters such as fires, floods, earthquakes, volcanos
Accounts of natural events, such as eclipses of sun and moon.
Accounts of descent lines of nobles, leading families, etc.
Accounts of local history
Accounts of family history
Personal recollections

Myths, Legends, and Folktales

Stories explaining how the world became as it is, including the myriad etiological tales that explain the causes, origins, and reasons for behaviors of animals, people, crops, the natural world, illness, death, marriage, etc.
Tales of success in warfare, journeys, and the accumulation of wealth
Stories of culture heroes and how they contributed to the construction of the cultural and social world
Morality tales
Folktales dealing with economic and social change, as the introduction of a new crop and its consequences
Stories about various animals
Jokester stories

Epic Narratives and Poetry

Prayers, Chants, Songs, and Stories of the Work of the Gods

Creation
Members of the spirit world
The structure of the otherworld
The pantheon of gods
Man's relationship to gods and spirits

Prayers, Chants, Songs, and Rituals for Warfare and Headhunting²

To enlist the help of the gods of warfare
For obtaining invincibility in battle or a body that is impervious to wounding
For weakening the opponent
To seek omens and deal with unfavorable omens
To send off the warriors and/or headhunters
Songs and chants used during battles
To welcome back the warriors and/or headhunters
To honor the heads on arrival and periodically thereafter
To honor dead heroes
For building headhouses
Tales of battles and village sacking

Prayers and Chants Accompanying Changes in Life Cycle

For fertility
For pregnancy
Birth
Naming a child
Disposal or treatment of the umbilical cord and placenta
For cutting head hair and fingernails
Circumcision, male and female
Other genital procedures
Adolescence
Menarche
To extend life span

(For marriage, children, and death see below)

Prayers, Chants, and Songs for Marriage

For courtship
For engagement
For presentation of the bride-price
To deal with unfavorable omens
For wedding
To deal with and nullify the effects of an incestuous union
To nullify the effects of adultery

Prayers, Chants, and Songs for Children

For naming
To change name for protection from predatory spirits
To induce sleep
To protect from frightening dreams
To calm upset child
To amuse
To quiet children so as not to anger spirits

Prayers, Chants, Songs, and Rituals for Death

Construction of coffins
For construction of graves
For interment
For construction of mausoleums, funerary houses, and funerary columns
For primary and secondary treatment of corpse and bones
Dirges
Memorial ceremonies for honoring the dead
For the sacrifice of slaves for the dead or the erection of funerary column
For termination of mourning

Prayers, Chants, and Rituals for Body Ornamentation

For Tattooing
For ear lobe extension
For teeth filing
For penis pin insertion
For scarification
For cutting head hair

Prayers, Chants, and Rituals for the Soul

Explanations of origin of souls
Explanations of the cause of soul loss and its consequences
Abodes of the soul before death and after death
For souls that become ghosts or otherwise malignant

Prayers, Chants, Songs, and Rituals for Sickness and Healing³

For bad dreams
For sudden fainting
To cast out ghosts
For fevers
For sharp stabbing pain
For leprosy
For tuberculosis
For malaria
For dysenteries
For swellings
For divine intercession for health and good fortune
Illness accounts

Prayers, Chants, and Rituals for Minor Illnesses, Aches, and Pains

Headaches
Bruises
Swollen and painful joints

Prayers, Chants and Rituals for Accidents

Prayers, Chants, and Songs for Divine Intercession

To nullify effects of bad dreams and omens
To nullify any transgressions against the gods or evil spirits
To request good fortune
To give thanks for divine intercession and good fortune
For protection against spirits who are predisposed to harm humans

Prayers, Chants, and Rituals for Divination

Divination by inspecting entrails of animal
Divination by inspecting and feeling body of ill person
For seeking omens
For nullifying bad omens

Prayers, Chants, and Rituals for Fishing

For fishing equipment
For fishing boat
To receive the fish
For poisoning river pools for fish

Prayers, Chants, and Rituals for Hunting and Trapping

For blowpipes and spears
To make hunting dogs chase game
For traps
To honor the animals killed

Prayers, Chants, Songs, and Rituals for Gathering Forest Products

For honey collecting
For collecting gaharu and damar
For collecting wild roots and tubers
For collecting rattan

Prayers, Chants, and Rituals for Fruit Trees

For increasing the harvest of fruit
To prevent stealing of fruit

Prayers, Chants, Songs, and Rituals for Agriculture

For the stars that indicate planting time
For phases of the moon and aspect of lunar year for planting
For elevation of the sun for planting
To request dry weather
To request rain
For choosing a swidden site
To cleanse the land
To deal with unfavorable omens
For establishing rights over the land
To move local spirits away or to appease them
For cutting the swidden
For burning the swidden
For the rice seeds
For the whetstone
For planting
To call the rice spirits and/or ancestral spirits to swidden
To honor the rice spirits and/or ancestral spirits by a sacrifice
For increasing yields, renewing fertility, and keeping pests at bay, etc.
For the first days of cutting the rice
For eating the first rice of the new harvest
To prepare for receiving the cut rice heads
To make the harvest rice bin
To cut the rice
To thresh the rice
To make rice wine
To wash sacred or magical stones to make purifying, cooling, or fertilizing water
Rituals and oral formulae for other crops such as maize, Job's tears, millet, sorghum, etc.
For new cash crops

Prayers, Chants, Songs, and Rituals for Travel

By sail boat
By longboat
By foot
For engaging in a dangerous enterprise
To ensure safe return
For entering new country
For approaching a settlement
To welcome on return from a successful trip
Tales of journeys

Prayers, Chants, and Rituals for Obtaining Wealth

To call the souls of jars, gongs, and other scarce goods
To feed and honor the souls of property in the household
For divine help in the accumulation of wealth

Prayers, Chants, and Rituals for Manufactures

Making a baby carrier
Weaving
Basket Making
Making a rice mortar
Boat manufacture
Carving doors
Carving figures
Making coffins
Carving wooden figures
Carving and erecting memorial poles
In erecting megaliths or making landscape sculptures

Prayers, Chants, and Rituals for House Building

For selecting a site for longhouse or house
For dealing with unfavorable omens
For erecting the central house or houses
To bless entry ladder
To rectify the ritual delict of failing to complete a house or longhouse apartment
For moving from old house to a new house
For human sacrifice to bless the house

Prayers, Chants, and Rituals to Protect the Community

From intrusion of foreigners or members from neighboring communities
From spirit aggression

Prayers, Chants, Songs, and Rituals to Renew Community Fertility

Human sacrifice
For community prosperity
To mark boundaries of community land
Festivals for the dead
Other types of festivals and sacrifices

Prayers, Chants, Songs, and Rituals for the Domestic Family

Renewal ceremonies
For fertility
To ward off ill fortune
For success in agriculture
For success in purchasing gongs, jars, brassware, etc.
For protection from illness
To obtain divine blessings

Trance Performances

To obtain spirit familiars
Conversations with the spirit familiars and other members of the spirit world
To diagnose illness
To obtain the return of the soul of an ill person
To resolve disputes
To appease one's spirit familiars

Prayers, Chants, Songs, and Rituals Associated with the Calendrical Cycle

Change of season or seasonal activities
For eclipses
Phases of the moon
The ascension of constellations

Prayers, Chants, Songs, and Rituals to Obtain Sacred Powers

To be invincible in battle
To protect one from adversity
To obtain a protective spirit

Prayers, Chants, and Rituals for Sorcery, Witchcraft, and Magic

To cast love magic
To cure love magic
To poison, kill, or debilitate an adversary
To prevent stealing
To locate stolen property
To influence a trial
To cause an accident
To make ill
To cause ill fortune
To protect from witchcraft and sorcery
To make charms
To locate cause of ill fortune
To make purifying or curing water

Legal Precedents

Accounts of legal precedents

Stories for Entertainment

Hymns of Praise for Honoring Distinguished Persons

Additional Poetry⁴

Historical poetry
Poetry in praise of deeds and famous men
Love poetry
Lyrical poetry
Laments

Word Play

Proverbs and Riddles

Songs

NOTES

¹	This article originally appeared in the Borneo Research Bulletin Vol. 22 No. 2; September 1990. I am indebted to Vinson H. Sutlive, Jr., Donald E. Brown, and Ida Nicolaisen for comments and suggestions on an original version of this guide.
²	In each of the following categories of prayers, chants, songs, and rituals the researcher has to be alert to the use of special lexicons or languages in any particular activity. Usually there are tabooed utterances associated with each of the activities, and it is useful to attempt to record these for each of the types of oral heritage in this guide. Prayers and chants may have a poetic structure and exhibit parallelism in which the first line is in the ordinary lexicon while the second line is in a ritual lexicon consisting of substitute words, archaic vocabulary, etc. By "Prayers, Chants, Songs, and Rituals" I also include verbal formulae associated with the various activities.
³	Illness may be associated with soul loss and therefore accounts of how an illness occurred is of importance.
⁴	All the various chants and prayers referred to previously may also be in poetic form

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Research Grants for the Documentation of Oral Literature and Traditional Ecological Knowledge

Guide to the Varities of Oral Literature in Borneo1

G. N. Appell, Ph.D.

INTRODUCTION

NOTES

Research Grants for the Documentation of Oral Literature
and
Traditional Ecological Knowledge

Guide to the Varities of
Oral Literature in Borneo¹