Infertility and Depopulation a Study of the Murut Tribes of North Borneo

Polunin, Ivan; Saunders, M. K.

doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(58)90492-6

Cited by 17 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Matters worsened when it became clear that local production would not be able to compensate for import deficits, causing further speculative buying, soaring prices and dwindling reserves (Kratoska, 1990, p. 116). In addition to these demographic and socio-economic transformations, worsening public health conditions wreaked havoc among vulnerable rural Murut communities (Polunin & Saunders, 1958). The chartered company's Court of Directors in London was cognisant of proliferating ill health and its projected impact upon the territory's indigenous minorities as early as 1922, but did little to ameliorate the situation (State of North Borneo Official Gazette, 1922, p. 38).…”

Section: Etropic: Electronic Journal Of Studies In the Tropicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Routine outbreaks of hookworm, malaria, amoebic dysentery, influenza and measles, among other diseases, devastated indigenous Murut (and to a lesser extent Kadazandusun) communities (Copeland, 1935). The Murut, a minority ethnic group that constituted 9 percent of North Borneo's population according to the 1931 census, had declined sharply during the colonial period and bore the brunt of many of the public health issues facing the territory (Polunin & Saunders, 1958, p. 1007; Jones, 1967;; Colonial Reports: North Borneo, 1952, 1953. The colonial state saw little point in actively combatting such epidemics in the hinterland, opting instead to govern behaviour rather than health, medication and sanitation (Simmonds, 1944, p. 187).…”

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confidence: 99%

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“State of Intoxication:” Governing Alcohol and Disease in the Forests of British North Borneo

Saunders

2021

eTropic

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This article focuses on issues of alcohol consumption, disease and public health in British North Borneo in the 1920s and 1930s, a colonial territory along the periphery of empire. Drawing upon a range of sources – from reportage and memoranda, to local folk tales and oral tradition – it examines how the North Borneo Chartered Company administration responded to spiralling population decline and ill health amongst indigenous Murut communities. Amidst widespread economic stagnation, the company shunned vital public health infrastructure and medical aid, opting instead to govern behaviour and condemn alcohol consumption. This article shows how the company perpetuated racist assumptions concerning ostensible alcohol addiction amongst indigenous communities. It further suggests that the effects of Northern European and American temperance and prohibition movements impacted the Bornean tropics. While scholarly attention has been paid to issues of alcohol, disease and empire in the tropics, historiography has overlooked the role of lax colonial governance in semi-autonomous, atypical colonial spaces such as British North Borneo. This article ultimately serves as a vital corrective by showing how the legacies of commercial-colonial governance remain perceptible in Sabah today, a region still facing major socio-economic and public health pressures amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

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Section: Etropic: Electronic Journal Of Studies In the Tropicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“State of Intoxication:” Governing Alcohol and Disease in the Forests of British North Borneo

Saunders

2021

eTropic

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“…Continued studies of the Meruts suggested that infertility likely caused by introduced sexually transmitted diseases was perhaps a greater problem than malaria in terms of the inability to maintain the tribal population [19,20]. Additional retrospective studies in the 1960s when the Merut population losses had been reversed showed that part of the problem was how one counted a transient population that moved freely between jungle and a more settled agricultural life style [21].…”

Section: Meruts Of Borneomentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical review: Does falciparum malaria destroy isolated tribal populations?

Shanks

2016

Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease

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“…As no medical examinations were carried out among the censused populations, little can be said with any degree of certainty ab out any involuntary causes of infecundity. Poor diet, prevalence of gonorrhea, and of pelvic infections, which have been suggested as causes of the extremely low fecundity of other Bomean populations (Shircore 1937:30;Polunin 1958), have never been diagnosed as particularly important problems among any Iban populations. Although some cursory field examinations suggested that the nutritional intake of Engkari Iban may be less adequate than that of their Bintulu counterparts, both groups probably eat better than many populations having much higher fertility.…”

Section: Behavioral Patterns Affecting Fertilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Migration and Its Alternatives among the Iban of Sarawak

Padoch¹

1982

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project, the debts whlch I owe for inspiration, information, encouragement and other kinds of aid are indeed very many, and my creditors cannot all be named. I wish to mention a few persons and institutions to whom I am particularly grateful. For hls very valuable and unfailing guidance and support I wish to thank Professor Andrew P. Vayda. lt was hls suggestion that directed me to conduct research in Sarawak, and hls advice and encouragement helped me throughout the many months of preparation, field research, and finally, of data analysis and writing. In preparing for field research I also received great help from Professor Derek Freeman and from Dr. George N. AppelI; I wish to thank them both. For immeasurable help in getting my field work started and successfully completed, I am very deeply indebted to the staff of the Sara wak Museum. The Museum sponsored my research in the State, but the kindness and help of many of the staff far exceeded their official duties. I particularly wish to thank Mr. Lucas Chin, the Curator, Mr. Peter Mulok Kedit, the Government Ethnologist, and Mr. Tuton Kaboy, the Research Assistant. Others of the staff to whom I owe special thanks include Messrs. Joseph Ingai, Loh Chee Yin, Robert Naen and Jameson Buau. I am also grateful to Mr. Benedict Sandin, former Curator of the Sarawak Museum, for his valuable information and advice. While in Sarawak I was aided frequently by members of other government departments, particularly by the staffs of the District Offices in Lubok Antu, Serian and Bintulu. Among the very many individuals who gave me help, I especially wish to thank Mr. Joseph Manggie, the Community Development Officer in Serian. For their valuable assistance I also thank many officers of the Forest Department of Sarawak. I wish particularly to thank Mr. Pa ui Chai, Forest Botanist, and his staff, whose insights and advice taught me far more about Sarawak's forests than just the scientific names of the plant specimens that I x Migration among the Iban brought in for identification. My thanks go also to Mr. Philip Ngau Jalong, District Forest Officer in Bintulu during the period of my research there, and to his family for their kind hospitality and for much advice which I value highly. Many members of the Agriculture Department also offered help and advice, among them I wish to thank Mr. Chin Thian Hon, the Rice Botanist. My thanks go also to members of the Medical Department, including the staffs of the Dispensary at Lubok Antu and the General Hospital in Simanggang, as weIl as to officers of the Department of Land and Survey in Kuching. For their great hospitality and support I am very grateful to Albert and Mary Kedit, to other members of their families in Kuching, Miri, and Singapore, as weIl as to other members of their household and to their many kind friends. I have missed their company and advice greatly. For their hospitality in Kuching, Simanggang and Kuala Lumpur I also wish to thank D. Leake, S. Bjorge, A. Deissinger, M. Primiani, G. Meschede, and J. Hungate. And for h...

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Infertility and Depopulation a Study of the Murut Tribes of North Borneo

Cited by 17 publications

References 5 publications

“State of Intoxication:” Governing Alcohol and Disease in the Forests of British North Borneo

“State of Intoxication:” Governing Alcohol and Disease in the Forests of British North Borneo

Historical review: Does falciparum malaria destroy isolated tribal populations?

Migration and Its Alternatives among the Iban of Sarawak

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