Victor T. King Bücher

Borneo, the third largest island in the world, is still sparsely populated, but it has a remarkable ethnic diversity. This book examines that diversity - in economic and social life, political organization, religion, worldview and material culture - and shows that, beneath these variations, there are common social and cultural features that can be traced back to the Austronesian-speaking migrants who first settled the island about 4,500 years ago. The processes of historical differentiation from these common roots are considered by describing local human adaptations to the environment, and the external influences on the Bornean peoples, from places as far away as China, India, the Middle East and Europe. Besides its cultural diversity and the historical reasons for it, there are two dominant themes in the literature on Borneo: first, European popular images of the island and its peoples, which tend to dwell on exotic customs and practices, such as headhunting and piracy; and, second, the pervasive influence of the rainforest on Bornean ways of life. The book provides a comprehensive view of traditional Bornean societies and cultures, setting its seemingly exotic institutions in their proper context, and documenting the recent challenge to traditional ways of life posed by modernization, the commercialization of agriculture, logging and forest clearance, resettlement and land development.

The Best of Borneo Travel is just that, a fascinating collection of colorful travel notes by Westerners--from those who first visited this Indonesian island-nation in the the sixteenth century to writers still enthralled by Borneo today. Through the eyes of these European explorers, merchants, administrators, and adventurers we see the kinds of images that captivated the popular imagination of Europe, as well as the stereotypes that developed regarding Borneo's "exotic" peoples and cultures. We witness first-hand the wonders of the equatorial rainforest: animals such as the orang utan, the beautiful flowers and trees that abound along the rivers and rapids, majestic mountains like Kinabalu, sacred to the Borneans. And in some of the nineteenth century accounts we see a reflection of the prevailing social Darwinism of the period--the "natural" assertion of Western political, military, and economic superiority over the "Wild Men of Borneo." Nevertheless, many travelers to Borneo writing here remarked on the wealth and cultural sophistication of the native peoples, and after the first flush of colonialism, the accounts returning to Europe become more balanced--while the interest in the new and strange continues, it is tempered with descriptions of people that are, as people are everywhere, "just like us."

"Victor King has produced a lucid, comprehensive, and challenging analysis of the state-of-the-art of Southeast Asian sociology. The book is not only an excellent textbook for courses on Southeast Asia or development sociology, but also ‘required reading’ for all social scientists embarking on research on the area. I am certain that it will become a long-lasting addition to the standard literature on Asia." ―Hans-Dieter Evers, University of BonnOne of the main problems faced by teachers and students who have a scholarly interest in Southeast Asia is the lack of general, user-friendly texts in the social sciences. The absence of an introduction to the sociology of Southeast Asia is especially unfortunate. This volume attempts to meet these needs. This is, then, the first sole-authored introductory sociology text on Southeast Asia that focuses on change and development in the region, provides an overview of the important sociological and political economy writings, and considers the key concepts and themes in the field since 1945. Some multiauthored works do exist but these either are outdated or focus on specialized topics. Aimed primarily at undergraduates up to the final year, it will also be a useful reference work for postgraduates and researchers who lack such a general work.