Until 1955 the community described in this book was sea nomadic, its families living entirely in boats. Although comprising only a small minority of the total Bajau-speaking population, sea nomads formed for centuries an integral part of the coastal society of south-eastern Sabah. The Bajau Laut tra...

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Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Sather, Clifford (Author)
Format:	Book
Language:	English
Published:	Kuala Lumpur [u.a.] Oxford Univ. Press 1997
Edition:	1. publ.
Series:	South-East Asian social science monographs
Subjects:	Bajau (volk) Pêcheurs - Malaisie - Sabah Alltag, Brauchtum Bajau (Southeast Asian people) > Malaysia > Sabah Soziale Situation Badjaw Sabah (Malaisie) - Moeurs et coutumes Sabah > Social life and customs
Summary:	Until 1955 the community described in this book was sea nomadic, its families living entirely in boats. Although comprising only a small minority of the total Bajau-speaking population, sea nomads formed for centuries an integral part of the coastal society of south-eastern Sabah. The Bajau Laut traces the history of a single community from the early nineteenth century to the present, treating in particular a fifteen-year interval of rapid transformation during which time members of the community abandoned sea nomadism and adapted to a coastal market centre as commercial fishermen and labourers. The book looks in detail at the processes of change, at the social constitution of the community - the nature of family and marriage relations; house groups and house-group clusters; village leadership, factionalism, and conflict; Islam and village mediums - and at the underlying cultural premises that give coherence to village life, notably the notions of fate, debt, compassion, and ancestry.
Physical Description:	XVIII, 359 S. Ill., graph. Darst., Kt.
ISBN:	9835600155