These were not items of public display, but devices with a practical function and the

supernatural capacity to entice game to the traps. Nonetheless they are a distinctive item. Rarely illustrated in earlier publications, they seem to have appeared relatively recently on the collector’s market, perhaps indicating a declining importance to their owners (Heppell and Limbang Anak Melaka 1988, Schöffel nd:158-171). I was unable to find any of these objects, or any catalogue references to them, in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Cologne or the Baez collection of the Museum für Völkerkunde, Vienna. In the Hose collection of the Museum of Mankind, London I was able to fmd only one reference to a "wooden staff, pointed with carved figure at head" (1905-781) accompanied by a little sketch, but unidentified by name or ethnic group. This seems unusual as every collection from Borneo seems to contain several kenyalang figures. It must be assumed that formerly they were not readily parted with.

encountered in central Borneo. In so doing they produced a body presentation that was instantly identifiable. [PLATE 76] The women experimented with a few simple tattoo designs, but did not persist with the practice.

The Iban used masks on festive occasions, but these do not have either the distinctiveness or diversity of design of those of central Borneo or of the southeast. Simple in design, they are reported as being used for clowning

around at festivals or for frightening the wits out of children (Heppell 1990:70). [PLATE 77A] The main musical instruments for public performance were, as with many other Borneo groups, drums and gongs. The Iban formerly had a diversity of unusual instruments, such as the ensuranai or fiddle and enkratong or harp, which disappeared over time (Shelford 1904:6-9,16, Maceda

1961-2:491-492). [PLATE 77B, C] Their engkerurai was similar to the Kayan kledi, but generally smaller.

The traditional costume of Iban women, while it has undergone

variations and adaptations, was based around two distinctive items: short skirts of their own weaving, decorated with ikat or weft inlay techniques, and the unique rattan corsets covered with brass rings. There developed an increasing fashion among Iban women for various forms of silver jewellery and innovative forms of beadwork collars. [PLATE 78]

The craft skill most intimately associated with all the Ibanic groups is the craft of ikat dyeing, traditionally carried out on handspun cotton grown by the Iban themselves and woven on a backstrap loom. The patterns are very recognisable, with anthropomorphic or animal designs in an intricate maze of angular interlacing motifs. The colours were generally blue and red, with many of the motifs appearing in the natural white of the thread. As well as the

women’s skirts, this technique was used for jackets, shoulder cloths and for the pua cloths or blankets which play an important role in Iban ceremonies.

[PLATE 79A] Other techniques were used to produce intricately decorated woven textiles, in the form of supplementary weft techniques such as pilih or floating weft and songkit or warp wrapping. These items were all made by the related Ibanic groups in west Kalimantan such as the Mualang, Kantu’ and Ketungau as well as by the Iban of or from Sarawak. As such, they could be considered type artifacts for the whole Ibanic group.

Some inland Iban groups produced simple paddle beaten pottery of a rather similar type to that produced by central Borneo groups. This craft was extinct in sub-coastal areas at colonial contact, but survived in some remote areas into this century. [PLATE 79B] Iban smiths forged weapons and utensils,

Large Cultural Complexes

but the smelting of iron is not recorded for this group as they had access to imported iron from earliest colonial times. They made basketry in the form of mats, baskets and broad brimmed hats with intricate curvilinear and geometric motifs, characteristic of much basketry from Borneo in general. [PLATE 80A, B] They carved bamboo containers with elaborate foliate designs and

occasionally with fairly naturalistic creatures such as centipedes and lizards. [PLATE 80C]

The Iban were, and in many areas still are, longhouse dwellers but their migratory lifestyle meant that their houses were not so substantially built as those of the central Borneo people. [PLATE 14A] Carved decoration was not a feature of their houses, although some wall paintings are reported.

The most characteristic feature of the Ibanic material culture complex is its ability to change quite radically over time, while still presenting a distinctive and recognizable image. Skills in weaving and dyeing distinguish the Ibanic groups from all others in their region of Borneo. Type artifacts include the pua cloth, ikat dyed clothing, the carved kenyalang figure, the tuntun stick and women’s brass corsets. The sungkup is a type artifact for one particular Iban region. The niabor sword was a type artifact which disappeared, while certain forms of tattoo pattern, such as the throat tattoo, were type designs which were relatively recently adopted.

The motifs used in Iban art varied according to the particular craft utilised. In tattoo patterns and painted shield designs they used the motifs of

central Borneo from whence the styles were directly borrowed. Older shields, some bamboo carvings and some decorative items like carved weaving shuttles displayed foliate interlace designs similar to those of all the sub-coastal groups in contact with Malay culture. The weaving showed an intricate and instantly recognisable series of geometric designs which could incorporate anthropomorphic figures or animals, especially crocodiles. Animal figures were sometimes found on carved bamboo containers. The Iban show better than any other group that the adoption of styles, designs or artifacts from other groups need not annul the identifiers of ethnic boundaries.

The Land Dayak Complex

The peoples of Sarawak and West Kalimantan designated broadly as Land Dayak, Bidayuh or Kendayan, have had long association with Malays and their culture. The varying degree of association of different branches

contributed to the internal diversity of this complex. While not considered to be

Large Cultural Complexes

as prolific in their artistic output as some of the more extroverted societies of Borneo, their material culture had some special features.

Their funeral ceremonies, sometimes burial or som etim es im m ediate cremation, were carried out with some degree of furtiveness. In Sarawak there was no permanent memorialisation. In parts of west Kalimantan carved w ooden images of the dead were erected, but usually in forest clearings rather than in a place where they would act as conspicuous territorial markers. In the Landak area figures were very distinctive, with articulated arms outstretched, dressed in simple clothes, with carved models o f their jewellery and weapons. The

anthropomorphic carvings made to protect rice fields or defend paths were generally very simple and roughly made. [PLATE 81]

Although not represented as warlike people, they had som e distinctive artifacts o f war. Their shields were ovoid and smaller than those o f other

Borneo groups. They were made of bark, sometimes covered in basketry, with a carved central wooden strip up the front. [PLATE 82A, B] Some very small shields with scalloped edges, foliate carving and sometimes with tin inlaid decoration are found in older museum collections from West Kalimantan.

[PLATE 82C, D] There seem s to be no ethnographic information about their use. They used a peculiar chopping weapon called a pandat which had a straight single edged blade set at an angle to the handle, which was all made from one piece of metal without a separate hand grip. A simple metal crossbar acted as a finger guard. An angled chopping tool with a carved knob-like handle was used by Malays and Melanaus along the west coast as an agricultural tool, but as a weapon of war the pandat was unique to this group. It looks and feels very unwieldy. [PLATE 83A, 84A] There were some elaborately carved spear

handles, some with rings of anthropomorphic figures and bearing a barbed iron tip. [PLATE 83B, C, D]

Their musical instruments were generally similar to those of the Iban although som e were simpler in form. The Land Dayak sigittuad was a less finely finished version of the Iban ensurunai (Shelford 1904:9-10). Their reed instrument, called a serubayi, was simpler than the kledi or engkerurai, having no gourd and only two pipes which were blown directly (Shelford 1904:34-36).^ Masks and mask cerem onies are not described in early accounts of the Land Dayaks, although

1. These instruments are not well represented in museum collections as they were not durable.