Borneo Headhunting

INTRODUCTION OF HEAD HUNTING IN BORNEO


Head hunting is the practice of taking a person's head after killing a human.
Head hunting was practiced into historic times in Borneo.Head hunting has become very well known and head hunters were often feared by many people and community at that particular era.
Head hunting include mortification of the rivals ritual violence,cosmological balance,the display of manhood,cannibalism and prestige.
Some experts theorize that the practice stemmed from the belief that the head contained "soul matter" of life force, which could be harnessed through its capture.It was usually a ritual activity rather than an act of war or feuding and involved the taking of a single head.Acted as a catalyst for the cessation of personal and collective mourning for the community dead's.

In Sarawak,
on the island of Borneo,the colonial dynasty of James Brooke and his descendants eradicated head hunting in hundred years before World War 2.
There has been serious outbreaks of inter-ethnic violence on the island of Kalimantan since 1997,involving the indigenous Dayak peoples and immigrants from the island of Madura.In 2001,in the central Kalimantan town of Sampit,at least 500 Madurese were killed and up to 100,000 Madurese were forced to flee.Some Madurese bodies were decapitated in a ritual reminiscent of the head hunting tradition of the Dayaks of old.There are method and tehnics used to preserved a victim's head.The usual method done is by extracting the brain out via the nostril of a decapicitated head.After the previous process is done,the heads are usually placed above the fire to be smoked.Lastly,the smoked head will be wraped in a rattan basket and hanged outside the 'ruai'.

DAYAK PEOPLE,
are the people indigenous to Borneo.The main ethnic group of Dayaks are the Bakumpai and Dayak Bukit of South Kalimantan They used to be a tradition of retaliation for old head hunts which kept the practice alive.The practice of head hunts was limited to individual retaliation attacks or the result of change encounters.Early Brooke Government reports describe Dayak captured enemy heads.


IBAN PEOPLE,
A branch of the Dayak peoples of Borneo.Most located in Sarawak ,small portion in Sabah and some in west Malaysia.Formely known during the colonial period by the British as Sea Dayaks.They were renowned for practising head hunting.Long time ago,the Ibans are very strong and successful tribe.They were also feared tribe in Borneo and they speak Ibans Language.The slogan 'agi idup,agi ngelaban' is a wrath that motivates them to keep alive.


Today,head hunting and piracy are long gone and in has came the modern era of globalization and technology for the Ibans and the Dayaks.Therefore this headhunting as the iban culture is forgotten as time flies by.