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19 CHAPTER ONE THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT OF THE INTERIOR: AN OVERVIEW The traditional architecture of the interior peoples of Borneo includes longhouses and other multifamily dwellings, single-family houses, granaries, storage sheds, farmhouses, bridges and walkways, river docks, and platforms. Among some groups there is also a widespread and often elaborate mortuary architecture of burial posts and mausoleums, as well as of statuary, ceremonial poles and various other ritual structures, and (in some areas) men’s houses. THE LOCATION OF VILLAGES With the partial exception of mortuary architecture, the main location of buildings and other structures in Bor- neo is the clustered village; the dispersed and ribbon settlement patterns found in some rural areas today appear to be mainly a recent development. In the past most villages throughout Sarawak and much of the rest of Borneo were placed in two sorts of locations: on mountainsides , ridges, or hilltops or along navigable rivers. Most peoples were therefore either hill or mountain inhabitants or riverside dwellers, although it needs to be kept in mind that much of the interior is rugged upland country, and therefore many of the riverside dwellers were also situatedamonghillsormountainsif notonthem.1 Inthe northwestern part of the island the hill dwellers include all of the Bidayuh peoples in Sarawak and related groups in West Kalimantan, for whom mountain villages were a defining characteristic. Until several decades ago the Bidayuh were known as Land Dayaks, or sometimes in earlier periods as Hill Dayaks. In addition, in the far north of Sarawak and adjacent areas of East Kalimantan and Sabah some groups, including the Kelabit and Lundayeh , lived in high valleys and on plateaus that lack navigable rivers and streams, although their culture and languages otherwise link them to the other north-central Bornean groups rather than the distant Bidayuh. Their villages, moreover, were not built on steep mountainsides or hilltops, as were those of the Bidayuh, but rather in open areas near the water courses that were used to irrigate their wet rice fields. The Penan, Punan, Ukit, Bukat , and other nomadic hunter-gatherers of the interior are also land or mountain dwellers who typically lived in the headwaters of the rivers of central Borneo and, until recently, have made little use of boats. Their traditional architecture and way of life is also di¬erent from that of the Bidayuh, as well as from the various Kenyah or Kayan,withwhomthePenanof Sarawak(whospeaklanguages related to Kenyah) are usually allied. In the southern part of Borneo the hill- or mountain-dwelling peoples include the Dayaks of the Meratus Mountains, who are sometimes referred to as Bukat, a term generally meaning “hill.” The riverine dwellers are much more numerous and diverse. They include the Iban, the largest single ethnic group in Sarawak, most of whom dwelt along the middle and lower stretches of the rivers of central Sarawak, mainly below major rapids in the case of the larger rivers, as well as in the northern part of the middle region of the Kapuas in West Kalimantan. They also include the Kenyah, Kayan, and various Kajang groups, who, along with the Berawan, are sometimes referred to as the central Bornean peoples, as well as the Melanau, who have shifted to the coast but are closely related to the Kajang peoples of the interior. These groups dwelt both below and above the large rapids of many rivers of central and northeastern Sarawak and in contiguous areas of East Kalimantan. The riverside dwellers of the south include the Ngaju, Ot Danum, Ma’anyan, Benua’, and others.2 The geographical distinction between the mountaindwelling and riverine peoples is not absolute. The hilldwelling peoples are dependent on water for bathing, cooking, and drinking and therefore locate villages beside or near springs or streams that can be relied on throughout the year. But in the case of the Bidayuh at least, aside from the fact that such streams are usually not navigable, longhouses and other dwellings are not placed with any particular orientation to nearby water courses and are often built facing away from them (as can be seen, for example, in the village of Anah Rais in Padawan)—the opposite of the practice of the riverine groups. Similarly, the riverine groups also sometimes built their villages on hilltops or mountainsides at some distance from the river for reasons of security against attack by enemy groups.3 Although for a di¬erent reason, the Iban also occasionally built their longhouses on the upper, unnavigable reaches of streams, leaving...

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