Foraging in tropical rain forests: The case of the penan of Sarawak, East Malaysia (Borneo)

Abstract

Bailey et al. (1989) and Headland (1987) have recently proposed hypotheses stating that human foragers are unable to live in undisturbed tropical rain forests without some reliance on cultivated foods. The present discussion considers these hypotheses, as well as some of the evidence by which they have been tested. Four conceptual problems in the way these hypotheses have been formulated are identified: (1) assumptions about the relationship between key features of tropical forest ecosystems and human subsistence potential, (2) in-consistencies in the definition of “pure foraging,” (3) adherence to a dichotomy between foraging and agriculture, the result being that conscious and unconscious effects of exploitation on the demographic parameters of key resources is ignored, and (4) problems in defining the significance of ecotones. I consider the case of Penan hunter-gatherers of Borneo, a population which, by virtue of their reliance on the sago palm Eugeissona utilis, contradicts the conclusions of Bailey et al. and Headland. I consider salient aspects of Penan reliance on Eugeissona, and describe how Penan exploitation of this resource may positively effect its availability. This case is seen to provide a challenge to the hypotheses of Bailey et al. and Headland, not only in the extent to which it contradicts their conclusions but, more significantly, in what it reveals about the assumptions upon which their hypotheses are based. This points to the need for greater precision in the definition of future hypotheses about foraging in tropical forests.