Kejadian Manusia: An "histoire" of Malay/Semai Culture Contact

Abstract

The AA. analyze the telling of a Malay story by a non-Malay indigene (Orang Asli) about the creation of humankind and the founding of peninsular Malaysia. They assert that this storytelling is neither a monolithic account of Malaysian history nor morely an idiosyncratic Orang Asli myth. Rather, it is a socially constructed history that incorporates Malay Islamic elements with a covert critique of the political relations between Malays and Orang Asli. In this way, folklore telling becomes an act of resistance. The AA. hypothesize that the story represents an adaptation to the cultural and physical impositions on Orang Asli of both Islam and Malay culture, consistent with other Orang Asli nonviolent adaptations throughout history.