What is Brunei Society? Reflections on a Conceptual and Ethnographic Issue

Abstract

Introduction Although a general survey of the ethnographic literature on Brunei Darussalam is urgently needed so that we might satisfactorily assess what has been accomplished and what remains to be done, I do not propose to present an overview here. In the course of the discussion I shall indicate some of the strengths and weaknesses of the anthropology of Brunei, but, in the main, I shall be concerned with both a conceptual and an ethnographic issue which I believe is of crucial importance to Brunei studies. The discussion also leads me to propose certain matters for future anthropological investigation both in Brunei and neighbouring territories. The issue which I have in mind is certainly not particular to Brunei. It has been confronted by anthropologists who have undertaken fieldwork in complex multi-ethnic situations in other parts of South East Asia; it is especially well illustrated in Edmund Leach's study of the political systems of Highland Burma (1964) and in J6rome Rousseau's analysis of Central Borneo society (1990; see also King, 1993). However, in the case of Brunei it is of special interest because of the long history of this sultanate and the fact that Brunei Darussalam is the only surviving, politically independent Malay Islamic monarchy in South East Asia (Braighlinn, 1992: 18ff.). The sultanate therefore provides us with the most direct example of a sociopolitical system whose constituent elements, both ideological and non ideological, demonstrate processes of, on the one hand, transformation and innovation and, on the other, continuity and the celebration of tradition. The subject to be addressed is that of the conceptualization, definition, and description of Brunei society in the context of an established political system dominated by one ethnic group. In investigating the matter of what we mean by Brunei society, I think we are able to examine and re-order the separate ethnographic studies of various communities in parts of north-west Borneo in quite interesting ways. Therefore, it allows us a point of