A Sleeping Tiger Ethnicity, Class, and New Dayak Dreams in Urban Sarawak

by Boulanger, Clare L.

• ISBN13: 9780761843764
• ISBN10: 0761843760
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-10-21
• Publisher: UPA

Summary

A Sleeping Tiger is a rare book-length treatment of urbanization among Dayaks and also offers a fresh perspective on ethnicity, class, and the context in which they function to the benefit of some and the great detriment of others. Although readers may never have heard of Dayaks (the indigenous, largely non-Muslim peoples of Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo), they have surely witnessed the impact of ethnicity and class on the world today. Dayaks have hardly been spared this impact. Formerly forest dwellers in the main, Dayaks have been migrating en masse into Sarawak's towns and cities, but despite their better efforts to succeed in the urban environment, they feel demeaned and disadvantaged relative to the other ethnic groups of Malaysia. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Clare L. Boulanger, a cultural anthropologist, carried out dissertation research in Malaysia in 1988-89 and returned to the country for the Sarawak project covered in this volume, Dr. Boulanger is a Professor of Anthropology at Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colorado

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
List of recurrent acronyms and Malay words	p. xiii
Introduction: Ethnicity, class, and dreams of dignity	p. 1
The construction of ethnicity in Sarawak-from Brunei to Malaysia	p. 17
Malaysia and the "race race" to mdoernity	p. 45
Malaya and Sarawak-a long, slow pas de deux	p. 65
Fieldwork in the urban jungles of Borneo	p. 83
Dayaks-losing the "race race"?	p. 101
"Fighting in a different way": In defense of being Dayak	p. 121
Conclusion: The impossible dream?	p. 143
Postscript: The general elections of 2008	p. 153
Bibliography	p. 155
Index	p. 169
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