Semang

Semang
Negrito / Pangan / Sakai
A group of Semang men in Gerik, Perak, Malaya, 1906
Total population
c. 4,596
Regions with significant populations
Malay Peninsula:
 Malaysia Approximately 2,000-3,000[1]
 Thailand 300[2]
Languages
Batek, Lanoh, Jahai, Mendriq, Mintil, Kensiu, Kintaq, Ten'edn, Malay
Religion
Animism and significant adherents of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, or Hinduism
Related ethnic groups
Negritos, Orang Asli

The Semang are a Negrito ethnic groups of the Malay Peninsula.[3][4] They are found in Perak, Kedah and Pahang of Malaysia.[5] During the colonial British administration, Orang Asli living in the northern Malay Peninsula were classified as Sakai.[6]

Lowland Semang tribes are also known as Sakai, although this term is considered to be derogatory by the Semang people.[7] They have been recorded to have lived here since before the 3rd century. They are ethnologically described as nomadic hunter-gatherers. See also Bajaus and Aetas.[8]

Ethnic groups

Map from Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula (1906). Blue = Semang; yellow = Sakai tribe; red = Jakun people.

Orang Asli ethnic groups that are classified as "Semang" by the Malaysian government.

Culture

A Semang man in Malaya, 1906

The Semangs live in caves or leaf-shelters that form between branches. A loincloth for the men, made of tree bark hammered out with a wooden mallet from the bark of the terap, a species of wild bread-fruit tree, and a short skirt of the same material for the women decorated with segments of bamboo in patterns to magically protect its wearer from disease, is the only dress worn;[10] some go naked although not customary.[11]

Scarification is practised.[12] Young boys and girls are scarified in a simple ritual to mark the end of their adolescence.[13] The finely serrated edge of a sugarcane leaf is drawn across the skin, then charcoal powder rubbed into the cut.[14]

They have bamboo musical instruments, a kind of jaw harp, and a nose flute.[15] On festive occasions, there is song and dance, both sexes decorating themselves with leaves.[16][17]

The Semang bury their dead on the same day itself with the corpse wrapped in mat and the personal belonging of the deceased kept in a small bamboo rack placed over the grave.[18] Only people of great importance, such as chiefs or great magicians are given a tree burial.[19]

They have used Capnomancy (divination by smoke) to determine whether a camp is safe for the night.[20]

In 1906, the Thai King Chulalongkorn adopted a Semang orphan boy named Khanung.[21]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Geoffrey Benjamin & Cynthia Chou (2002). Tribal Communities in the Malay World: Historical, Cultural and Social Perspectives. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. p. 36. ISBN 98-123-0167-4.
  2. ↑ "Kensiu in Thailand". Joshua Project. Retrieved 2016-11-10.
  3. ↑ "35 Map". The Andaman Association. 18 August 2002. Archived from the original on 20 November 2003. Retrieved 2017-11-23.
  4. ↑ "35. The Negrito of Malaysia: Semang". The Andaman Association. 18 August 2002. Archived from the original on 25 December 2002. Retrieved 2017-11-23.
  5. ↑ Nik Hassan Shuhaimi Nik Abdul Rahman (1998). The Encyclopedia of Malaysia: Early History, Volume 4. Archipelago Press. ISBN 981-3018-42-9.
  6. ↑ Ooi Keat Gin (2009). Historical Dictionary of Malaysia. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-6305-7.
  7. ↑ Hajek, John (June 1996). "Unraveling Lowland Semang". Oceanic Linguistics. 35 (1): 138–141. doi:10.2307/3623034. JSTOR 3623034.
  8. ↑ Fix, Alan G. (June 1995). "Malayan Paleosociology: Implications for Patterns of Genetic Variation among the Orang Asli". American Anthropologist. New Series. 97 (2): 313–323. doi:10.1525/aa.1995.97.2.02a00090. JSTOR 681964.
  9. ↑ Thonghom (2003). George Weber, ed. "36. The Negrito of Thailand: The Mani". The Andaman Association. Archived from the original on 20 May 2013. Retrieved 2017-11-23.
  10. ↑ C. Daryll Forde (2013). Habitat, Economy and Society: A Geographical Introduction to Ethnology. Routledge. ISBN 1-136-53465-2.
  11. ↑ Ivor H Evan (2012). Negritos of Malaya. Routledge. pp. 71–72. ISBN 11-362-6215-6.
  12. ↑ Wilfrid Dyson Hambly (1925). The History of Tattooing. Courier Corporation. ISBN 0-486-46812-7.
  13. ↑ Julian Haynes Steward (1972). Theory of Culture Change: The Methodology of Multilinear Evolution. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-00295-4.
  14. ↑ Alan Caillou (2000). Rampage. iUniverse. ISBN 0-595-09143-1.
  15. ↑ Terry Miller & Sean Williams, ed. (2011). The Garland Handbook of Southeast Asian Music. Routledge. ISBN 1-135-90154-6.
  16. ↑ Hugo Adolf Bernatzik & Jacques Ivanoff (2005). Moken and Semang: 1936-2004, Persistence and Change. White Lotus. ISBN 97-448-0082-8.
  17. ↑ Harry S. Ashmore (1961). Encyclopaedia Britannica: a new survey of universal knowledge, Volume 20. Encyclopaedia Britannica. p. 313.
  18. ↑ Joachim Schliesinger (2015). Ethnic Groups of Thailand: Non-Tai-Speaking Peoples. Booksmango. ISBN 1-63323-229-8.
  19. ↑ Robert W. Williamson (2010). The Mafulu Mountain People of British New Guinea. Lulu.com. ISBN 1-4092-2652-2.
  20. ↑ Scott Cunningham (2003). Divination for Beginners: Reading the Past, Present & Future. Llewellyn Publications. ISBN 0-7387-0384-2.
  21. ↑ Woodhouse, Leslie (Spring 2012). "Concubines with Cameras: Royal Siamese Consorts Picturing Femininity and Ethnic Difference in Early 20th Century Siam". Women's Camera Work: Asia. 2 (2). Retrieved 8 July 2015.

Further reading

  • Benjamin, Geoffrey (2013), Why have the Peninsular “Negritos” remained distinct?, Human Biology 85, p. 445–484, ISSN 0018-7143
  • Bernatzik, H. A., & Ivanoff, J. (2005), Moken and Semang: 1936–2004, persistence and change, Bangkok: White Lotus, ISBN 974-480-082-8
  • Gomes, A. G. (1982), Ecological adaptation and population change: Semang foragers and Temuan horticulturists in West Malaysia, Honolulu, Hawaii (1777 East-West Rd., Honolulu 96848): East-West Environment and Policy Institute
  • Human Relations Area Files, inc. (1976), Semang, Ann Arbor, Mich: University Microfilms
  • Mirante, Edith (2014), The Wind in the Bamboo: Journeys in Search of Asia's 'Negrito' Indigenous Peoples, Bangkok, Orchid Press
  • Rambo, A. T. (1985), Primitive polluters: Semang impact on the Malaysian tropical rain forest ecosystem, Ann Arbor, Mich: Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, ISBN 0-915703-04-1
  •  "Semang". New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
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