Survival skills of the Penan Tribe

 The Penan tribe have lived through generations  with just some of basic requirement to sustain life like food, clothes and company, but lack the intellectual capacity to harness their mind set from a rural life to a more globalized developed society as a census in 2000 showed that about 40% of the Penan tribe have not attended school (unknown, 2000). So basically, the tribe ensures their survival through the nomadic   roots of life such as agriculture and hunting and gathering. The main type of agriculture aspect that is followed by the Penan tribe is the swidden cultivation method or slash-and-burn agriculture, in this type of agriculture land is cleared by burning, so that crops can be grown. After a few years when the soil fertility is reduced, the land is abandoned and a new area is cleared while the old land recovers its fertility (Research Machines, 2009). This farming is mainly done to provide with rice and cassava.

http://www.survivalinternational.org/films/swiddenfarming video of   swidden farming

Their other source of food is the hunting and gathering , which is just hunting animals and birds for food.  They hunt with spears and dogs to get their food, the main type of food they look for in the hunt is the bearded pig, the sambar deer and the barking deer. (Richard B. Lee, 2001)

The Penan tribe also embark themselves in making  Sago from the palm Eugeissona utilis, this is the primary source of carbohydrate in the Penan tribe.

These are the 3 main factors of life in the Penan region but the a problem arises that is there enough plantation area to do large scale agriculture like swidden cultivation as a census in the Belaga  district , a district only occupied by the Penan tribes that the after the 500,000 hectare  forest conversion to forest and oil palm plantation by the various companies and government, the Penan tribe are only left with 3 acres or 1.2 hectors each which is not enough land that can be used for their swidden farming methods.( unknown, 2000). This makes the life style of the Penan tribe even more difficult as due to the lack of area for rice and cassava cultivation, the Penan tribes must then produce more dough from the sap of the sago tree. This cause even more usage of the tree , with even little time for the tree to harvest it self again and form the cycle, the destruction  of the trees  and other vegetation sources will cause the fauna in that region to move to other densely populated areas causing the Penan tribe to dwell in to a life of less proteins  causing their life span to shorten if no other sustainable source of food is found.