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.

The Penan Tribe and the Issues Faced

The Penan are a nomadic aboriginal people living in Sarawak. A statistical analysis have showed that out of the 10000 penan people, only about 200 nomadic tribes people are left( (BBChome, 2008). The Penan are a gentle and softly spoken people with a highly egalitarian society and little gender division. Although certain tasks are reserved for men and others for women, there is no obvious sexual inequality, and neither sex exercises coercion over the other. Both men and women are gentle and soft-spoken There's a headman, and respect is given to elders but there is no real hierarchy, just a strong communal bond, which manifests itself in a meticulous process of sharing. (BBChome, 2008). Basic necessities like food gathered from hunting and crop and the main source of nutrients but living in a jungle makes one prone to all kinds of diseases and infection. the clan seems to be living is a malicious environment but yet they strive and survive for generation. is it possible that man in order to survive needs just the basic qualities without any technological  background The world of the Penan is threatened. Their homeland in the Malaysian state of Sarawak is undergoing one of the highest rates of logging on earth. The destruction of the forest is forever altering the lives of the Penan and the other indigenous peoples of Borneo.Some Penan are also threatened by a massive dam project. The proposed Bakun dam will flood 70,000 hectares of land, displacing indigenous peoples and wildlife and destroying even more rain forest. I would hope to discuss these issues on how they effect the Penan nomadic tribe in the Sarawak region as not many are left who still believe in the goddess of being one with nature

Introduction

Survival of the fittest ...... something that is boggling one's mind when we think about how the lower class tribes men and women operate in sustaining their life with just all the food and the survival issues. In the western world were calories, carbs, proteins, healthy life style is calculated and followed upon  . It is surprising that the tribal people can actually live a  life without taking any of these information into condition. My blog is about the well being, the survival of the Penan tribe and how they try to communicate their major problems to the present world. the Penan tribe have faced a lot of difficulties in the recent years and my main concern is to bring upon these difficulties with solutions.