The Life of the Longhouse An Archaeology of Ethnicity [Paperback]

The remarkable longhouses of Borneo remain mysterious. This book describes life within them, and puts them in their historical and ethnographic context.For two centuries, travellers were amazed at the massive buildings found in central Borneo, housing hundreds of people under one roof. Why this mode of residence was adopted in a region of very low population density remains a mystery. Peter Metcalf provides an answer by integrating the oral histories of communities with colonial records. The key factor was a trade system stretching all the way to China, via the ancient trading city of Brunei. The elite goods that made their way upriver in exchange for rare and valuable jungle products shaped the political and religious institutions of longhouse communities.For two centuries, travellers were amazed at the massive buildings found in central Borneo, housing hundreds of people under one roof. Why this mode of residence was adopted in a region of very low population density remains a mystery. Peter Metcalf provides an answer by integrating the oral histories of communities with colonial records. The key factor was a trade system stretching all the way to China, via the ancient trading city of Brunei. The elite goods that made their way upriver in exchange for rare and valuable jungle products shaped the political and religious institutions of longhouse communities.For two centuries, travellers were amazed at the massive buildings found along the rivers that flow from the mountainous interior of Borneo. They concentrated hundreds of people under one roof, in the middle of empty rainforests. There was no practical necessity for this arrangement, and it remains a mystery. Peter Metcalf provides an answer by showing the historical context, using both oral histories and colonial records. The key factor was a pre-modern trading system that funneled rare and exotic jungle products to China via the ancient coastal city of Brunei. Meanwhile the elite manufactured goods traded uprló$