Jérôme Rousseau

Spirits Captured in Stone: Shamanism and Traditional Medicine among the Taman of Borneo

This work examines Shamanism and healing practices among the Taman of Borneo. It contributes to contemporary debates in cultural and medical anthropology, the anthopology of religion and magic, ritual, folklore, and Southeast Asian ethnography.

Hereditary stratification in middle-range societies

Hereditary stratification is usually explained in relation to economic complexity. However, the ethnographic evidence does not readily support such explanations. Examples from Southeast Asia, Melanesia, Polynesia, and the West Coast of Canada suggest that hereditary stratification derives from the social construction of leadership.

On estates and castes

ConclusionEstate systems can be found in societies ranging from pre-State socioeconomic formations such as that of the Northwest Coast Indians, to politically organized pre-capitalist societies such as ancient Rome and Medieval Europe. The features of each estate system vary accordingly; they fit the social structure, but they all share one trait in common: in estate societies, there is a direct homology between stratification and relations of production. The estates are closely aligned with the classes; they differ from classes primarily because they crystallize into a structure what is actually a political and economic process, and they provide an ideology which justifies inequality as a natural, inherited reality. (Timocracies are an exception, but they historically derive from estate systems based on descent.) Relations of inequality are evident, but they are presented in such a way that inequality seems inescapable. There is a clear consciousness of inequality, but little understanding of the possibilities of equality. In contrast, the caste system does not display this homology between stratification and relations of production. By using “estate” as an analytical concept, we are freed from the category mistake of simply defining castes, along with estates, not to speak of classes, as somehow equivalent systems of “stratification,” or “status”.I shall not bring up here the further question of the definition of rank, a term that has been radically misapplied by conventional anthropologists.

Central Borneo: Ethnic Identity and Social Life in a Stratified Society.

Introduction I: Orientation: The peoples of Central Borneo Colonial influence on Central Borneo II: Ethnicity: Ethnicity Ethnicity and culture: some definitions and queries Ethnic categories as taxonomies Ethnic identity Changes in ethnic ascription III: Social Organisation: The Social System at the Community Level: The individual, the household, kinship, and marriage Settlement patterns and groupings The village economy: Food production and related activities The economic system Stratification, inequality, and political structure General features of the stratification system Political and judicial process Social inequality Nomadic hunters-gatherers IV: Regional Organization: Relations between nomads and swiddeners Trade General relations between nomads and swiddeners Sedentarization Relations between Central Borneo agriculturalists Headhunting and warfare Relations with Malays Conclusion Appendices: The regions of Central Borneo Migrations Languages of Central Borneo References