Dekat dengan hutan, jauh dari kekuasaan: marjinalitas struktural Orang Bukat dan Punan. (Abstracts).

Ngo, Mering 1998, Dekat dengan hutan, jauh dari kekuasaan: marjinalitas struktural Orang Bukat dan Punan. Prisma 27(1): 61-74.

The Bukat and the Punan are hunters and gatherers who live in the headwaters of the Mendalam, Bungan, and Kapuas Rivers in the kabupaten Kapuas Hulu in West Kalimantan. The Bukat, who number only some 153 persons, inhabit one hamlet, while the Punan are spread over two. Over the last quarter of a century most of them have become either Roman Catholic or Protestant. These people have only lived in this area for the last eighty years or so, having been moved in from even more remote places by the Netherlands Indies colonial government which was keen to exact taxes on their main source of livelihood: the gathering of non-timber products in the forest. The Punan were especially famous for collecting birds' nests, which were exported to China. Since 1983 there has been some schooling available, but only to the third year of primary school. This is largely attributed to the fact that the children are not particularly interested. The problem facing these people is not confined to their own circumstances, but is one which is facing any number of such small groups scattered throughout the Indonesian Archipelago. Large timber companies, both legal and illegal, have moved in with the backing of outside capital and are destroying their habitat and sources of income. Taking account of the social structure of the people and the way they organize their lives, the author proposes a step-by-step plan which will enable them to continue their lives, yet put them in a position to resist some of the pressures emanating from the world beyond their own group (Rosemary Robson-McKillop).