Response to Antonio Guerreiro.

Antonio J. Guerreiro tries in a somewhat clumsy way to compare my brief report in BRB 2001 with the well-known, ridiculous Tasaday scoop "discovered" in the Philippines. A clarifying response is therefore called for.

Guerreiro wrote, (Zahorka's) "report is actually focused on the alleged use of a cave as permanent residence by Basap Selatan there as late as 1994." This is incorrect. 1994 was the year of my last visit to Teluk Sumbang, the first was back in 1976. In 1994 the Basap group confessed they lived in the cave until "about two years ago when our houses were constructed" high above Teluk Sumbang Bay, therefore in 1992 or earlier. That is clearly stated in my report. I also wrote: "The cave is only used when men are on hunting trips in the area."

My description of the former living conditions in the cave is a record of an interview with Ibu Bojilbn, baptized Maria. If Guerreiro really "during (his) recent visit to the same community" was at those houses above the bay, why did he not interview Ibu Bojilbn or other people on the cave issue? He writes: "... during my recent visit to the same community I did not meet any genuine 'cave dwellers.' In fact, I felt that the article (of Zahorka) gave a biased impression of the Orang Darat's (Basap Selatan) current [emphasis added] situation...." And further: "I find it highly unlikely that there are fulltime Basap cave-dwellers living in the area." No wonder, Guerreiro came simply ten years or so too late, and he evidently twisted my words. I did not describe the "current situation" when Guerreiro was there, but that of 1992 and before.

There is another aspersion that Guerreiro casts on me that I must clear up, too. It is the traditional loincloths the four hunters are wearing in my photographs which he suspects I have induced them to wear. I never saw nor spoke to these men before the photos were taken. After my 1976 and 1978 visits, I was in Kampong Barn again in 1994. The village's name was now Tembudan Bangun. There I had the opportunity to join the trip of a couple of pendetas/evangelists of the Protestant GKII (KINGMI) church to the Basap village above Teluk Sumbang. Among them were Penias Lasung and Damus Singa, all Lun Dayeh Dayak. I was not involved in the planning or organizing of this trip. They told me one of them had baptized these people "in the cave about two years ago."

I don't think that these clerics were interested in having these men remove their shirts while they hunted. Obviously, they had shorts and shirts in their houses. However, during hunting with the traditional blowpipe and poison darts they obviously preferred less expensive clothing. From their hunting they returned with a wild boar to provide us with food. One of them, Dayun, I photographed later in the village, still wearing his loincloth, and Bujaam and his son Bujampur guided me next day, still wearing their loincloths, to a huge Antiaris toxicaria tree, the latex of which is processed into dart poison. Basap women did not wear bras or blouses at that time while staying at home, except when entering the presbytery.

The pendetas/evangelists of GKII were from Tembudan Bangun, not from Batu Putih as Guerreiro says, and had been very successful in baptizing Basap people. Batu Putih is a completely Muslim village. Another doubtful piece of information that Guerreiro reports is that: "The two groups ... settled circa the early 1960s in the hills near the village of Teluk Sumbang...." I traveled with the Talisayan camat's boat to Teluk Sumbang in 1976 and left by a jeep on the logging road to Teluksuleman. Except for the wooden buildings in the bay belonging to the then Japanese logging company, there were no houses, let alone villages in the area at the time. Aerial photographs of the company's complete concession area showed only forests. I cannot remember having seen any clearings or ladang at all.

I have the impression that Guerreiro did not thoroughly read my report, or that he used my article only as a peg to hang his lengthy essay on, which reads mostly like an account of government resettlement programs, or to publish his numerous book references, very few of which he refers to in his text.

Herwig Zahorka

Bogor, Indonesia