In 1894, British colonial official Chares Hose described the Penans, a nomadic hunter-gatherer people living in the headwaters of the rivers flowing through the ancient forests of the Kingdom of Sarawak — now known as Borneo. Hose described something the people of Europe hadn’t known for several millennia: a way of life predating the advent of agriculture.
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“They are great hunters, being able to move through the jungle without making the slightest noise, and have a name for the slightest living thing, which name is known even by the small boys,” Hose wrote, his admiration betraying a propensity to underestimate the people of a culture far older than he dared dream. “They are wonderfully expert in the use of the blowpipe, shooting their poisoned arrows with such precision that is must be said they seldom miss even the smallest subject aimed at.”
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Hose’s awe would have been better reserved for the ability of the Penans to collectively resist the concentrated effort of the government to destroy their way of life, most recently when loggers set forth in the 1980s to invade their territory in the name of profit.
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