R. A. Cramb, 2007, Land and Longhouse: Agrarian Transformation in the Uplands of Sarawak.

Wadley, Reed L.

R. A. Cramb, 2007, Land and Longhouse: Agrarian Transformation in the Uplands of Sarawak. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Monograph Series, No. 110. Copenhagen, Denmark: NIAS Press, 422 pp.

Over 20 years ago, in my first semester of graduate school, I wrote a research paper for Jim Eder's Ecological Anthropology seminar looking at the variable success of some Southeast Asian societies to negotiate a place for themselves in the global economy (before "globalization" became one of the latest buzz words); my prime example of "success" was the Iban, and I worked in rather vague notions about their participation in the market economy as being central. I got decent marks for the paper, but never felt fully satisfied with it (and for good reason). Thankfully, Rob Cramb's new book, Land and Longhouse, takes on the issue so much more thoroughly and insightfully, showing how the critical factors of Iban (specifically Saribas) culture, social organization, and historical circumstance come together to create the dynamic, vibrant, and resilient society that many of us have come to know, love, and respect. Cramb's book is where important research activities come together--long-term field research, attention to often excruciating detail (e.g., rice and pepper yields: what the late Bob Netting referred to as "counting potatoes"), and a solid sense of what's important in the big picture--to give usa valuable, reliable, and ultimately useful account of Saribas Iban livelihood transformation.

Cramb sums up the essential variables thus: (1) "the resilience and cohesiveness of the longhouse community during the process of agrarian transformation;" (2) "distinctive social and cultural norms and attitudes ... forged in the context of migration, warfare, and pioneering agriculture;" (3) "a timely redirection of energies" allowing localized economic development; and (4) the Brooke practice of indirect rule which encouraged engagement with both market and government on local terms (pp. 379-380). But this work is not merely a specific case study, as Cramb places his research within the broader context of agrarian transformation of the uplands throughout Southeast Asia. He shows that the Saribas case is part of a larger set of tensions and trends involving the increased diversification of livelihoods as households and communities have responded through different configurations of intensification, commercialization, and migration in the face of population growth, the expansion of the global market economy, and increased government involvement in local affairs. In the conclusion, he compares the strategies of other folks in Sumatra, Central Sulawesi, and southern Mindanao (the latter based on Cramb's more recent research), highlighting these tensions among state, community, and market.

Land and Longhouse is divided up into three main parts that serve to flesh out these issues: (1) the ethnographic and historical background of the Iban generally, and the pre-colonial agrarian system of the Saribas specifically; (2) transformation of that system under Brooke rule, as the White Rajahs extended their influence over Iban political activities and livelihoods through land laws and the use of courts to settle land disputes; and (3) the rapid transformation after World War II under the transitional colonial government and post-independence Malaysia. Throughout the account, Cramb compares the variation seen in his long-term focus on two communities in the Spak area of the upper Saribas--Batu Lintang and Nanga Tapih. The contrasts that emerge in these two cases, as their residents respond to the changes facing them, provide an invaluable guide to the variation we have all too long neglected in our studies of Iban culture and society.

For this brief review, rather than provide a chapter-by-chapter summary of the book, I will make a few specific comments instead, as I can provide no higher endorsement than "Read the book!" First off, within the context of traditional swidden practices, Cramb shows convincingly the speculative nature of Freeman's conclusions on Iban pioneering swiddening, particularly his harsh judgment of krukoh farming (i.e., farming a plot for two seasons in succession). Despite there being little to no evidence of permanent damage to forest regeneration under supposedly "prodigar" farming practices (p. 93), the label has stuck over the decades, and this on the opinion of one social anthropologist and carried forth by others, some with an outright agenda to end sustainable swiddening.

One strength (among many) of the book, alongside the explicit historization, is Cramb's use of colonial era court records; these flesh out the general historical trends and provide concrete evidence of profound livelihood changes. This is especially important regarding Iban land rights as communities and households have sought to navigate through redefinitions of their territorial rights, the persistent issue of migration as a solution to land shortage, and how all that has affected those rights. This in particular reveals the overwhelming importance Iban have placed on maintaining the integrity of their traditional menoa, and the relative success they have had in doing so despite continuai government and market pressures to end such supposedly "outmoded" institutions.

Cramb provides a rather d isconcerting account of the expansion of the"clientist" state that Sarawak has become through its incorporation into Malaysia, with its strong emphasis on "economic development" as manipulated by networks of patrons, clients, and their own clients further down the line. The high-modernist state comes to most Iban with the face of government programs and departments such as SALCRA (Sarawak Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority); the Iban whom I study across the border in West Kalimantan seem downright neglected (indeed they have been until recently) compared to the government initiatives and the like aimed at their cousins in Sarawak. Cramb spells out the incredibly profound implications these programs have had on Saribas livelihoods--the expansion of commercial crops, participation in private plantation schemes, titling and leasing of household land, and most fundamentally the decline and eventual abandonment of swidden rice farming. Yet despite all this bad news, Cramb makes sure to emphasize that the Iban have not been passive victims but rather have remained very much their own agents, constrained, to be sure, by more powerful interests but their own agents nonetheless. That is, of course, what we have come to expect of the Iban.

(Reed L. Wadley, Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri-Columbia)