Materials for The Study of Kejaman-Sekapan Oral Tradition (Chapter 10: Epilogue)

The primary aim of this study has been to bring together a range of ethnographic material on a Kajang group, and to focus in particular on two types of oral narrative. These compriseone performed in sung verse and the other spoken in a complex prose form, both of which were recorded in May 1984. Such a project amounts to groundwork; and so this Epilogue is brief. With the exception of the extensive work of Benedict Sandin and Bishop A.D. Galvin, ethnographic studies in Sarawak have touched on oral tradition mainly as a source of evidence for the historical background to current ideas of ethnic identity and inter-ethnic relations (e.g. Nicolaisen, 1977-78; Guerreiro, 1987; Maxwell, 1987; Sellato, 1989; 21-22 et passim: also Sandin, 1994). These studies have been valuable in lending an historical dimension to ethnographic material; and indeed the use of oral sources in historical reconstruction needs to proceed with due respect for the special nature of the material and the social context in which it is revealed (Vansina, 1961/1973: 18,186). Where ethnography in Borneo has concerned the arts, it has focused its documentary efforts on pictorial or material representation (e.g. Hose and Shelford, 1906; King, 1985)as well as on folklore and poetry. The analytical treatment of verbal arts has, however, been less prominent, perhaps because careful investigation is linguistically demanding and periods of field study have been comparatively short. There is a need for more studies of the kind represented by Masing (1989) and Prentice (1981).