Change and continuity in Dayak societies.

An Author's Workshop organized by the Southeast Asian Studies Program, University of Freiburg

University of Freiburg, 17-18 July 2015

Cathrin Arenz, Michaela Haug, Stefan Seitz und Oliver Venz

The international Author's Workshop "Change and Continuity in Dayak Societies" was held from 17th to 18th July 2015 at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Freiburg, Germany, within the framework of the Project "Grounding Area Studies in Social Practice" which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The goal of the workshop was to prepare an edited volume, which will explore recent processes of economic, political and social change in Borneo. While several publications already document these processes, most emphasize aspects of change and discontinuity and rather ignore the manifold continuities that can be observed. The contributors to this volume were thus invited to look at recent processes of transformation by paying equal attention to continuities as well as to discontinuities within Dayak societies, thereby allowing for a more balanced picture of continuity and change from various anthropological perspectives.

The two-day-workshop was opened with a key-note address by Prof. Dr. Stefan Seitz who provided a short overview of the development of research on Borneo societies putting a special emphasis on recent research undertaken by Freiburg scholars on the Dayak Benuaq. The workshop program then proceeded with eleven paper presentations organized into five panels. The papers provided valuable insights into change and continuity on diverse topics, such as the construction of ethnicity and identity, the dynamics of inter-ethnic conflicts, the significance of language in animism studies, religious practices, patterns of resource management, gender relations as well as images of the future (future-gazing) in contemporary Borneo. Participants and contributors to the edited volume are (in alphabetical order): Viola Schreer (University of Kent), Cathrin Arenz (University of Freiburg), Timo Duile (University of Bonn), Anna Funfgeld (University of Freiburg), Christian Gonner (GIZ Tiflis), Kristina GroBmann (University of Passau), Michaela Haug (University of Cologne), Anreas Hoing (BRINCC), Christian Oesterheld (Mahidol University International College), Richard Payne (Yale University), Irendra Radjawali (University of Bonn) and Oliver Venz (Universiti Malaysia Sarawak). In addition to the above presenters, the workshop was also attended by Prof. Dr. Lothar Kaser, Prof. Dr. Judith Schlehe, and Prof. Dr. Jurgen Rtiland. The forthcoming volume will also contain contributions by Isabell Herrmans and Anu Lounela (both University of Helsinki), who could not take part in the workshop due to current research activities. The above-mentioned book will be edited by C. Arenz, M. Haug, S. Seitz, and O. Venz and is expected to be published in 2016.