Senoi

The Senoi (also spelled Sengoi and Sng'oi) are a group of Malaysian peoples classified among the Orang Asli, the indigenous peoples of Peninsular Malaysia. They are the most numerous of the Orang Asli and widely distributed across the peninsula. The Senois speak various branches of Aslian languages which in turn a branch of Austroasiatic languages, many of them are also bilingual in the national language, Malaysian language (Bahasa Malaysia).

"Sakai (tribe)" redirects here. For the "Sakai people" (Orang Sakai) of the Indonesian Minangkabau people branch, see Sakai people.

Senoi
Sengoi / Sng'oi / Sakai
Sakai of southern Perak showing face-paint and nose-quill, 1906.
Total population
99,585 (2010)[1]
Regions with significant populations
 Malaysia
Peninsular Malaysia60,000[2]
Languages
Senoic languages (Semai, Temiar), Southern Aslian languages (Semaq Beri, Mah Meri, Semelai, Temoq), Che Wong, Jah Hut, Malay
Related ethnic groups
Lanoh people, Semelai people, Temoq people

Status and identity

The Malaysian government classifies the indigenous people of Peninsular Malaysia as Orang Asli (meaning, "indigenous peoples"). These are 18 officially recognized tribes under the auspices of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs (Jabalan Kemajuan Orang Asli, JAKOA). They are divided into 3 ethnic groups namely, Semang (Negrito), Senoi and Proto-Malays, in which consists of 6 tribes in each. Such a division is conditional and is based primarily on the convenience of the state to perform administrative functions. The terms "Semang", "Senoi" and "Proto Malays" do not refer to specific ethnic groups or their ethnic identity. For the Orang Asli, they are of external origin. Each of the tribes is completely independent and does not associate itself with any wider ethnic category of the population.

The three ethnic group division of the Orang Asli was developed by British colonizers in the early twentieth century according to early European racial concepts. Due to the fact that the three ethnic groups differ in language, appearance (physical characteristics) and the nature of their traditional economy, Negritos (short, dark, curly) were considered the most primitive race, Senois (taller, with lighter skin, wavy black hair) as more advanced, and Aboriginal Malays (tall, fair-skinned, with straight hair) were perceived almost on an equal footing with Muslim Malays. Later, concepts that are deemed racist were rejected and the categories of Semang, Senoi and Proto-Malay (a Malay term that replaced "Aboriginal Malays") became markers of different models of cultural traditions and specific socio-economic complexes. The Senoi model, in particular, provides for the existence of autonomous communities, whose main means of subsistence are based on slash-and-burn agriculture, which on a small scale is supplemented with hunting, fishing, gathering, and the processing and sale of forest products. In this respect, they differ from the Semangs (hunter-gatherers) and the Proto-Malays (settled farmers).

The Senoi people are also known as Sakai people among the locals.[3] For the Malay people, the term sakai is a derogatory term in Malay language and its derivative word menyakaikan means "to treat with arrogance and contempt". However, for the Senoi people mensakai means "to work together".[4] During the colonial British administration, Orang Asli living in the northern Malay Peninsula were classified as Sakai and to a point later it was also a term to refer to all Orang Asli.[5] It is often misunderstood that Senoi people who have abandoned their own language for the Malay language are called the Blandas, Biduanda or Mantra people.[6] The Blandas people are of the Senoi race from Melaka.[7] The Blandas language or Bahasa Blandas, which is a mixture of Malay language and Sakai language;[8] is probably used predating the first arrivals of the Malay people in Melaka.[6]

Tribal groups
Orang Asli settlement map (1906); areas of settlement of the Senoi (Sakai) people are marked by a yellow line.

Senoi is the largest group of Orang Asli, their share is about 54 percent of the total number of Orang Asli. The Senoi ethnic group includes 6 tribes namely, the Cheq Wong people, the Mah Meri people, the Jah Hut people, the Semaq Beri people, the Semai people and the Temiar people. They are closely related to the Semelai people, one of the tribes classified as part of the Proto-Malays. There is another smaller tribal group, the Temoq people, which ceased to exist in the 1980s when the predecessor of JAKOA included them in the ethnic group.

The criteria used to identify people as Senoi are inconsistent. This group usually includes tribes that speak Central Aslian languages and engage in slash-and-burn agriculture. These criteria are met by the Semai people and Temiar people; the two largest Senoi peoples. But the Senoi also include the Cheq Wong people, whose language is of the North Aslian languages group, the Jah Hut people, whose language occupies a special place among the Aslian languages on its own, and the Semaq Beri people are speakers of the Southern Aslian languages. Culturally, the Senoi also include the Semelai people and Temoq people, who are officially included in the Proto-Malays. At the same time, the Mah Meri people, who according to the official classification are considered to be Senoi, are engaged in agriculture and fishing and are culturally closer to the Malays. The last three peoples speak South Asian languages.

  • Cheq Wong people (Chewong, Ceq Wong, Che 'Wong, Ceʔ Wɔŋ, Siwang) are semi-Negroes living in three or four villages on the southern slopes of Mount Benom in remote areas of western Pahang (Raub District and Temerloh District). The ethnological classification of the Cheq Wong people has always been problematic. The name "chewong" is a distortion of the name of a Malay employee in the Department of Hunting, Siwang bin Ahmat before the Second World War period, which the British huntsman misunderstood as the name of an ethnic group.[9] The traditional Che Wong economy was dominated by jungle produce gathering. Their language belongs to the Northern Aslian languages group, it is related to the Semang's languages.
  • Temiar people (Northern Sakai, Temer, Təmεr, Ple) are the second largest Senoi people. They are inhabited by 5,200 km of jungle on both sides of the Titiwangsa Mountains, inhabiting southern Kelantan and northeastern Perak. As a rule, they live in the upper reaches of rivers, in the highest and most isolated regions. In the peripheral areas of their ethnic territory they maintain intensive contacts with neighboring peoples. The main traditional occupations are slash-and-burn agriculture and trading.
  • Semai people (Central Sakai, Səmay, Səmey) is the largest tribe not only of the Senoi ethnic group, but also of all Orang Asli. They live south of the Temiar people, in separate groups, also on both slopes of the Titiwangsa Mountains in southern Perak, northwestern Pahang, and neighboring areas of Selangor. The main traditional occupations are slash-and-burn agriculture and trading, they are also engaged in the cultivation of commercial crops and labour work. They live in different conditions, from mountainous jungles to urban areas. The Semai people have never had a strong sense of shared identity. Mountain dwelling Semai people refers to their fellow lowland relatives as "Malays"; and they in turn, refers to their fellow mountain dwelling relatives as "Temiars".
  • Temoq people (Təmɔʔ) is a little-known group which currently is not officially recognised by JAKOA, although in the past it was included in its list of ethnic tribes. They are included together with the Semelai people's population, their western neighbours. They live in Pahang, along the Jeram River in northeastern of Bera Lake. Traditionally they are nomads and from time to time engaged in agriculture.
  • Mah Meri people (Hmaʔ MərĪh, other obsolete names are Besisi, Besisi, Btsisi', Ma' Betise', Hma' Btsisi') live in the coastal areas of Selangor. In addition to agriculture, engaged in fishing. Among all of the Senoi peoples, the Mah Meri people were most affected by the Malay people. However, they are afraid to live in urban areas, and their commitment to their own customary lands remains very strong.

In the past, there must have been other Senoi tribes. In the upper reaches of the Klau River west of Mount Benum, the mysterious Beri Nyeg or Jo-Ben are mentioned, speaking a language quite closely related to Cheq Wong people. The Jah Chong tribe, which could speak a dialect very different from the Jah Hut people was also reported. Several dialects associated with Besis (Mah Meri people) existed in the Kuala Lumpur area. Perhaps there were other tribes speaking Southern Aslian languages and live in areas that currently inhabited by the Temuan people and Jakun people, speakers of Austronesian languages.[10]

Government development programmes are aimed at the rapid clearing of jungles on mountain slopes. As a result, modern areas of Senoi are becoming increasingly limited.

Demography

The Senoi tribes live in the central region of the Malay Peninsula[11] and consist of six different groups, namely the Semai, Temiar, Mah Meri, Jah Hut, Semaq Beri and the Cheq Wong and have a total population of about 60,000.[2] An example of a typical Senoi (Central Sakai) people, the purest of the Sakai are found in Jeram Kawan, Batang Padang District, Perak.[12]

The available data on the population of individual Senoic tribes are as follows:-

Year1960[13]1965[13]1969[13]1974[13]1980[13]19821991[14]1993[14]1996[13]2000[Note 1][15]2003[Note 1][15]2004[Note 1][16]20052010[1]
Semai people11,60912,74815,50616,49717,789N/A28,62726,04926,04934,24843,89243,927N/A49,697
Temiar people8,9459,3259,92910,58612,365N/A16,89215,12215,12217,70625,72525,590N/A30,118
Jah Hut people1,7031,8932,1032,2802,442N/AN/A3,1933,1932,5945,1045,194N/A4,191
Cheq Wong people182268272215203250[17]N/AN/A403234664564N/A818
Mah Meri people1,8981,2121,1981,3561,389N/AN/A2,1852,1853,5032,9862,8562,200[18]2,120
Semaq Beri people1,2301,4181,4061,6991,746N/AN/A2,4882,4882,3483,5453,345N/A3,413
Semelai people[Note 2]3,2381,3912,3912,874[Note 3]3,096[Note 3]N/A[Note 3]4,775[Note 3]4,103[Note 3]4,103[Note 3]5,026[Note 3]6,418[Note 3]7,198[Note 3]N/A[Note 3]9,228[Note 3]
Temoq people[Note 2]5152100N/A[Note 3]N/A[Note 3]N/A[Note 3]N/A[Note 3]N/A[Note 3]N/A[Note 3]N/A[Note 3]N/A[Note 3]N/A[Note 3]N/A[Note 3]N/A[Note 3]
Total28,85628,30732,90535,50739,03025050,29453,14053,54365,65988,33488,6742,20099,585

These data come from different sources, therefore, are not always consistent. JAKOA figures, for example, do not take into account of Orang Asli living in cities that do not fall under JAKOA's jurisdiction. Differences in the calculation of Semai people and Temiar people sometimes make up about 10-11%. A significant number of Orang Asli now live in urban areas and their numbers can only be estimated, as they are not recorded separately from the Malays. However, this does not mean that they were assimilated into the Malay community.

Distribution of Senoi peoples by state (JHEOA, 1996 census):-[13]

PerakKelantanTerengganuPahangSelangorNegeri SembilanMelakaJohorTotal
Semai people16,299919,04061926,049
Temiar people8,7795,994116227615,122
Jah Hut people3,1503853,193
Cheq Wong people4381126403
Mah Meri people2,16212742,185
Semaq Beri people4512,0372,488
Semelai people2,4911351,4606114,103
Total25,0826,08545117,2153,1931,483132153,543

Language
A Senoi man (in the background) serving a hiker (foreground) as a guide at Mount Korbu, Perak, Malaysia.

The Senois speak various sub-branches within the Aslian languages of the Austroasiatic languages. They are related to the Mon-Khmer languages ​​spoken in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Nicobar Islands, which is part of India. The Aslian languages ​​are part of the southern Mon-Khmer languages, along with the Mon language and possibly the Nicobarese languages. The closest to them is the Mon language.

The Aslian languages are divided into four branches namely the Jahaic languages (Northern Aslian languages), the Semelaic languages (Southern Aslian languages), the Senoic languages (Central Aslian languages) and the Jah Hut language. Among the Senoi people, they consists of speakers from all four sub-group languages. The two largest peoples, the Semai people and the Temiar people, speak the Central Aslian languages group, with which they are usually associated with the Senoi. The Jah Hut language was previously also included in the Central Asian languages, but new historical and phonological studies have shown it to be in an isolate position within the Aslian languages.[19] Almost all Senoic and Semelaic branches are spoken by Senoi peoples such as the Semaq Beri language, Semelai language, Temoq language and Mah Meri language which belongs to the Southern Aslian languages group. However, with the exception of the Lanoh people (also known as Sakai Jeram people)[20] which is classified as Semang but speak a branch of Senoic languages[21] and Semelai which is classified as Proto-Malay but speak a branch of Semelaic languages. The Cheq Wong language belongs to the North Aslian languages group, a language group spoken by the Semang; which makes it is very different from the other languages ​​of this sub-ethnic group.[10]

Despite the obvious common features between the Aslian languages, the fact of their common origin from one language is not firmly established.[19]

History
A Senoi family, 1908.

Their ancestors are believed to have arrived from southern Thailand about 4,500 years ago.[22]

During the Malayan Emergency, the guerrilla war fought from 1948 to 1960 a small fighting force, the Senoi Praaq was created, which is now part of the General Operations Force of the Royal Malaysia Police.[23]

Lucid dreaming

Kilton Stewart, who had travelled among the Senoi before the Second World War wrote about the Senoi in his 1948 doctoral thesis[24] and his 1954 popular book Pygmies and Dream Giants. This work was publicised by parapsychologist Charles Tart and pedagogue George Leonard in books and at the Esalen Institute retreat center, and in the 1970s Patricia Garfield describes use of dreams among Senoi, based on her contact with some Senoi at the aborigine hospital in Gombak, Malaysia in 1972.[25]

Later researchers were unable to substantiate Stewart's account and in 1985 G. William Domhoff argued[26][27] that the anthropologists who have worked with the Temiar people report that although they are familiar with the concept of lucid dreaming, it is not of great importance to them, but others have argued that Domhoff's criticism is exaggerated.[28][29] Domhoff does not dispute the evidence that dream control is possible, and that dream-control techniques can be beneficial in specific conditions such as the treatment of nightmares: he cites the work of the psychiatrists Bernard Kraków[30][31] and Isaac Marks[32] in this regard. He does, however, dispute some of the claims of the DreamWorks movement, and also the evidence that dream discussion groups, as opposed to individual motivation and ability, make a significant difference in being able to dream lucidly, and to be able to do so consistently.

See also
  • Dream Theory in Malaya

Notes
  1. 2000 and 2003 data do not include persons living outside the settlements and centers designated for Orang Asli
  2. Classified as Proto-Malay but linguistically they are closely related to other Senoic tribes
  3. Temoq people are included in the composition of the Semelai people

Bibliography
  • Kirk Endicott (2015), Malaysia's Original People: Past, Present and Future of the Orang Asli, NUS Press, ISBN 978-99-716-9861-4

References
  1. Kirk Endicott (2015). Malaysia's Original People: Past, Present and Future of the Orang Asli. NUS Press. ISBN 978-99-716-9861-4.
  2. "POPULATION STATISTICS"
  3. Ivor Hugh Norman Evans (1968). The Negritos of Malaya. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-07-146-2006-0.
  4. Salma Nasution Khoo & Abdur-Razzaq Lubis (2005). Kinta Valley: Pioneering Malaysia's Modern Development. Areca Books. p. 355. ISBN 978-98-342-1130-1.
  5. Ooi Keat Gin (2009). Historical Dictionary of Malaysia. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-6305-7.
  6. Sandra Khor Manickam (2015). Taming the Wild: Aborigines and Racial Knowledge in Colonial Malaya. NUS Press. p. 124. ISBN 978-99-716-9832-4.
  7. Walter William Skeat & Charles Otto Blagden (1906). Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula: Preface. Introduction. pt. 1. Race. pt. 2. Manners and customs. Appendix. Place and personal names. Macmillan and Company, Limited. p. 60. OCLC 574352578.
  8. The Selangor Journal: Jottings Past and Present, Volume 3. 1895. p. 226.
  9. Kirk Endicott (2015). Malaysia's Original People. pp. 1–38.
  10. Geoffrey Benjamin (1976). "Austroasiatic Subgroupings in the Malay Peninsula" (PDF). University of Hawai'i Press: Oceanic Linguistics, Special Publication, No. 13, Part I. pp. 37–128. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  11. Map Archived 18 November 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Keen State College
  12. Ivor Hugh Norman Evans (1915). "Notes on the Sakai of the Ulu Sungkai in the Batang Padang District of Perak". Journal of the Federated Malay States Museums. 6: 86. |contribution= ignored (help)
  13. Nobuta Toshihiro. "Living On The Periphery: Development and Islamization Among the Orang Asli in Malaysia" (PDF). Center for Orang Asli Concerns, Subang Jaya, Malaysia, 2009. ISBN 978-983-43248-4-1. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  14. Colin Nicholas (2000). The Orang Asli and the Contest for Resources. Indigenous Politics, Development and Identity in Peninsular Malaysia (PDF). Center for Orang Asli Concerns & International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. ISBN 87-90730-15-1. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
  15. "Basic Data / Statistics". Center for Orang Asli Concerns (COAC). Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  16. Alberto Gomes (2004). Modernity and Malaysia: Settling the Menraq Forest Nomads. Routledge. ISBN 11-341-0076-0.
  17. Signe Howell (1982). Chewong Myths and Legends. Council of the M.B.R.A.S. p. xiii.
  18. Selangor Tourism (5 April 2014). "Celebrate Mah Meri's cultural diversity". Sinar Harian. Retrieved 10 November 2016.
  19. Geoffrey Benjamin (2012). Stuart McGill & Peter K. Austin (ed.). "The Aslian languages of Malaysia and Thailand: an assessment" (PDF). Language Documentation and Description, vol. 11. ISSN 1740-6234.
  20. Hamid Mohd Isa (2015). The Last Descendants of The Lanoh Hunter and Gatherers in Malaysia. Penerbit USM. ISBN 978-98-386-1948-6.
  21. "Linguistic Circle of Canberra. Publications. Series C: Books, Linguistic Circle of Canberra, Australian National University, Australian National University. Research School of Pacific Studies. Dept. of Linguistics". Pacific Linguistics, Issue 42. Australian National University. 1976. p. 78.
  22. "ECONOMIC PATTERNS OF NEOLITHIC LIFE" Archived 15 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine, The Encyclopedia of Malaysia
  23. Chang Yi (24 February 2013). "Small town with many LINKS". The Borneo Post. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  24. "Magico-Religious Beliefs and Practices in Primitive Society - a Sociological Interpretation of their Therapeutic Aspects", LSE
  25. Creative Dreaming, Patricia Garfield, Ph.D.
  26. In The Mystique of Dreams: A Search for Utopia Through Senoi Dream Theory
  27. G. William Domhoff (March 2003). "Senoi Dream Theory: Myth, Scientific Method, and the Dreamwork Movement". University of California Santa Cruz. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
  28. Revisiting the Senoi Dream Theory:The Bad Logic of Sir G. William Domhoff, Strephon Kaplan-Williams
  29. Do Senoi practice "Senoi dream theory"?", G. William Domhoff
  30. B. Krakow, R. Kellner, D. Pathk, and L. Lambert, "Imagery rehearsal treatment for chronic nightmares," Behaviour Research & Therapy 33 (1995):837-843
  31. B. Krakow et al., "Imagery rehearsal therapy for chronic nightmares in sexual assault survivors with posttraumatic stress disorder: A randomized controlled trial," JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association 286 (2001):537-545
  32. Isaac Marks, "Rehearsal relief of a nightmare," British Journal of Psychiatry 133 (1978):461-465.

Further reading
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