Tenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

Scholars in the field of comparative religion have identified a number of markers typical to myths and beliefs that may stem from these. Opinions certainly vary, but there is general agreement regarding these basic features, one of which is that most religious systems place mythological events in a realm that predates the time structure in which humans live. Hunter-gatherer belief systems are also typically linked to totemism and shamanism (Guenther 1999), even if these systems vary markedly between and across hunting and gathering groups, making generalized statements of uniformity problematic, with reference to hunters and gatherers. While the term, ‘shamanism’, tends to be used to cover a diversity of systems, beliefs, and religious practices, there is an implicit idea of a medium or ritual expert (ibid). This paper wishes tentatively to challenge this implicitness (of shamanism), along with the idea of an expert (ritual or otherwise) as being inevitable. It is proposed, on the basis of Bornean Penan orature (in the form of stories collected over several years), that Penan religion prior to their settlement has no connection with shamanism. Penan religion, on the contrary, seems a highly anarchic system of beliefs that is connected with an abstract world wrought with spirits, ghosts, kinds of (in-)appropriate behavior, temptation, and dislocation from the Penan host communities, among others. On the basis of Penan oral data, this presentation attempts to inform and, modestly, advance the debate around Penan traditional religious beliefs, and some of its features.