Land use based on secondary fallow forests created by the Iban, natives of Borneo, plays an important role for biodiversity conservation. It has been maintained and supported by the Iban’s rules on natural resources. Previous studies clarified, for example, that the holder of land and the holder of fruit trees on it do not necessarily coincide; that there may be several holders of a fruit tree through inheritance; and that a land is held not by only one person, but also simultaneously by the community. Therefore, a single individual cannot determine conversion of land use. This prevents land with use based on secondary forests from being developed rapidly and on a large scale for mono-crop plantation, for example.

This paper, however, clarifies that today’s tenure-rules of the Iban on natural resources, such as lands, forest products and fruit trees differ in several details from those reported previously. Those differences are brought about by changes of the rules toward ‘modern’ tenure institutions. For example: coincidence of the holder of land and fruit trees on it; possession of fruit trees by only a single person; and stronger holding rights of lands by individuals. The background to the changes includes the increase of value of the natural resources as commodities. It is also clarified that the rules are not always the same among different Iban longhouse communities, or even among persons living in the same longhouse community.

In recent decades, the Iban’s rules have changed, and the changes may ease the progress of conversion of their lands, for example to mono-crop plantation, or to more profitable land use, but at the same time to land use bringing about serious biodiversity loss. Their institutions and society, however, have mechanisms which make the rules change gradually. Therefore, in their lands, developments will not progress in as short a time and in as large a scale as developments by corporate enterprises. The Iban’s rules, though they have been changing, still retain mechanisms to conserve biodiversity.

Along the border of northern Thailand, there exist Yunnanese Muslim migrants’ communities. In China, Yunnanese Muslims are referred to as Hui. Despite the heterogeneity of Yunnanese Muslim society, little attention has been paid to the variation of migratory patterns and the factors which pushed migrants to settle in northern Thailand. This paper will focus on the migratory history of the Yunnanese Muslims from the middle of the nineteenth century to the latter half of the twentieth century based on oral histories gathered through intensive fieldwork, in relation to their transformation of the trans-border trade between Yunnan province and northern Thailand.

Before the middle of the twentieth century, only a small number of Yunnanese Muslims lived in northern Thailand, most of whom were engaged in trans-border trade. They normally went to Thailand in the dry season, carrying hand-woven cottons, felts, silks, medicines, and household goods from Yunnan and returning home with ivory and traditional medicines, such as pilose antlers and bear gall bladders. Enriched by the flourishing trade, the Yunnanese Muslims built two mosques in the city of Chiang Mai in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: Ban Ho mosque and Chang Phuek mosque.

However, in the interviews I found that the Yunnanese Muslims who had settled as traders before the middle of the twentieth century accounted for only small portion of the present population in this area. Rather, most of them settled there after the latter half of the twentieth century. The reasons for migration changed drastically due to the civil turmoil in China, KMT (Kuomintang) aggression and socio-political instability in Burma. These factors also influenced their way of living, especially trade.

The Photo Database for Integrated Area Studies (PDIAS) is a web-based system composed of a geo-referenced database and its interface for field photographs taken by researchers in Asian and African area studies. It works as a platform for collecting resources from researchers and providing them to PDIAS users. The collected data now number more than 700 items, and the number of unique accesses through the Internet averages 19.97 per day over the most recent 180 days, which is twice as high as that of the first 180 days. PDIAS shows the maps of Asian and African regions on which clickable points linked to each field photograph are plotted. Users can view field photographs with associated information by clicking points over several reference maps such as topography, land cover and population. We are planning to provide an open source geo-referenced photograph viewer based on the PDIAS, which will help both researchers and network users to understand areas by accumulating a variety of site-specific information.

This essay aims to explore the concept of “shame–honor” in Bugis–Makassar society in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The concept of “shame–honor” is known locally as siri’ and is noted by scholars to be one of the most important cultural values for the Bugis–Makassar people. In previous research, siri’ has been mostly discussed in male-female relationships, especially in regards to elopement or as the motive for numerous murders. Little research has been conducted about the role of siri’ in other forms of social relationships in Bugis–Makassar society.

This essay attempts to clarify and show the importance of “maseddi siri’ ” (“unite in siri’ ”), a phrase that encourages people to join together in groups to defend their honor. Using historical facts and newspaper articles, the essay will show how these action groups can form at different levels (kinship, neighborhood, transmigrants, guerillas, ethnic groups, and kingdoms) for different purposes. The paper will also show that people in Bugis–Makassar society can “unite in siri’ ” according to their specific situations.

Tanabe Akio

Yasushi Kosugi. The Islamic World: Heritage, Rebirth and Contemporary Dynamics. Nagoya: Nagoya University Press, 2006, xviii, 790, 114p.

Yamamoto Hiroyuki

Takeshi Nakajima. Judge Pal. Tokyo: Hakusuisha, 2007, 309p.

Shimojo Hisashi

Coffee and Vietnam: Native Societies and Coffee Growing in the Central Highlands of Vietnam

Yatsuka Haruna

Watu Wa Miti: People Named after Plants

Kataoka Miwa

Voice of the Forest and Sound of the Village

Ito Chiharu

New “Hometowns” Realized through Relationships with Migrants