Batek
Vaccinating the Orang Asli
Around the world, people are asking good questions about the different vaccines that are now available for preventing COVID-19—whether to get vaccinated, how and where to get the shots, and so on. The Orang Asli of Malaysia are as confused as many others so the popular Malaysian news website Free Malaysia Today on March 7 […]
The Batek Flee the Pandemic
Last year, the Batek village of Kuala Koh became infected with a mysterious illness that ultimately killed 15 villagers and hospitalized over 100 others. The mystery illness turned out to be measles. Over a year after the height of that epidemic, the question for today is how are the people of the village reacting to […]
Laughing with the Batek
The Batek firmly oppose laughter yet they sometimes laugh together anyway, feeling guilty about engaging in the forbidden activity. Their prohibition against laughing is an important part of a complex of beliefs regarding the natural and supernatural agents that surround them in their Malaysian forest homes. Alice Rudge, an anthropologist who is employed by the […]
Gender Equality among the Batek
It is not too soon to begin celebrating the centenary of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees American women the right to vote. Already, our news media are reporting on local celebrations of the growing gender equality in the U.S. that the amendment symbolized, which will presumably culminate on the actual anniversary […]
Challenges to the Batek
Bernama, the news agency of the government of Malaysia, produced two stories about the Batek last week, the first of which reported a distressing incident. The news service report on November 3 concerned a herd of wild elephants that had destroyed the water system for a village. Over 300 residents of Kampung Aring 5, in […]
Review of the Batek Tragedy
The Guardian sent reporter Hannah Ellis-Petersen to Kuala Koh to investigate the tragedy that nearly destroyed the Batek village. Was it just an outbreak of measles that took down so many people starting about four months ago? Are the government analyses that it was just an outbreak of measles accurate or are officials covering up […]
Mocking Wildlife and Other Eccentric Behaviors
My wife and I live in a clearing in a Pennsylvania forest and, like most forest dwellers, we have interesting relationships with animals and birds. Take the Carolina wren family, whose antics have puzzled and charmed us for the past six months. In April, they brought their fledglings down to our porch from their nest […]
Wrapping Up the Batek Measles Epidemic
Since the mystery illness that affected the Batek village of Kuala Koh was finally diagnosed as a measles epidemic several weeks ago, the flood of news stories in the Malaysian press has slowed to a trickle. A few of them provide helpful updates and useful insights, however. On June 24, the New Straits Times published […]
Batek Illness Becomes Deadly
Back in early April, reports came out about a mysterious illness that was afflicting the Batek of Kuala Koh: some young people were becoming sick and having breathing problems. The state health authorities in Kelantan attempted to provide cover for themselves by blaming the Batek for not being willing to take transportation to clinics to […]
Pepper, Chalk, and a War of Words
That classic authority on the English language the Oxford English Dictionary (the OED) defines a “war of words” as a journalistic phrase meaning “a sustained conflict conducted by means of the spoken or printed word.” Such a “war” had erupted three weeks ago in news stories about the causes and cures for a skin disease […]
