Chewong
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 […]
Improvements in Kadar Marketing
Indigenous tribal communities in Kerala are learning from an NGO how to improve their earnings from the products they fabricate. An article on October 31 in The New Indian Express described the work of the NGO, the River Research Centre, with three Muthuvar, Malayar and Kadar villages in the Vazhachal Forest of Kerala. The tribal […]
Volunteers Help a Chewong Village
Volunteers from a Malaysian company and an NGO provided assistance recently to the Chewong village at Kuala Gandah. According to a news post last week in The Sun Daily, a Malaysian English-language news source, personnel from 7-Eleven Malaysia, a branch of the international chain of convenience stores, and people from the organization NGOHub Asia cooperated […]
Chewong Mahouts at Kuala Gandah
A news website called The Malaysian Insight published a photo story last week about the Chewong mahouts who work with the elephants at the Kuala Gandah National Elephant Centre. The brief text that accompanies the 10 photos indicates that for 10 years, the Chewong have been trained as elephant keepers and mahouts at Kuala Gandah, […]
Altruistic Values of the Orang Asli
An anthropologist who has studied the Orang Asli for 40 years advises Malaysians to expose themselves more effectively to their lifestyles and cultures in order to better understand them. Professor Alberto Gomes argues that societies such as the Semai, Batek, and Chewong are not respected as they should be by the broader population of Malaysians—the […]
Chewong Adapt to Modernity [anthology chapter review]
Perhaps the most basic question for anyone investigating the peaceful societies phenomenon is how they are able to maintain their peacefulness in the face of global economic and social pressures. Some answers are suggested by the Chewong, who still avoid anger, violence, and competition—and cherish the nonviolent interactions of their egalitarian society—despite the many challenges […]
Chewong Fruit Gardens Help Wildlife [journal article review]
Researchers affiliated with the University of Nottingham observed at the beginning of February that Southeast Asian rainforests can be food deserts for wildlife, though the Chewong are making a difference for terrestrial mammals. The reason, the scholars reported in a journal article, is that the forests do not produce an abundance of fruits. The investigation […]
Frog Woman and Her Moral Code [anthology chapter review]
The Chewong believe that their forest is composed not only of humans but of a wide range of sentient beings, all of which live by rules that prescribe correct behavior. Their myths, songs, and stories describe their forest world, the ways they understand it, and how those understandings develop the rules that guide the behavior […]
Rules for Maintaining a Peaceful Society [journal article review]
In 1977, a tree fell during an evening thunderstorm on a Chewong camp in a central Malay Peninsula forest, killing and injuring several people. Anthropologist Signe Howell arrived shortly after the tragedy had occurred, but the Chewong dismissed her thought that it was bad luck for them—they had no conceptions of good or bad fortune. […]
Chewong Choices: Modern or Traditional Values [anthology chapter review]
Chewong elders are often dismayed when animals that are killed in the forest are not shared in the village, a result of the economic and social changes occurring in their society. Signe Howell describes those changes, and the ways the Chewong are coping, in a recently published article. Starting in 1977, Howell spent 18 months […]
