Batek of Malaysia

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Batek of Malaysia Ciera Diaz ANT 101 Anthony Jerry December 10, 2012 Batek of Malaysia The Batek people of Malaysia are an indigenous society that lives in the rainforest. The ever changing ways of the world have caused the Batek people to move and adjust their lives because of other encroaching on their land and their way of lives. This society is a very old and self relying society that lives off of the land and each other. This group of people is a great way of showing human decency and kindness for one another and a great way to coexist and help each other. In learning about other cultures and their ways of living can only help give more examples of what we might be doing wrong and what we might be doing right in our own culture. The Batek culture and society has been around many years and continues to exist so they must be doing something right and must have a great structure to allow for their society to strive. “The Batek are one of Malaysia's 133,000 Orang Asli, which simply means 'original people' in Malay” (Beswick, 2010). The Batek people of Malaysia are considered a band society. They live in camps that typically consist of five or six nuclear family. The size of the band is also dependent upon the sustaining capacity of the environment. The nuclear family consists of a mother, father, and their children. The families that band together to form this smaller societies typically share interests that impel them to converge together. They organize group activities such as fishing but these are typically informal. It is found that the Batek will occasionally tolerate a lazy person since the spouse of that individual tries to compensate for the laziness. The Batek see themselves a forest people and it is hard to see a village from even feet away when the forest is still green and full. They like to be away from people and use the

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