118
diversified further, and they no longer depend on forest products, except for additional income. They also receive incentives from the government through JAKOA,
leading to an increased standard of living. The people in this group can easily gain
access to formal education, and based on our observation, a school bus passed
through one of the villages daily to transport students to school. The people in this
group are also less focused on informal education compared with formal education.
The fifth category consists of those who migrated to towns, cities, or Federal
Land Development Authority (FELDA) settlements. Their houses are built completely from bricks and are located in residential areas, where public facilities are
near and available. The level of hunting skills ranges from relatively low to none, as
they have left the forests and the traditional ways of living. Their source of food has
shifted to markets and retailers. They largely depend on businesses, and the private
and public sectors as their source of income. Additional income may come from
land rentals (if any), and not from trading forest products. The education they
receive is almost entirely formal, while informal education is limited between parents and children (if any). All of the lifestyles explained here are still practiced by
the Semoq Beri people in Pahang, but the numbers varied between villages and
district.
Wildlife Utilisation
Hunting Tools
As hunter–gatherers, the Semoq Beri people use their own specific tools to hunt
animals. The hunting tools are part of their heritage and traditional knowledge. The
tools are hand-made and using them requires extensive and detailed knowledge
from the elders. The hunting tools mostly used by the Semoq Beri people are blowpipes, locally known as sumpit, with poisoned darts, or damak beracun; spears, or
known as tombak or lembing; snares, or known as jerat; slingshots, or known as
lasik; and, fish cages, or bubu. The use of the hunting tools depends on the targeted
size and types of animals. Semoq Beri hunters usually use machetes (Fig. 8) as their
main weapon for self-protection and handling the wildlife while hunting in forests.
The Semoq Beri people practice a sustainable way of hunting, in which they kill
only certain targeted animals that are matured enough to be consumed, and they will
not disturb other animals.
The most common hunting tool used by the Semoq Beri people is the traditional
blowpipe, which is used to hunt all species of animals. The blowpipes are made
from bamboo and are used together with darts coated with the poisonous secretions
of certain trees, such as the ipoh tree (Antiaris toxicaria) (Kuchikura 1988). They
are silent and effective for the hunters to aim at arboreal animals, such as the longtailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis), white-thighed surili (Presbytis siamensis),
and dusky leaf monkey (Trachypithecus obscurus). A study by Kuchikura (1988)
M. A. B. Abdul-Latiff et al.
diversified further, and they no longer depend on forest products, except for additional income. They also receive incentives from the government through JAKOA,
leading to an increased standard of living. The people in this group can easily gain
access to formal education, and based on our observation, a school bus passed
through one of the villages daily to transport students to school. The people in this
group are also less focused on informal education compared with formal education.
The fifth category consists of those who migrated to towns, cities, or Federal
Land Development Authority (FELDA) settlements. Their houses are built completely from bricks and are located in residential areas, where public facilities are
near and available. The level of hunting skills ranges from relatively low to none, as
they have left the forests and the traditional ways of living. Their source of food has
shifted to markets and retailers. They largely depend on businesses, and the private
and public sectors as their source of income. Additional income may come from
land rentals (if any), and not from trading forest products. The education they
receive is almost entirely formal, while informal education is limited between parents and children (if any). All of the lifestyles explained here are still practiced by
the Semoq Beri people in Pahang, but the numbers varied between villages and
district.
Wildlife Utilisation
Hunting Tools
As hunter–gatherers, the Semoq Beri people use their own specific tools to hunt
animals. The hunting tools are part of their heritage and traditional knowledge. The
tools are hand-made and using them requires extensive and detailed knowledge
from the elders. The hunting tools mostly used by the Semoq Beri people are blowpipes, locally known as sumpit, with poisoned darts, or damak beracun; spears, or
known as tombak or lembing; snares, or known as jerat; slingshots, or known as
lasik; and, fish cages, or bubu. The use of the hunting tools depends on the targeted
size and types of animals. Semoq Beri hunters usually use machetes (Fig. 8) as their
main weapon for self-protection and handling the wildlife while hunting in forests.
The Semoq Beri people practice a sustainable way of hunting, in which they kill
only certain targeted animals that are matured enough to be consumed, and they will
not disturb other animals.
The most common hunting tool used by the Semoq Beri people is the traditional
blowpipe, which is used to hunt all species of animals. The blowpipes are made
from bamboo and are used together with darts coated with the poisonous secretions
of certain trees, such as the ipoh tree (Antiaris toxicaria) (Kuchikura 1988). They
are silent and effective for the hunters to aim at arboreal animals, such as the longtailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis), white-thighed surili (Presbytis siamensis),
and dusky leaf monkey (Trachypithecus obscurus). A study by Kuchikura (1988)
M. A. B. Abdul-Latiff et al.