References: Orang Asli bibliography 2001 (49): Museum and archival collections

From: Lye Tuck-Po, ed. 2001. Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia: A Comprehensive and Annotated Bibliography, CSEAS Research Report Series No. 88. Kyoto: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University.References 1633–1675

Part 2. Non-Textual Materials

Orang Asli collections in archives, museums, and herbaria

With the exception of private collections, entries in this section are listed under institutional rather than collectors’ names. Notes obtained from collectors and researchers as noted, from publicity materials, or from archivists and curators in the institutions concerned.

1633. ABORIGINAL MUSEUM, Melaka. Orang Asli museum managed by the Museum Corporation of Melaka.

1634. AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, New York. “Semai technology”, with untitled (unpublished, unpaginated) catalogue and “Jah Hut technology” from Sg. Kol with catalogue titled Jah Hut Materia Medica. Assembled by Robert K. DENTAN, 1961–1963 — the Semai catalogue is a detailed study that includes much relevant behavioural information along with the material analyses. [GB #1677]

1635. ——. Semai material culture. Collection assembled at Sg. Woh and Sg. Rias in Perak by Robert K. DENTAN, 1991–1992.

1636. ARKIB NEGARA (National Archives), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Maintains all archival materials pertaining to Malaysia’s heritage, including materials copied from London’s Public Records Office. Catalogue details of documents pertaining to Orang Asli history and issues not available; materials do exist and could benefit from professional cataloguing. The majority of the Orang Asli entries are listed under various State Secretariat files, Departmental files, or the Federal Secretariat files. [LTP; CN]

1637. AUSTRIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE (Recordings Archive), Vienna. Cylinder recordings (Tonzylinder) of Semai, Temiar, Jahai, Kenta Bong, Kensiu, Lanoh, Tonga-Mos, and Patani Malay songs and “samples of the Semang language” made by Paul Schebesta in 1924–1925. Transferred to audiotapes as of 1987, when these recordings were tracked down by Shuichi Nagata (see #1706 no. 6). Current status not known.

1638. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY DUCKWORTH LABORATORY, Cambridge. Holds a collection of human skeleton remains excavated from various Peninsula sites by different workers, including the Gua Cha Hoabinhian and Neolithic specimens sent by Gale Sieveking in the 1950s and a Pangan skeleton collected by Skeat & Blagden. David BULBECK undertook a full inventory of the Laboratory’s Gua Cha material in 1996 and wrote up his findings and analysis in an unpublished report, The Gua Cha burials—Concordance, chronology, demography (submitted to the Laboratory; accessible at the Orang Asli Archives of Keene State College). [LTP]

1639. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY (HADDON LIBRARY). MacKenzie Private 85 — includes “English-Semang vocabulary, containing 75 romanized items”. [cited from Blagden #1698 by Ricklefs and Voorhoeve #1700]

1640. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. BAM Photograph collection numbering some 1400 prints gathered between the 1890s and 1980s by the BRITISH ASSOCIATION OF MALAYSIA. Part of the Royal Commonwealth Society photograph collection. The BAM collection (numbered BAM 1 to BAM 18) is separately listed from the main Royal Commonwealth Society collection and grouped under geographic areas and topics. Includes a few photos of Orang Asli. BAM 3/58 to 3/62, photographed by Leonard WRAY, are titled “hill dwellers, central Malaya” (most likely Semai). BAM 5 (on Negri Sembilan and Pahang) includes BAM 5/50 to 5/70, a set of original negatives (no prints) of Orang Asli scenes taken during the Emergency; uncaptioned, no precise indication of location; photographer(s) unknown. [LTP]

1641. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY (CUMAA). Has an extensive collection of Orang Asli archaeological, photographic, and material objects deposited by such workers as Skeat, Dentan, Evans, Noone, Williams-Hunt, etc. At time of this bibliography’s publication, the Museum was in the midst of reorganizing its archaeological and photographic collections, and many objects are not easily accessible. The full catalogue is available online. [LTP]

1642. ——. Btsisi’ technology. Material culture collection assembled from Sg. Judah by Robert K. DENTAN, 1974–1975.

1643. ——. Material culture collection and personal papers bequeathed by I[vor] H. N. EVANS. Includes his unpublished memoirs, The years behind me: An autobiography (1948), which will also be accessible at the Royal Anthropological Institute, London.

1644. ——. Material culture collection assembled by W. W. SKEAT. The collection is vast and spans Skeat’s career in Malaya, from his early days working in the District Office in K. Langat to the period of the 1899–1900 Cambridge Expedition. It seems that he collected anything that could be of archaeological and ethnological interest, and this includes many items of Malay and Orang Asli material culture that are no longer in use. [LTP]

1645. CENTER FOR ORANG ASLI CONCERNS (COAC), Subang Jaya, Selangor. Has an extensive collection of Orang Asli photographs and documents, including unpublished materials. Founded 1989.

1646. FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, Chicago, Il. Btsisi’ sculpture and ethnomalacology. Material culture collection with untitled catalogue assembled from Sg. Bumbun and Sg. Judah by Robert K. DENTAN, 1974–1975.

1647. “GOMBAK MUSEUM”. Properly named the Orang Asli museum (Museum of Aboriginal Affairs?), located at KM 20 Jalan Gombak, Gombak, Selangor; administered by JHEOA. Situated in the compound of the Gombak Hospital, 20 KM from the centre of Kuala Lumpur. Now the major museum repository of Orang Asli artefacts; its collection includes those items formerly housed at the National Museum in Kuala Lumpur. [LTP]

1648. KEENE STATE COLLEGE Mason Library, Keene, New Hampshire. Orang Asli Archives. Opened in 2000 with a Historical Archives grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research — repository of Orang Asli materials. Includes unpublished documents, films, tapes and other recordings relevant to Orang Asli peoples and cultures; audiovisual materials; journalistic material; and the ethnographic fieldnotes and other papers of persons conducting research or associated with Orang Asli communities and studies. Accessible online. [RG]. For more information, see: RG’s “Archive for aboriginal Malaysians”, Anthropology News vol. 42 no. 6 (2001), p. 20.

1649. MEANS, Gordon P. n.d. Photograph collection (private). An extensive photographic collection taken by Paul Means of the Orang Asli in the pre-war period — includes photographs from 1934 to 1940, taken in the course of the Means family’s travels by outboard and dugout canoe to Sengoi Semai settlements on the Jelai and Telom rivers and their tributaries and to settlements near Kampar, Tapah, the Cameron Highlands and K. Betaur. Means also collected ethnographic materials for H. D. Noone, which may have been included in the records (now lost) that Noone buried at the outbreak of the war to prevent their use by the Japanese to locate the British who went underground. As many of Means’ own papers were lost at the time of his death, this photograph collection lacks detailed documentation. [GM]

1650. MUSÉE DE L’HOMME, Paris, France. Photographs and artefacts from the expedition of Louis CARRARD and Count de CHASSELOUP-LAUBAT, 1930s to 1940s — Carrard, who worked for the tin mining company Société des Étains du Kampar, lived for several decades in Kampar (roughly 1930s to 1960s). With Count de Chasseloup-Laubat, he travelled to Semang and Senoi settlements in Batang Padang, Sg. Telom, Menson, and Sg. Lengkat (on the Jelai Kecil in Pahang). Both took photographs; there are about 40 prints at the photo archives (Photothèque du Musée de l’Homme). However, they did not provide detailed ethnography or even an account of their travels in the Peninsula. Collection information is mostly from Carrard’s letters to Museum staff in the 1930s. The ethnographical collection, comprising 115 artefacts and registered as M. H. n° 34.163, was collected in the same places in 1933 or 1934. Some of the prints and three negatives were presented by the Count to the Museum at different periods from 1935 to 1942; others were sent directly from Malaya by Carrard; the collection is classified as “contrat régie N°70” [RKD; Antonio Guerreiro]. See also Gurreiro, Jaunay, and Lorre #396.

1651. MUSEUM FÜR VÖLKERKUNDE, Berlin, Germany. Material objects and MS. collection assembled by Hrölf VAUGHAN-STEVENS, 1889–1896. The material objects are impressive and demonstrate an extraordinarily high quality of workmanship. The written materials consist of six large bound volumes of letters and notes, about half of which are correspondence between Vaughan-Stevens and the Museum. Remainder consists of ethnographic summaries of his findings among Orang Asli peoples. [KME in #1706 no. 2]

1652. NUFFIELD BLOOD GROUP CENTRE, Royal Anthropological Institute, London WC1. Field notes and blood grouping protocols from the Ivan POLUNIN and P. SNEATH study of Southeast Asian blood group distribution (#1251). Details and current status of the collection are not known.

1653. OXFORD UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Oxford. MS. collection of W[alter] W[illiam] SKEAT — Skeat, who was disgruntled by the cavalier attitude displayed towards his materials collection by Cambridge (#1644), which at the time was undergoing museum expansion, bequeathed his professional collection of manuscripts, proofs, and diaries to Oxford. Notes from his 1899–1900 Cambridge Expedition are available on microfiche. [LTP; Gullick #397]

1654. OXFORD UNIVERSITY RHODES HOUSE LIBRARY. Maintans a sizeable collection of documents relating to the administration of colonial Malaya (including personal diaries and manuscripts of colonial officers). Pearson & Wainwright (#1699) list the following: (1) “Certificate for aboriginal headman”, 1911 census of Malaya; (2) The diaries and papers of John E. Kempe (1911–1936), mainly for the period when he was a District Officer in Perak, including “report on Sakai census, 1921”; and (3) G. C. Dodwell papers (#1495). [LTP; ASB]

1655. PERAK STATE MUSEUM, TAIPING. The oldest museum in the country, founded 1883 at the suggestion of the British Resident, Hugh Low. Still holds a collection of Orang Asli artefacts as well as a document collection. Between 1913 and 1932, museum director I. H. N. Evans made this a center of research on Orang Asli; H. D. Noone, who joined the museum as Field Ethnographer in 1931, succeeded Evans as director.

1656. PEABODY MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, Yale University, New Haven, CT. Austronesian Aslian technology. Material culture collection with untitled catalogue assembled by Robert K. DENTAN, 1961–1963.

1657. ——. Semelai material culture collection from Tasek Bera area, Pahang assembled by Rosemary GIANNO, 1980–81.

1658. PUBLIC RECORDS OFFICE (PRO), Richmond, UK. Documents from this vast repository have been cited in Orang Asli publications. National archives in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore may also have copies of materials. [LTP]

1659. RADIO TELEVISION MALAYSIA (RTM), Kuala Lumpur. As any radio listener in Malaysia will know, RTM holds a large collection of musical field-recordings made by their own Orang Asli staff since the early 1960s. In the past, they have been willing to make copies of these available in exchange for other private recordings that they felt they could use. [LTP; GB #1677]

1660. RIJKSHERBARIUM, Leiden. Herbarium specimens of rattan species, collected by Wanda AVÉ during fieldwork with Semai in 1982 and 1983, with collection numbers. Duplicate sets deposited at KEW GARDENS and the UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA.

1661. ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY LIBRARY, London. MS. collection titled Maxwell 29 from W. E. MAXWELL (Maxwell Bequest), 1929 — contains Comparative vocabularies of Malay and Sakai, Semang, Jakun, Mentra, etc. [cited by Ricklefs and Voorhoeve #1700]

1662. SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND ASIAN STUDIES Library (Archives and Manuscripts Division), University of London. MS. collection of C[harles] O[tto] BLAGDEN. Includes personal papers, working papers, vocabularies and word lists, and proofs of the Comparative vocabulary of aboriginal dialects.

1663. SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND ASIAN STUDIES, University of London. Aerial photographs of the Peninsula, Cambodia, Burma, Singapore, Thailand, and French Indo-China (dated 1943 to 1949) assembled by P. D. R. WILLIAMS-HUNT. Elizabeth Moore, Curator — Williams-Hunt served as an aerial photograph interpreter during World War 2; built up a collection of aerial photographs of archaeological and general interest from the archives held in the Combined Photographic Interpretation Centre in Singapore. In addition to the photographs, the collection consists of maps at a scale of 1:250,000, some flight plans, and various of Williams-Hunt’s documents. Represents the oldest known freely available regional aerial photographic record of South-East Asia. The Malaysian photographs are the most comprehensive in the Collection; the British Royal Air Force flew nearly all during the Emergency, as part of Operation Firedog that was designed to identify possible activity of Communist insurgents. Inventory of some 5000 photos undertaken by Moore in the 1980s. Negatives of the collection are in storage at SOAS; print sets are available at National Archives in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore; not yet digitized [LTP]. Notes from a personal communication from Elizabeth Moore (1999) and from: Duncan McGregor, et al., “Mapping the environment in South-East Asia: The use of remote sensing and geographical information systems”. Pp. 190–224 in Michael J. G. Parnwell and Raymond L. Bryant (eds.) Environmental change in South-East Asia: People, politics and sustainable environment. London: Routledge, 1996.

1664. SINGAPORE BOTANIC GARDENS, Singapore. Semai ethnobotany. Herbarium collection assembled at Batu Berangkai and K. Jinter by Robert K. DENTAN, 1961–1963.

1665. SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION National Museum of Natural History (Department of Anthropology), Washington, D. C.

1666. ——. Orang Asli material culture collection, especially relating to resin technology assembled by Rosemary GIANNO, 1987–1988 — specimens from a comparative survey of cultural knowledge and use of resins among Orang Asli. Collected from and at: Chewong (Kg. Gandah), Kensiu (Lubuk Legong), Mah Meri (Sg. Judah), Orang Hulu (Kg. Bkt. Serok, Kg. Buluh Nipis, Kg. Bukit Janing), Semai (Kg. Chang, Pos Gedong, Sg. War), Semaq Beri (Cahabuk), Temiar (Kg. Temakah), Temoq (Kg. Kemomol), Temuan (Bkt. Lanjan, Kg. Lubuk Bandong, Kg. Sawah) [RG]

1667. ——. Artefacts from the “Chow Pal”, Negritos of Trang, So. Thailand, Jakun of Endau-Rompin, and possibly the Orang Laut and Notes, drawings, and MSS. assembled by W[illiam] L[ewis] ABBOT, 1899–1902 — many identification tags (with collection information) provided by Abbot were lost; others have decomposed and are difficult to read. [ASB]

1668. ——. Negritos of Southern Thailand (1960s material culture). 79 specimens acquired in 1969 from John H. BRANDT. The collection is in storage at the Smithsonian Museum Support Center, Suitland, MD.

1669. SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION National Museum of Natural History Herbarium, Washington, D. C. Orang Asli ethnobotanical collection, especially relating to resin assembled by Rosemary GIANNO, 1987–1988 — specimens from a comparative survey of cultural knowledge and use of resins among Orang Asli, collected from the same communities listed in #1666. [RG]

1670. UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA Department of Botany Herbarium, Kuala Lumpur. Traditionally it has been pro forma for any researcher collecting plant specimens in the Peninsula to deposit copies at this Herbarium and/or that of the FOREST RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF MALAYSIA (FRIM) in Kepong. As such, the list of Orang Asli-related collections provided below is unlikely to be exhaustive. Whether ethnobotanical notations attached to individual specimens provide enough linguistic and practical information (e.g., of group and plant names, collection locations, and use-values of plants) to determine the socio-cultural significance of the plants, however, is not known. [LTP]

1671. ——. Semai and Btsisi’ ethnobotany. Herbarium collection assembled from Semai of U. Geruntom and Btsisi’ at Sg. Judah by Robert K. Dentan, 1974–1975.

1672. ——. Sahom Semai ethnobotany. Herbarium collection assembled by Robert K. DENTAN at Icek (Sg. Rias, Perak), 1992.

1673. ——. Semelai ethnobotanical collection from Tasek Bera area, Pahang assembled by Rosemary GIANNO, 1980–81, with duplicate set deposited at the HERBARIUM, PEABODY MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, Yale University, New Haven, CT.

1674. ——. Batek ethnobotany. Herbarium collection assembled by Ray PHILLIPS on the Aring, Kelantan, in March 1972, with voucher numbers and ethnobotanical notations provided by K Endicott.

1675. ——. Batek ethnobotany. Herbarium collection assembled by Benjamin STONE on the Lebir, Kelantan, in April 1976, with voucher numbers and ethnobotanical notations provided by Kirk Endicott. [KME]