1st Edition

Origins, History and Social Structure in Brunei Darussalam

Edited By Victor T. King, Stephen C. Druce Copyright 2021
    228 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    228 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This wide-ranging book re-evaluates in detail the early history and historiography of Brunei Darussalam, the origins of the sultanate, its genealogical foundations and the structure and administration of Brunei society.

    Contributors draw on the seminal work of Donald E. Brown whose major monograph on the sultanate was published in 1970 and marked the beginnings of advanced sociological, anthropological and historical research on Brunei. Among the key issues addressed are status systems, titles and social stratification, Chinese sources for the study of Brunei, Malay oral and written histories and traditions, the symbolism, meanings and origins of coronation rituals, previously unknown sources for the study of Brunei history and the processes of incorporation of minority populations into the sultanate. Contributions by leading scholars of Brunei, Borneo and the wider Indonesian-Malay world, both from within Brunei Darussalam and beyond, address some central preoccupations which Brown raised and which have been the subject of continued debate in Austronesian and Southeast Asian studies.

    A novel contribution to the study of the history of Brunei Darussalam, this book will be of interest to scholars of Southeast Asian history, Asian history, Colonial and Imperial history and anthropology.

    List of figures

    List of tables

    List of contributors

    Prologue: On Brunei: fifty years later

    DONALD E. BROWN

    1 Brunei Darussalam: Origins, early history and social structure—a celebration and evaluation of the work of Professor Donald E. Brown

    VICTOR T. KING AND STEPHEN C. DRUCE

    2 Donald E. Brown’s structure and history of a Bornean Malay Sultanate (1970): the fortieth anniversary

    A. V. M. HORTON

    3 Donald E. Brown’s contribution to Brunei Studies and anthropology

    VICTOR T. KING

    4 A comparative analysis of the Brunei origin tradition with the wider Austronesian world

    STEPHEN C. DRUCE

    5 A tale of many Boni: Boni in the Taiping huanyuji (late tenth century) and Boni in the Mingshi (1739)

    JOHANNES L. KURZ

    6 Brunei through the Silsilah, Adat, Hikayat and Syair: Silsilah Raja-raja Brunei reconsidered

    ANNABEL TEH GALLOP

    7 Coronation ritual and foundation myth in Brunei: Sakai, Syair and Silsilah

    MARIE-SYBILLE DE VIENNE

    8 Brunei Malay: the sha’er reciters’ art

    LINDA AMY KIMBALL

    9 Filling the gap: insights into early eighteenth-century Brunei Darussalam from Dutch archives

    KATHRYN WELLEN

    10 Traditional titles in the Chinese society of Brunei Darussalam: a manifestation of a bilateral relationship

    DATO PADUKA HAJI ABDUL LATIF BIN HAJI IBRAHIM

    Index

    Biography

    Victor T. King is Professor of Borneo Studies at the Institute of Asian Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, and Emeritus Professor of South East Asian Studies, University of Leeds, UK. He is the co-author of The Modern Anthropology of South-East Asia (Routledge 2006) and co-editor of the Routledge series Modern Anthropology of South-East Asia.

    Stephen C. Druce is programme leader in graduate studies and research at the Academy of Brunei Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam. He is the author of The Lands West of the Lakes: A History of the Ajattappareng Kingdoms of South Sulawesi, 1200 to 1600 CE (2009).