The Semai (also known as Mai Semai or Sengoi Hik) are a semi-sedentary ethnic group living in the center of the Malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia, known especially for their nonviolence. This characterization was made by Robert Knox Dentan, an anthropologist who studied the Semai in the 1960s, though he offered a more nuanced view after subsequent fieldwork. They speak Semai, an Austroasiatic language closely related to Temiar, spoken by Temiars nearby. The Semai are bordered by the Temiars to the north and the Jah Hut to the South. The Semai belong to the Senoi group, and are one of the largest indigenous ethnic group in the Peninsula and the largest of the Senoi group. Most Semai subsist by cultivating grain crops, hunting, and fishing.
Origins
It is thought that the Semai are the descendants of the original population of Southeast Asia, arriving on the Malay peninsula approximately sometime during 8000 to 6000 BC.Dentan, R. K., & Skoggard, I. A. (2012). Culture Summary: Semai. New Haven: Human Relations Area Files. Retrieved from https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=an06-000 According to Keene State College's Orang Asli Archive, in 1991 there were 26,627 Semai and according to the Center for Orang Asli Concerns in 2000 there were 34,248 Semai living on the Malay Peninsula. This number has increased in recent years with the advent of better nutrition as well as improved sanitation and healthcare practices. These numbers, however, do not include other peoples of Semai or mixed descent, most of whom have assimilated into other cultures and have abandoned their ancestral tribal lands in order to seek better employment and education opportunities, especially in the larger cities.
A genetic study conducted in 1995 by a team of biologists from the National University of Singapore has shown a close relationship between the Semai and the Khmer of Cambodia. This is in line with the linguistic situation of the Semai, whose language belongs to the Mon-Khmer family. Furthermore, the Semai seem to be more closely related to the Javanese than to their Malay neighbors on the peninsula.N. Saha, J. W. Mak, J. S. Tay, Y. Liu, J. A. Tan, P. S. Low, M. Singh, "Population genetic study among the Orange Asli (Semai Senoi) of Malaysia: Malayan aborigines", Human Biology, National University of Singapore, February 1995, 67(1):37-57 The Malays are thought to have arrived on the peninsula approximately 1000 years after the Semai, at first trading peacefully with them. However, when the Malays created kingdoms and converted to Islam, this relationship changed. The Malays began considering the Semai as "despised pagans" and sanctioned murdering Semai adults and kidnapping young children. Several Malaysian state governments have religious agencies that have programs to convert the Semai to Islam.
Subsistence The Semai are semi-sedentary horticulturalists who practice "slash and burn" agriculture. They mainly rely on growing rice and manioc or cassava roots for their subsistence. The Semai use machetes to clear forested areas, after which they burn and plant crops in that area. After two or three harvests when the land is worn, the Semai will begin planting in a new area. The Semai also supplement their diet with hunting and fishing, as well as raising chickens (for their own consumption) and goats and ducks (to sell to the Malays). Fish are mainly caught by women, who use basket traps to scoop fish, whereas hunting is primarily done by men, using blowguns, poison darts, and spears. Any large game caught, such as deer, pigs, pythons, or binturong (bearcat), are shared among the community.
Culture Settlement
The Semai live in settlements of 30 to 200 people. Individual households consist of nuclear families with sometimes a few extended relatives. Most dwellings are built with wood, bamboo with weaved walls and thatched roofs using palm leaves. Semai houses have no visible bedrooms, especially for the children, as they all sleep in the main hall. The only separation seems to be in the form of wooden-beaded curtains for the parents' chambers. This form of separation is also adopted by the coastal Malays, who use instead curtains made of seashells, and deutero-Malays, who use the batik cloth to form the curtains. There are no locks or otherwise, usual devices used to preventing an unwanted entry into any of these rooms. A simple way of telling that an entry is unwanted is by drawing down the curtains. To allow entry, the curtain is drawn to the sides and tied to form an opening. Expressed permission must be requested in cases where entry is needed when the curtains are closed. An entry without permission is a transgression and entails some sort of natural retribution.
With regards to space and dominion, there appears to be no distinction between the public and private realms, and thus, "the Western concept of privacy, domestic or otherwise, is not to be found".David D. Gilmore, Manhood in the Making: Cultural Concepts of Masculinity (Yale University Press, 1990: ), p. 213. This concept is also shared by the rural Malays, of whom, many are descended from mixed marriages with the Semais and other Orang Asli people. They carry with them the wisdom and lore of the Semais, including their non-violent and pacifist tendencies, harmonized with other prevailing religions of their adoption.
Marriage The vast majority of Semai marriages are monogamous. Less than five percent of women are married polygynously. Semai marriages are exogamous: East Semai may not marry consanguineal kinsman, or blood relations, and West Semai are not supposed to marry anybody who descended from one of his grandparents. Therefore, in most marriages, the couples are from different settlements. This might be the reason why Semai tend to have an ambilocal residence pattern after marriage, or shuttle between living with the wife or husband's kinsman every few weeks, slowly lengthening the time period stayed until the couple decides to settle down. One reason the Semai give for shuttling between residences is homesickness. Even after settling down, couples occasionally separate, "going on week- or month-long visits to his or her consanguineal kinsman". The ambilocal residence pattern may also explain why few marriages are polygynous, for both practical reasons in managing travel and because couples tend to separate after long periods of living apart, and divorce and remarriages are fairly common.Fix, A. G. (1988). Semai Senoi Population Structure And Genetic Microdifferentation. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International. Retrieved from https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=an06-006
Non-violence
The Semai are known for their extremely low levels of violence.Kemp, Graham, and Douglas P. Fry. Keeping the peace: Conflict resolution and peaceful societies around the world. Routledge, 2004, p.137 While there is some violence amongst the Semai, it is reportedly rare; writing in 2004, Robert Dentan reported only four murders had occurred since the 1970s, though the Semai could be reluctant to disclose information about fighting. It has been suggested that the Semai's non-violence is a response to historic threats from slaving states; as the Semai were constantly defeated by slavers and Malaysian immigrants, they preferred to flee rather than fight, and this evolved into a general norm of non-violence.Leary, John. Violence and the Dream People: The Orang Asli in the Malayan Emergency, 1948-1960. No. 95. Ohio University Press, 1995, p.262 The Semai value "getting along", and avoid violence by having a high tolerance for bad behaviour in order to prevent conflict.Younger, Stephen. "Violence and revenge in egalitarian societies." Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation 8, no. 4 (2005). The Semai generally attribute learning to argue as a consequence of outsider influences, such as schools, though arguments amongst the Semai predate such contact; the Semai's self-image does not tolerate the admission of being argumentative, aggressive or angry.Royce, Joseph. "Play in violent and non-violent cultures." Anthropos H. 5./6 (1980): 799-822.
This does not mean the Semai are incapable of violence however; during the Malayan Emergency, the British recruited some Semai to fight against communist insurgents and Dentan argues the Semai believe that as Malaysia industrialises, it will be harder for the Semai to use their strategy of fleeing and they will have to fight instead.Leary, John. Violence and the Dream People: The Orang Asli in the Malayan Emergency, 1948-1960. No. 95. Ohio University Press, 1995.Kemp, Graham, and Douglas P. Fry. Keeping the peace: Conflict resolution and peaceful societies around the world. Routledge, 2004, p.139Robarchek, Clayton A., and Robert Knox Dentan. "Blood drunkenness and the bloodthirsty Semai: Unmaking another anthropological myth." American Anthropologist 89, no. 2 (1987): 356-365. In addition, Bruce Knauft argues that while Dentan reported only two murders between 1955 and 1977, this was in the context of a study population of 300 and would give a homicide rate of 30.3 per 100,000 people, three times higher than the United States in the 1990s (though this has been contested due to issues concerning the relevant base population, which could yield substantially lower homicide estimates)."Knauft, Bruce M., Martin Daly, Margo Wilson, Leland Donald, George EE Morren Jr, Keith F. Otterbein, Marc Howard Ross, HUE Thoden van Velzen, and W. van Wetering."Reconsidering Violence in Simple Human Societies: Homicide Among the Gebusi of New Guinea [and Comments and Reply." Current Anthropology 28, no. 4 (1987): 457-500." "Ellsworth, Ryan M., and Robert S. Walker."Sociobiology of lethal violence in small-scale societies." In The Routledge International Handbook of Biosocial Criminology, pp. 85-102. Routledge, 2014." For a debate on homicide in simple societies, see "Betzig, Laura, Robert Knox Dentan, Bruce M. Knauft, and Keith F. Otterbein. "On reconsidering violence in simple human societies." (1988): 624-636." Physical violence has also occasionally been known to occur over sexual jealousy.Ethology, Peace, Peter Verbeek, and Benjamin A. Peters. "The Developmental Niche for Peace." (2018).
Worldview
The Semai worldview is that they live in a hostile and dangerous world beyond their control. The jungles surrounding their villages are viewed as being full of terrifying forces and malevolent entities (to the extent that the Semai are reluctant to go into the jungles alone, especially at night). Since the Semai see themselves as helpless in a hostile world, the only source of safety and nurturance lies with their community. This is the cause of Semai's emphasis on community harmony and non-violence, as violence threatens to destroy their only perceived source of safety.Gray, James Silverberg J. Patrick. Aggression and peacefulness in humans and other primates. Oxford University Press on Demand, 1992, pp.200-203
Punan An important belief that affects many aspects of Semai culture is Punan. Punan is the idea that making somebody else unhappy, especially by imposing your own wishes or denying his or her desires, is taboo. The Semai believe that committing punan will increase the likelihood of themselves being injured physically. The importance of punan in Semai life can be seen in their food sharing norms, leadership style, method of child rearing, for example.
Food sharing