Book Reviews

The choice of the period from 1800 to c. 1940 was a deliberate one, as on 31st December 1799 the Dutch East India Company officially ceased to exist, and af ter 1940 the collecting of relevant material came to a stop, partly as a result of the political developments in Indonesia. [...]the "modern colonial period" is represented as a complete, rounded-off whole. [...]it is precisely these variations which a foreigner should avoid using on his own initiative. [...]a beginner has by definition not even a hope of handling these properly, since the more informal speech becomes, the more closely the variants are interwoven with the social context. In reality, however, the harvest is divided into stages in a completely rational way. Because the padi does not ripen at the same time, many Dayak groups have a preharvest in which the early-ripening ears are cut. The augural birds mentioned by Elshout (1926) for the Kenyah subgroup in Long Nawang seem to correspond even more to those of the Iban. [...]there is more than enough material to draw on, particularly from Dutch studies on the topic. 386 BOEKBESPREKINGEN In sum, it may be said that Jensen has given an excellent and comprehensive description of the religious aspect of Iban culture and the position of the religious experts in that culture.