and a few simple flutes (suling) were the only solo instruments still used. Drums, gongs and
engkrurai were used in all public performances. In a recent summarised description of the
musical instruments of Sarawak, Matusky (1991) states that the survival of the engkratong or horizontal harp, the serunai and some of its variants and the blikan or Iban and Maloh guitar are all "uncertain."
Iban: People-Culture Relationships
Culture, Tradition, Gender and Boundaries
The artistic production of the Iban, while prolific, is disjunct. There are highly recognizable artifacts, specific craft productions and distinctive modes of depiction of certain motifs, but the whole does not form a coherent system of design across all media.
Haddon (1905) proposed that women’s art was essentially different to men’s art, the former largely using anthropomorphic and animal motifs while the latter used plant motifs and abstract designs. This is not correct, although the limited examples which he employed would appear to make it so.
The anthropomorphic and animal designs employed by women in their weaving were, in fact, designed by men. The same motifs were used by men in wood carvings on doors, spinning and weaving equipment and on coffins.1 Specific carved objects made by men depicted anthropomorphic figures and birds. Many woven items have no recognizable anthropomorphic or animal motifs and many designs are identified as plant motifs, although abstract in appearance. Engraved bamboo containers produced by men most often bore foliate designs, although there are examples with animal motifs such as centipedes, fish and birds.^ Niabor handles and sheaths and decorative knife handles had carved abstract and foliate designs. Decorative basketry items made by women had complex abstract motifs. Some tattoo motifs employed by men represented animals in the form of scorpions, while the throat tattoo could be identified as a frog.
Different craft media tended to employ different styles of depiction. The complex angular interlocking designs with dashed infill of Iban weaving, and particularly ikat work, can be readily recognized among the diversity of techniques and styles employed in Southeast Asian weaving. However the stylistic specifics which make it recognizable are not transferred to other media. Some basketry designs have elaborate interlocking motifs similar to those used in weaving, but the outlines tend to be rounded rather than angular.
Some bamboo engraving and wood carving has employed a naturalistic,
1. A highly specific mode of depiction of a crocodile, in which the body of the animal is seen from above but its head from the side, is found on woven cloth and in relief carving. [PLATE 136A, 146C]
2. An article by Banks (1941) shows a large range of foliate interlace designs for bamboo
containers, but no animal designs. These may have been seen as an unseemly innovation by some craftsmen, or a localized development.
if overblown, style of depicting flowers and leaves while other works display a more formal and abstracted style of foliate interlace composed of regular patterns of curves. Items carved in wood form a set of type artifacts rather than a vocabulary and syntax of plastic art design: small crouched figures, simple masks, kenyalang figures, sungkup monuments, various miscellaneous objects carved with crocodiles and snakes.
Tattooing developed its own style, with motifs originally borrowed from another art system but elaborated into extravagant and often undisciplined designs. The central Borneo style has been a source for other changes to Iban art, such as the carving of parang heads and sheaths and the painting of shields.
The art of the Iban does not act as a cohesive whole to make a statement about ethnic identity. Rather, there are a series of separate statements made through diverse media and reflecting different social roles for particular objects and modes of expression. ^
The art and material culture of men has undergone rapid change in the period since first colonial contact, while that of women has tended to be more conservative. In general, men have tended to abandon forms of personal presentation which were similar to those of the Land Dayaks and Malays in favour of forms related to those of the Kayan and other central Borneo peoples. They also abandoned some unique and highly specifying forms of personal presentation and war kit. The aspects of male art and material culture which were borrowed from other groups were those associated with individual
endeavour and personal prestige. Male designed or manufactured items which played a specifying role in community activities, such as kenyalang figures, pua cloths or masks, may have been subject to stylistic innovations but not to borrowings from other indigenous ethnic groups.
Part of the shift in male personal presentation and war kit can be explained in a functionalist mode, related to the changing nature of Iban warfare and headhunting during the colonial era. During the period of Sea Dayak piracy, the Saribas and Skrang raiders were descending in numbers from a position of strength on less well organized communities. Part of their success
1. That is not to say that Iban art is chaotic and has no principles of design. A handbook of design