Skip to main content

The Culture Of Kadazan

Kadazan culture is heavily influenced by the farming of rice, culminating in various delicacies and alcoholic drinks prepared through differing home-brewed fermentation processes. To'omis and linutau are the main rice wine variants served and consumed in Kadazan populated areas, and are a staple of Kadazan social gatherings and ceremonies.
The most important festival of the Kadazans is the Kaamatan or harvest festival, where the spirit of the paddy is honoured after a year's harvest. This takes place in May, and the two last days of the month are public holidays throughout Sabah. During the celebration, the most celebrated event is the crowning of the Unduk Ngadau, the harvest festival beauty queen. Young women of Kadazan, Dusun, Murut or Rungus descent from certain districts compete for this title. The beauty pageant is held to commemorate the spirit of Huminodun, a mythological character of unparalleled beauty said to have given her life in exchange for a bountiful harvest for her community.
In marriages, dowries are paid to the bride's family and an elaborate negotiation is arranged between the groom and bride's families. As a traditional gesture of politeness and civility, the dowry is metaphorically laid out with match sticks on a flat surface, and representatives from each side push and pull the sticks across a boundary to denote the bargaining of the dowry. Dowries traditionally consisted of water buffaloes, pigs, sacks of rice and even urns of tapai. Modern dowry negotiations also include cash and land ownership deeds.The dowry includes the costs of the wedding with any additional costs above the price of the dowry to be paid for by the brides family. Kadazan women from the Penampang and Dusun women from the Keningau, Ranau and Tuaran districts are widely regarded to have the most expensive dowries.
While it is traditionally customary for Kadazans to marry within a village or a neighbouring village, a downshift of xenophobia over the past few decades has eased the difficulty once associated with interracial marriage. The Kadazans have a particularly good affinity with the local Chinese, resulting in the coinage of the term Sino-Kadazan, meaning half-Kadazan and half-Chinese offspring of these unions. Due to the overwhelming Christian influence and some marriages to Muslim spouses, resulting in a mandatory conversion to Islam, still induces outrage and rejection and is known to divide fiercely traditional Kadazans. Islam has lately been embraced by a growing minority as a means to political ends considering the fact that the local Malay minority has gained political ascendance in recent years. Ruling Malay political parties have also openly been giving political and economical privileges to Kadazans who agree to convert to Islam as well as to other non-Christian Kadazans. Conversion to Islam, in a Malaysian context, also results in an automatic conversion by law of ethnicity to Malay. The resultant demographic shift has in recent years further compounded the dwindling numbers of the Kadazan-Dusun community and consequently making it more challenging in its efforts to preserve the heritage.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Music And Dance

The Kadazans have also developed their own unique dance and music.  Sumazau  is the name of the dance between a male and female, performed by couples as well as groups of couples, which is usually accompanied by a symphony of handcrafted bronze gongs that are individually called  tagung . The  sompoton  is another musical instrument. A ceremonial ring of cloth sash is worn by both male and female. The  Sumazau  and gong accompaniment is typically performed during joyous ceremonies and occasions, the most common of which being wedding feasts. The Kadazan have a musical heritage consisting of various types of  tagung  ensembles  - ensembles composed of large hanging, suspended or held, bossed/knobbed  gongs  which act as drone without any accompanying melodic instrument. They also use  kulintangan ensembles  - ensembles with an horizontal-type melodic instrument. [2] [3] The late Chief Priestess Bobohizan, Bianti ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Origin Of The Term Kadazan

While it is widely believed that the term itself was a political derivative that came into existence in the late 1950s to early 1960s, no proper historical record exists pertaining to the origins of the term or its originator. However, an article by Richard Tunggolou [1]  may shed some light. According to Tunggolou, most of the explanations of the meanings and origins of the word ‘Kadazan’ assumed that the word was of recent origin, specifically in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Tunggolou further claimed that some people have theorised that the term originates from the word ‘kakadazan’ (towns) or ‘kedai’ (shops), and from the claim that Kadazan politicians such as the late Datuk Peter J. Mojuntin coined the term. However, there is evidence to suggest that the term has been used long before the 1950s.  Owen Rutter , in his book,  The Pagans Of North Borneo , published in 1929, wrote: “The Dusun usually describes himself generically as a tulun tindal (landsman) or, on t...
Post a Comment
Read more