The scope of hunter-gatherer ethnomedicine

We examined the cosmology and ethnomedical beliefs of the Penan hunter-gatherers of Brunei Darussalam on the island of Borneo. Our results suggest that they maintain a medical system that is limited in scope and detail compared to neighboring swidden rice cultivators. The Penan recognize the existence of a nearly infinite array of mostly unnamed, animist spirits that are loosely connected with the misfortunes of humans. Although taboo violation is believed to be associated with illness, there is no strict corpus of belief in respect to spirit placation. Dream readers offer advice on the causes of illness episodes, but their recommendations are neither necessarily accepted nor rigidly enforced. At least prior to permanent settlement, the Penan appear to have suffered from a limited suite of illnesses and treated them with a short list of plant medicines. We suggest that the Penans' abbreviated ethnomedical system is a function of their foraging subsistence mode. With a low population density, lack of domesticated livestock and fowl, and nomadic lifestyle, the Penan are unlikely to have suffered from the array of crowd and lifestyle diseases that afflict settled, agricultural societies. We hypothesize that the Penans' uncomplicated ethnomedical system, and perhaps that of other nomadic, tropical forest foraging groups, is consistent with the relatively disease-free conditions inherent to this subsistence lifestyle.