The Headman Was a Woman: The Gender Egalitarian Batek of Malaysia

A comprehensive ethnography of one of the few remaining hunting and gathering peoples of Southeast Asia, The Headman Was a Woman presents the gender concepts, roles, and relations of the highly egalitarian Batek of Peninsular Malaysia. Based on longtime fieldwork, the book describes the lives of Batek men and women in the tropical rainforest, and includes discussions of fieldwork, hunting and gathering, social organization, religion, gender, nonviolence, and cultural persistence in the face of a changing landscape. Rich in detail yet clearly written, The Headman Was a Woman introduces readers—from first-year anthropology students to hunter-gatherer specialists—to an egalitarian people whose way of life is both thought-provoking and rare. The text is accompanied by a 37-minute DVD, The Batek: Rainforest Foragers of Kelantan, Malaysia. Footage shows vivid highlights of camp life and social activities as well as all the important economic processes described in the book.