The Dusuns in the 1900s

"The Dusuns in character are quiet and orderly and not particularly brave,
but no doubt would be industrious if occasion arose; a very
good rural population, with somewhat yokelish notions. Any
slight bloodthirsty tendencies that circulmstances and the want
of proper restraint have driven them to, are gladly abandoned
wherever our influence has spread. They show every symptom
of thriving and increasing, under a proper firm government, and
there is no fear of their melting away and disappearing, like so
many races have done, when brought into contact with the white
man. Much the same thing may be said of the sea coast races,
who also possess many good work-a-day knockabout qualities,
but not to the same extent as the Dusuns."
(W.B Pryer, 1887: 236- The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 16
(1887), pp. 229-236)

Wow! So they have discovered us or rather our ancestors in the late 1800s. The Dusuns were still headhunters then but I gather from this writing that they weren't very happy with the custom too. Headhunting must have been a tradition they held on to simply because it was tradition, not because they were bloodthirsty. (Am I relieved to read that- that means I have the blood of peaceful ancestors, who somewhat braved their existence because that was all they knew then.

And it seems that the hardworking traits have had always been there. You know the work-till-you-drop-dead thing. I'll stop complaining about that then.

What makes a Dusun?

Been pondering on this for quite sometime now. How is a Dusun defined? One who speaks the language, practice the culture, or biologically of the ethnic group, any one or a combination of those? That would put many Dusuns in an awkward position, I reckon. For one thing, many of the younger generations (post 70s?) don't speak the language anymore. Should I put, deprived of the language because of reasons such as political and social? Because the parents went to school and decided that the mother tongue was not good enough for their children, as it won't open doors to knowledge, or it was not prestigious enough?

Interestingly, many of the non-speakers manage to preserve some aspects of the culture like drinking the traditional rice wine, and being able to sing Dusun songs well. Since it's not their fault that they don't speak the language, I do admire these people. (albeit limitedly- it would be hard to admire a person who is too intoxicated in their quest of 'preserving' the culture, huh?) So, I guess these culture-practising, non-speakers deserve to be Dusuns.

And what about biological make-up? Perhaps that is the most handy Dusun identification. Since in the place where the Dusun people are, ethnic group is a compulsory identification, one's birth cert is sure to have this little tag. But does that make a Dusun? Maybe...