CONSTRUCTION SACRIFICE AND KIDNAPPING RUMOR PANICS IN BORNEO

Abstract

This paper analyzes the rumor panics about kidnapping that have been reported by Western observers in Borneo for more than ninety years. This analysis, based on the study of rumor in social psychology, identifies this rumor panic phenomenon as a ‘diving rumor’ and relates it to the study of folklore. A diving rumor is one that repeatedly erupts and disappears over a long period of time. It is accounted for by the rumor sharing its dominant motif with a well‐known legend. The analysis of this Bornean kidnapping rumor panic yields a state government construction sacrifice motif. It is argued that the construction sacrifice is a widespread folklore motif and, as folklore, is related to the construction of an ideology of tribal‐state relations. In the context of the sociopolitical stress and cultural conflict marking these relations the rumor panics can be viewed as a sort of ideological warfare. The plausibility of this analysis is supported by an interpretation of the semantics of the rumor. The substantive contents of the rumor are shown to be not only conducive to the construction of an ideology of tribal‐state relations, but also, to be expressive of the principles and practices of traditional intertribal relations which were embodied in headhunting.