Frontiers of Fear: Tigers and People in the Malay World, 1600-1950
Peter Boomgaard
Abstract
For centuries, reports of man-eating tigers in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore have circulated, shrouded in myth and anecdote. This book documents the relationship between the “big cat” and humans in this area during the 350-year colonial period, recreating a world in which people feared tigers but often came into contact with them because these fierce predators prefer habitats created by human interference. It shows how people and tigers adapted to each other's behavior, each transmitting this learning from one generation to the next. The chapter discusses the origins of stories and ritual ... More
For centuries, reports of man-eating tigers in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore have circulated, shrouded in myth and anecdote. This book documents the relationship between the “big cat” and humans in this area during the 350-year colonial period, recreating a world in which people feared tigers but often came into contact with them because these fierce predators prefer habitats created by human interference. It shows how people and tigers adapted to each other's behavior, each transmitting this learning from one generation to the next. The chapter discusses the origins of stories and rituals about tigers, and explains how the cultural biases of Europeans and class differences among indigenous populations affected attitudes toward the tigers. It provides figures on their populations in different eras and analyses the factors contributing to their present status as an endangered species. The book is a combination of environmental and micro history, interweaving stories about Malay kings, colonial rulers, tiger charmers, and bounty hunters, with facts about tigers and their way of life.
Keywords:
big cat,
man-eating tigers,
Indonesia,
Malaysia,
Singapore,
Malay kings,
colonial rulers,
tiger charmers,
bounty hunters
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2001 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780300085396 |
| Published to Yale Scholarship Online: October 2013 |
DOI:10.12987/yale/9780300085396.001.0001 |
