Penan Hunter-Gatherer Society – how forestry, modernization programs and Christian mission threaten an indigenous people.

The Penan are among the world's last remaining nomadic hunter-gatherers. Today their culture and way of life is facing serious threats.

The Penan - more precisely Eastern Penan - are mainly living in the rain forest in Borneo in small groups.Until 35 years ago, they were mainly living in small-scale societies in central Borneo, especially in Sarawak in Malaysia. To a growing extent, however, their way of life is forced to change. The forest industry harvests the rain forest, making the Penanians' land smaller and challenged. The government's "modernization program" pushes them to change their way of life. And Christian mission brings a new religion and a foreign culture.

In the lecture, Mikael Rothstein will give an ethnographical introduction to Penanian society from his perspective as an historian of religion. A main part of the lecture will focus on the the last groups still inhabiting the forest. The lecture is based on a series of fieldwork that has sent him to Sarawak eleven times the last seven years.

Mikael Rothstein holds a ph.d. in the history of religion from the University of Copenhagen, and is a lecturer at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense. Rothstein is a well-known and distinguished scholar, and has taken an active part in public debate on religion, multiculturalism and minorities in Denmark.

The Centre for Sami Studies, The Department of History and Religious Studies and Forum for development cooperation with indigenous peoples are happy and grateful to invite to this lecture on an intriguing and highly relevant topic!