Bad Day at Bukit Pekan

Robert Knox Dentan

doi:10.1525/aa.1995.97.2.02a00020

Bad Day at Bukit Pekan

Robert Knox Dentan

Anthropology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Letter › peer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Senoi Semai of Malaysia have acquired a reputation as one of the most nonviolent peoples known to anthropology. This essay explores the question of Semai violence through interviews with men who have committed homicide while in a state of possession, and with a participant in a 1949 massacre of Chinese villagers that was carried out in retaliation for a raid on a Semai village by Chinese Communist insurgents. In Semai storytelling violence is recounted with relish, while first‐person accounts of violent acts are descriptively revealing but emotionally neutral. 1995 American Anthropological Association

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	225-231
Number of pages	7
Journal	American Anthropologist
Volume	97
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1995.97.2.02a00020
State	Published - Jun 1995

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10.1525/aa.1995.97.2.02a00020

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title = "Bad Day at Bukit Pekan",

abstract = "The Senoi Semai of Malaysia have acquired a reputation as one of the most nonviolent peoples known to anthropology. This essay explores the question of Semai violence through interviews with men who have committed homicide while in a state of possession, and with a participant in a 1949 massacre of Chinese villagers that was carried out in retaliation for a raid on a Semai village by Chinese Communist insurgents. In Semai storytelling violence is recounted with relish, while first‐person accounts of violent acts are descriptively revealing but emotionally neutral. 1995 American Anthropological Association",

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AB - The Senoi Semai of Malaysia have acquired a reputation as one of the most nonviolent peoples known to anthropology. This essay explores the question of Semai violence through interviews with men who have committed homicide while in a state of possession, and with a participant in a 1949 massacre of Chinese villagers that was carried out in retaliation for a raid on a Semai village by Chinese Communist insurgents. In Semai storytelling violence is recounted with relish, while first‐person accounts of violent acts are descriptively revealing but emotionally neutral. 1995 American Anthropological Association

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84981886552

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DO - 10.1525/aa.1995.97.2.02a00020

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SP - 225

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JO - American Anthropologist

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IS - 2

ER -

Bad Day at Bukit Pekan

Abstract

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