In the afternoon while relaxing with the Orang Rimba on the edge of the forest, a mother wearing a hat passed by and carried her child on the back of her car through the road in front of the house towards the National Park. The Orang Rimba are an indigenous people living in Jambi Province. The mother is a Medan (Batak tribe) who sells pork to the Orang Rimba. I often see this mother passing the KKI WARSI office and going inside. It crossed my mind why the Orang Rimba who live as hunters and gatherers buy game that also comes from the Orang Rimba, I thought. I asked this question to Gemambun who was sitting in front of me.
“Brother, why do the Rimba people buy meat from other people, why not just buy it from the Rimba people?” I asked.
Gemambun, who was enjoying smoking his cigarette, shook his head and said "hopiii... if you sell it to the sesamo kanti hopi ndok kanti mbolinye" (no... none of our neighbors want to buy it)."
Although I was a little surprised, I asked again.
“Why, it’s free, sis – why do you want something free?” I asked jokingly.
"Au, if our neighbors hopi ado nang boli, just give it to bae - Yes, if our fellow Orang Rimba doesn't buy it, just give it to us)," replied Gemambun.
I still wonder why they don't want to buy the game from each other, because in the end they will buy side dishes from outside. After thinking for a while I remembered one of our seniors often told me about how the game is divided in Orang Rimba.
In the Orang Rimba culture, they never sell their produce to each other and they do not understand buying and selling transactions within their own borders. What they understand is sharing. Money does not apply in the forest.
I remember when I was visiting a group in Singosari, Muay said that they were going inside to swim.
"If it's delicious inside, we don't think we have to have esen. If you want to eat, you can have delok benor, you can't look for side dishes outside of Nio," he said, to which I responded by nodding in agreement.
In the past, they also did not know money, maybe they started using money in the late 70s, to get salt, coffee, cloth and materials that were not available in the forest by barter system. For example, 10 manau or rattan stems were exchanged for 2 kilos of gara.
The concept of sharing that is common among the Orang Rimba is also known in the customary law that governs it. For example, if A is walking to another location in a cassava field and is hungry, A may take enough cassava from another Orang Rimba's field to eat. On the condition that the cassava stalks are replanted. I also remember when one of the villagers complained that his cassava plants were pulled out by the Orang Rimba and then the stalks were replanted in the same place. So when the villager wanted to take the cassava, it turned out that the cassava was not there. One of the villagers felt deceived at that time. In the perspective of the Orang Rimba, what was done was in accordance with customary rules, there was nothing wrong in the view of the Orang Rimba. However, this difference in perspective makes the Orang Rimba and the village not on the same page.
The concept of sharing in the Orang Rimba also wants to show that the forest they live in has many resources provided by nature for them. The word sharing is the right word when the game is caught in large quantities. There is no natural preservation system in the Orang Rimba. The remaining game that has not been eaten is placed in river water (a natural refrigerator) even though it does not last long because the meat has been exposed to water. The large amount of meat is shared with relatives according to their portions, so that nothing is wasted. This concept of sharing creates reciprocity in the Orang Rimba, if others get game then they will also share the results of their game with their relatives and so on.
The giving of game animals is called nubo and the game animals given to the in-laws and the wife's family are called mempeka. If there are relatives who are not given it, they will be fined. Does this condition still persist? Yes, this condition still persists in the Orang Rimba even though they are familiar with money and markets. Usually they share within one group only. Several indigenous women of the Orang Rimba told me that in one day they could buy 2-3 kg of fish and finish it in one day. The fish are not only eaten by themselves but are also shared with neighbors who are also their relatives. If not shared, there will be social sanctions. These sanctions can be in the form of gossip from relatives or being cursed at the kanti. This shows that the core culture of the Orang Rimba indigenous community is still strong today.
