Paper short abstract:

I establish a connection between the generation of the social grouping of lun tauh "our people" and the value system which prizes the quality of doo'-ness, or prestige which is both inherited at birth and acquired through effort, through three narratives from the Kelabit highlands of Borneo.

Paper long abstract:

The first part of this chapter seeks to define the Long Peluan historical narratives as a genre of historical oral narratives, within oral traditions. I identify certain characteristics of historical oral narratives, looking at the use of genealogies, the use of place, conceptualizations of the past and episodic time. This analysis reveals the political intention of the narrator, which reflects his own value system and that of his audience. In the second part of this chapter, I deal with the Kelabit values associated with prestige, standing and the state of being good, doo', and a related notion of flexibility and dynamism, iyuk, (Bala 2008:54), all of which are linked to the wider notion of value as a vehicle for analyzing the narratives (Graeber 2001,Such an examination of the underlying notions of value widens the parochialism of the narrator's personal political perspective. I then argue the narrative serves as a vehicle for extending the narrator's social worlds, promoting his own prestige thereby creating value.