olitical atmosphere created by non-invasive colonialism under the Brookes between the mid-nineteenth century and 1941, to enhance their social and economic standards by migrating to new areas which were abundant in jungle resources, and which were also relatively more accessible to traders. Thus, the cession of the Baram River valley to the Brooke government by the Sultan of Brunei in I 882 was followed by constant migration of Orang Ulu communities into the Baram. The Baram River valley is more easily accessible by boats, far into its upper course, than is the upper Rejang River valley, the traditional homeland of most Orang Ulu. Some others moved from the remote volcanic plateau of the Usun Apau, close to the modem border with Kalimantan, into the river valleys of the Baram system.
None the less, the downriver migration of the Orang Ulu did not, until after the midtwentieth century, extend beyond the lower limits of dry undulating land. Lian (1987) relates this limitation to two main factors. First, it was to prevent cultural over-exposure to outside influence. Secondly, and more importantly, it was because of the lack of land suitable for practicing shifting cultivation beyond this topographic limit. Both factors have moulded the Kenyah, the Orang Ulu group to which the author belongs, to remain relatively cohesive until even today while maintaining their economic relationship with the outside world.
Today, the migration pattern is increasingly towards places where wage-employment opportunities are found, that is, principally in the rural areas, rather than being mostly rural-urban in nature. The Orang Ulu continue to abandon selected aspects of their culture and traditions-some of which had been important in serving their needs, especially their subsistence needs-in order to accommodate certain elements of the new socio-economic systems into their culture, while preventing the erosion of its more basic and fundamental aspects. For example, communal forms of production which had been an important economic strategy to attain self-sufficiency in food production have been replaced by a production system based on the household, which better suits the modern economy.
In the agricultural sector, while swidden remains an important part of economic activities, the length of time and the amount of labour devoted to this activity have decreased significantly as a result of the use of modern innovations: tools such as the motorized chain-saw and herbicides. Some Orang Ulu have adopted wet-rice cultivation. The Kenyah in the Tinjar valley of Sarawak have cultivated rubber and coffee since it was first introduced into the area by traders in the late 1940s, without any form of inducement from the government, because cash-crop cultivation brought about significant improvement to their lives. As Lian (1987: 161) noted: 'The farmers admit that the introduction of rubber and coffee was one of the major milestones in their economic development and for which the post-war governments have been given some praise.'
There are other socio-political and economic merits of adopting the modern economic systems. Most significantly, cash cropping facilitated erosion of the traditional economic domination of the commoners by aristocratic households. As the lower social classes form the majority of the Kenyah population, their participation in economic development has been crucial in the advancement of the society as a whole. This is one main reason why the Kenyah have been responsive to certain in situ agricultural development projects, but not to the land-resettlement schemes.
Since the early 1970s, the Orang Ulu have participated very actively in the timber industry, contrary to the opinion and claims expressed in much conservationist literature that they oppose logging (Hong, 1987; Sahabat Alam Malaysia, 1990). This has happened in spite of the fact that they are being discriminated against in job and other opportunities. Participation in the timber industry has provided the means by which they could fulfil some of their primary and secondary so