Akar Nusa
A young man steps carefully along a forest trail in the hills between Perak and Kelantan. He stops, tilts his head and names the smell of something nearby. He does not point to a plant. He uses a single word for the smell itself.
The story
The Jahai, also written Jehai, are a Semang people of Peninsular Malaysia and southern Thailand. In Malaysia they live in Perak and Kelantan, in the mountains between the two states. Wikipedia gives their number as 2,326 in 2010. They are described as the only Semang who live at higher altitudes. They were traditionally nomadic hunter-gatherers. Many now live in permanent settlements in parts of the Royal Belum State Park, the Belum-Temengor forest. COAC says some Negrito communities are still semi-nomadic and depend on forest resources.
The Jahai are known to science for their language. In an experiment with 30 Jahai and 30 Dutch people, researchers asked each person to name smells from chemicals. The Dutch named the things that smells come from. The Jahai used abstract smell words. The researchers found that the two groups showed the same first emotional reactions on their faces. Another study found that Jahai name smells as easily as colours. A comparison with other Aslian-speaking groups suggests that how people make a living is the key factor. The Semaq Beri hunter-gatherers named smells easily, while the Semelai farmers did not.
For Semang peoples, the main weapon is the blowgun, used for small game such as squirrels and birds. It is made with bamboo. Semang move across a customary territory in search of food, and wild yams are a main food. Today the forest is under pressure, and Jahai life is changing.
Please remember that the Jahai are a living community. Their knowledge belongs to them. The smell words are not a curiosity for visitors. They are part of a language, and a language is a way of seeing the forest.
Where you can still see it today
- In Belum-Temengor. The forest is the Jahai homeland. Visit with community-run or community-approved guides.
- In the language. Jahai is an Aslian language, linked to peoples across mainland Southeast Asia.
- In forest crafts. Bamboo blowpipes and other tools are part of material culture. If you buy crafts, buy from the makers.
- In research with respect. Look for studies done with community permission.
What DNA can tell, and what it cannot
A 2006 study found that the Semang have a deep mother-line ancestry in the Peninsula, going back to the first settlement from Africa more than 50,000 years ago. A 2015 study found that Malaysian Negritos share an affinity with the Andamanese. A 2011 study looked at Denisovan ancestry. It did not detect it in the Jehai, unlike in some Philippine and Oceanian groups.
Father lines and region estimates may show old Peninsular roots too. The studies have small samples, so we cannot say much about any one person.
DNA cannot tell you whether a person is Jahai. It also cannot decide race, religion or bumiputera status. The Jahai are defined by their community, their language and their forest, not by a test.
