Dusun people

Dusun people

A Dusun man carrying Bongun, 1922.
Regions with significant populations
Malaysia: 568,575 (2010) (Sabah, Labuan)  Brunei (Tutong District and Belait District)
Languages
Dusun, Malaysian, English and Brunei Malay
Religion
Christianity, Islam, Animism
Related ethnic groups
Kadazandusun, Dayak, other Austronesian peoples

Dusun is the collective name of a tribe or ethnic and linguistic group in the Malaysian state of Sabah of North Borneo. Due to similarities in culture and language with the Kadazan ethnic group, a new unified term called "Kadazan-Dusun" was created.

Collectively, they form the largest ethnic group in Sabah. A small minority of Dusuns can also be found in Brunei where they are defined by the constitution to be one of the seven Bumiputera groups.

One interesting fact about the Dusuns is that they do not have the word 'dusun' in their vocabulary. It has been suggested that the term 'Dusun' was a term used by the Sultan of Brunei to refer to the ethnic groups of inland farmers in present-day Sabah. 'Dusun' means 'orchard' in Malay or "simpleton" in the Sundanese language. Since most of the west coast of North Borneo was under the influence of the Sultan of Brunei, taxes called 'Duis' (also referred to as the 'River Tax' on the area of south east of North Borneo) were collected by the sultanate from the 'Orang Dusun', or 'Dusun people'. Hence, since 1881, after the establishment of the British North Borneo Company, the British administration categorized the linguistically-similar, 12 main and 33 sub tribes collectively as 'Dusun' though among themselves they are simply known in their own dialect as just "human" or in their Bobolian term "kadayan" or "kadazan" (in Tangaa version). The Tambanuo and Bagahak, who had converted to Islam for religious reasons, had preferred to be called "Sungei" and "Idaan" respectively although they come from the same sub-tribes.

The Dusun ethnic group at one time made up almost 40% of the population of Sabah and is broken down into more than 30 sub-ethnic, or dialect groups, or tribes, each speaking a slightly different dialect of the Dusunic family language. They are mostly mutually understandable. The name 'Dusun' was popularised by the British colonial masters who borrowed the term from the Brunei Malays.

Most Dusuns have converted to mainstream religions such as Christianity (both Roman Catholic and Protestant) and Islam, although animism is still being practiced by a minority of Dusun.