The Head-Hunters of Borneo
Southeast Asian History Ethnography Colonial History Regional History Travel Writing Anthropology Victorian Adventure
First published in 1881 and re-issued in this clean 1988 Oxford-in-Asia paperback, Carl Bock’s The Head-Hunters of Borneo remains the essential eye-witness account of the island’s interior just as the White Rajah era began. Bock—a Norwegian naturalist commissioned to collect specimens—spent months paddling upriver, negotiating with Iban, Kayan and Kenyah chiefs, recording everything from long-house etiquette to the ritual taking of heads. Because he wrote as a scientist rather than a colonial booster, his narrative still reads like an open-air ethnography: you learn how blow-pipes are made, how rice-wine is fermented, and why a freshly taken head was once hung over a village path. For students of Southeast Asian history this edition preserves every map, sketch and statistical table of the scarce first printing, yet costs a fraction of a Victorian original.
What makes this copy attractive to collectors and regional historians is the 1988 Oxford reprint itself: printed on high-grade paper that has not browned, perfect-bound so the book lies flat for reference, and now out-of-print. Condition is remarkably fresh—only light shelf scuffs to the illustrated card cover and one faint corner crease; no previous-owner ink, no cracked hinges, no musty smell. Because the title surfaces on reading lists for university courses on colonial Borneo and on the ethnography of insular Southeast Asia, demand is steady and good copies disappear quickly.
Owning this paperback gives you a transportive primary source that doubles as a field guide: Bock lists the Malay and Dayak names for every plant and animal he encountered, so modern trekkers can still match his descriptions to what grows along the Rejang or Mahakam rivers. Whether you are assembling a working library on regional history, planning a cultural heritage tour, or simply want a riveting Victorian adventure that Melville House, Lonely Planet and National Geographic all cite, this affordable reprint delivers the complete text in a durable, backpack-friendly format.
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