The Meratus Dayak inhabit the

Meratus Mountains The Meratus Mountains is a mountain range in the Indonesian province of South Kalimantan; it is located on Borneo island. The mountains run in a north-south arc that divides South Kalimantan province into two almost equal parts. Its highest peak ...

South Kalimantan South Kalimantan ( id, Kalimantan Selatan) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is the smallest province in Kalimantan, the Indonesian territory of Borneo. The provincial capital was Banjarmasin until 15 February 2022 when it wa ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. The Banjar Kuala people would refer the Meratus people as Urang Baiju or Dayak Baiju, as they consider them to be the same as the

Ngaju people The Ngaju people (also Ngaju Dayak or Dayak Ngaju or Biaju) are an indigenous ethnic group of Borneo from the Dayak group. In a census from 2000, when they were first listed as a separate ethnic group, they made up 18.02% of the population of C ...

. While the Banjar Hulu Sungai people would call the Meratus people as Urang Bukit, Dayak Bukit or Dayak Buguet.

Naming

A Meratus Dayak's name changes over the course of his or her life. Children have "body names" (''ngaran badan'') that are not usually used after adolescence. When they have children, men and women acquire

teknonym Teknonymy (from grc-gre, τέκνον, "child" and grc-gre, ὄνομα, label=none, "name"), is the practice of referring to parents by the names of their children. This practice can be found in many different cultures around the world. The term ...

s (''ngaran ba'anak''). For a man this name is ''Ma'' X or ''Pa'an'' X, where X is the name of one of his children, or sometimes another word. For a woman it is ''Induan'' X or ''Dun'' X, depending on which part of the Meratus area she lives in. Older men become ''Awat'' X (grandfather of X) and older women become ''Apih'' X.

Language

Local Meratus Dayak dialects are closely related linguistically to both

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

(the national language), and to the Banjar language. Most Meratus Dayak can speak Banjar and Indonesian since government administrators conduct business in Indonesian and trade with the

Banjar people The Banjar or Banjarese ( bjn, Urang Banjar; ) are an indigenous ethnic group native to the Banjar regions (notably Banjarmasin, Banjarbaru, Banjar Regency, etc.) in the southeastern Kalimantan hemisphere of Indonesia. Nowadays, Banjarese di ...

is conducted in Banjar.

Sub-ethnics

The Meratus people are divided into several sub-ethnics including:- * Dayak Pitap people * Dayak Alai people ** Dayak Labuhan people ** Dayak Atiran people ** Dayak Kiyu people ** Dayak Juhu people * Dayak Hantakan (Dayak Bukit) people * Dayak Labuan Amas people * Dayak Loksado (Dayak Amandit) people * Dayak Harakit (Dayak Tapin) people * Dayak Paramasan people * Dayak Kayu Tangi people * Dayak Bangkalaan people * Dayak Sampanahan people * Dayak Riam Adungan people * Dayak Bajuin people * Dayak Sembamban Baru people * and many more

Culture

Dance

* Gintur Dadas dance, a ritualistic dance practiced by the Dayak Meratus Halong people to summon ancestral spirits. * Batandik, a dance performed to summon ancestral spirits during the Aruh Baharin ritual.

Rituals

* Aruh Baharin, a ritual also practiced by the Buddhist majority Dayak Balanghan people to close the paddy farming season after the completion of harvesting the field.

Economy

Meratus Dayak are primarily farmers, and rice is the main crop.

Rice cultivation The history of rice cultivation is an interdisciplinary subject that studies archaeological and documentary evidence to explain how rice was first domesticated and cultivated by humans, the spread of cultivation to different regions of the planet, ...

occurs in

swidden Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed vegeta ...

s (cleared portions of the forest). Swiddens are usually cultivated for a few years, then the forest is allowed to regenerate when the farmers move to a different swidden location to farm. The farmers may return to a swidden, although there is usually at least 15 years between leaving and returning to a swidden. Meratus people also collect forest products and trade with Banjar at markets outside the mountains. In these transactions Banjar typically act as middle men between the Meratus and other traders.

Social organization

Most Meratus live and farm in ''umbun'' which are also considered the primary

social unit The term "level of analysis" is used in the social sciences to point to the location, size, or scale of a research target. "Level of analysis" is distinct from the term "unit of observation" in that the former refers to a more or less integrated s ...

s among the Meratus Dayak. ''Umbun'' are founded by a man and a woman, usually a married couple, but sometimes also a brother and sister, a widow and her adult son, or other male-female pairs. ''Umbun'' also embrace a variety of dependents who have not yet founded their own ''umbun'', including children and recently married, disabled, and widowed adults. The founding pair is responsible for the ''umbun''. Some Meratus have also been moved into villages by government resettlement programs. The Meratus are classified as a "semi-nomadic" isolated tribe, and are the target of government development programs as such.