a hunting 'kubu' or 'suku anak dalam' tribesman. by rz contributor handri karya

The term 'Kubu' is a Malay exonym ascribed to mobile, animist peoples who live throughout the lowland forests of Southeast Sumatra. In the Malay language, the word 'Kubu' can mean defensive fortification, entrenchment, or a place of refuge. It is metaphor for how the majority and dominant Islamic Melayu villagers believe them to use the interior forests as a means for resisting inclusion in the larger Malay social and Islamic religious world. As is the case with other forest peoples in the region, the term 'Kubu' is associated with very negative connotations.

The 'Orang Rimba' (people of the forest) or the 'wild Kubu' are a much smaller population of people (~3000) who live in the upstream regions of Jambi and South Sumatra. They have a unique, diverse economy, which shifts in and out of two base subsistence strategies: swidden farming and a very nomadic life based on foraging wild yams. This is traditionally combined this with hunting, trapping, fishing, damming and poisoning rivers, and the collection of forest products for trade. For many, part-time rubber tapping and participation in logging has gradually replaced the collection of forest products.

The 'Orang Rimba' life is characterized by small and changing camps, which can be the size of a nuclear family when digging for wild yams, but more commonly is based around an extended family, and can include several extended families whenever swidden farming. Their social relations are very egalitarian, while hierarchies are largely based upon age, gender and knowledge of religion and adat law.

Since the 1970s, many of these peoples have been displaced from their traditional lands by logging companies and palm oil plantations, and for some time have been the target of government settlement projects. Source: wikipedia