LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES AND FORMATION OFECONOMIC AND SOCIAL STRATIFICATION: EXPRIENCEFROM MALAYSIA

This paper focuses on the livelihood subsistence strategies used by group ofResearch object who moved from Brunei to Malaysia in the early 19th century.This study seeks to answertwo key questions. First, what type of livelihoodsubsistence strategies that are used bythis group to survive? Second, how thelivelihood subsistence strategies influenced and form new type of social andeconomic stratifications in the group thatare considered as ‘egalitarians’. Usingethnographic techniques, data in thisstudy were collected from in-depthinterviews and participation observation which took 18 months to complete. Thestudy found that there is a slight change in the aspectof subsistence strategywhich is due to market forces and the virtues of capitalism. This community hasdiversified subsistence to balance the pressure of market forces. The study alsorevealed that factors such as incomeand property ownership have developedsocial and economic stratification into several classes based on source of incomeand ownership of production. Objective criteria such as income, and sources ofprimary production such as land, makeit critical value inthis society.Competition for means of production has created conflict of ownership and thussparks competition in other aspects suchas the position and power. This explainsthat in a small community social andeconomic stratification exists and theircompetition for limited resources make themdiversifies their livelihood systems