page_title: Sama-Bajau
section_title: Society
hierarchical_section_title: Sama-Bajau / Culture / Society
caption_attribution_description: English: The rehabilitation of the tradional Bajau house in the Heritage Village of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.
context_page_description: The Sama-Bajau refers to several Austronesian ethnic groups of Maritime Southeast Asia with their origins from the southern Philippines. The name collectively refers to related people who usually call themselves the Sama or Samah; or are known by the exonym Bajau. They usually live a seaborne lifestyle, and use small wooden sailing vessels such as the perahu, djenging, lepa, and vinta. Some Sama-Bajau groups native to Sabah are also known for their traditional horse culture.
  The Sama-Bajau are the dominant ethnic group of the islands of Tawi-Tawi in the Philippines. They are also found in other islands of the Sulu Archipelago, coastal areas of Mindanao, northern and eastern Borneo, Sulawesi, and throughout eastern Indonesian islands. In the Philippines, they are grouped together with the religiously-similar Moro people. Within the last fifty years, many of the Filipino Sama-Bajau have migrated to neighbouring Malaysia and the northern islands of the Philippines, due to the conflict in Mindanao. As of 2010, they were the second-largest ethnic group in the Malaysian state of Sabah.
context_section_description: Though some Sama-Bajau headsmen have been given honorific titles like "datu", "maharaja" or "panglima" by governments (like under the Sultanate of Brunei), they usually only had little authority over the Sama-Bajau community. Sama-Bajau society is traditionally highly individualistic, and the largest political unit is the clan cluster around mooring points, rarely more. Sama-Bajau society is also more or less egalitarian, and they did not practice a caste system, unlike most neighboring ethnic groups. The individualism is probably due to the generally fragile nature of their relationships with land-based peoples for access to essentials like wood or water. When the relationship sours or if there is too much pressure from land-based rulers, the Sama-Bajau prefer to simply move on elsewhere. Greater importance is placed on kinship and reciprocal labour rather than formal authority for maintaining social cohesion. There are a few exceptions, however, like the Jama Mapun and the Sama Pangutaran of the Philippines, who follow the traditional pre-Hispanic Philippine feudal society with a caste system consisting of nobles, notables, and commoners and serfs. Likely introduced by the Sultanate of Sulu.
caption: The rehabilitation of a traditional Sama-Bajau house in the Heritage Village of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.
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