New Ethnography on the Orang Asli This ethnographic study looks at the impact of state-led development efforts and the “Islamization” of the Orang Asli, a Malay term meaning ‘aborigine’. The Orang Asli, who comprise less than 1 percent of the total present-day population of Malaysia, were traditionally hunter-gathers and are believed to be the first inhabitants of the Malay peninsula. Since the 1970s and ’80s, if not earlier, the Malaysian government has attempted to integrate the Orang Asli people into the broader Malay society. To this end, the state has sought to ‘modernize’ the Orang Asli by means of economic development and conversion to Islam. The present volume examines both the merits of Malaysia’s assimilation policies and their deleterious impact on Orang Asli society