"An ethnography of one of the few remaining hunting and gathering peoples of Southeast Asia, The Headman Was a Woman presents the gender concepts, roles, and relations of the highly egalitarian Batek of Peninsular Malaysia. Based on longtime fieldwork, the book describes the lives of Batek men and women in the tropical rainforest, and includes discussions of fieldwork, hunting and gathering, social organization, religion, gender, nonviolence, and cultural persistence in the face of a changing landscape." "The Headman Was a Woman introduces readers - from first-year anthropology students to hunter-gatherer specialists - to an egalitarian people whose way of life is both thought-provoking and rare."--BOOK JACKET.