F. Merlin Franco, Assistant Professor and Deputy Director of the Institute of Asian Studies at Universiti Brunei Darussalam (IAS @ UBD), has just published a new article on “Persistence of the Salty-Sweet Nipah Sugar in the Popular Foodways of Brunei Darussalam.”Co-authored with Nurzahidah Bakar and published in the Journal of Ethnobiology, the paper examines the position of gula anau, a sweetener obtained from the mangrove palm nipah (Nypa fruticans), in the popular foodways of contemporary Brunei.Important as a “famine food” during the period of Japanese occupation during World War II, gula anau continues to sweeten drinks traditional snacks, known as…

Victor T. King, Professor of Borneo Studies at the Institute of Asian Studies at Universiti Brunei Darussalam (IAS @ UBD) is well known for engaging in a wide range of research topics, from the anthropology of Borneo to tourism and heritage in Southeast Asia. However, he has now extended his intellectual interests far beyond Southeast Asia. . . all the way to the Amazon!In particular, Professor King has co-edited a volume on Indigenous Amazonia, Regional Development and Territorial Dynamics (Springer 2020) together with Walter Leal Filho (Hamburg University of Applied Sciences) and Ismar Borges de Lima (State University of Roraima).This…