ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the social organization of the Orang Laut. It examines how processes of change have altered their social constitution, impacting upon their identity and relationships with others. The discussion traces how Malay rulers of earlier times organized them into status groups, the subsequent and eventual collapse of this framework of social stratification and the present social constitution of the community. In addressing their current social organization from the macro to micro level, the discussion starts from lineage formations and moves in descending order to village community life, the formation and dissolving of households, marriage relations and the nuclear family. Underlying all of this are the interpersonal relations involved within and across their groups that give coherence to their living arrangements and the way they structure their lives.
