Vivienne Wee’s paper discusses how the Orang Laut of the past were part of the premodern kingdoms of Melaka and Johor-Riau. The earliest stone inscriptions containing the term hulun haji were possibly replaced by the 15th century term, hamba raja (ruler’s slaves). The premodern kingdoms benefitted from the Orang Laut, who supplied valuable trade goods from land and sea, enabling these kingdoms to participate in seaborne trade with China and other premodern states. In return for the ruler’s protection, the hamba raja had to perform kerahan (corvée) for him, which was a means of differentiating groups. The premodern state thereby hierarchised the hamba raja, ranking the different groups one above another. They were also sedentarised so that they could be found by the authorities of the premodern state. Some present-day Orang Laut remember this hierarchised past and dispute their relative ranking in terms of ancestral relations to the premodern state. At present, conversion to Islam offers a mode of hierarchisation with converts to Islam claiming superiority to non-Muslim Orang Laut. Citizenship of the Republic of Indonesia does not treat present-day Orang Laut as equals of urban citizens because they are stigmatised as unemployed wage workers.

Hunter–gatherer populations underwent a mass extinction in the Neolithic, and in present times face challenges such as explicit sedentarisation policies. An exception is in Nepal, where the nomadic Raute people receive monthly governmental individual payments. One consequence of the money transfers has been a significant increase in alcohol consumption, with nearly all individuals drinking industrially produced alcohol. Here we investigate the Raute demography based on a full census of 144 individuals. We show that the Raute exhibit the short life expectancies typical of other hunter–gatherer populations from Africa, Asia and America. Bayesian survival trajectory analysis demonstrated that heavy drinking by either parent substantially reduces offspring survival to age 15. Bayesian regressions revealed a significant effect of heavy drinking on maternal fertility by decreasing the number of living children and reducing the proportion of live children at the end of maternal reproductive life. Although the absence of data prior to monetary support precludes a direct assessment of long-term demographic trends, relatively stable population sizes over the last decades and a fertility rate close to the replacement rate rule out an imminent population crash. Further studies are required to elucidate the Rautes’ origins and relationship with other nomadic people in the region.