This local study of Borneo's borderlands has global meaning. It explores how states materialize their territoriality and how people define themselves as a community, nation and ethnic group. Scholars across the humanities and social sciences will learn much from this masterful linking of history and ethnography, and of macro and micro perspectives. It reassesses the concept of nationalism by placing it in a real frontier situation. It is a study located in Borneo but of wide relevance across the humanities and social sciences.