This book is about the entanglement of an indigenous people, the Semai of Malaysia, with modernity. A key feature of htis entanglement is the process of commoditisation that has resulted in what is emically known as 'looking for money' work. Based on ethnographic research, the author documents and analyses the extent and effects of Semai involvement in commodity production and wage labour. Challenging the prevailing view of the Semai as subsistence-oriented people with weak links to the market economy, the study also stresses the fact that development for the people must be based on correct conceptions of the economy of the people.