Material Culture: A Digital Documentation of the Art and Culture of the Saribas Malay, Sarawak (Budaya Benda: Pendokumentasian Digital Seni dan Budaya Melayu Saribas, Sarawak)

Faridah Sahari, Rahah Hasan, Terry Lucas, Nur Farziana Angat, Zahraa Farhana Hasbi

Abstract


This paper investigates the use and application of material culture study methods to document and organise the cultural collections of the Saribas Malay community in Betong Division, Sarawak. The main objective of the study is to identify the Saribas Malays’ awareness on the importance to document material culture. A documentation template based on material culture theory was designed to preserve and sustain cultural objects, starting with a practical application can be easily used and effectively implemented by the local community. This qualitative research used in-depth interviews to gather data on respondents’ awareness on the importance of documenting material culture and their perception on using the template. The respondents were selected among Saribas Malays who make, use, keep and collect cultural objects.  For the purpose of this study, Fleming’s (1974) and Prown’s (1982) models were adapted to construct a template to document information of the artefacts and as analytical tools. The findings from the interview sessions with the Saribas community showed that they were positive towards the effort to preserve material culture through documentation. The simple template proposed was sufficient to record basic information of the artefacts. Although this will take a while to complete, but in the end, this activity will be able to document the artefacts and be used as reference for academics, museum cataloguing and antique collection purposes

Keywords: Material Culture; Saribas Malay; Borneo; Digital Documentation; Analytical Tool  


Abstract 


Makalah ini membincangkan penggunaan kaedah kajian budaya benda untuk mendokumentasikan dan menguruskan koleksi budaya masyarakat Saribas Melayu di Bahagian Betong, Sarawak. Objektif utama kajian ini secara amnya adalah untuk mengenalpasti kesedaran masyarakat Melayu Saribas terhadap kepentingan mendokumentasikan budaya benda. Justeru, satu templat dokumentasi yang praktikal dan mudah untuk digunakan oleh masyarakat setempat direkabentuk untuk tujuan pendokumentasian kendiri. Temubual adalah kaedah yang digunakan dalam kajian kualitatif ini untuk mengumpul data mengenai kesedaran responden tentang kepentingan pendokumentasian budaya benda dan persepsi mereka terhadap penggunaan templat dokumentasi. Responden dipilih dalam kalangan komuniti Melayu Saribas yang membuat, mengguna, menyimpan dan mengumpul objek budaya. Untuk tujuan penyelidikan ini, modelFleming (1974) dan Prown (1982) diadaptasi dan disesuaikan untuk membina templat untuk mendokumenkan maklumat artefak dan sebagai instrumen analisis. Dapatan kajian daripada temubual dengan kumpulan sasar menunjukkan petunjuk positif terhadap usaha untuk memelihara budaya benda melalui dokumentasi dan templat ringkas yang dicadangkan dikatakan mencukupi untuk merekodkan maklumat asas artifak-artifak tersebut. Walaupun usaha ini dijangka akan mengambil masa untuk dilaksanakan sepenuhnya, tetapi dalam jangka panjang, amalan ini akan mendidik masyarakat untuk terus memelihara warisan dengan menyediakan dokumentasi yang sahih yang membolehkan ianya digunakan sebagai rujukan untuk tujuan akademik, katalog muzium dan koleksi antik.

Kata kunci: Budaya Benda; Melayu Saribas; Borneo; Pendokumentasian Digital; Alat Analisis 


Full Text:

PDF

References


Abang Yusuf bin Abang Puteh. 1998. The Malays of Sarawak: A Socio-Political Portrait. Kuching: Shobra Publications.

Aishah Mohamed. 1999. Gender, Makanan dan Identiti Orang Melayu. Jurnal Akademika 55(1):14-20. http://ejournal.ukm.my/akademika/article/view/170. Retrieved on: 12 May 2020.

Awang Azman Awang Pawi. 2014. Adat Istiadat Tradisi Melayu Sarawak. Wajah Melayu Sarawak: Rampaian Ilmu Budaya. Sarawak. Kuching: Institut Pengajian Asia Timur dan Universiti Malaysia Sarawak.

Awang Azman Awang Pawi. 2014. Sarawak Malay Material Culture and their Weltanschauung: Some Preliminary Research Themes and Findings. Thailand: Faculty of Liberal Arts, Prince of Songkla University.

Bachi V., Fresa A., Pierotti C., Prandoni C. 2014. The Digitization Age: Mass Culture Is Quality Culture. Challenges for Cultural Heritage and Society.In Digital Heritage. Progress in Cultural Heritage: Documentation, Preservation, and Protection, edited by Ioannides M., Magnenat-Thalmann N., Fink E., Žarnić R., Yen AY., Quak E. (eds) EuroMed 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol 8740. Limassol: Springer, Cham.

Collins, J. T. 1987. Dialek Melayu Sarawak. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia.

Dant, T. 1999. Materiality and Society. New York: Open University Press.

Finley, G. 1990. The Gothic Revival and the Victorian Church in New Brunswick: Toward a Strategy for Material Culture Research. Material History Bulletin 32: 1-16.

Ericksen, H. and Unger, I. 2009. The Small Museums Cataloguing Manual: A Guide to Cataloguing Object and Image Collections edited by Ericksen, H. and Unger, I. Victoria: Museums Australia

Fleming, E. McClung. 1974. Artefact Study: A Proposed Model. Winterthur Portfolio 9: 153-173.

Geertz, C. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books Inc.

Halina Sendera Mohd Yakin. 2017. Pengaruh Budaya Tradisi dan Islam dalam Evolusi Adat dan Ritual Kematian Komuniti Bajau. Jurnal Akademika 87(3):15-25 http://ejournal.ukm.my/akademika/article/view/13978. Retrieved on: 12 May 2020.

Hodder, I. 2012. Entangled An Archaeology of The Relationships Between Humans and Things. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell.

Lavenda, R. H., & Schultz, E. A. 2010. Core Concept in Cultural Anthropology (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Leibrick, Fiona M. 1989. The Power of Objects: Material Culture’s Strategic Importance to Orang Ulu Ethnicity and The Processes of Social Change. Kuching: The Sarawak Museum Journal 61: 199-213.

McCracken, G. 1988. Culture and Consumption: Meaning and Manufacture in the World of Goods, Bloomington: Indiana University Press

Maimunah Daud. 1999. Glimpses of Malay Life in Sarawak. Kuching: Yayasan Budaya Melayu Sarawak

Malinowski, B. 1932. Agronauts of Western Pacific. London: George Routledge & Sons Ltd.

Mohd Shazali Md. Sharifa, Mohd Salehuddin Mohd Zaharia, Norazmir Md Nor and Rosmaliza Muhammad. 2013. How Could the Transfer of Food Knowledge be Passed Down? Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 105: 429-437

Prown, Jules. 1982. Mind in Matter: An Introduction to Material Culture Theory and Method. Winterthur Portfolio. 11(1): 1-19.

Sabihah Osman. 1972. Keadaan Masyarakat Bumiputera Sarawak pada Abad Kelapan Belas dan Awal Abad Kesembilan Belas: Satu Tinjauan Sejarah. Malaysia in History 17:2

Sahari F., Durin A., Zaidi Adruce S., Hj Hasan R. and Abdul Rahman S. 2018. Adaptability to Settlement Pattern and Choice of Subsistence Activities: Emergence of Material Culture within the Saribas Malay in Betong, Sarawak. SHS Web of Conference 45:1-6.

Sahari F., Hasan R., Durin A., Ahmad Zaidi Adruce S. and Abdul Rahman S. 2018. Traditional Food Wrapping and Packaging: Culture and Identity of The Saribas Malay, Sarawak. International Journal of Innovative Design, Creativity and Social Sciences 2(1): 1-7.

Sahari F., Hj Hasan R., Zaidi Adruce S., Abdul Rahman S. and Durin A. (2018). Tikar Bergerang: The Reflection of Culture and Heritage of the Saribas Malay, Sarawak, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8 (14):1-14

Sanib Said. 2012. Sejarah Awal Kepulauan Melayu: Lima Buah Negeri Warisan Sarawak yang Hilang. CREAM -Current Research in Malaysia 1(1): 21-50

Sanib Said. 2013. Melayu Sarawak: Sejarah yang Hilang. Kota Samarahan: Penerbit Universiti Malaysia Sarawak.

State Planning Unit. 2013. Sarawak Facts and Figure 2013. Kuching: Chief Minister’s Department

Schiffer, M. B., & Skibo, J. M. 1987. Theory and Experimenting: The Study of Technological Change. Current Anthropology 28(5): 595-622.

Schiffer, M. B., Hollenback, K. L., Skibo, J. M., & Walker, W. H. 2010. Behavioral Archaeology: Principles and Practice. London: Equinox Publishing Ltd.

Schiffer, M. B., Skibo, J. M., Boelke, T. C., Neupert, M. A., & Aronson, M. 1994. New Perspectives on Experimental Archaeology: Surface Treatmnents and Thermal Response of the Clay Cooking Pot. American Antiquity 59(2): 197-217

Skibo, J. M., & Schiffer, M. B. 2009. People and Things A Behavioral Approach to Material Culture. New York: Springer.

Yaacob, H. F. 1983. Kedudukan Melayu Sarawak Zaman Crown Colony, Latihan Ilmiah Tidak Diterbitkan. Bangi: UKM: 1946-1963.

Sellato, B. 2016. Recent Material Culture Studies on Borneo Moussons 27: 163-172.

Tsuji, K. Mohd. Nor Faizal Ghazalli, Zulhairil Ariffin, Mohd. Shukor Nordin, Maya Izar Khaidizar, Mohammad Ehsan Dulloo & Sebastian, L.S. 2011 Biological and Ethnobotanical Characteristics of Nipa Palm (Nypa fructicans Wurmb.): A Review. Sains Malaysiana 40(12): 1407-1412

Welyne Jeffrey Jehome. 1999. Ehnicity and Ethnic Identity in Sarawak. Jurnal Akademika 55(1): 15-29.http://ejournal.ukm.my/akademika/article/view/3014. Retrieved on: 12 May 2020.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


ISSN: 0126-5008

eISSN: 0126-8694