The Power of Objects: Material Culture’s Strategic Importance to Orang Ulu Ethnicity and The Processes of Social Change.
|
THE SARAWAK MUSEUM JOURNAL |
|
Title :
The Power of Objects: Material Culture’s Strategic Importance to Orang Ulu Ethnicity and The Processes of Social Change. |
|
Author :
Fiona M. Leibrick |
|
Abstract:
This paper is a preliminary outline of the significance and dynamics of traditional and introduced material culture in Orang Ulu societies. It undertakes to sketch out material culture’s strategic role in the shaping and transformation of society, drawingon examples from Orang Ulu societies, and to then briefly consider some of the implications ofthis for contemporary and future Orang Ulu ethnic identity. There is a vital need for more wide-spread recognition of the importance of material culture in shaping and buttressing cultural worlds, in maintaining social continuity, in providing a sense of heritage, and in promoting and reinforcing ethnic identity. There is also a correspondingly urgent need for extensive and detailed programmes of documentation of Orang Ulu material culture, since research specifically focusing on the traditional and contemporary material cultures of the Orang Ulu is negligible, in spite of the excellent and ongoing efforts of the Sarawak Museum. Such programmes would provide an accurate and informed foundation for further promoting awareness and appreciation of Orang Ulu cultural heritage and ethnicity through such avenues as publication, arts and crafts development, travelling exhibitions, regional museums, and school workshops in traditional skills.
|
| DOI: XXXX |
|
How to cite:
Leibrick, F. M. (1989). The Power of Objects: Material Culture’s Strategic Importance to Orang Ulu Ethnicity and The Processes of Social Change. The Sarawak Museum Journal, XL (61): 199-214 |
|
References
|
