Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T13:02:35.775Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Balancing the Human and Spiritual Worlds: Ritual, Music, and Dance Among Dusunic Societies in Sabah

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2018

Jacqueline Pugh-Kitingan
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Ritual, according to Victor Turner, embodies symbolic action and has a processual flow (1967:149–50). Some ethnomusicologists have utilized Turner's ideas about symbolic action to examine the symbolism of music and dance in ritual. Marina Roseman, in her study of Senoi Temiar healing ceremonies, for example, observed that music and dance in Temiar ceremonies embody “meaningfully patterned sounds and movements” and “symbol-laden sounds and body movements” to awaken the cosmos and attract spirits to interact with humans (1991:15–16). Although Borneo cultures are very different from those of the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia, this description may also be generally applied to the practice of music and dance in traditional ritual contexts among Dusunic societies of Sabah, the east Malaysian state of northern Borneo.

Abstract in malay

Abstract in Malay

Istilah mitimbang (“dalam keadaan seimbang”) biasannya digunakan dalam banyak bahasa Dusun di Sabah, Malaysia, di utara Pulau Borneo, untuk menggambarkan hubungan yang ideal antara dua pihak. Dalam pandang dunia tradisional, alam semesta yang ideal adalah seimbang antara alam fizikal dan alam roh. Keseimbangan ini boleh diganggukan oleh tindakan manusia berdosa yang akan membahawa kemarahan kepada alam roh dan memberi kesan kepada alam fizikal. Upacara yang bersesuaian perlu dilakukan untuk mengembalikan keseimbangan atau keadaan neutral ini antara dunia manusia dan ghaib. Bacaan puisi ritual yang panjang atau rinait oleh ketua agama tradisional wanita, muzik ensembel gong dan tarian adalah elemen-elemen penting dalam upacara ritual utama tradisional ini. Rinait adalah koleksi besar kesusasteraan lisan dihafal oleh ketua agama tradisional wanita, yang merangkumi pandangan tradisional, norma adat, preskripsi ritual dan pengetahuan tradisional rakyat. Ia juga menyatakan rasional, prosedur dan keperluan konteks untuk upacara, termasuk muzik ensembel gong dan tarian. Walaupun pandang dunia, rinait, ritual, muzik gong, bilangan dan jenis instrumen, serta gaya tarian, berbeza- beza mengikut budaya dan masyarakat berkenaan, muzik ensembel gong dalam upacara secara umumnya dipercayai menjadi saluran di mana manusia dan alam roh bergabung. Tarian oleh ketua agama tradisional wanita dalam upacara ritual, membayangkan transaksi yang berlaku antara dunia manusia dan alam roh. Di kalangan banyak masyarakat, tarian sekular oleh orang biasa dibenarkan dalam beberapa konteks ritual sebagai satu bentuk perayaan. Lama kelamaan dengan penukaran kepada agama Kristian dan kadang- kadang Islam, dan berlalunya generasi tua, amalan ritual tradisional telah menurun. Walaubagaimanapun, dalam banyak kes muzik ensembel gong yang tradisional dan tarian terus dilakukan di dalam banyak konteks bukan upacara termasuk acara khas gereja. Dengan menggunakan contoh yang berbeza daripada dua masyarakat Dusun iaitu masyarakat Rungus dan masyarakat Lotud, artikel ini mengkaji peranan muzik dan tarian di dalam upacara ritual. la menunjukkan bagaimana muzik ensembel gong dan tarian sekular dalam upacara Moginum pada peringkat keluarga dalam masyarakat Rungus boleh merentasi ke konteks lain yang bukan ritual, manakala muzik gong khas dan tarian ritual dalam Mamahui Pogun di peringkat seluruh masyarakat Dusun Lotud akhirnya mungkin lenyap.

Type
Articles
Information
Yearbook for Traditional Music , Volume 46 , 2014 , pp. 170 - 190
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 by the International Council for Traditional Music

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Appell, George N., and Appell, Laura W. R. 1993 “To Converse with the Gods: Rungus Spirit Mediums.” In The Seen and the Unseen: Shamanism, Mediumship and Possession in Borneo, ed. Winzeler, Robert L., 3–54. Borneo Research Council Monograph Series, 2. Shanghai, VA: The Borneo Research Council.Google Scholar
Appell, Laura W. R. 1991 “Sex Role Symmetry among the Rungus of Sabah.” In Female and Male in Borneo: Contributions and Challenges to Gender Studies, ed. Sutlive, Vinson H. Jr., 1–36. Borneo Research Council Monograph Series, 1. Shanghai, VA: The Borneo Research Council.Google Scholar
John Baptist, Judeth 2008 “Causes and Consequences: Dealing with the Unseen for Secular Restitution among the Dusun Lotud of Tuaran District.” In Legal Culture in South-East Asia and East Africa, ed. Miyamoto, Masaru and Baptist, Judeth John, 1–20. Sabah Museum Monograph, 11. Kota Kinabalu: Department of Sabah Museum.Google Scholar
King, Julie K., and King, John Wayne 1997 Languages of Sabah: A Survey Report. Pacific Linguistics, C/78. Canberra: Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University. (Orig. pub. 1984).Google Scholar
Miller, Caroline P. 1988 “The Dusun Language: Dialect Distribution and the Question of Language Maintenance.” Paper presented at Conference on Dusun Culture, United Sabah Dusuns Association (USDA), Kota Kinabalu.Google Scholar
Porodong, Paul 2001 “Bobolizan, Forests and Gender Relations in Sabah, Malaysia.” In “Gender Relations in Forest Societies,” special issue, Gender, Technology and Development Journal 5/1: 63–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pugh-Kitingan, Jacqueline 2004 Selected Papers on Music in Sabah. Kota Kinabalu: Kadazandusun Chair, Universiti Malaysia Sabah.Google Scholar
Pugh-Kitingan, Jacqueline 2010 “From Brunei? Preliminary Enquiries about Iranun Gong-Making and Metalwork at Tempasuk, Sabah, Malaysia.” In Piakandatu ami Dr. Howard P. McKaughan, ed. Billings, Loren and Goudswaarde, Nelleke, 225–29. Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines and SIL Philippines.Google Scholar
Pugh-Kitingan, Jacqueline 2012 “Gong Ensemble Music of the Dusun Tinagas of Sabah through the Gaze of Movement.” Yearbook for Traditional Music 44:149–165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pugh-Kitingan, Jacqueline, Hussin, Hanafi, and Baptist, Judeth John 2009a “A Conduit between the Seen and Unseen: Comparing the Ritual Roles of Drumming and Gong Ensemble Music in the Mamahui Pogun of the Lotud of Tuaran and the Monogit of the Kadazan of Penampang, Sabah.” Tirai Panggung. Jurnal Seni Persembahan 9:98–123.Google Scholar
Pugh-Kitingan, Jacqueline, Hussin, Hanafi, and Baptist, Judeth John 2009b “Symbolic Interactions between the Seen and the Unseen through Gong Music and Dance in the Lotud Mamahui Pogun.” Borneo Research Journal 3:221–37.Google Scholar
Pugh-Kitingan, Jacqueline, and Baptist, Judeth John 2009 “Music for Cleansing the Universe—Drumming and Gong Ensemble Music in the Mamahui Pogun Ceremonies of the Lotud Dusun of Tuaran, Sabah, Malaysia.” Borneo Research Bulletin 40:249–76.Google Scholar
Pugh-Kitingan, Jacqueline, and Porodong, Paul 2008 “The Ongkob Tuntungan Ensemble and Mongigol-Sumundai Dancing in the Moginum Ceremonies of the Rungus of Sabah, Malaysia.” Paper presented at World Dance Alliance Global Summit, QUT, Brisbane, Australia.Google Scholar
Regis, Patricia, and Baptist, Judeth John 1992 “The Monumbui Rinait of the Lotud.” Paper presented at Borneo Research Council Second Biennial International Conference, Kota Kinabalu.Google Scholar
Regis, Patricia, and Baptist, Judeth John 1994 “The Creation Story of the Lotud.” Paper presented at Borneo Research Council 4th Biennial International Conference, Tanjungpura Universitas, Pontianak.Google Scholar
Regis, Patricia, and Baptist, Judeth John 1996 “Sacrifice and Purchase.” Paper presented at Borneo Research Council 5th Biennial International Conference, Universiti Brunei Darussalalm.Google Scholar
Roseman, Marina 1991 Healing Sounds from the Malaysian Rainforest: Temiar Music and Medicine. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Turner, Victor 1967 The Forest of Symbols. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Paperbacks.Google Scholar