Character of Apai Saloi in Iban Folktales

Apai Saloi is a comic hero in Iban folktales. Back in the old days, Apai Saloi folktales are often told to youngsters by an elderly caretaker at night. This kind of folktales contains lots of moral value in it. Based on the preliminary study done, Apai Saloi is famous with his foolish and stupid deeds. The objective of this paper is to investigate on the character of Apai Saloi in selected documented Iban folktales because the looks and characteristics of Apai Saloi was remained unknown. This paper explains in detail the analysis of Apai Saloi in 15 stories to measure what is major characteristic of Apai Saloi by using conceptual method in determining the highest ranking of Apai Saloi characteristic in the selected documented stories. Finding shows that Apai Saloi character is proven to have a significant characteristic that was able to pull the interest of the targeted members of the readers. The study will provide new possibilities to be further developed to form a character design of Apai Saloi to present Iban culture to a greater audience and most importantly to promote local culture as well as to educate people from in and out of Sarawak about the importance of preserving local content

The Iban folk belief

This paper aims to examine Iban's miring tradition using Victor Turner's (1985) theoretical framework of sociodrama. Miringis a worship presentation by providing food to extraordinary powers consisting of god, goddess, good spirit and evil spirit, and their ancestors' spirit that have died long ago in order to seek for solution to the problems they encountered in their daily life. In other words, miring is part of Iban's folk belief system passed down from one generation to another. By incorporating Turner's sociodrama, it gives new perspective on miring ritual as a form of sociodrama, of which mantra and ritual dance are performed with many other ingredients prepared alongside the ritual. Symbols that signify Iban people's life is very much interconnected with their environment and the supernatural world are recorded and given meanings in this article

Negotiating modernity and the new nationhood in Iban popular song lyrics in 1960s-1970s

Iban is the largest indigenous ethnic group in Sarawak, Malaysia which made up of approximately one third of the total of Sarawak’s population. During the 20th century, the Iban society had gone through a state of flux where people have to readapt themselves in meeting the demanding challenges of Malaysian nationalism. Drawing upon Barendregt's (2014) 'alternative conceptions of modernity' this paper examines how the Iban reference both a national as well as a local music industry particularly through their use of language as an expression of Iban. As seen in Iban popular music, which are created and used as a propaganda tool for national building. First the paper will examine the meaning of modernity. Then, combining the concept of modernity and historiography methods, tracing the history of Sarawak in analysing the the Iban song lyrics. Hence, the aim of this paper is to interpret the meaning of the lyrics and how the song lyrics in ‘Malaysia Baru’ responded to modernity in the history of Sarawak. This reflects how the Iban people responded to the modernity through the historical processes on the social, cultural, physical, economic and political environments in Sarawak

The Iban Folk Belief

This paper aims to examine Iban’s miring tradition using Victor Turner’s (1985) theoretical framework of sociodrama. Miringis a worship presentation by providing food to extraordinary powers consisting of god, goddess, good spirit and evil spirit, and their ancestors' spirit that have died long ago in order to seek for solution to the problems they encountered in their daily life. In other words, miring is part of Iban’s folk belief system passed down from one generation to another. By incorporating Turner’s sociodrama, it gives new perspective on miring ritual as a form of sociodrama, of which mantra and ritual dance are performed with many other ingredients prepared alongside the ritual. Symbols that signify Iban people’s life is very much interconnected with their environment and the supernatural world are recorded and given meanings in this article

Negotiating modernity and the new nationhood in Iban popular song lyrics in 1960s-1970s

Iban is the largest indigenous ethnic group in Sarawak, Malaysia which made up of approximately one third of the total of Sarawak’s population. During the 20th century, the Iban society had gone through a state of flux where people have to readapt themselves in meeting the demanding challenges of Malaysian nationalism. Drawing upon Barendregt's (2014) 'alternative conceptions of modernity' this paper examines how the Iban reference both a national as well as a local music industry particularly through their use of language as an expression of Iban. As seen in Iban popular music, which are created and used as a propaganda tool for national building. First the paper will examine the meaning of modernity. Then, combining the concept of modernity and historiography methods, tracing the history of Sarawak in analysing the the Iban song lyrics. Hence, the aim of this paper is to interpret the meaning of the lyrics and how the song lyrics in ‘Malaysia Baru’ responded to modernity in the history of Sarawak. This reflects how the Iban people responded to the modernity through the historical processes on the social, cultural, physical, economic and political environments in Sarawak