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• Possessions, Pride, and Privilege Martaban Jar and the Visual Power from Three Photographs from Borneo

  109-121

  Rusyanti Rusyanti

  Views:

  64

  Photographs have become important subjects of study since the early nineteenth century, drawing attention from a wide range of disciplines. In cultural anthropology, photographs function as both pictorial representa-tions and cultural artifacts, providing evidence of social practices and material traces of the past. Clothing, objects, gestures, space, and social relations in photographs communicate collective and historical meanings. Additionally, photographs reveal hidden meanings related to cultural constructions, ideology, and power; as Barthes argued, photography is a system of signs in which meaning is never neutral. This study analyzes three late-nineteenth-century photographs from Borneo to clarify their social, cultural, and ideological significance. Furthermore, the study interprets the historical connection between Dayak communities in Borneo and Martaban jars, valued as indispensable objects. The analysis aims for rigor and neutrality by distinguishing between visible elements (denotation), cultural associations (connotation), and underlying ideology (myth). The three photographs, featuring deliberately arranged scenes, focus on ethnic features with the jar as the principal subject. The jar conveys clear ideas of ownership, strong possessions, pride, and privilege, reflecting a persistent social construct. As depicted, the vase is an integrated element of the human world, persisting across different times and places and bringing a unique narrative with each appearance.

• The Transformation of Veddha Identity into a Modern Myth in Sri Lanka

  91-100

  Lakni Prasanjali Kumarasiri

  Views:

  88

  This article examines how the ethnic identity of the Veddha community in Sri Lanka has been transformed into a modern myth through dominant practices of representation. Based on Eriksen’s understanding of ethnic identity as dynamic and socially constructed and Barthes’s theory of modern mythology, the present study argues that Veddha identity is not inherently primitive or static but is actively reshaped through cultural, political, and symbolic processes. Tourism, media, and political discourse continue to portray the Veddha community as timeless forest dwellers belonging to the past, although they are integrated into the modern Sri Lankan society where they have access to formal education, wage labor, and everyday use of modern technologies. The article utilizes qualitative insights from fieldwork and textual analysis to show how political discourse uses Veddha identity as national heritage.  This hides the effects of development, conservation, and land dispossession. Similarly, media narratives depoliticize cultural change by framing it as a natural disappearance. Tourism promotes the staged performance and commercialization of specific cultural practices. These processes simplify history, erase power relations, and naturalize inequality. The article concludes that the Veddhas have become a modern myth not because of their lived realities, but because of how they are represented. It highlights the need to recognize them as a living ethnic community with agency, rights, and an ongoing place in contemporary Sri Lankan society.

• INEXPLICABLE BEINGS, PHENOMENA, AND EVENTS, CATEGORIZED AS MYTHOLOGICAL, AMONG THE PEOPLES OF THE SOUTH SLAVS: COLLECTIONS OF FOLK TALES, INTERVIEWS WITH STORYTELLERS AND MYTHOLOGICAL BEINGS IN MODERN NOVELS

  135-148

  Milena Medojevic

  Views:

  426

  This article contains the basic structural features of a same-named Ph.D. research thesis. The main tasks of the research are to identify three focal fields with mythological elements, whether they are phenomena, objects, people, or creatures that some believe and others doubt exist. These focal fields are found in various collections of folk stories, and contemporary literary texts as well as in interviews with storytellers. However, the focus of this article is primarily on the introductory story and on providing the background of the general idea. The goal is to acquaint the readers with the background that explains the origin of the mentioned stories among the people. It talks about death, man’s natural fear of it, and the world of the paranormal, religious, and mythological, which combined create inexplicable phenomena that contradict the rational reasoning of man. One of the hypotheses of the research itself is to understand why this phenomenon is still present in the human community and what benefits it brings. Furthermore, the methodology used in the research includes a comparison and contrast of information between folk stories and contemporary literary works. In addition, the most important research method used is the interview technique with the aforementioned storytellers with strategically selected persons who are assumed to possess quality information.