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When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination http://eprints.soton.ac.uk UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF LAW, ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES School of Education HOW NGAJU DAYAK CHRISTIAN WOMEN IN THREE RURAL COMMUNITIES IN CENTRAL KALIMANTAN PASS ON THEIR SKILLS, BELIEFS AND VALUES TO THE NEXT GENERATION by Bridgett Vivian Taylor Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2009 i UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF LAW, ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES SCHOOL OF EDUCATION Doctor of Philosophy HOW NGAJU DAYAK CHRISTIAN WOMEN IN THREE RURAL COMMUNITIES IN CENTRAL KALIMANTAN PASS ON THEIR SKILLS, BELIEFS AND VALUES TO THE NEXT GENERATION By Bridgett Vivian Taylor This research was carried out in three villages in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, and looked at the ways in which Ngaju Dayak Christian women passed on their skills, beliefs and values to their children. It was an educational, ethnographic, collective case-study which was both descriptive and interpretive. The main data collecting methods were participant observation and ethnographic interviews, undertaken over a two year period from 2007 to 2008. The motivation for carrying out the study was to try to find more effective ways of delivering Christian Education to rural Christian women, based on their traditional ways of teaching and learning. The research reveals that traditional Ngaju Dayak teaching and learning fits into a situated learning model. I claim that educational practices based upon that model are not necessarily in conflict with a Christian worldview. While this study confirms many of the findings of studies which have been carried out amongst indigenous people in other parts of the world it broke new ground in that it looked for the first time at traditional education methods among the Ngaju Dayak women. It found that the mothers especially, played the dominant role in passing on skills, beliefs and values to their children. Their methods were almost totally informal, frequently modelling or demonstrating in situations where children were present and included. The younger generation learned through observation, participation and imitation and by listening and experimenting. The context for the teaching and learning was the real and meaningful environment of the village, fields and/or family and was almost always connected to ‘real-life’ situations. Skills, beliefs and values were passed on orally. Also much was visually transmitted especially through the use of artefacts used in ceremonies. With the advent of local or personal electricity supplies, skills, beliefs and particularly values were also being transmitted via the mass media. Although there were some gender specific roles and mothers were dominant in passing on the skills, beliefs and values, overall there was minimal gender differentiation among the recipients. The study showed that these Ngaju Dayak women are ‘functionally illiterate’. They are able to read and write but their main ways of learning are oral. Story telling, has always played an important role in the lives of the Ngaju Dayak people. Further, it is evident that they prefer visual, kinesthetic, modes of learning to passive, formal ones. Cultural transmission from parents to children clearly takes place, but with certain modifications. Even though culture was transmitted by the parents and the wider family, motivation and relevance were important reasons for passing on the skills, beliefs and values. In summary, learning and teaching remains strongly influenced by the traditional Dayak worldview. ii LIST OF CONTENTS Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………..............ii List of contents……………………………………………………………………………………..iii List of tables………………………………………………………………………………………..ix List of appendices…………………………………………………………………………. …….xiii Declaration of authorship……………………………………………………………………… xiv Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………….xv CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: SETTING THE SCENE How and why I got involved with this research……………………………...........1 Situating myself in the case study………………….............................................2 Outline of the thesis contents……………………………………………………...10 CHAPTER 2 THE NGAJU DAYAK PEOPLE History…………………………………………………………………………. ……11 Geography…………………………………………………………………………...12 Population and density……………………………………………………………..12 Education, agriculture and employment………………………………………….13 Religion………………………………………………………………………………14 Dayak worldview…………………………………………………………………….16 Other aspects of Dayak culture……………………………………………………21 Family structure……………………………………………………………………..22 The research question……………………………………………………………...23 CHAPTER 3 LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..24 Defining the terms: Knowledge …………………………………………………...24 Skills ………………………………………………………….27 Beliefs ………………………………………………………..27 iii Values ………………………………………………………..28 Learning theory………………………………………………………………...........30 Alternative ways of knowing and learning…………………………………..........38 Traditional beliefs……………………………………………………………...........42 Pregnancy and childbirth…………………………….......... 42 Death and burial rituals…………………………………….. 42 Spirits and the spirit world…………………………………. 43 Culture and cultural transmission………………………………………………….43 CHAPTER 4 METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH DESIGN The design…………………………………………………………………………...47 The pilot study……………………………………………………………………….49 Data collection: ………………………………………………………………. ……53 Observation ..…………………………………………. …… 55 Ethnographic interviews .…………………………..............62 Ethical issues in observation and interviewing…………………………………..65 Sampling – rationale for selection of sample…………………………………….67 Hilltop village…………………………………………………………………..........68 One Ox village………………………………………………………………………69 Rainbow village…………………………………………………………………... 69 Criteria and rationale for selection of participants……………………………….70 How the sample was selected……………………………………………………..71 Timing and collection of data……………………………………………………….72 Analysis……………………………………………………………………………….73 Credibility……………………………………………………………………………..80 Generalization: To populations ………………………………………… ……83 To theory ……………………………………………………..83 Ecological validity……………………………………………………………………84 iv Reliability or stability…………………………………………………………..........85 External reliability……………………………………………85 Internal reliability …………………………………………….86 CHAPTER 5 SKILLS RESULTS: HOW SKILLS ARE BEING PASSED ON Housekeeping skills………………………………………………………………….87 Cooking/catering ………………………………………. ….. 88 Washing and cleaning ………….……………………..........91 Domestic animal husbandry …………..……………………91 Subsistence skills………………………………………………………..…………..92 Cultivating fields ……………………………………………..92 Fishing ………………………………………………… …….94 Income generating skills…………………………………………………………….94 Rubber tapping ………………………………………………95 Retailing ………………………………………………………96 Extracting gold from rivers …………………………… ……97 Collecting rattan ……………………………………….........98 Collecting and selling traditional roots …………………….98 Fish farming ………………………………………………….99 Logging ……………………………………………………….99 Child rearing…………………………………………………………………. ……...99 Traditional medical skills.…………………………………………………………..101 Recreational………………………………………………………………………....102 Communication and numeracy…………………………………………………....103 Story telling…………………………………………………. 104 Literacy and numeracy………………………………......... 106 Church related skills………………………………………………………………...109 v CHAPTER 6 BELIEFS RESULTS: HOW BELIEFS ARE BEING PASSED ON Pregnancy and birth………………………………………………………………113 Death, burial and the afterlife………………………………………………........120 Spirits, omen and other supernatural phenomena……………………….........128 Ensuring subsistence………………………………………………………..........134 CHAPTER 7 VALUES RESULTS: HOW VALUES ARE BEING PASSED ON Informal structured interviews………………………………………………........139 Observations and informal semi-structured interviews………………………...149 Family values ……………………………………………...150 Community values …………………………………………160 Formal education …………………………………….........166 CHAPTER 8 WHY SKILLS, BELIEFS AND VALUES ARE BEING PASSED ON Skills…………………..……………………………………………………………..171 Why skills are being passed on …………………………...171 Why some skills are not being passed on………………172 Why some skills are being passed on formally and semi-formally rather than informally………. ………174 Beliefs……………………………………………………………………………….176 Why beliefs are being passed on ………………………...176 Why some beliefs are not being passed on ………........177 Why some beliefs are being passed on formally and semi-formally rather than informally ………………..178 Values………………………………………………………………………………179 Reasons values are being passed on………………….. 179 Why some values are not being passed on …………….182 Why some values are being passed on formally and semi-formally rather than informally ……………….184 vi CHAPTER 9 HOW SKILLS, BELIEFS AND VALUES ARE BEING PASSED ON Informal methods………………………………………………………………….187