Conclusion and Reflection

CONCLUSION

Although my presentation of these cultural phenomena is somewhat simplified and schematic, my blog aims to draw attention to a few issues that seem relevant to those who are interested in formulating new policy for the preservation of our historical and cultural heritage. In the first place, I argue that we should to give importance to the use of this heritage in such a way as to ensure that the "dead work" that has been invested in it can be transformed into new symbolic investments. Secondly, we should democratize collective cultural heritage in two ways: by eliminating the material and educational barriers that exclude the vast majority of the population from gaining access to cultural goods that tend to be monopolized by the dominant segments of society; and by preserving and disseminating the cultural work of the working class, making sure that members of this class have access to the tools required for this work, for communicating it to society as a whole and for transmitting it to future generations.

REFLECTION

We have learn much about many cultures about different tribes in Malaysia, particularly in Sarawak and Sabah. We learn that we should all preserve the culture of all the tribes. The Senoi tribes live in the central part of the Malaya Peninsula, and consist of six different groups, the Semai, Temiar, Mah Meri, Jah Hut, Semaq Beri and the Cheq Wong and have a total population of about 60,000.

To ensure that we uphold our cultural heritage, we must take pride in national culture and maintain cultural continuity from generation to generation and between one social class and another. The modern society like any other society in the world is inseparable from its cultural heritage, for its history is recorded and embedded in its culture. The clarion call is, let’s speak culture, wear culture, preach culture, preserve culture and above all appreciate our God given culture.

Senoi Performance TCSJ MPU November 2015

Senoi Performance TCSJ MPU NOVEMBER Part 1

Senoi Performance TCSJ MPU NOVEMBER Part 2


Extra interesting videos....

Preparation for Senoi Performance

After a whole lot of debate between a dance or an act, my group n I finally came to a conclusion by proceeding with an simple act. We decided on doing a legend of the Senoi people that is based on Lucid Dreaming.

First we gathered informations, then we decided on a suitable storyline as well as a role for everyone. In the meantime, we created background slides so that we can achieve a stronger effect on the story we want to convey.

For the past few days, we have been working on the script for the narrator and how the act will follow. The act is just about completed but we did not get enough practice yet.

No matter what happens, we are confident we can deliver the idea of Lucid Dreaming by the Senoi people to the audience.

Senoi + Preservatives

Preserving the culture of an ethnic is one important thing that many of us forget to accomplish on a daily basis due to living with a busy life.

One step the Senoi people of Peninsular Malaysia could preserve and conserve their culture is to Learn about religious traditions and festivals. Studying it can help you understand their culture. Religion and festivals connects to language, history, and personal behaviour. Becoming more familiar with the religion can help them understand all these other aspects.

Share the culture's art and technology. Each culture has its own clothing, music, visual art, storytelling traditions, an many more unique characteristics. Other members of the culture will be overjoyed to teach or talk about their hobbies, their jobs, their crafts, and what they do for fun. This includes traditional artwork you would find in a museum, but material culture goes far beyond that. Even a kitchen spoon or a piece of software is a cultural artifact.

• People with less sophisticated technology are often considered ignorant or less intelligent. This is completely wrong. Culture passes on tools adapted to a particular environment, and every tool has generations of thinking behind it

Conduct interviews. Interview the people whose histories you're telling, or experts in the subject you're writing about. Come prepared with a list of questions, but let the interviewee to wander to other topics and stories. You may learn something you would never think to ask about.

• Keep each interview within one or two hours. If the interviewee is willing, return to conduct additional interviews. This lets you prepare more questions, and lets the interviewee search for documents or objects she wants to share.
• Use a video or audio recorder if the interviewee agrees to it. These are much more accurate than trying to write everything down or hold it in your head.

Overall, the most important aspect in preserving and conserving the Senoi culture is by Accepting change. The dialogue around passing on culture often sounds defeatist. Cultures are "endangered" or need "preserving" before they die out. Real challenges and threats do exist, but don't assume that all change is bad. Culture helps people adapt to the world around them. The world has always been changing, cultures have always been adapting, and it's up to you to choose a direction you can be proud of.

The Art of Senoi

The Temiar are one of the major groups under the Senoi tribe.
They have become famous among psychotherapists and dream researchers as the supposed inventors of the "Senoi dream therapy" currently practiced by several groups in the United States.

Arts. The designs woven into or inscribed on mats, pouches, the walls of houses, and bamboo dart quivers are abstract and geometrical. The greatest degree of indigenous aesthetic attention is directed to the tightly woven rattan caps that cover the geometrically decorated bamboo quivers in which Temiar men carry their blowgun darts. Unlike some other Orang Asli groups, the Temiar do not produce representational images of any kind. Music, dance and storytelling, however, are cultivated with enthusiasm, and certain individuals gain considerable local fame for their abilities in these domains. The women's singing, in particular, is among the finest indigenous choral music to be heard in Southeast Asia. Appreciation for this art form is now so keenly developed among the Temiar that they make and circulate among themselves homemade tape recordings of their own musical performances. This activity was stimulated initially by the example of Malaysian Radio, which has been airing field recordings of Temiar music since around 1960 as the major component of its Temiar-language broadcasts.

Ceremonies. The ceremonial centerpiece of Temiar life consists of public performances by spirit mediums, at night within the house, involving choral singing, dance, and trance. (These have continued even in communities that have adopted the Baha'i religion. Trance is not always present, however.) Performances are put on when there is a demand for shamanic healing rituals or when someone's spirit guide has indicated in a dream that it wishes to be entertained. The sessions are known as gnabag (singsongs). Most of the community is involved, with the women and children singing responses in overlapping canon to the lead verses sung by one or more mediums. The song lyrics are considered to be the spirit guide's own, sung through—not by—the medium.

A much rarer kind of performance involves tiger shamanism, performed by a medium squatting within a special palm-leaf hut set up inside the house. This is performed only by a "big" halaa', without dancing, with the fires extinguished, and with distinctively minor-key melodies.

Other rituals are performed more casually and on a small scale. These include the pouring of warmed (i.e., enculturated) water over a newly delivered woman or into the post holes of a new house, or the special treatment accorded to some specially selected rice grains at the beginning of the planting season.

There are also what might be called antirituals. These are an open-ended collection of rather oddly chosen acts that must be avoided if the thunder deity is not to strike. One should not laugh at butterflies, display colored mats outdoors, dress animals in human clothing, laugh too loudly, and so on. Such acts are classed as misik (probably from the Malay bising, "disturbing noise"), and seem to have in common only the property of attracting undue attention. As already explained, one should avoid disturbing the cosmos's subjectivity for fear of causing disastrous floods and storms. If such disasters do nevertheless occur, then individuals who feel themselves guilty of having committed misik might slash their shins with a bamboo sliver, gather up some blood, mix it with water, and throw it up as an appeasement offering to the thunder deity. This blood sacrifice is also found among other Orang Asli groups (especially the Semang), but it is very rare among the Temiar. Another such rite involves slashing at the ground with a knife, sometimes while hammering a lock cut from one's own (or one's child's) hair into the soil; this is still sometimes done by Temiar during violent thunderstorms.

Culture Of The Dream People

Beliefs

The Senoi people of Malaysia are also known as Dream People.

Why are the Senoi called "the dream people"? 

Dreams were very important in the life of the Senoi. They had a society free of crime and mental illness. In the morning the entire family, discussed their dreams they had that night.

The rules that the Senoi had when it came to their dreams were the following: 

If there is danger in your dream, you should confront and conquer it. When for instance a child had dreamed that a tiger attacked him, his parents would tell him that such dream-tigers could not hurt him. They encouraged him to attack the tiger himself the next time. And if he wasn't strong enough, he could call a 'dream-friend' to help him.

If the danger was fire he should put it out with water. When the child fell from a mountain, he would be able to land softly or fly etc.

Besides this the child was encouraged to have as much pleasure as possible in the dream. "Try to fly and discover all sorts of things, and always let your dream end positive". Even if the dreamer died, he could be reborn in a better and stronger body. My daughter thinks this part is especially "cool". 

When they became teen-agers the Senoi did not have nightmares anymore. All their dreams were positive.

Festivals and Rituals

The Senoi are largely animists, but a large minority profess Christianity. Many professing Christians, however, are still gripped by their old beliefs. They are more likely to believe in witchcraft.

The Senoi main festival is the Genggulang. It is a festive ritual to appease land spirits for a good harvest and is still observed in many places where the people worship the rice spirit. In this ritual, the spirits are offered sacrificial chickens, flowers, and unhusked rice. Now, the festival has lost much of its religious meaning. It has become more of a cultural event similar to the way the Chinese celebrate Lunar New Year or Westerners celebrate Christmas. The Senoi tend to be unconcerned and skeptical about religious dogma. For example, people describing life after death almost always conclude by saying, "That's just a story of bygone days. I don't believe it."

Background of Senoi aka The Dream People

Their ancestors are believed to have arrived from southern Thailand about 4,500 years ago. During the Malayan Emergency, the guerrilla war fought from 1948 to 1960 a small fighting force, the Senoi Praaq was created, which is now part of the General Operations Force of the Royal Malaysia Police.

The Senoi (also spelled Sengoi and Sng'oi) are a set of Malaysian Hunter-gatherers classified as Orang Asli or the indigenous peoples of Peninsular Malaysia. They are the most numerous of the Orang Asli classification and widely distributed across the peninsula. The Senois speak various branches of Aslian languages which in turn a branch of Austroasiatic languages, many of them are also bilingual in the national language, Malaysian.

Orang Asli is a general term used for any indigenous groups that are found in Peninsular Malaysia. They are divided into three main tribal groups: Negrito, Senoi, and Orang Malayu Asli.  Negrito is usually found in the north, Senoi in the centre, and Orang Malayu Asli in the southern part of the Peninsula. The Orang Asli are not a homogeneous group.  Each has its own language and culture, and perceives itself as different from the others. 
At the Cameron Highlands we'll find the Senoi , the dream people. The word "Senoi" means "human being" or "person". In the past the Senoi were long called "saki" by the Malaysians, which means "bestial aborigine" or "slave." Senoi often were captured by Malaysians and sold as slaves.

Now most of them live in the Cameron Highlands. They collect insects and butterflies, carve blowpipes, weave baskets for the highlands tourist market, or sell one or two unusual souvenir items at the roadside near their homes. Some of them are working on the plantations. Sometimes they are living on the plantations in the Cameron Highlands.

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Group Members

1) Lee Chuen Zhang
2) Calvin Lim
3) Hew Zhao Quan
4) Chen Woon Khong
5) Tan Wei Jun
6) Ko Chia Hao
7) Tan Hao Ming
8) Ding Fang Young
9) Aw Yuan Zhe