In December 2022, Kapalasastra as one of the semi-autonomous bodies (BSO) in the field of nature lovers has successfully conducted basic education for its new members. A series of basic education activities (diksar) carried out include understanding and basic practices of rock climbing, caving, rafting, and mountain-forest. In accordance with the principle of kinship owned by Kapalasastra for generations, all activities were carried out without any element of violence or yelling.

In January, the mountain-forest diksar took place on the slopes of Mount Ungaran and was held for five days. In this activity, teaching was given about the practice of Map and Compass Field Science (IMPK), Emergency First Aid (PPGD), Search and Rescue (SAR), and training survival skills. In the following month, a rafting or swift current sports course (ORAD) was organised. The Elo River was the chosen place with the calculation of the river’s moderate safety level and moderate rainfall as well.

The next agenda was rock climbing in March. Rock climbing was held on the cliffs of Siung Beach. Not only the material space and climbing practice, participants were also introduced to the shapes of corals that form the layers of the cliff. They were given the opportunity to walk around the cliffs and observe the morphology of each side of the cliff.

Finally, a caving course was held in Purworejo. There are two forms of caves that must be explored, namely vertical and horizontal caves. The horizontal cave chosen was Sikantong Cave. This cave has a track length of 1.5 KM and has a river flowing in it. Furthermore, the vertical cave chosen is Sibodak Cave. This cave has a depth of about 25 metres. Participants learnt and observed stalactites and stalagmites, the structure of the cave, the biota in it, and the science of cave photography. The whole series of diksar was then closed with an inauguration at Parangkusumo Beach as well as running a beach clean agenda.

In October this year 2023, Kapalasastra again held the basic education. The hope is that this basic education is able to provide learning and good practices to get to know nature more closely, become a forum for channeling talent interests, and alleviate the negative image of nature lovers. Kapalasastra; love nature, love life, without forgetting the greatness of God!

Who doesn’t know sawer? Yes! The ancient culture of the archipelago in which the audience shares money with the performer for the entertainment provided. Apparently, this activity is still often practiced and thanks to the inevitability of digitalisation, a new variant of online sawer has emerged, utilising the commodification of social media features as the most affordable communication medium for all. One such application is in the form of gift live streams on the TikTok platform.

The new features pioneered by TikTok make it a platform that is loved by a wide audience. Unlike Youtube which relies on income from advertisements or Instagram from product endorsements, content creators on TikTok can get ‘paid’ directly from gifts given by the audience. Indonesia alone is second with 99.07 million active TikTok users with an average time of 23.1 hours per month (Statista, 2022). It is not surprising that people often utilise the TikTok platform to earn income through its various contents. Content that sells sadness and compassion such as mud baths, bribing babies with food, parents as visualisation streamers, and many more can earn hundreds of thousands to millions of rupiah.

The Student Creativity Programme (PKM) became a bridge for UGM students to research this phenomenon. Departing from the unrest over the normalisation of TikTok live stream content that absorbs sympathy into a source of wealth, this social humanities research is coordinated by Bulan Churniati (English Literature, 2021) with multidisciplinary personnel from various backgrounds, namely Zahra Hafizha Rahma (Communication Science, 2021), Regan Alim Tsaqif (Psychology, 2022), Aisyah Azka (Geography, 2020), and Faruq Saifudin Nurrohman (Animal Husbandry, 2021) and Syaifa Tania, S.I.P., M.A. as an accompanying lecturer. The primary data collection process in this study was through a survey with 401 people. Then based on the heterogeneity of the answers, 5 people were selected to take part in offline Focus Group Discussions and 3 online interviews to adjust the distribution.

Online sawer behaviour through the gift feature on the TikTok platform is one form of gift giving behavior that develops on social media and is an important part of this research which is interesting to study and analyse in relation to other phenomena found in this behaviour. The aspects studied in this research regarding gift giving behaviour include orientation, bonding value, and generalised reciprocity. Regarding the orientation aspect, 303 respondents gave gifts according to their wishes as viewers of “sawer online” live streaming content. This is in line with respondents’ answers regarding the equivalence of gifts given with the actions of live streamers, the majority or 258 respondents answered commensurate. Self-directed gift giving behaviour can be based on the thought that it will be commensurate with the actions of the live streamer. In the end, it can be concluded that live stream content should be gifted if it can entertain, have an impact on the giver, and the content is something that is worth gifting with or without a request from viewers.

The research that was conducted did not only stop at the act of searching, but also spreading what needed to be spread – understanding the public about this phenomenon. Therefore, the PKM RSH Sawer Online team also has various social media that contain education and recommendations for the public to sort out their watching. Hopefully, after this programme is completed, there will be many other programmes that are influenced to invite the public to be perception literate.

On Tuesday, October 10th, 2023, the Faculty of Humanities at Universitas Gadjah Mada and Universitas Brawijaya jointly organized a seminar titled “Recent Linguistic Studies in Indonesia,” which was attended by participants from various backgrounds, including academics, researchers, and the general public interested in language studies.

The seminar featured three prominent speakers, who are experts in the field of linguistics. Firstly, Professor Dr I Dewa Putu Wijana, S.U., M.A, a linguistics lecturer at Gadjah Mada University, delivered an engaging speech titled “English Structured Shop Named Used in Indonesia”. He emphasized that the naming of something always affects its structure and highlighted the strong influence of English on the language used in Indonesia.

The second speaker, Ika Nurhayani, Ph.D, a lecturer at Brawijaya University, presented a talk on “Ecolinguistics in Indonesian Folklore”. She drew attention to the Sarina Sea Octopus from Maluku and the ecosophy ideology, which advocates for respect and care for all living things, beyond just humans. She highlighted the need for humans to change their habits and values to protect the environment from harm.

Finally, Dr. Sajarwa, M.Hum, a lecturer at Gadjah Mada University, delivered a speech titled “Referential Transformation of French Definite and Indefinite Articles in Indonesian Translation”. He discussed the challenges of translating messages from the source language to the target language and the importance of preserving the original message’s meaning in the translation process.

The seminar was part of the Linguistic Forum’s efforts to introduce and discuss the latest developments in the field of linguistics in Indonesia, both in terms of theory and application. The event aimed to provide insights and inspiration for language enthusiasts and practitioners in Indonesia and foster cooperation and collaboration between the various parties involved in language studies.

In conclusion, the seminar was a great success, and attendees appreciated the speakers’ insights and expertise. The seminar will surely contribute to the advancement of linguistic studies in Indonesia and inspire researchers and enthusiasts alike to continue exploring the vast and exciting field of linguistics.

Tobacco is a very promising plantation commodity. In the form of cigarette excise, tobacco contributes more than 100 trillion rupiah in national income. However, the welfare of tobacco farmers as producers of cigarette raw materials is not proportional to their contribution. Despite this, farmers continue to farm tobacco despite the availability of other alternative agricultural commodities. In Temanggung Regency, which is nicknamed the Tobacco City, the situation is not much different. Local farmers have the opposite perception of tobacco. Among the local community, myths circulate that tobacco can bring high welfare to farmers, so it is called “green gold”, the plant of the “saints”, and various ritual practices such as ngalap berkah (seeking blessings) in the process of planting and processing tobacco.

Starting from this social phenomenon, the UGM Student Creativity Programme (PKM) team in the field of Social Humanities Research consisting of Abdila (History 2020), Wahyu Lestariningsih (Cultural Anthropology 2020), Devina Savana Putri (Economics 2021), and Ana Fitro Tunnisa (Social Development and Welfare (2022) accompanied by Dr Hempri Suyatna, S.Sos., M.Si conducted research with the title “Between Poverty and Ngalap Berkah Myth: Contradictions in Perceptions of Welfare of Temanggung Tobacco Farmers.” To obtain data, the team conducted in-depth observations and interviews in Tlogomulyo Sub-district, Temanggung Regency, Central Java in two months, July and September 2023. The team also conducted historical data research, and social welfare data research at BPS and the Temanggung District Social Service, and completed a secondary literature review.

By combining ethnographic and historical approaches, it was found that the middlemen’s entrapment and the involvement of the Chinese in the region are a vital part of the formation of tobacco myths, such as those about Ki Ageng Makukuhan and Saudagar Dampu Awang who are well well-known (and even sacred) among local farmers. The team also found that farmers form an inverse perception of the reality of the tobacco economy. There are several unfavourable conditions in the tobacco economy including the unpredictable selling price of tobacco, the strong dependence on extreme weather to produce good tobacco and avoid crop failure, the cessation of fertiliser subsidies due to tobacco policy, and unhealthy capital with middlemen at 50% interest rate known as nglimolasi system (borrow 10 pay 15). However, farmers continue to grow tobacco hoping for abundant sustenance at the beginning of each planting year, pinning their hopes for life and the future of their children and grandchildren on tobacco, and showing an emotional-spiritual connection to tobacco that tobacco is more than just a commodity.

As a plant of the saints, tobacco is also a blessing so farmers’ steadfastness in all economic conditions and continuing to cultivate tobacco and treat tobacco with its own speciality is part of the spiritual-emotional attachment in an effort to seek blessings. In this behaviour, the team found three dimensions of the subjective well-being of Temanggung tobacco farmers, including the harmony dimension, the social relationship dimension, and the environmental dimension. The harmony dimension is obtained when, for example, farmers work together in traditional ceremonies. The social relationship dimension is fulfilled by the feeling of happiness when they can help each other during picking season, as well as the attitude of solidarity among fellow farmers to fight for common welfare in the tobacco trade during harvest season.

The subjective welfare of the environmental dimension, for example, is the belief that welfare comes from the environment, namely in the form of fertile land, as well as the belief that natural elements are considered as living entities that are more than humans, thus forming the culture of selamatan ceremonies for the earth. Although material/economic welfare has various obstacles, Temanggung tobacco farmers have another source of welfare, namely subjective welfare that creates happiness for tobacco farmers and resistance to various challenges.

Writer: Abdila (History 2020) and Devina (Economics 2021)

The Faculty of Cultural Sciences received a visit from the French Ambassador to Indonesia and Timor Leste, YM Fabien Penone, on Thursday, 5 October 2023. Also present were Jules Irrmann as Director of Institut Français Indonesia (COCAC) and François Dabin (Director of IFI-LIP Yogyakarta). The guests were welcomed by the Vice Dean for Academic and Student Affairs Dr Nur Saktiningrum and several lecturers of the French Language and Literature Study Programme; Dr Hayatul Cholsy, Dr Aprillia Firmonasari, Dr Arifah Arum Candra H., and Ari Bagus Panuntun, S.S., M.A..