The Women’s Crisis Center is a place for complaints of various cases of violence experienced by women. So far, public attention has centered on the development of legal cases, and places the victim as the sole subject who experiences the effects of trauma. In fact, the traumatic effect spreads to other actors who listen and fight for the case. On the occasion of the Caring for the Victim, Caring for the Self seminar (27/08/2024), the Anthropology Department of the Faculty of Arts UGM invited Mona Elisa Behnke to share the results of her months of research with the assistants at one of the Women’s Crisis Centers in Java, especially Yogyakarta.

Mona Behnke is a doctoral candidate in Social and Cultural Anthropology at Free University Berlin, Germany. Her Master’s thesis was on hyperreality, state rhetoric and collective memory in contemporary Indonesia, and combined her interest in psychological and visual anthropology with a philosophical approach. After graduation, Mona worked for some time as a business anthropologist in the field of user experience and the organization of work structures. In her PhD project, she focused on the emotional labor of social assistance workers in a women’s crisis center in Java, Indonesia, touching on issues of emotion, gender, and conflict management.

Working in the humanitarian field has the consequence of great challenges, not only in terms of legal assistance skills, but also the skills that must be possessed to work in the field. Basically, gender itself is labor, where the articulation of actions, behaviors and performance are socially constructed in harmony. Women are considered more flexible in absorbing emotions and navigating concerns. Being an advocate for cases of violence against children and women makes them have to be able to navigate themselves technically and emotionally. Caring is the main asset that must be possessed by the assistants. Mona’s research tries to answer how care is practiced in a neutral environment through emotional labor from psychological and legal assistants.

Plunging as a companion shows that they consciously decide to enter a non-profit institution ready to experience institutionalization in three fundamental aspects, namely emotional labor, order of feelings, and emotion repertoires. ‘Emotional Labor’ refers to the management of emotions carried out to fulfill work performance when faced with clients. Facilitators are required to be able to harmonize their emotions with a socially constructed hierarchy or order. They must understand what emotions are allowed to be shown and not when listening to client stories. Repeated mentoring experiences shape their knowledge and memory of the repertoire of emotions when assisting clients. Furthermore, the process of assisting cases of violence against women and children has a dynamic approach both feminist and gender.

Listening to the emotions released by the client makes the companion experience second traumatization. This opens up further discussion that the experience of trauma is not only experienced by subjects who are directly treated with violence, but those who absorb the emotions of victims will also experience ‘second traumatization’, such as assistants and sign language interpreters. Emotional and mental exhaustion becomes the point where the assistants have an experience with the victim, beyond their technical skills. Mona describes the emotional flow of the helper and the victim in an interesting diagram, how the helper has to empty their emotional glass between before and after entering the hot table (where the client tells about their case). They professionally process their emotions in order to maintain themselves mentally so that they can continue to assist victims. This discussion brings us to the fact that the advocates actually have the potential to experience unequal care, where they give their full care to others, but they do not get the same care because they are considered not victims even though they absorb trauma from clients every day and fight for them. Sometimes, both survivors and caregivers feel very grateful when they can forget a very painful traumatic experience. From this we can conclude that forgetting is not a passive thing, but an active process that is also selective in building individual and collective memory. The ability to forget is also a valuable skill in emotional labor, in addition to the ability to remember which has been widely applied.

This discussion ended with several stories of assistants who were carrying out their temporal agencies by caring for each other and strengthening the emotional conditions of fellow assistants. Activities such as watching movies, joking, walking, telling stories and laughing out loud are a form of temporal agencies for the assistants so that their mental state is maintained and they can return to caring for other victims.

Author: Nuzul Solekhah
Photo: Puspita Nindya Sari

Community service or KKN (Kuliah Kerya Nyata) is an important part of higher education in Indonesia, especially at Universitas Gadjah Mada. The KKN-PPM UGM SG 007 with the theme “Optimizing Local Potential to Realize Community-Based Sustainable Tourism in Namu, Batujaya, and Malaringgi Villages” was carried out by 28 UGM students from July 1, 2024 to August 19, 2024. The team received appreciation from H. Surunuddin Dangga, S.T., M.M. as the Regent of South Konawe when participating in the Stunting Eradication Program in Namu Village.

Rafi Ramdani, a student of Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Cultural Sciences UGM, in early July to mid-August, carried out KKN-PPM in Malaringgi Village, Laonti District, South Konawe Regency which witnessed his enthusiasm to serve the community through the Pinaika Musical Instrument Teaching program with the theme “Educating Malaringgi.” The program was held in the village of Malaringgi: Comprehensive and innovative learning activities for children”. This program has been designed by the UGM KKN-PPM team under the guidance of Dra. Eko Sulistyani, M.Sc, from the Department of Physics, FMIPA UGM with the main objective of providing comprehensive education to students in Malaringgi Village.

Rafi’s program focuses on teaching and training children to play the pianika as one of the modern musical instruments developing in Indonesia. He realizes that music is not just entertainment, but also a means to develop children’s cognitive, social, and emotional skills as well as a medium to preserve local culture by adapting local songs using modern musical instruments. By introducing the pianika, which is a modern musical instrument but easy to learn, children can improve hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and the ability to read musical notation. In addition, through playing music together, children also learn to work together and communicate better.

Photo of Rafi teaching children to play the pianika

The community welcomed this program enthusiastically. Children who previously had limitations in playing musical instruments are now starting to show significant improvement. Rafi not only acts as a teacher, but also as a mentor who helps build confidence in the children to explore and learn music. With the skill of playing the pianika, the children are expected to have wider opportunities to participate in various art activities at school and outside of school. This can pave the way for them to explore their interests and talents in music, which can be a provision for the future.

The community service carried out by Rafi is a reflection of the role of students in bringing positive changes to various layers of society. With his enthusiasm and dedication, he proves that Anthropology students of FIB UGM are not only committed to improving academic quality, but also have an active role in creating positive impacts in society. This program not only provides training in music playing skills, but also brings a glimmer of hope and a place of creativity for the children of Malaringgi Village to face a brighter future as the next generation of the nation.

Opening the new academic year, on August 14, 2024 the UGM Anthropology Department, The Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies, and the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies held an Anthropology of Religion Seminar entitled “Islam, Ambiguity, and (In)Tolerance: Perspectives from Southeast Asia” which was held at the Auditorium of Soegondo building, Faculty of Arts UGM. On this occasion, Professor Ismail Fajrie Alatas and Dr. Martin Slama as speakers presented their work-in-progress.

The seminar was opened by Professor Ismail Fajrie Alatas by reviewing the thoughts of previous scholars such as Ernest Gellner who reemphasized the distinctiveness of anthropological studies of religion in understanding Islam as a system of social institutions and that orthodoxy contains power relations that manifest certain opinions. Meanwhile, his colleague, Dr. Martin Slama in this presentation highlighted more about the views of Southeast Asian communities regarding the concept of tolerance and intolerance in Islam towards the concept of ambiguity, drawing on the thoughts of Shahab Ahmed and Thomas Bauer, both arguing that Islam’s inability to respond to ambiguity is now an implication of modernity so that Islam becomes more intolerant and seems rigid like an ideology.

Enriching the discourse of religious studies and anthropology of religion in a more specific research locus is very important for the development of contemporary studies and insights for the wider community, as Dr. Sita Hidayah in her commentary mentioned that this research provides broader insights because it shifts the focus of Islamic studies towards Southeast Asia. Through various seminars, workshops, and discussions like this, the Anthropology Department is committed to realizing the Sustainable Development Goals including SDGs 4 quality education and SDGs 17 partnerships to achieve common goals.

Author: Novilatul Ananda Ramadhani

Photo: Puspita Nindya Sari

Editor: Admin of FIB Public Relations

The Faculty of Cultural Sciences (FIB) Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) has a variety of students with a myriad of achievements, both in academic and non-academic fields. This time, good news came from one of its students, Muhammad Siswoyo, from the Javanese Language, Literature, and Culture Study Program. The 2022 student won third place in the essay competition at Parab Kawi #6, a prestigious event with the theme “Luhuring Kabudayan lan Kasusastran Jawi, Amrih Kalokaning Nagari.”.

This year’s Parab Kawi competition featured two categories, essays and calligraphy. In the essay category, the sub-theme was “Tradition of Javanese Cultural Values, Knowledge, and Technology.” On this occasion, Muhammad Siswoyo presented an essay entitled “Psychological Depiction of Raos Gathotkaca Krodha as a Destructive Entity in Pocapan Abur-aburan Gathotkaca Wayang Kulit Jawa Timuran”.

The essay discusses the pocapan (narration of an event in a shadow puppet performance) Abur-aburan depicting Gathotkaca Krodha, ‘Gatotkaca who is angry’, especially on the body parts of one of Werkudara’s children. The limbs of Gathotkaca Krodha are likened to various tools of destruction, such as scissors, pacul, etc. This is in fact relevant to the shape of the Gathotkaca Krodha puppet, which is also depicted in this way. This concept is also in line with the psychology of raos, which links a person’s emotional state with the ability to create certain states, such as anger and destruction.

Shadow puppetry is not only an art form, but also a ‘miniature’ of Indonesia’s cultural diversity. It contains various elements of art, from the presentation, to the play, to the details of the puppet form and its existence. The art of storytelling in shadow puppet shows also plays an important role in ‘animating’ the show and delivering the audience to the ‘gate’ of literature as well as moral messages and philosophical meanings.

Exploring cultural knowledge can be done to find out the worldview of a society. By knowing the mindset of the community, we can improve education while understanding diversity in a frame of harmony. Thus, the competition is in accordance with the points of the Sustainable Development Goals, namely point 4 (improving the quality of education) and point 17 (partnerships to achieve goals).

IMAGE REFERENCE

Tokohwayangpurwa.blogspot.com. (2009, October). Gatotkaca. Accessed at https://tokohwayangpurwa.blogspot.com/2009/10/gatutkaca.html.

Author : Haryo Untoro

Laos, August 16 – UGM Korean Language and Culture Study Program student, Anggita Lintang Herdiwan (2022) advanced as a representative of Indonesia in The 28th K-Speech World Contest. Previously, Anggita had won first place in The 22nd K-Speech Oratory Contest Indonesia. By winning first place, Anggita was able to become one of Indonesia’s representatives in The 28th K-Speech World Contest. The competition was held on August 16, 2024 at the Lao National Cultural and Arts Hall, Laos.

The event began with an Oratorical Speech Demonstration performance and an appearance from Trot President, Lee Seung Yul. Then, the opening ceremony began with the entry of representatives from 20 countries, namely France, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Timor Leste, Sri Lanka, Australia, Japan, Philippines, China, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and South Korea. Followed by opening speeches and remarks from related parties, as well as announcements of judging rules.

The implementation of the speech competition was carried out based on the order that had been randomized the day before. Starting from the team category consisting of 6 teams, the individual foreigner category consisting of 16 people, elementary school as many as 9 people, middle school as many as 6 people, general and university students as many as 4 people, and the category of Koreans living abroad as many as 7 people. After the judges gave their overall evaluation, there was a cultural performance from Laos. The event ended with an awarding ceremony and closing ceremony.

As one of the representatives from Indonesia, Anggita managed to get 최우수상 or an award equivalent to third place awarded by 통일부 (Ministry of Unification).

This competition can realize the potential of students, namely the ability to speak Korean in public. This is one of the potentials that UGM Korean Language and Culture Study Program expects each of its students to have. Of course, this can be achieved by the courage of students and the provisions provided by all lecturers of the study program.