The Department of Anthropology at Universitas Gadjah Mada organized a departmental workshop for lecturers and departmental support staff. This activity was held on Thursday-Friday, August 8-9, 2024, at Sambi Resort, Pakembinangun, Pakem, Sleman. The purpose of this activity is to evaluate the work achievements and work plans of the department. This is the realization of the 4th SDG’s target, namely Quality Education.

This activity consists of several sessions which are divided into two days. The first session on the first day was the preparation of the 2024/2025 Odd Semester Course Schedule. This session was presented by Dr. Realisa D. Masardi. The preparation of this schedule is intended to synchronize the schedule and the division of the person in charge of the course. The next session was the 2025-2030 Curriculum Plan presented by Dr. Elan A. Lazuardi. In this session, anthropological issues that are relevant to current world conditions and forecasts of future world conditions were presented. This shows that the Department of Anthropology will produce graduates who are relevant to the times. The last session on the first day was the Empowerment Anthropology Curriculum and Final Project. This session was presented by Dr. Gaffari Rahmadian and Dr. Muhammad Zamzam Fauzanafi.

The second day of the event focused on upgrading the staff and faculty of the Department of Anthropology. It was divided into three sessions. The first session was on staff promotion strategies and staff rank presented by Prof. Pujo Semedi. The next session was the staff recruitment plan which was also presented by Prof. Pujo Semedi. And the last session on this activity was secretarial by Fajrul, Head of Staff of the Anthropology Department.

The new academic year 2024/2025 has begun, which means there are new students who will pursue their education at the university level. This is also the case at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada. This time the good news came from the Anthropology department. This year the Anthropology Department accepted 105 new students. Then the department together with the departmental association, Kemant, held an orientation period for new students of the Cultural Anthropology Bachelor Program.

The orientation period was held in a series of events that were packaged creatively and innovatively. The first activity was Meet the New Students, this activity was held on August 11, 2024. This activity is a gateway to introduce new students to anthropology. Through this activity, the committee and Kemant gave an overview of the Anthropology Department by socializing what activities are in the department, such as field research, exchange programs, tandem research, and many more. Then the new students were also divided into several groups that would be accompanied by a guide. The purpose of forming this group is to get to know each other and for various things that will be faced in the world of lectures. “Sharing is caring…”, said Deta as the public relations committee. This activity was closed with a jamming session.

Furthermore, students will get to know more about cultural anthropology in the activities in the coming week, some of which are: (a) group discussions that will be divided into several topics; (b) Rembukant, a talkshow type activity that will present speakers; (c) Writing Workshop; (d) Puncak Berkawant. So, let’s look forward to a series of other activities.

The Javanese Language, Literature, and Culture Study Program, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada (FIB UGM), held another Macapatan Jumat Legen event on Thursday, June 27th, 2024. This event took place at the Javanese Studies Center (Pusaka Jawa) and raised a popular Javanese literary work, namely Serat Wedhatama.

Serat Wedhatama, a literary work written by Kanjeng Gusti Pangeran Arya Adipati (KGPAA) Mangkunagara IV, is a work full of piwulang about the concept of divinity and moral teachings in life and society. The manuscript of Serat Wedhatama kept at the Mangkunegaran Palace Library in Surakarta consists of 100 stanzas and is divided into several pupuhs, namely:

1. Pupuh Pangkur: 14 pada (stanzas)
2. Pupuh Sinom: 18 pada (stanzas)
3. Pupuh Pocung: 15 pada (stanzas)
4. Pupuh Gambuh: 35 pada (stanzas)
5. Pupuh Kinanthi: 18 pada (stanzas)

The event presented Prof. Dr. Hendrokumoro, M.Hum., as the speaker, and was attended by participants from various circles. In addition, Dr. Rudy Wiratama, S.I.P., M.A., participated in developing Serat Wedhatama in the opening ceremony and several students of the Javanese Language, Literature and Culture Study Program participated in playing gamelan, adding to the solemn atmosphere of the event. The liveliness of the participants in reading and developing Serat Wedhatama created an atmosphere full of beauty.

Prof. Dr. Hendrokumoro, M.Hum, on the occasion, emphasized that Serat Wedhatama, with its philosophical values and moral messages, can be applied in daily life. However, the actualization needs to be considered so that it can be relevant to the current conditions.

Macapatan Jumat Legen aims to revive the Macapatan tradition and preserve this tradition for the younger generation. Preserving this tradition and extracting information from literary works such as Serat Wedhatama is an important step in improving the quality of public education. The collaboration of various parties, such as between the Javanese Language, Literature and Culture Study Program and the Pusaka Jawa UGM, is an effort to maximize these preservation efforts. Thus, the organization of Macapatan Jumat Legen is in line with the 4th and 17th points in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s).

Author : Haryo Untoro

A varied dialect within a multilingual country might emerge as a phenomenon where the people speak the same language but still can’t understand what other people say from another area. For instance, the Javanese people who live in the Special Region of Yogyakarta and East Java speak and hold Javanese culture. However, they might be confused or clueless about what the listener says in a conversation. Thanks to the language variation that brought so-called dialect.

Dialectology, a linguistics study focusing on how language differs based on geography and social factors, comes to assist in answering the question. In this case, 14 students from dialectology class attempted to study vocabulary (words or phrases) variation specific to certain regions. They went to Jombang, East Java on May 10-11, 2024, to find the vocabulary variation of the Javanese language.

“There are 14 students in our class and they spread into 5 groups. Each group went to different sub-districts, which were Perak, Wonosalam, Diwek, and Peterongan. We brought 200 Swadesh word lists to find out the changes from the Javanese standard by interviewing an informant in each sub-district,” Eduar explained. Those sub-districts were chosen based on their hypothesis. “Diwek and Perak are in the west of Jombang, so we predict that the people still use the Mataraman dialect while Wonosalam and Petarongan are in the east. Thus, the people are most likely to use the Surabayanan dialect,” Dina added. From the data gathered, they compared and mapped the changes.

The students said that this field trip was a priceless experience. It gave a clear picture of how a linguist collects the data such as planning the program, coordinating with the locals, and interacting as well as interviewing them. “It was fun and always be a valuable experience for me. As a Javanese native speaker, I learned a lot from this experience. For instance, I didn’t know that the word kenceng means lurus (go straight on) in their dialect. All I know kenceng is banter or kencang (fast). It, of course, enhances my knowledge,” Dinda illustrated what she felt.

“I think it would be fantastic if we could continue to hold field trips like this in the future. We learned a lot. I hope the department, the faculty, or the parties involved will always support this sort of activity,” said Ningrum.

On Saturday, May 4th, 2024, the anthropology linguistics class held a field trip to Cilacap in order to get to know the locals, in particular the people who live in the coastal area. Approximately 65 students joined the field trip. They were divided into two classes, which were Class A and Class B. Class A focused on the people and the place around Teluk Penyu Beach such as how people communicate in a particular situation and the toponym around the town. Meanwhile, class B tried to picture the people and its culture. For instance, some groups observed how the locals present their gratitude through sedekah laut and how the people who are fishermen use the equipment, particularly the people in Tegalkamulyan village.

“We were intrigued by the event that they called sedekah laut, a special event only held by people in Cilacap,” said Fandi, a student from class B. He further explained that people in Cilacap deliver their gratitude towards the Almighty by serving some offerings. “ We were dumbfounded that they use more than 100 kinds of things as the offering where each symbolizes a certain idea,” Fandi stated.

Another group from class B tried to describe the equipment used by the local fishermen where they discovered that naming the equipment based on its appearance such as its size and its shape. A similar topic also was discussed by a group from class A. Auna explained that his group tried to illustrate the toponym around the town. On the other hand, Dila and her group took ethnographic communication to observe the interaction between fish traders and the buyers in TPI (Fish Auction Place). “We should’ve visited the TPI but unfortunately we came a little bit too late and the weather wasn’t that good which made them close the TPI. However, we still got the data in particular about the type of communication by interviewing several fishermen,” Lova added.

This field trip was initiated to implement what the students have learned in class and also to get more information from the experts as Dr. Suhandano delivered his remarks to officially open the activity. “The field trip was fun and insightful. We didn’t not only learn about the linguistics aspect but also tried to dig deeper to understand the culture that will enhance the analysis,” Ulfa said.

This field trip was held in cooperation between the Master’s Program in Linguistics and the fishermen organization, Himpunan Nelayan Seluruh Indonesia Kabupaten Cilacap. “We do hope that such an activity like this will always be conducted. It gave us the real picture of being a researcher and also created a strong collaboration with organizations and the people,” said Imam.