Presence of the Past through Photography: A case study in the Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak

• Main Authors: Alan Zechariah, Gian, Poline, Bala
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) 2024
• Subjects: BR Christianity; GN Anthropology; H Social Sciences (General); TR Photography
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/46405/3/Thesis%20Ms._ALAN%20ZECHARIAH%20GIAN.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/46405/; https://rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/articles/exploring-history-through-photos-a-case-study-of-the-kelabit-people-in-sarawak-borneo/; https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2024.8080201

This dissertation is focused on looking into photographs as a methodology tool to extract ethnographic information into the past and linking it with the present through the relationships between the field of photography and field of anthropology through the means of visual anthropology. With that, this dissertation turns to the Kelabit community whose traditional homeland is the Kelabit Highlands which is located in the northeastern part of Sarawak. The main target is photographs that were taken in Bario from the past. Using photo- elicitation as the main part of the methodology, the aim is to explore how photographs invoke a sense of melancholy or nostalgia for the subject by linking the past and the present, and how in turn this shape how the subject under study views their environment, identity, history and memories in contemporary world. The main finding is that as the community goes through the passage of time, so do their memories of being Kelabit people (Lun Kelabit ), where the Kelabits must share this knowledge and to fill the gap. This is made evident through the social phenomena known as “generation of post memory (Hirsch, 2008)” who rely on photographs as a means by a generation (mostly younger) to make memories of generations before them as their own. Keywords: Visual ethnographic methodology, collective past, Kelabit people, post memory generation, photographs and anthropology