This document summarizes a research paper on the patrimonialization of Kelabit food culture in Kelabit Highlands, Sarawak. It discusses how Kelabit food represents an important part of Kelabit cultural identity. The patrimonialization process involves institutionalizing Kelabit food heritage through events like the Bario Food and Cultural Festival. This helps manifest Kelabit identity and attract tourists. Diaspora Kelabits play a key role in driving this patrimonialization. It contributes to both avowed and ascribed identity performances among the Kelabit people.

1. `
Avowed
National Level
Ministry of Tourism and Culture Malaysia
National Heritage Department (NHD)
Activity
• National Agenda – Malaysian Food
Gazette.
• 151 traditional food inscribed under
the national gazette list.
• Malay, Nyona, Chinese and India
make up the majority of the dishes
inscribed.
Strategic Level
Rurum Kelabit Sarawak (RKS)
Kelabit Ethnic Community
Activity
• Tamu Ria (Farmers, hunters and
gatheres Saturday market).
• Pesta Nukenen & Kebudayaan Bario
(Bario Food and Cultural Festival).
• Kelabit theme restaurant in Miri and
Kuching.
AVOWED AND ASCRIBED IDENTITY MANIFESTATION THROUGH
PATRIMONIALISATION OF THE KELABIT FOOD CULTURE IN
KELABIT HIGHLANDS, SARAWAK
Ilham Aminuddin, Élise Mognard (PhD)
Taylor’s University, Subang Jaya, Malaysia
Introduction
Research Framework
Literature Review
Understanding Cultural Identity
• Culture is a “collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members
of one group or category of people from those of another” (Hofstede, 1994).
• Cultural identity is “a social construction that gives the individuals an ontological
status (a sense of ‘being’) and expectations for social behaviour (ways of ‘acting’)”
(Yep, 1998, p. 79).
• “The identification of communications of a shared system of symbolic verbal and
non-verbal behavior that are meaningful to group members who have a sense of
belonging and who shares traditions, heritage, language, and similar norms of
appropriate behaviour” (Fong, 2004a, p. 6)
• Ascribed and avowed identities are the perspectives in communications and tools
to define or negotiate one cultural identity(ies).
• During social interaction; through prescription of oneself about self (avowed) and
others in regards to oneself – the subject (ascribed) is how identity of the subject
is manifested.
Food as Cultural Identity Construction
• Food is a cultural element that embedded with meanings and representations
(Fischler, 1988)
• It establishes a belief and regulation manifested in a form of ritual or ceremony by
performing cultural identity of the group via i.e. fashion or interaction between
group members or through joining the commensal event (Fong, 2004b).
• Specific tangible food items (ingredient) sometimes marked as salient symbol of
identity (Dietler, 2006)
• The whole construction of menu in one commensal event is what created the
unique and distinctive traits that represent the community or ethnic (intangible)
(Douglas, 1984).
Relation between Social Mobility and Migration with Food Heritage
Patrimonialisation
• Heritage is a process involves a procedure, systematic management and
documentation of the expressed culture that valued in the community or society in
formal or leisure way (Smith, 2006).
• Heritage is a remains of the past that are still praised and glorified in the present
time; also an activities which the present generation seek the value from the
remains that are inherited to them and practices them as part of their daily life or
through certain occasions and events (Kamel-Ahmed, 2015).
• Gastronomic heritage touches multiple facets of food and their relations. While
preparing the food, the collective common way of preparing the food (knowledge
know how) by a group of people or individual (actors – by whom) reflects the
individual, community or regional values which also includes social interaction
and identity (context) (Poulain, 2000).
• The value of heritage patrimonialisation is only cherished by highly educated
individuals, experts, professionals and academician (Poulain et al., 2015; Smith,
2006) whom became the agent or actor for heritage making.
Tourism Contribution Identity Manifestation
• The “Food-Loving Tourist” is a tourist whom search for a food that unique to the
place and people of the given space (Bessiére,2008)
• Tourist identify and appropriate the characteristic of a given place and space that
link the life and cultural enactment of the people in the inhabited spaces.
Results and Findings
Conclusion & Recommendation
Spatial Diaspora Kelabit: Patrimonialisation of Kelabit Food Culture
• Kelabit Diaspora – Kelabit residing abroad, or away from the place of origin of Kelabit
Highland felt disconnected from the traditional culture.
• Establishing identity through revisit the space and environment. Reliving the traditional
culture, tangible and intangible heritage of the Kelabit culture.
• The patrimonialisation process is institutionalised by the establishment of Pesta Nukenen
and Kebudayaan Bario (Bario Food and Cultural Festival).
• This festival was established dedicated to showcase the community’s cultural heritage
such as food, garment, accessory, customs, tradition, folklore, flora and fauna.
• The institutionalization of the heritage is first initiated by the small community and later
transformed into a bigger scale managed by the local community’s governing body called
Rurum Kelabit Sarawak (RKS).
• Through RKS, the community are able to gain bigger attention and aids in form of
financial, physical and material support, facilities development, research and
development from various government agencies, NGOs, university and many others.
• The Rurum Kelabit Sarawak board of director are Kelabit people who residing abroad;
and this shows the diaspora Kelabits is the main actor of patrimonialisation of the Kelabit
food heritage.
Patrimonialisation of Kelabit Food Heritage contributing the Kelabit Identity
Manifestation
• The Bario Food and Cultural Festival is an avenue for the community cultural enactment.
• This enactment contributing to the avowed aspect of the identity manifestation.
• Example: Nuba Laya, everybody lived in Bario (Kelabit Highland) who practiced the
traditional way of preparing the rice, which is essential for the ethnic survival and it has
become the culture; thus it is our identity (Lucy-local actor, Transcript 10, minutes 05:33)
Touristic Valorization of the Kelabit Food Heritage Patrimonialisation
• Definitely, our food had always been one part of the tourist attraction. Our food come
from the natural resources from the surrounding. It has always been our identity. (Leela,
Field Notes 2, point 5)
• The visiting tourist to this festival and their experience act as an actor conforming the
Kelabit cultural identity.
• The tourist bearing the role as an external temporal Kelabit cultural membership
describing the community cultural identity enactment through food.
• “Definitely unique to the Kelabit and as with every other group. You have the methods,
the ingredients just the idea how people thoughts of come and putting this thing together
in the first place that is very special……... in every group in any cultural group, food is
what people take pride in.” (Johannan-Tourist, Transcript7, minute 15:36)
THIS RESEARCH IS SUPPORTED BY THE MALAYSIAN MINISTRY OF HIGHER EDUCATION (MOHE) UNDER THE FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH GRANT SCHEME (FRGS)
“TOWARDS A MODEL OF CONCERTED AND PARTICIPATIVE FOOD HERITAGE TOURISTIC VALORIZATION PROCESS: KELABIT INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY, SARAWAK”
(FRGS/1/2015/SS06/TAYLOR/03/1)
Bibliography
ISSUE
• Traditional food heritage is part of the national cultural identity
• Rapid modernisation and urbanisation endangered this traditional
cultural heritage.
• Rural and indigenous suffers the most.
Action
• Urgency to safeguards national food heritage.
• Documentation of the national tangible and intangible food heritage.
Research Problem
• Kelabit food is not listed in the Malaysian Food Gazette by the NHD.
• Existing list did not represent the whole spectrum of ethnic community
in Malaysia that make up the national identity of Malaysia.
• This could be the result of the lack of study been done in relation
between the food and cultural identity of Kelabit ethnic.
The Kelabit Community and Kelabit Highland of Sarawak
Place of Origin
at the Heart of Borneo Island called Kelabit Highlands
Location 1,100m above sea level, bordering international border of Kalimantan
Indonesia.
Number of Inhabited
Villages 13 (Bario Asal, Bued Main Beruh, Ulung Palang Atas, Ulung Palang
Bawah, Arur Dalan, Arur Layun, Padang Pasir, Kampung Baru, Pa’
Umor, Pa’ Ukat, Pa’ Dalih, Pa’ Lungan and Ba’ Kelalan)
Town Bario Centre 2 KM from Bario Asal Longhouse, the first longhouse in
Kelabit Highlands
Getting There Bario can be reach with two mode of transportation, either via logging
track or rural area air service MASWings by MAS Airline,.
Spoken Language
Kelabit, English, Malay and Indonesia
Religion
Christianity
Climate
16 to 20 degree Celsius. Humid, wet and windy almost around the
year.
Population • +- 5000 peoples resides all over the world
• +- 1500 peoples living in the Kelabit Highland.
• Majority living in the highland are adult with children in school.
• Smallest population are older peoples age 60 years old and above
Main Activities Rice farming, gardening, hunting and gathering from the forest,
tourism activities i.e. homestay and jungle tracking, café and trading
business.
Recent
Developments
• Paved road connecting to almost all villages in the highland
• Centralized Solar System
• Treated water
• Cellular and internet connection
Government
Facilities Schools (Pre-School, Primary and Lower Secondary), Customs and
Immigration Agency and Rural Health Clinic
To study the cultural performance as the identity manifestation of the Kelabit
ethnic through the Kelabit food culture.
Question – How Kelabit food culture
can be considered as cultural identity?
Hypothesis – The Kelabit tangible and
intangible food culture act as
manifestation of the Kelabit Cultural
Identity Performance
To identify the tools adopted to represent the Kelabit food culture.
Question – What are the use of food
culture patrimonialisation in cultural
identity performance?
Hypothesis – Patrimonialisation are the
tools for the Kelabit tangible and
intangible food culture manifestation of
the Kelabit Identity Performance
To study the reason for heritage making of the Kelabit food culture in the first
place.
Question – How migration and social
mobility leads to patrimonialisation of
the Kelabit tangible and intangible food
culture?
Hypothesis – Migration and social
mobility is the cause and reason of the
patrimonialisation of the Kelabit
tangible and intangible food culture.
To identify the actors, involve and to study their attitude towards the heritage
making of the Kelabit food culture and identity manifestation.
Question – What are the relations
between Kelabit tangible and intangible
food culture and cultural identity
performance for the Kelabit?
Hypothesis – The dynamic of food as
cultural identity enactment is
appropriated through the
Communication Theory of Identity via
Cultural Identity Performance indicator
Appadurai, A. (1988). How to Make a National Cuisine: Cookbooks in Contemporary India.
Comparative Studies in Society and History, 30(1), 3. http://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417500015024
Bessière, J. (2008). Eating Elsewhere, eating “Locally”: the Role of Regional Gastronomy
Tourism. Revue Tourisme, (16), 155–161.
Douglas, M. (1984). Standard Social Use of Food: An Introduction. In M. Douglas (Ed.), Food in
the Social Order: Studies of Food and Festivities in Three American Communities (pp. 1–39). New
York, NY: Russell Sage Foundations
Fischler, C. (1988). Food, self and identity. Social Science Information, 27(2), 275–292.
http://doi.org/10.1177/053901888027002005
Fong, M. (2004a). Identity and the Speech Community. In M. Fong & R. Chuang (Eds.),
Communicating Ethnic & Cultural Identity (pp. 3–17). Oxford, United Kingdom: Rowman &
Littlefield.
Fong, M. (2004b). Multiple Dimensions of Identity. In M. Fong & R. Chuang (Eds.),
Communicating Ethnic & Cultural Identity (pp. 19–33). Oxford, United Kingdom: Rowman &
Littlefield.
Hofstede, G. (1994). Management Scientist Are Human. Management Science, 40(1), 4–13.
Retrieved from http://www.jstore.org/stable/2632841
Kamel-Ahmed, E. (2015). What to conserve?: Heritage, memory, and management of meanings.
Archnet-IJAR, 9(1), 67–76.
Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (1999). Thinking Dialectically About Culture and Communication.
Communication Theory, 9(1), 1–25. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.1999.tb00160.x
Poulain, J. (2000). Gastronomic heritage and tourism development., 33(0), 1–16
Poulain, J., Smith, W., Laporte, C., Tibere, L., Ismail, M. N., Mognard, E., … Shamsul, A. B.
(2015). Studying the Consequences of Modernisation om Ethnic Food Patterns: Development of
the Malaysia Food Barometer (MFB). Anthropology of Food, 1.
Smith, L. (2006). Uses of Heritage. Routledge. London and New York: Routledge.
http://doi.org/10.4324/9780203602263
Yep, G. A. (2004). Approaches to Cultural Identity: Personal Notes from an Autoethnographical
Journey. In M. Fong & R. Chong (Eds.), Communicating Ethnic and Cultural Identity (pp. 69–81).
Rowman & Littlefield
Yep, G. A. (1998). My three cultures: Navigating the multicultural identity landscape. Reading in
Cultural Context, 79–85
Methodology
Sociology
Anthropology
Semi-guided
Interview
Participation
Observation
Verbatim
Transcript Field Notes,
Video, Photos
Quota Sampling
Paradigm
Discipline
ElderlyTourist
Local Actors
Qualitative
Avowed
Subject’s self-
demonstration and
description to others
Ascribed
Other’s describing
the subject
Identity
interaction
(Martin & Nakayama, 1999)
Kelabit Cultural Identity
Mr. Ilham Aminuddin
Master of Philosophy in Food Studies
Postgraduate School of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Arts
Taylor’s University, Malaysia
University Toulouse Jean-Jaures, France
ilhamaminuddin@gmail.com
Ascribed
TouristMigration & Social
Mobility
Patrimonialisation
Kelabit Tangible and
Intangible Food Culture
Left: Video (duration: 16 seconds) a lady from
Pa’ Lungan is making Urum Adan in traditional
methods using the Aluh and Iyung at Pa’ Lungan
Village stall during the final day of the food
festival at Central Bario. (Avowed Cultural
Identity – Identity Performance – Salience)
Left: This picture shows a man in the
black t-shirt barbequing meat consist of
chicken wings, deer and wild boar. These
activity is only sighted in the evening. In
fact barbeque method of cooking of meat
dishes is often only available in the
evening and very uncommon during day
time of the festival and any other day. It is
natural to form a fire as it is not only used
to warm the body but most take this
opportunity too to barbeque some meat
item to eat or vice versa.
This QR Code will link you
to the videos. Download
any QR Scanner apps on
your mobile to scan the
code.
Right: Video (duration: 36
seconds) shows a local Kelabit
lady from Bario Asal village
making the Nuba Laya using the
traditional method. (Avowed
Cultural Identity – Identity
Performance – Scope &
Salience)
This picture consist of
a hand gift for the
dignitaries of the
festival. Bario rice,
Bario salt, cinnamon,
pineapple and
pineapple jam
depicting the ‘iconic’
food item that is
synonym to the
Kelabit Highland and
their community
Left: The traditional custom of commensal event for the
Kelabit ethnic. Eating in a group near the cooking place
called Tetel (Hearth). The tetel has many functions
besides a place for cooking it also serve as a heater for
the people for the cold climate of Kelabit Highland. The
compartment above the fire pit is use to store firewood to
keep it dry. Meanwhile, far above is a compartment to
store food such as corn, fruits i.e. banana for fast ripening.
Each hearth is belong to one family unit in the longhouse.
This is a mock setup of an enlarged scale hearth almost
double from its standard size built at the local community
museum Teripun Tauh in Bario Centre at Kelabit Highland.
Key Findings
• Identity can be manifested not only by other prescription or garment and monumental but
also through food and food culture.
• Overview of the current situation of the Kelabit community food habits and culture are
traced and it can be linked towards the habitual practices which also demonstrates their
current food and health related conditions.
Limitation
• The study conducted is only limited to the 5 out of 13 villages in Kelabit Highland and it is
not conclusive to represent the whole Kelabit community resides in the highland.
Recommendation
• Safeguarding the Kelabit food cultural heritage can also being done in other methods
besides festivals and book publishing such as educational documentation through other
media documentations such as documentary, videos and demo session.
• One unique and iconic Kelabit dish which is the Nuba Laya should be listed under the
Malaysian Food Gazette by the Malaysia National Heritage Department.
Future Research
• A focused ethnography research should be conducted to study in-depth and document
the intangible part of the Kelabit food culture especially the know-how, rules, regulations
and taboo as it requires a longer process to achieve the intended objective.
Focus Group
Coding &
Decoding
Thematic
Analysis
Triangulation
Emic &
Etic
Ethnography