Relasi Makna dan Simbolisme Mantra Pengobatan Dayak Maanyan dalam Konstruksi Karakter Sosiokultural Masyarakat

Abstract

This study aims to describe the meaning relations and symbolism in the healing incantations of the Dayak Maanyan people and to explain their relationship to the construction of the sociocultural character of the supporting community. The study employed a descriptive qualitative approach using Roland Barthes’ semiotic perspective and Clifford Geertz’s interpretive anthropology. The data consisted of thirteen healing incantations obtained through documentation, observation, interviews, transcription, identification, classification, and field verification. Data analysis involved data condensation, data presentation, interpretation of denotative, connotative, and mythical meanings, and conclusion drawing through source and technique triangulation. The findings show that the incantations construct meaning relations through four main patterns: religious relations; relations between illness and healing; relations between nature and symbolic beings; and relations between verbal actions and the transformation of illness conditions. The symbols of Bismillah, Allah, Muhammad, and Rasulullah reflect a religious orientation, while symbols such as black-and-white stones, turmeric, water/sea, animals, veins, bones, and poison represent concepts of illness and recovery. Meanwhile, imperative forms and repetition reinforce the performative function of the incantations. At the mythical level, the incantations represent a belief that healing occurs through the interconnectedness of prayer, traditional knowledge, the authority of the speaker, and the symbolic power of language. These relations also contribute to the formation of sociocultural character, including religiosity, respect for ancestral knowledge, solidarity, perseverance, and awareness of the importance of preserving cultural heritage.