Why do the Dutch stop us making war when they are having wars all time?
Lencau from Lidung Payau as noted by Blair and Helmi in their book (1991: 123) who asked that. Isn’t it seen from the causa finalis, namely the cause that is the goal, the same thing?
Ngayau or headhunting used to be a Dayak ethnic tradition in the past to hunt for the enemy’s head as proof of strength. The western travelers and anthropologists had been interested in exploiting the exotic side of the Borneo inhabitants one of which was the practice of ngayau.
Framing done by the western travelers and anthropologists had helped form the present image of ngayau among the Dayak ethnic.
Image depicting the tribe of Dayak as head-hunters came up to the surface again when an ethnic conflict occurred in Kalimantan but de facto the practice of head-hunting or ngayau in the local language had long been abandoned.
The labeling to the Dayak ethnic as headhunters should have been uninstalled as it had been agreed to cease the practice in 1894 through a convention of the Borneo Dayak in Tumbang Anoi, Central Kalimantan which were facilitated by the colonial government.
Hermeneutic method is able to dismantle the myth by finding the essence of a text or reality, referring to the history and tradition when the text was written. Rational effort to find true conditions (sensus plenior) offered by hermeneutics is the real nature of any research method including research communications.
This is a part of my book about “Ngayau: A Social Construction of Reality among the Dayak Tribe in the Past” in an effort to seek to find the essence of the meaning of texts written by the western travelers and anthropologists of the 18th century until independence.
Referring to the history and tradition when the text was written, the writer is trying to construct how the authors framed articles/compositions.
And the fact is that when writing there had been things that were not recorded by the authors and this has been considered the starting point of bias by the authors and the media that disseminated it.
