countermonument – Ingatan

This dilemma allows for the idea of countermounment (as a provocative proposal) to create a dynamic relationship between the state and society. In this case, it allows the Penan community to exercise political authority in requesting a substantial amount of public land as long as they can argue in the functional system (legal system). Here, they should transform representation into event (Jeffrey C. Alexander 2012), memory into history (Pierre Nora 1989), oral culture into written culture, and presence culture into meaning culture (Gumbrecht 2004). In this regard, they have something to argue for the claim of self-determination. It would make them easier to define its territory through this transformation since they have faced the disappearance of stable ground for many decades.

Why Memory Studies

As an all-encompassing sociocultural phenomenon, memory plays an important role in various areas of social practice. The calendar of commemorations –national, religious, ethnic– seems to be ever-increasing. Remembering and forgetting are major themes in contemporary literature and art. Memory enjoys practically top billing in daily and weekly newspapers. It has become a controversial topic in politics and the public sphere (in the context of phrases such as ‘national tradition’, ‘Holocaust memory’, or ‘truth and reconciliation’). And memory even occupies us in our free time, in the form of thriving heritage industry. [Astrid Erll, Memory in Culture]