This research delves into the Mendhak Sanggring Tradition observed in Tlemang Village, Lamongan, Indonesia, a tradition at risk of fading into obscurity as a significant repository of sustainable multicultural education within the contemporary milieu dominated by cultural uniformity. Employing a qualitative case study approach coupled with thematic analysis, underpinned by idiographic interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) focusing on the principal participants of the ritual, this investigation entailed participant observation, extensive interviews encompassing eighteen diverse sources (comprising traditional and religious leaders, women, youth, government officials, and representatives from the tourism sector), two focus group discussions, and scrutiny of pertinent documentation. Findings reveal that engagement in the Mendhak Sanggring ritual triggers spiritual, social, ecological, and economic-touristic dimensions concurrently, fostering an informal environment for intergenerational and interfaith multicultural education. Nevertheless, this process is underscored by complexities such as gender-based exclusion in culinary rites and opposition from certain religious factions regarding the ritualistic offerings. This study advances a theoretical framework delineating indigenous multicultural pedagogy that amalgamates ritualistic, ecological, and economic-touristic aspects. Additionally, it advocates for a community-driven cultural preservation strategy to safeguard this tradition against the encroachments of modernization and mass tourism.
This article examines how culturally grounded creation processes can contribute to youth drug prevention in a Thai Puan community in Nakhon Nayok, Thailand. Working with Pratomsuksa 5–6 and Mattayom 1–3 students at Banbungke School, the research team combined documentary review with a participatory field study to co-develop a Lam Puan–based cultural intervention. Analysis of the project design and implementation yielded a six-step cultural creation model: (1) compile community-sourced cultural and risk data; (2) define scope and objectives; (3) select an output format grounded in community knowledge; (4) co-design and develop content and material components; (5) prototype and iterate through trials and feedback; and (6) deliver and evaluate with stakeholders. Stakeholder roles spanned school administrators, teachers, students, local leaders, guardians, culture bearers, and a university team, with community members participating as co-producers and co-evaluators. Process evaluation indicated concurrent gains in drug-risk knowledge, heritage language use, and intergenerational engagement. Implications include a portable, community-owned method for mobilizing intangible heritage as social prevention infrastructure; practical guidance for universities integrating teaching, research, and service; and a replicable template for policy actors seeking culturally responsive approaches to youth well-being that protect and revitalize local culture.
This qualitative study examines the phenomenon of contemporaneity within the intangible cultural heritage of Lanna music in Northern Thailand. It investigates how Lanna musical heritage is enacted, reconfigured, and sustained within present-day cultural contexts; analyzes the social, educational, technological, and economic processes that dynamically intersect to drive these transformations; and synthesizes projected trajectories for Lanna musical culture over the coming decade. Guided by descriptive–analytical principles to ensure close alignment between empirical data and interpretation, the research draws on fieldwork conducted in Chiang Mai and Nan provinces as representative loci of Western and Eastern Lanna musical traditions. Data were collected through documentary analysis, systematic observation, and in-depth interviews with professional musicians, emerging artists, and scholars, complemented by focus-group discussions. The findings identify eight foundational domains of Lanna musical knowledge that persist across both traditional and contemporary practice, and demonstrate how these domains are mobilized through six interrelated driving mechanisms—cultural space, education, technology, creative economy, social institutions, and heritage transmission. Conceptually, the study advances contemporaneity as a phenomenological framework for understanding intangible cultural heritage as a patterned coexistence of inherited knowledge and adaptive creativity within shared temporal space. Beyond the Lanna case, the study contributes a transferable analytical model for examining how music-based intangible cultural heritage systems negotiate continuity, innovation, and sustainability under conditions of globalization, technological mediation, and ever-changing social demand.
Food is often read as a medium of cultural memory, nostalgia, discrimination, and identity. While these are formidable in understanding collective memory and diasporic context, scant attention is given to its unifying dimension. Against this backdrop, this article analyzes the structure of the coconut-infused culinary repertoire in the novel The House of Blue Mangoes, by David Davidar, and the cookbook The Essential Kerala Cookbook, by Vijayan Kannampilly, to understand how it forms a unifying culinary model in Keralite cuisines, which are standardized, regulated, and internalized among the members of the society, that mediates discriminatory practices through the shared culinary framework. The novel examines caste-based and dietary discrimination through coconut-infused cuisines that foster harmonious practices among diverse communities, and the cookbook curates coconut-infused recipes of Kerala that extend beyond historically and culturally defined communities. The present study employs structural-semiotic analysis, drawing on the concepts of binary opposition and the sign, signifier, and signified, as developed by Barthes in his analysis of French cuisine, to elucidate the standardizing and internalizing practices that prevail in Kerala’s coconut-infused culinary repertoire. It argues that the homogenization discourse on Indian cuisine, which risks cultural erasure and reinforces societal hierarchies, offers limited explanatory power in analyzing Kerala’s regional cuisine. The study suggests that the everyday practices of regional cuisines are potent in extending the understanding of the dynamics of identity, power, and hierarchies in modern society.
In the digital era, the integration of technology into daily life has become essential, even for rural communities. However, challenges such as resistance to change, lack of infrastructure, and the digital divide continue to hinder widespread adoption. This study explores how digital culture is shaping the behaviors, values, and practices of multiethnic rural communities in Malaysia, particularly in Kelantan. It examines the emerging role of autodidacticism or self-directed learning in facilitating digital engagement. Using a qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with fifteen informants from Malay, Chinese, and Indian backgrounds. The research indicates that people across all groups are increasingly utilizing digital technologies through self-education. This self-education and learning are facilitated by smartphones, the internet, and social media to enhance communication engagement, information access, and personal development. This self-determination enhances digital literacy while expanding opportunities for social development. It enables rural residents to participate more broadly in economic, educational, and social activities, thereby supporting the sustainability and empowerment of rural communities. This study offers valuable insights for governments and stakeholders interested in promoting inclusion through digital channels and in supporting rural populations in building resilience and leveraging technology to achieve more.
