Dendang lebah as sacred ecology: semiotic ritual, cultural resistance, and environmental knowledge in the Tamiang Malay community

Abstract

This article examines the dendang lebah (bee chanting) ritual of the Tamiang Malay community as a symbolic and performative expression embedded with ecological meanings. Employing theoretical frameworks from Victor Turner, Émile Durkheim, Richard Schechner, Clifford Geertz, and Roland Barthes, this study analyzes the ritual’s semiotic structure and its role in shaping local ecological knowledge and conservation practices. The findings reveal that dendang lebah encompasses exegetic, operational, and positional dimensions, forming a culturally embedded semiotic system for environmental preservation. The ritual reinforces social cohesion, facilitates intergenerational transmission of ecological ethics, and serves as a form of cultural resistance to modern exploitative ecological models. Thus, dendang lebah is not merely a cultural artifact but a living epistemology that supports tropical forest sustainability through performative and symbolic channels.