Archetypes in Biak folktales: characters, symbols, and concepts

Abstract

Characters, symbols, concepts, patterns, ideas, images, and many more are similar across the globe. This is because people are similar around the world to put it simply. But to put it in a more sophisticated way, these similarities are there because all human ancestors originated from the same place i. e Africa and later spread all around the globe together with the unconscious patterns of images, ideas, etc. inherited in their genes and universally present in individual psyches. These similarities in characters, symbols, concepts, patterns, and others are called archetypes. Using archetypal criticism, this article will present a number of archetypal characters, archetypal symbols, and archetypal concepts found in the Biak (in Papua) folk stories with discussions of similar characters, symbols, and concepts from around the globe. One very famous example of archetypal character in the Biak stories is Manarmakeri in the Manarmakeri myth with the famous archetypal symbol which found its way to be in the ‘Bintang Kejora’ (the Morning Star) flag of the Papua Freedom Movement called Sampari (also Makmeser), and the archetypal concept of a bountiful era, like Eden, called Koreri still sought for until today.