ETHNICITY AS IDENTITY IN PACKAGING DESIGN OF TRADITIONAL MEDICINE (JAMU) FOR WOMEN

Jamu is an Indonesian traditional medicine used for treating ailments or sicknesses based on experience and handed down through generations. Today jamu becomes marginal and loses its
significant role in treatments due to the inclusion of the globalization of medical drugs. This condition encourages us to see how the roles of packaging design construct their identities as a medium to
communicate product. This analysis aims to read the meaning conveyed through the image and text of jamu packaging design for women related to ethnicity as identity. We analyze the packaging design of jamu produced by five major manufacturers of herbal medicine that has survived for at least three generations, namely: Air Mancur, Sido Muncul, Jamu Jago, Nyonya Meneer and Jamu Iboe. The
analysis uses Roland Barthes semiotic theory that reveals the linguistic message, the denoted image and rhetoric of the image. Ethnicity as identity in jamu packaging design manifests in text and image
forms, such as the products name, the companys name, the company’s logo, the keratons logo, womens portrait and ilustration. Ethnicity as identity in jamu packaging design is fluid. Jamu that is
well known as Javanese traditional product turns out to have variety of characters of ethnicity in their packaging design.