Ritual, identitas dan modernitas :: Redefinisi kepercayaan Aluk Todolo di Tana Toraja, Sulawesi Selatan

IDAMAN, Dr. Irwan Abdullah

2005 | Tesis | S2 Ilmu Perbandingan Agama

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan dan mengidentifikasi proses redefinisi, sekaligus pergulatan komunitas Aluk Todolo di Tana Toraja dalam mempertahankan keyakinan leluhur atau nenek moyang. Hipotesis yang diajukan adalah: a) proses redefinisi yang dilakukan oleh sistem keyakinan lain, agama resmi pemerintah, melalui penciptaan istilah kontekstualisasi agama. Pembakuan ritual-ritual keagamaan Aluk Todolo, dengan demikian, dilakukan demi ‘penundukkan’ agama atas agama lain. b) Dampak dari proses ini adalah mengaburnya nilai-nilai sakralitas dari setiap ritual keagamaan dan pemahaman atas keyakinan Aluk Todolo. Subyek penelitian ini adalah komunitas Aluk Todolo (AT) di Tana Toraja Sulawesi Selatan. Penelitian terhadap komunitas Aluk Todolo terkait dengan bagaimana kemampuan komunitas ini mempertahankan prosesi-prosesi ritual keyakinan leluhur. Cara-cara mempertahankan originalitas dan eksistensi ritual keyakinan leluhur ini bisa berupa akomodasi atau resistensi. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan metode observasi partisipatif di lapangan, baik dalam pengambilan informasi melalui teks atau dokumen dari berbagai sumber, melakukan wawancara mendalam kepada tokoh kunci AT, ilmuwan, dan beberapa responden yang terkait dengan topik penelitian ini. Data penelitian yang dikumpulkan di lapangan (field research) dan di perpustakaan (library research) kemudian dianalisa secara diskriptif, interpretatif, dan kritis. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa komunitas Aluk Todolo menghadapi dan mengalami proses redefinsi atas prinsip-prinsip ritual dan ajaran AT. Proses redefinitif ini dilakukan oleh pemerintah melalui agen pariwisata, agama-agama resmi melalui corongcorong yang disebut kontekstualisasi, dan paling ironis mengaburnya nilai-nilai sakral yang dianut dan dipahami oleh komunitas ini. Upaya mempertahankan ajaran leluhur AT dari beragam proses perubahan sosial yang terjadi secara meluas dilakukan dengan caracara resistensif dan akomodatif. Kedua bentuk cara bertahan ini mengandaikan kemampuan komunitas ini mengembangkan sikap the survival of the fittest. Hanya dengan sikap resistensif atau akomodatif, hingga saat ini, diyakini akan mampu mempertahankan eksistensi keyakinan leluhur AT.

The Purpose of the research tries to describe and identify the process of redefinition, together with the struggle of Aluk Todolo community in Tana Toraja maintaining theirs believe to the ancestors. The hypotheses that is proposed here are: a) the process of redefinition that is constructed by other system of beliefs, the official religion of the state, try to construct terms of religious contextualization. The standardization of religious rituals of Aluk Todolo, however, is attained in terms of “colonizing” such a religion over the others. b) Impact of these processes is blurred sacred values within each ritual believes and understandings of Aluk Todolo’s tradition. Subject of thesis research is Aluk Todolo community in Tana Toraja of Sulawesi. The research of this community is related with the ability of the community maintaining the ritual proceedings to their ancestors. The way to maintain the originality and the existent of ritual believes of ancestral could be in types of accommodation and resistance as well. The colleting data is attained by using observing participants, both in the way of getting the information through texts and documents, taking the in depth interview to such a person, scholars, and certain respondent who have any relation to the topic being researched. Later on, the data, which collected through field research and library research, are then analyzed descriptively, interpretively, and critically as well. The result of research indicates that Aluk Todolo community face off and experienced the process of redefinition for the principal teaching and ritual of the then Aluk Todolo. Such process are done by the Indonesian government through tourism agents, official religious leaders in the name of contextualization, and ironically it also happens within the Aluk Todolo adherents in terms of scrupulous sacred values that practiced and understood by its adherents. They, then, attempted to maintain the ancestral teaching in context of social changing that widely occur in way of resistance and accommodation. The two kinds of behavior considered as the ability of AT community to develop their mode of surviving existence. This thesis convi

Kata Kunci : Kepercayaan Aluk Tulodo, Ekspresi Ritual, Identitas dan Modernitas, Redefinition, contextualization, Aluk Todolo Community, Local Geniuses.