Last year, a number of Indonesian anthropologists were asked to contribute their work to an anthology themed “prominent cultures of the archipelago”. The book aimed to be an encyclopedic reference of Indonesia’s ethnography, written in a narrative style.
By
TEUKU KEMAL FASYA
·6 minutes read
Last year, a number of Indonesian anthropologists were asked to contribute their work to an anthology themed “prominent cultures of the archipelago”. The book aimed to be an encyclopedic reference of Indonesia’s ethnography, written in a narrative style. At the time, I was asked to write about a prominent Acehnese ethnic culture.
I decided to write a narrative about the Gayo people. Despite being the second largest ethnic group in Aceh, they are often misunderstood. Aceh province believed to have nine indigenous ethnic groups according to linguistic structures. Of these nine, the most “vulnerable” is the Haloban people that live on Banyak Island in Singkil. They only number in the thousands.
Gayo’s uniqueness
Among the unique features of the Gayo people is that they do not recognize feudalism. The geological and geographical features of the highlands where they live, coupled with their dry agriculture system, have made their culture starkly different from those of Aceh’s coastal communities.
The Gayo people have long been anti-feudalists. Snouck Hurgronje once noted that the Gayo people did not strictly separate adat (customary) and political structures. The power of the reje, or village heads, was expansive within “the boundaries of their miniature republics”. They were not the subjects of higher political or cultural powers, such as that of the uleebalang that reigned in sagi or the nanggroe in coastal Aceh.
Nevertheless, these powers are not hereditary. Leaders are elected through deliberation and consensus among the saudaro – the indigenous system of kinship based on blood ties among villagers.
In general, people understand Gayo as referring to three things. First is urang Gayo (the people), defined in socio-biological terms as the indigenous Gayo people. Second is tanoh Gayo (the land), comprising the entire cultural realm of the Gayo, namely the regencies of Aceh Tengah, Gayo Lues, Bener Meriah, East Aceh (Lokop), Southeast Aceh (Alas), Aceh Tamiang (Kalul) and Nagan Raya (Lhok Gayo).
Lastly is basa Gayo (the language), or those who speak this language (Yusradi Usman Al-Gayoni, 2014). Can a Javanese or Acehnese person who lives in Gayo and speaks the language fluently be called a Gayo person?
In Gayo, culture and religion have never experience a fierce dispute over values. Islam has merged with the local culture at two junctures, the arts and customs/traditions (edet). The Gayo area possesses solid religious rites and artistic expressions that were created in harmony.
This can be seen in the serene dawns of the Gayo highlands. The Koranic recitations and shalawat (praise for Prophet Muhammad) from local mosques sound more rhythmic, lyrical and ethnographical. These zikr (religious praises) chants feel more solemn under the influence of the melodious rhythm of the didong, a traditional dance famous in Gayo, amid the wonderful natural vistas. The zikr chants feel like a soothing and calming serenade. They are completely detached from the shackles of the Middle East’s “Arabesque melody” (Bowen, 1998).
For the Gayo people, what is good for tradition is good for life. They never curse their ancestral traditions as heretical. Among their unique traditions is their respect for the coffee plant. Prayers in the local tongue fill the air as the local people pat coffee blossoms.
They call coffee “siti kewe”. “Orom Bismillah/Siti Kewe/Kunikahen ko orom kuyu/Wih kin Walimu/Tanoh kin Saksimu/Lo kin saksi kalammu” (On Bismillah [In the name of Allah]/Oh, coffee plant/I marry you off to the wind/the water as your guardian/the soil as your witness/and the sun to confirm your vows) (Raihan Lubis, 2017). Perhaps it is because of this poetic prayer that the Gayo Arabica is renowned as one of the world’s best coffees.
Ethnographic misunderstandings
It seems that Gayo is not the only oft-misunderstood ethnicity in Indonesia. Many other ethnicities are often misunderstood due to a general lack of empathy. This is despite these ethnicities serving as the nation’s richness in ethnographic wealth, unique traditions, diverse languages and dialects and plurality of religions and belief systems.
In many empirical traditions and ingenuities, religious and cultural praxes have undergone cultural appropriation – at the same time, germination, resilience and strengthening. Religions do not undermine local traditions, but they are sowed with appropriation in mind. Similar, upon meeting other traditions, what happens is a “crossing of cultures” – to borrow Denys Lombard’s term – instead of a conflict of cultures. Islam and tradition have a higher probability of merging, while Islam and politics often lead to conflicts and enmities.
However, tension rises among these myriad diverse customs and traditions within the multicultural framework when Indonesia, in this era of reform, focuses more on politics rather than culture. Ever since an electoral democracy was adopted, “monolithic violence” has consequently been on the rise.
Direct presidential and regional elections have tensed up our ethnographic muscles. Political asymmetry begets cultural asymmetry. Among the most chronic problems is the use of “political correctness” in dealing with cultural differences (John Rachman, Identity in Question, 1995).
Such “politically correct” practices eventually neglect the different expressions of a diverse culture. Among the oddities are insulting other/minority cultures. Our people have seemingly lost their critical ability to think about diversity while becoming skeptical about differences and antipathetic towards their own ancestral history and cultures. Indonesian cultures are neglected while Arabian and Western cultures are embraced.
Such politics will eventually undermine the pedagogical capacity and maturity of this nation, which has generally been able to recover its equilibrium during periods of post-conflict peace.
Therefore, the criticisms over how President Joko Widodo pronounces “Al Fatihah” are nothing more than childish ignorance amid the fact of our nation’s anthropolinguistic diversity. Forcing the “correctness” of an expression from one language over others is a form of neglect over what linguistic studies calls the distinctive unit or generic character of each language. No foreign speaker talks in precisely the same way that a native speaker does.
The Javanese people may have difficulty is differentiating the sound “ha” with “kha” or “ra” with “ro”. In saying “amen”, the tongue of a Makassar person may incidentally insert a “g” phoneme at the end, which is similar to a buzzing sound. The way the Acehnese people say “ta” may not be as straightforward as how cleric Hartanto Saryono does it. Instead, the Acehnese people, with their Tamil phonemic influence, may make a slightly different sound by pushing their tongue against the roof of their mouth.
Do we really want to create problems over this phonetic diversity? Is diversity not a blessing when we respect one another, and a curse when we offend one another? We can have a hundred more elections in the future, but we should never undermine our nation’s diversity, let alone by using cheap shots.
Teuku Kemal Fasya, Anthropologist; Member of Nahdlatul Ulama-Aceh Branch