Second Blogs

Assalamualaikum Warrahmatullah Wabarokatuh..

 Hello everyone.  What do you feel today?  I hope you always feel happy.  Immediately, this time I will share the stories and new knowledge that I have acquired while taking the course for the second meeting, namely Intercultural Communication which was taught by Miss Lely Novia on Tuesday, March 9, 2021. At that time we continued our learning activities.  Like the previous week, there was a presentation between groups on the theme of the tribes in South Sulawesi.  There were three groups that made presentations, the first group from team 7 (my group), team 9, and team 10. Team 7 (my team) presented about the culture and customs of the bentong tribe, then team 9 presented about the culture and customs of the Toraja tribe  , while team 10 presented about the customs and culture of the Mandar tribe.

 The first is I will give my knowledge about the presentation material that happens to be my team who brought it. My team's presentation material is about the customs and culture of the bentong tribe. 

 The Bentong tribe is one of the tribes that originated from South Sulawesi. This ethnic group inhabits Bulo-bulo village, Pujananting sub-district, Barru regency. This tribe is referred to as an isolated tribe, because of its existence which is far from urban areas. The bentong tribe has a quite interesting wedding tradition where a man who is getting married must provide a dowry in the form of a field or cloth. The bentong tribe uses the language used which appears to contain a mixture of Bugis and Makassar languages. These move places according to their livelihoods for shifting cultivation. They plant rice, corn, sweet potatoes, cassava, green beans and vegetables. In addition, they also hunt and catch fish and gather.  The products of ingredients in the forest are resin, rattan, sandalwood, firewood and others. 

 Livestock has not been cultivated in this area, although their environment is actually suitable for this business. The lives of the Bentong people are colored by the worship of ancestral spirits and sacred objects. They believe that worship of "arajang" will bring salvation and should be done to avoid curses.

 The objects of arajang are kris, spears, shields, umbrellas and others that are issued at certain times. Objects that are considered sick are issued for worship at the time of the inauguration of traditional leaders, weddings, natural disasters and other events that are considered important.

 Secondly, then I will share a little of my knowledge about the Toraja tribe as shown by Team 9.

 The Toraja tribe is a tribe that lives in the mountains of the northern part of South Sulawesi, Indonesia.  The Toraja people adhere to strict traditional beliefs, rules and rituals determined by their ancestors.  Starting from the traditional Tongkonan house, Rambu Solo funeral ceremony, Londa Cave Cemetery, Lemo Stone Cemetery, or Kambira Baby Cemetery.  Tana Toraja is known for two popular types of traditional ceremonies, namely Rambu Solo and Rambu Tuka.  Rambu Solo is a funeral ceremony, Rambu Tuku is a ceremony for the newly renovated traditional house.

 The funeral effort for Rambu Solo is said to be a series of activities to release people who have died, which require a lot of money.  People who die are only considered macules or interpreted as sick people who still have to be cared for and treated as if they were still alive.

 In the funeral ceremony, for the nobility who died usually they would cut 24 to 100 buffalo as sacrifices (Ma'tinggoro Tedong).

 And the next one I will provide a little knowledge that I have got from the team of 10 about the customs and culture of the Mandar tribe. 

 The Mandar tribe is an ethnic group that occupies the region of West Sulawesi, as well as parts of South Sulawesi and Central Sulawesi. The population of the Mandar tribe with a significant number can also be found outside Sulawesi such as South Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, Java and Sumatra and even to Malaysia.

 One of the unique traditions in the Mandar tribe, West Sulawesi is that when someone dies we have to wear all black clothes and black umbrellas.  There is also a procession of commemorating 14 days after the death of the corpse, namely by counting 7777 small stones while saying the sentence of Tawheed (LAILAHA ILLALLAH) on each grain of the stone.

Okay I think that's all of about my knowledge from the presentation. If there any something mistakes from my words, please forgive me and you can comment to correct it.

Wassalamualaikum Warrahmatullah Wabarokatuh..