THE MEANING OF MAPPARAMPO AT EAST LUWU

Research Proposal

THE MEANING OF MAPPARAMPO AT EAST LUWU

 ARIF WIBOWO

                                                 061 2090  134

  

ENGLISH DEPARTEMENT LETTER  FACULTY

MOSLEM UNIVERSITY OF INDONESIA

MAKASSAR

2013CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

                                                                             

A.        Background to The Study

            Human as social creature cannot be separated from culture. According to Spencer in Foundation of Modern Sociology (1982:57) “Culture is a way of life shared by a group, a system of ideas, values, beliefs, knowledge and customs transmitted from generation to generation. The culture is produced by society; in turn a society depends on culture.” Thus, it can be concluded that society produces culture and culture shapes society. Society and culture cannot be separated since both are related to each other and create values in their society.

Nearly all of the areas in Indonesia have different traditional wedding ceremonies where such ceremony is inherited from generation to generation. Surabaya as the second largest city after Jakarta in Indonesia has communities with different cultures. People from various ethnic backgrounds migrate to Surabaya, including Malay, Chinese, India, Arabic, and Dutch ethnics. Furthermore, people from domestic ethnics such as Madurese, Sundanese, Batak, an d Balinese people also reside in Surabaya. They all live together with the indigenous people forming a cultural pluralism characteristic of Surabaya city.

Acculturation refers to an effect of one culture on another culture or interplay of the two cultures producing a significant change. Acculturation is defined as a change in culture, which begins with interplay of the two or more cultures where each culture stands independently. The analytical unit here is each culture belonging to certain community. Individual members of the community become support ers of the culture, and act as mediator in disseminating their culture to other individuals outside their  community. Although individuals change their behavior and belief due to the effect of the foreign belief and behavior, but only tradition of commu nity experiences acculturation (Lauer, 2003:403).wedding ceremony. The difference lies in temu pengantin procession which is usually called as loro pangkon, facial make-up, bridal clothing, and some accessories.

Human has a close relation to culture, suggesting that human is cultural creature. Regarding the fact that culture consists of ideas, values, and symbols as result of thebeing works, then human is a lso called as symbolic creature (Herusatoto, 2005:9). Turner argues that a symbol refers to a thing, which is recognized as epitomizing, representing or remembering of anything through a presence of analogical properties or through associatio n of the realities or ideas (Silvester, 1991). A symbol corresponds to simplification or shortening of the aspects within human life at reality or idea level, which is used as means to describe a thing. Thus, in certain community, we can reveal a thing exi sting beyond the symbol based on analogical association to other things.

The purpose of any symbolic action is to simplify a thing that has meaning, while the meaning can be discerned through interpretation. Hence, people life is always associated with various symbols at both action and idea levels (Cassirer, in Lukitosari 2002:8). To disclose anything beyond the symbols or symbolic actions, we must find out a meaning attached to the symbolic action, which is then employed to introduce the symbols to the s ymbol users. Symbol has a profound meaning requiring us to interpret it.

Turner (in Lukitosari, 2002:10) says that there are three levels of symbolic meanings. The first level is an interpretation level of the symbol owning community. This level is also called as meaning interpretation level. This meaning interpretation is achieved from symbol owning informants regarding things having symbol. Second level is operational meaning. At this level, the symbol contains depiction or explanation of how a culture of the symbol owning community takes a form. The third level is meaning. At this level, the symbol has numerous meanings, but relating to context, it is necessary to determine one or several meanings only.

There are many things, which must be carried out before execution of wedding ceremony. Generally, the preparation stage in Pengantin Pegon is similar to Javanese wedding ceremony. How ever, there is a difference between both ceremonies. In Javanese wedding ceremony, before midodareni, the bride and bridegroom perform siraman, but in Rampanan Kapa, siraman doesn’t exist.

Term “Ma’ pparampo” derives from the ancient Toraja language, which is meant as “proposing marriage to” before wedding ceremony celebrated.   Ma’ pparampo is a approach prosess before wedding, while the wedding ceremony called Rampanan Kapa’. In this case, acculturation process appears obviously. The traditional wedding ceremony of Rampanan Kapa has begun to take place since long years ago.

Based on the illustration above, the writer conducts research under the title “what are The meanings of Ma’pparampo at East Luwu?”

B.       Problem statement

In doing the research, the writer states the problem he is going to investigate. So, the writer put one question to explain the content of discussion later.

·           What are the meanings of “Ma’pparampo” at East Luwu?

C.       Objective of the Research

Based on the research question above, the writer states that this research aim at finding out: To find out the  meanings  “Ma’pparampo” at East Luwu

D.      Significance of the research

The findings of this research will give valuable contributions on the study of semantics especially those who are interested in investigating denotative and connotative meaning in tradtional culture l. It is expected to give contribution to the lectures teaching of semantics and the students of Linguistics who want to study about this specific topic. In other words, this study will give explanation more detail to everyone who wants to study meaning found in culture, especially at South Sulawesi.

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OR RELATED LITERATURE

A.       Previous Findings

Dewie Noviena (2009), she stated that As one of the cultural realities in Surabaya, the Pengantin Pegon is replete with symbols with different meanings. This paper tries to explicate several forms of acculturations happening in traditional wedding ceremony of the Pengantin Pegon, it also describes and provides an explanation ofthe stages existing in the traditional wedding ceremony along with symbolic.

One of the thesis related to cultural terms is written by Nurlaili (2006). He studied about the translation strategies in translating Indonesian cultural lexical terms into English.

Similar to Nurlaili, Pratama (2009) in his thesis analyzed the Balinese cultural terms with Indonesian and English translation found in the book Tiga Satua Bali. Moreover, it focused on what terms related to Balinese cultural terms found in the book. He aimed at seeing how those terms were translated into Indonesian and English languages and to what extent the loss or gain of meaning found in the translation. This study is qualitative research using literary method.

B.       Pertinent Ideas

1.      General Concept of Culture

Culture is a way of life that developed and owned jointly by a group of people and passed from generation to generation. Culture is made up of many complex elements, including religious and political systems, customs, languages, tools, clothing, buildings, and works of art. Language, as well as culture, is part and parcel of human dignity that many people tend to think of inherited genetically.

When someone is trying to communicate with people who difference culture and adjust differences, proving that culture is studied.
Culture is a holistic lifestyle. culture is complex, abstract, and broad. Many aspects of culture helped define communicative behavior. The elements of socio-cultural and multi-spread human social activities  contains a view on its merits alone. "Image of the force" took different forms invarious cultures such as "rugged individualism" in America, "individual harmony with nature" d Japan and "collective compliance" in China. Cultural image force is equipping its members with guidance on appropriate behavior and set the logical world of meaning and value that can be borrowed its members the most humble to gain a sense of dignity and coherence with their lives.
Thus,  that provide a coherent framework for organizing the activities of a person and allow predicting the behavior of others.

In the 20th century, "culture" emerged as a central concept in anthropology, encompassing the range of human phenomena that cannot be attributed to genetic inheritance. Specifically, the term "culture" in American anthropology had two meanings: (1) the evolved human capacity to classify and represent experiences with symbols, and to act imaginatively and creatively; and (2) the distinct ways that people living in different parts of the world classified and represented their experiences, and acted creatively. Hoebel describes culture as an integrated system of learned behavior patterns which are characteristic of the members of a society and which are not a result of biological inheritance.

a.       Defenition of Culture

Culture is closely connected with the community. Melville J. Herskovits and Bronislaw Malinowski argued that everything contained in the society is determined by the culture of which is owned by the community itself. The term for that opinion is Cultural-determinism. Herskovits view culture as something handed down from one generation to another, who then called superorganic. 

Baker (1992: 21) defines a culture-specific item as a source language word that expresses a concept which is totally unknown in the target culture. She points out that the concept in question may be abstract or concrete; it may be related to a religious belief, a social custom, or even a type of food. It is true since there is great difference between the eastern culture and western one; there must be some concepts that are unknown for each culture. For example, Ronggeng is unknown concept in the western culture.

According to Andreas Eppink, contains the entire understanding of the culture of social values, social norms, and overall knowledge of social structures, religious, etc., in addition all intellectual and artistic expression that characterizes a society.  According to Edward Burnett Tylor, culture is a complex whole, that it contains the knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and other capabilities from any person as a member of society.

Culture is considered to be group-specific behavior that is acquired, at least in part, from social influences. Here, group is considered to be the species-typical unit, whether it be a troop, lineage, subgroup, or so on. Prima facie evidence of culture comes from within-species but across-group variation in behavior, as when a pattern is persistent in one community of chimpanzees but is absent from another, or when different communities perform different versions of the same pattern. The suggestion of culture in action is stronger when the difference across the groups cannot be explained solely by ecological factors.

While the embodiment of culture are objects created by human beings as a cultured form and behavior of objects that are real, for example, patterns of behavior, language, equipment life, social organization, religion, art, etc.,

b.      Elements of Culture

According Koentjroningrat, cultural elements consist of:

1. System of religion and ritual

2. Systems and community organizations

3. Knowledge systems

4. Language

5. Art

6. Livelihood

7. Technology systems and equipment

Bronislaw Malinowski said there are four basic cultural elements include:

- System of norms that allow cooperation between the members of the public to adjust to the surrounding nature

- Economic organizations

- Tools and institutions

- Organization of power (politics

2.      Semantic

The term semantics is derived from Greek verb Semanio that means to  mean or to signify the word. The word semantic has ultimately prevailed as a  name for the doctrine of meaning, in particular of linguistic meaning. Semantics is  study of how person responds to words and other symbols. In addition, the term  semantic is mentioned as one of linguistic branches, which is crucial part of  overall linguistic competence. This statement is crucial to the Chomskyan goal of  describing and accounting for linguistic competence, that people will speak and  understand easily a language if they have linguistic competence.

Demers, Akmajian & Harnish (1981:225) in his book “Linguistics and  Introduction to Language and Communication” stated that semantic is generally  considered to be the study of meaning in language, while in logic semantic is  generally considered to be the study of reference in language. In Longman  dictionary (1983: 1011), Semantic is the study of meanings of words and other  parts of language, the general study or signs or symbols and what they stand for.  Goddard in Oxford (1998:1) also stated that semantic is the study of  meaning which stands at the very center of the linguistic quest to understand the  nature of language and human language abilities. It is obvious that semantic has an important role in understanding and comprehending a language, especially for

English, since semantic does not only concern the study of meaning but also the  relationship between language and culture as Goddard (1998:1)also states:  Another concern of semantic is to shed light on the relationship between  and cultures. Much of the vocabulary of any language and even  parts of the grammar will reflect the culture of its speakers indeed, the culture  specific concepts and ways of understanding embedded in language, are an  important part of what constitutes a culture.

The same as Lyon, it is clear that semantic is a study of meaning. The term  of meaning in the semantics theory can be described from the mind of speaker to  the mind of the hearer by embodying them, as it was, in the form of one language  or another (Lyons, 1981:139). But lately, some philosophers have debated about the term of meaning in the case of semantics definition. According to them, the  word meaning will be unanswerable, if it is asked in such this question, what is  meaning? Because the word meaning in English has some kind of existence on  reality (presupposition of reality), and everything referred to as meaning is  similar, if not deal in nature (presupposition of homogeneity).  If the term of meaning is described as ideas or concept, than it will not  help us to answer such question because the term concept is not clearly defined, and it’s too vague and general. Moreover, Lyons also stated that the word meaning may not have the same range of application as any single word in other  language. For example, there are contexts in which “meaning” can be translated  into French with signification or sense, and the context of meaning (signification  or sense) does not match with “bedeutung and sinn” in German. That is why linguists prefer to ask such question, what is the meaning of something?

3.      Meaning

The nature of meaning, its definition, elements, and types, was discussed by philosophers Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas. According to them 'meaning is a relationship between two sorts of things: signs and the kinds of things they mean (intend, express or signify)'.  One term in the relationship of meaning necessarily causes something else to come to the mind. In other words: 'a sign is defined as an entity that indicates another entity to some agent for some purpose'.

The types of meanings vary according to the types of the thing that is being represented. Namely:

1.      There are the things in the world, which might have meaning;

2.      There are things in the world that are also signs of other things in the world, and so, are always meaningful (i.e., natural signs of the physical world and ideas within the mind);

3.      There are things that are always necessarily meaningful, such as words, and other nonverbal symbols.

All subsequent inquiries emphasize some particular perspectives within the general AAA framework. The major contemporary positions of meaning come under the following partial definitions of meaning:

·  Psychological theories, exhausted by notions of thought, intention, or understanding;

·  Logical theories, involving notions such as intension, cognitive content, or sense, along with extension, reference, or denotation;

·  Message, content, information, or communication;

·  Truth conditions;

·  Usage, and the instructions for usage; and

·  Measurement, computation, or operation

a.  Kinds of Meaning

a). Lexical Meaning

          The meaning of words or lexical meaning is a part of linguistic knowledge and is therefore a part of the grammar. The term lexical meaning, which is used in semantics, is interpreted as the meaning of lexeme whether it is word lexeme or pharaphrasal lexeme. Not all lexemes are word-lexemes or lexeme whose forms are word forms. Many of them will be phrasal lexemes whose forms are phrases, for instance iron horse = a railroad locomotive (N), iron out = to discuss and reach an agreement about (V), just so = exactly right (Adj), in Toto = as a whole (Adv), and phrasal lexemes tend to be grammatically or semantically idiomatic. Lexical meaning is usually considered as being the meaning of word. Samsuri (1987:14) stated that “Lexical meaning is the meaning of word itself beyond the sentences composition. So the meaning of words will be changed when the words are put in the sentence”. According to Lyons (1984:140) lexical meaning is a meaning described in the lexicon or dictionary. In addition, he also said that lexical meanings are the meaning of a word or sentence which upon the meaning of its constituent lexemes.

b.                 Contextual Meaning

Contextual meaning is the meaning of words according to the situations in which they are used (Lyons: 1984:143). Different situations give different meaning. On the other hand, in the particular situations the sentences will be equal in meaning. In addition, contextual meaning also defined as the information signaled about the kind of use a linguistic unit has in its social context (Crystal, 1991: 79). Simon and Schuster (1982: 10) state that context is the interrelated condition in which something exists or occurs. Longman says that “context means the part of speech of words and the things denote (1992: 275)”. It can be said that contextual meaning have or according to the text. It involves the function of word in sentence formation since different arrangement of the same word can convey different context. So, we can conclude that the contextual meaning is the meaning of the words according to the situation in which they are used. Different situation may give different meaning in a sentence.

For example;

• hair on my grandfather’s head is white

• As head officer, she has to be on time.

4.      Culture of Toraja

The Toraja are an ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Their population is approximately 650,000, of which 450,000 still live in the regency of Tana Toraja ("Land of Toraja"). Most of the population is  Christian, and others areMuslim or have local animist beliefs known as aluk ("the way"). The Indonesian government has recognized this animist belief as Aluk To Dolo ("Way of the Ancestors").

The word toraja comes from the Bugis language's to riaja, meaning "people of the uplands". The Dutch colonial government named the people Toraja in 1909. Torajans are renowned for their elaborate funeral rites, burial sites carved into rocky cliffs, massive peaked-roof traditional houses known as tongkonan, and colorful wood carvings. Toraja funeral rites are important social events, usually attended by hundreds of people and lasting for several days.

Before the 20th century, Torajans lived in autonomous villages, where they practised animism and were relatively untouched by the outside world. In the early 1900s, Dutch missionaries first worked to convert Torajan highlanders to Christianity. When the Tana Toraja regency was further opened to the outside world in the 1970s, it became an icon of tourism in Indonesia: it was exploited by tourism developers and studied by anthropologists. By the 1990s, when tourism peaked, Toraja society had changed significantly, from an agrarian model — in which social life and customs were outgrowths of the Aluk To Dolo—to a largely Christian society.

Wedding Culture in Toraja

          Today Toraja marriages are monogamous, although in the past polygyny was sometimes practiced by the aristocracy. Some marriages continue to be arranged by the parents; however, most contemporary Toraja select their own mates. Marriage with first and second cousins is prohibited (although in previous times one could circumvent this taboo through ritual offerings). In certain regions the nobility were the exception to this rule, often marrying first cousins to keep wealth within the immediate family. Residence is ideally neolocal, but many couples reside initially with either the husband's or the wife's family. Divorce is frequent, and divorce compensations are determined prior to marriage (to be paid by the divorcing party).

          In Toraja tradition process of marriage has many steps before they celebrate it. Rambu Tuka or Rampanan Kapa was traditional wedding ceremony from Tana’Toraja. The ceremony is as unique and precious as other ceremonies that have been known first all over the world from Tana Toraja, since there are things about Rambu Tuka (Rampanan Kapa) that people would not find anywhere else, but in Tana Toraja (South Sulawesi/ South Celebes).

          The first thing that is unique about Rambu Tuka (Rampanan Kapa) Wedding Ceremony is, it is not a priest nor a clergyman that pronounces the couple as husband and wife, but Ada’ (men that are responsible for the local customs and tradition) and people of Tana’ Toraja put their big respect to them. Like the others tradition, the man have to do a tradition before he can marriage to his couple. It is Ma’pparampo  tradtion.

          There  were three types of traditional wedding ceremonies there where every type is based on the economical advantage or disadvantage and the caste in society people have.

1.       The first type is Bo’bo’ Bannang or the simplest traditional wedding ceremony, conducted mostly in the evening by common people. A few people and two or three men of the groom’s family are invited. The groom’s men also take part as witnesses in this ceremony. Since Bo’bo’ Bannang is a simple wedding ceremony, the food served is also simple, consist of some fish and one or two chicken(s).

2.       The second is Rampo Karoen or traditional wedding ceremony for middle class of people. They have advantage in economic more than the previous one and also have middle caste rank in the society. Unlike Bo’bo’ Bannang that is usually held only in the evening, thisRampo Karoen requires longer time (usually from the afternoon until the evening).

3.       The third is Rampo Allo (the highest Rambu Tuka Wedding Ceremony in Society) for the highest class of people (the nobles). These people have the highest economic advantage and caste rank in the society among all. The ceremony they hold requires longest time, more money and energy and during the party, all guests and families are invited in a fancy dinning.

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHOD

A.       Research Method

In this research, the writer will use descriptive-qualitative method to describe the meaning of Ma’pparampo tradition at East Luwu. Descriptive-qualitative method is a way to finding data and describes the data in argumentation form (non-numeric).

B.       Data Source

In accordance with the need of analysis, the data are taken from article on the internet and the others literary works that related to culture of Toraja, in this case Ma’pparampo. Beside that the writer will interview with somes person which know about this tradition and make observation.

C.       Tecnique of Collecting Data

Data logging is the result of research, either in the form of a fact or a number (Arikunto, 2002: 96).  The data source in this research is the subject from which data is retrieved. If research using questionnaires/interviews in the collection of the data, then the data source is called the subject, i.e. people who respond or answer questions of research, either written or oral questions (Arikunto, 1986: 102). The data source that is used consists of two kinds of data is primary and secondary data.

Primary Data is data that is obtained through direct observation and interviews with the subject and based on a list of questions prepared. Secondary Data is data in the form of documents or important archives obtained through Office of certain ministries such as books, magazines, newspapers, and other documents relevant to research.

In research activities, certainly needed a way that can be used to collect the data that are commonly called "Data collection Method" that is how used in efforts to obtain and collect some data required in research activities. While the primary data collection techniques in the study are as follows:

1.Observation

Observers (observation) as to the methods used to collect data through deliberate and systematic observation and recording of the researched object (Hadi, 1991: 136). According to Suharsimi Arikunto, obsrvasi or observation is an activity concentration of an object by using all the tools of the senses (1996: 140).

Observations or observations in the qualitative research conducted on the actual situation of reasonable without being prepared, modified or even held specifically for the purposes of research. In this study, the author uses the method of participation in which researchers become part of a group that researched, because the author directly serves as an actor.

2.      Interview

According to M. Ali (1987: 83), the interview is one of the techniques of data collection is done by holding a question and answer, either directly or indirectly by a data source. According to Lexy a. Moleong (1990: 135), an interview is a conversation conducted with specific meaning. The conversation was conducted by the two parties that the interviewer (interviewer), (the interview) that gives the answer. Data taken using a deep interview instrument assisted with a record i.e. tape recorders.

D. Data Analysis

              After the data has been collected, then there needs to be a process of election data and then analyzed and interpreted with meticulous, tenacious and ably so obtained an objective conclusion. Data analysis is activities to expose the data, so that the retrieved a truth or untruth of a reference. Other limitation revealed that data analysis is the process that breaks down endeavor formally to find themes and formulating ideas as suggested by data and as an effort to give help on the themes and ideas (Moleong, 2000: 103). Technique of data analysis in this study uses descriptive qualitative analysis methods is emphasized.

References

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Baker, M. 1992. In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation. New York: Routledge.

Bogdan, R & Biklen S.K. 1992. Qualitative Research for Education: An Introduction to Theory and Methods. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Goddard, C. 1997. Semantics Analysis. Oxford: Oxf ord University Press.

Hadi, Sutrisno. Metodologi Research untuk Penelitian Aper, Skripsi dan Disertasi.Yogyakarta: Gajah Mada University Press.

http://www.everyculture.com/East-Southeast-Asia/Toraja-Marriage-and-Family.html#ixzz2S89a1Fos ( acces at 1 may,2013)

Lauer, Robert. H 2003 Perspektif tentang Perubahan Sosial . Jakarta: PT. Rineka

Cipta.

Lukitosari, Rahayu (2001) Makna Simbolik Upacara Adat Ceprotan: Studi Deskriptif

di Desa Sekar, Kecamatan Donorojo, Kabupaten Pacitan, Provinsi Jawa

Timur. Skripsi tidak Diterbitkan. Surabaya: FISIP Universitas Airlangga.