Family Communication and the Intergenerational Transmission of Pappaseng Values in Shaping the Ideal Character of Bugis Women
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30863/palakka.v7i1.11518Keywords:
Bugis women, character education, family communication, intergenerational transmission, indigenous moral valuesAbstract
This study examines how pappaseng, ancestral Bugis moral advice are transmitted through family communication and how such processes shape the ideal character of Bugis women. Using a qualitative descriptive design, the research integrates textual analysis of lontaraq pappaseng manuscripts with interviews and participant observation among culturally embedded informants selected through purposive sampling. Data were analyzed through thematic coding, symbolic interactionist micro-analysis, and discourse-narrative synthesis to identify dominant moral themes and communicative mechanisms. The findings reveal that pappaseng messages directed toward women emphasize honor (siri’), loyalty, domestic responsibility, moral self-discipline, and relational intelligence. These values are transmitted through a triadic mechanism: verbal advice, narrative reinforcement through proverbs and storytelling, and behavioral modeling by parents and extended kin. Family discourse functions as a dynamic arena of meaning-making in which daughters internalize, negotiate, and occasionally reinterpret inherited norms. While vertical parent-to-child transmission remains dominant, horizontal and oblique channels, as well as digital and educational influences, recalibrate but do not eliminate indigenous ethical continuity. The study demonstrates that pappaseng operates as a living symbolic system reproduced through interpersonal communication rather than as static textual heritage. By integrating symbolic interactionism and social learning theory within an indigenous framework, this research contributes to intercultural communication and character education scholarship and offers a family-centered model for revitalizing local wisdom in contemporary contexts.
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