Syncretic Religious Communication: The Dialectic between Islamic Sharia and the Teachings of Aluk Todolo in the Rambu Solo Ceremony: A Communicative Ethnography Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30863/palakka.v7i1.11646Keywords:
Religious communication, Rambu Solo, Aluk Todolo, Toraja Islam, syncretismAbstract
This study aims to analyse the process of religious communication and the dialectic between Islamic Sharia and Aluk Todolo in the Rambu solo Ma’tambun ritual in Tana Toraja. Religious communication theory (Jaco Beyers) and dialectic dialogue (Mikhail Bakhtin), employed as analytical tools alongside a communicative ethnographic approach, reveal that Ma’tambun operates through a dual dimension: (1) the dimension of transcendence, where the ritual serves as a space to reaffirm monotheism towards Allah SWT through the contextualisation of Puang Matua as Allah, and the implementation of Islamic Sharia by expediting the burial, recitation of the Qur’an, prayers, shalawat, and calligraphy amidst traditional symbols. (2) the horizontal dimension as communication maintaining kinship with the Ma’rapu Tallang through the processes of ma’kombongan ada’, ma’lalan ada’, and ada’ kaokkoran. The heteroglossia between the voice of Aluk Todolo and the voice of Islamic sharia does not lead to open conflict, but rather to a dynamic configuration. Traditional communicators act as guardians of horizontal relations, whilst religious communicators operate within the dimension of transcendence—namely, the implementation of Islamic sharia and the vertical relationship between humanity and Allah SWT. This research contributes by elucidating the symbolic dialectic between Aluk Todolo and Islam as a vital asset for the construction of social cohesion, whilst demonstrating that religious syncretism is not always stereotyped as a corruption of Islamic doctrine, but rather constitutes a meaningful dialogical context within the religious life of Muslim minority communities.
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