Extension of Religious Ritual Functions in Development Process: Study of Mandi Safar in Air Hitam Ocean Indonesia

Abstract

The ritual of Mandi Safar, bathing together on the beach using the prayer rajahs performed by the community on every Wednesday of the last week of Safar (second month of Hijri), has been designed by the local government as one of the supporting programs for economic development in Air HitamLaut Village, Jambi. The tradition that derived from religious rituals in the Malay society to avoid catastrophes and calamities along Safar faced controversy at first because it was considered as heresy by some Muslims. Nevertheless, the ritual evolved simultaneously into a popular cross-ethnic tradition and had been planned as one of the national tourism icons of Jambi Province since 2017. Through political sociology and psychoanalysis approaches in social change, this paper analyzes the programming processes of this agenda and its impact. The result shows that marine tourism program of Mandi Safar provides a positive basis for economic development in Air HitamLaut. The program has spurred the development of local infrastructure on the one hand and has led to social change in society on the other side. Previously, the process of desacralization of the Mandi Safar ritual as well as the role of local customary-religious elites as a mobilizer became the key variables to empowerment process.