Modernization and Cultural Transformation: The Expansion of Traditional Batak Toba House in Huta Siallagan

Abstract

Batak Toba people today are facing the dilemma of maintaining their tradition and keeping up to the modern way of living. This has resulted in cultural transformation of traditional houses, where modern utensils, new spaces and domestic life are added with no reference to the original one. The traditional settlements of Huta Siallagan in Samosir Island North Sumatra begin to aspire for urban standards of living, and traditional building practices are dying out because the basic domestic life systems are changing. Traditional houses are undergoing transformation as they are more and more influenced by the modernizing effect of capital economy.