Social Traditions and the Islamic Purification Movement in Indonesia

Sutiyono Sutiyono

doi:10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n2s1p251

Abstract

The objective of the research concerned here was to describe the relation between certain traditions in society and the movement to purify Islam here in Indonesia. The supporters of the social traditions are the village farmer communities that still conduct, among others, the traditional rite of slametan. The supporters of the Islamic purification movement are pure-Islam communities that conduct Islamic penetration into the supporters of the social traditions. In conducting the penetration, the Islamic purification movement is influenced by factors of ideology and identity. The approach employed in the research was ethnographical in nature. The research results indicate that the Islamic purification movement of Muhammadiyah, in accordance with its ideology and identity, attempts to bring back pure Islamic teachings through (1) Sunday moning pengajian, (2) tarjih movement, and (3) social education. Meanwhile, the social tradition in the form of slametan is still going strong, as expressed by village communities through (1) tradition concerning ziarah, (2) tradition concerning nature, and (3) tradition concerning the human life cycle. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n2s1p251

Highlights

Religious practice in Java is described by Geertz as a complex culture
One of the traditions in the local culture of Javanese society which is still often practiced by village farmer communities is the one called slametan
The Muhammadiyah community in the area of Trucuk remain insistent on the formalization of the laws of Islam as the form of its ideology, which means the purification into Islam which is clean from the social tradition dirt

Summary

Introduction

Religious practice in Java is described by Geertz as a complex culture. He points at the great quantity of variation in rituals, conflicts in a faith, and conflicts of values that appear as consequences of difference in social class or, according to him, as cultural types like those called abangan, santri, and priyayi (Geertz, 1960: 9). though difference in cultural type results in a plural society, the different social groups are still attached to the same geographical areas. Religious practice in Java is described by Geertz as a complex culture He points at the great quantity of variation in rituals, conflicts in a faith, and conflicts of values that appear as consequences of difference in social class or, according to him, as cultural types like those called abangan, santri, and priyayi (Geertz, 1960: 9).. In view of the above expositions, the study concerned here was, among others, to prove the thesis coming from Geertz (1960: 475-476) that religion as cultural system plays an integrative part bringing about social harmony in society but it plays a disintegrative part as well. In relation with Geertz’ orBecause a religion is an ethos bringing to it its followers’ quality of strong belief, social difference (in the sense of social conflict) could occur as consequence of religious doctrines being translated or interpreted differently according to each own social group. Because religion is regarded as a cultural system, the social conflict is a collision of cultural values

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