Legacy of Colonialism and Indigenous Religious Resilience: A Study of Marapu Belief in East Nusa Tenggara
Rika Febriani
1
, Nurberlian
2
1
Doctoral Student Faculty of Philosophy, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia; Department Social and Political Science, Universitas Negeri Padang, Padang, Indonesia
2
Undergraduate Student Cultural Anthropology Study Program, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
rikafebriani1485@mail.ugm.ac.id
Abstract
Indigenous
religions encompass spiritual customs originating from the ancestral heritage
of specific ethnic and geographical groups. These traditional beliefs often
come into conflict with state-recognised official religions, a consequence of
modernity's tendency to streamline religion into a mere belief system. In line
with this, the post-colonial view sees that indigenous religions which are
repressed by the state are the result of the state's view of showing Western
superiority. Indonesia bears the enduring legacy of colonialism, manifesting as
negative perceptions that persistently affect to indigenous religions. One of
the colonial legacies is sociological, psychological, and moral problems,
besides physics and material heritance. According to Syeid Hussen Alatas in the
Myth of Lazy Natives (1989), this is the greatest damage caused by colonialism
because this problem hinders solutions to other problems. Indonesia, as a
geographical region, has many indigenous religions, one of which is the Marapu
belief in Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara. Many adherents of the Marapu faith are
forced to embrace one religion for the purposes of population administration,
but at the same time continue to practice their beliefs. This article aims to
unravel how Marapu followers uphold their ritual practices within the confines
of their traditional religion and how the enduring colonial legacy shaped local
religious observances. This study uses a qualitative descriptive method by
focusing on a literature review with research data sources from journals and
documentary videos. The research finding of this enquiry is the exploration of
the intersection between religion and society and how post-colonial
perspectives have seen this phenomenon.
Keywords
indigenous religions, Marapu, post-colonial, colonialism, western religion
References
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2 Undergraduate Student Cultural Anthropology Study Program, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
rikafebriani1485@mail.ugm.ac.id
Abstract
Indigenous
religions encompass spiritual customs originating from the ancestral heritage
of specific ethnic and geographical groups. These traditional beliefs often
come into conflict with state-recognised official religions, a consequence of
modernity's tendency to streamline religion into a mere belief system. In line
with this, the post-colonial view sees that indigenous religions which are
repressed by the state are the result of the state's view of showing Western
superiority. Indonesia bears the enduring legacy of colonialism, manifesting as
negative perceptions that persistently affect to indigenous religions. One of
the colonial legacies is sociological, psychological, and moral problems,
besides physics and material heritance. According to Syeid Hussen Alatas in the
Myth of Lazy Natives (1989), this is the greatest damage caused by colonialism
because this problem hinders solutions to other problems. Indonesia, as a
geographical region, has many indigenous religions, one of which is the Marapu
belief in Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara. Many adherents of the Marapu faith are
forced to embrace one religion for the purposes of population administration,
but at the same time continue to practice their beliefs. This article aims to
unravel how Marapu followers uphold their ritual practices within the confines
of their traditional religion and how the enduring colonial legacy shaped local
religious observances. This study uses a qualitative descriptive method by
focusing on a literature review with research data sources from journals and
documentary videos. The research finding of this enquiry is the exploration of
the intersection between religion and society and how post-colonial
perspectives have seen this phenomenon.
