Rumah Gadang As a Symbolic Representation of Minangkabau Ethnic Identity
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International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, Vol. 5, No. 1, January 2015 Rumah Gadang as a Symbolic Representation of Minangkabau Ethnic Identity Elda Franzia, Yasraf Amir Piliang, and Acep Iwan Saidi the people of Minangkabau bring their culture and tradition Abstract—Minangkabau is one of the ethnic groups in to their new land. Indonesia. This ethnic group is usually known by rumah makan Tradition is always becoming the base of the Minangkabau padang or traditional food stall with spicy and delicious food in culture. People whose travel always looking for their ethnic it, or by the people’s specific choice of earning their living such as being a seller or entrepreneurs. On the other hand, every group’s society. People need to be rooted to their culture. It ethnic group has a symbol or other visual identity use for their constructs their identity. Therefore the traveler is still identification. Rumah Gadang, the traditional house of connected to their villages and clan, and the traveler is always Minangkabau, is one of the symbolic representations of find the way to go back home. Minangkabau’s self identity. The unique visual form of Rumah Identity related to the cultural characteristic of the ethnic Gadang can be seen in many visual identities of Minangkabau’s people in daily basis, such as for rumah makan padang’s logo, group. Rumah gadang is the traditional house of stall’s identity, corporate identity, or as a virtual identity and a Minangkabau ethnic people. The modernization and profile picture in social network site such as Facebook. This globalization have transferred the rumah gadang into the phenomenon is becoming the visual language in Indonesia’s symbolic position of people’s tradition. Rumah gadang now culture. With this paper, I intend to analyze the visual form of is mainly a symbolic house for the Minangkabau people. Rumah Gadang as the symbolic representation of Many various form of rumah gadang can be seen throughout Minangkabau’s ethnic identity. Focused on Rumah Gadang as a visual object, the analysis is using semiotic method. Based on the cities. This paper focused on the visual form of the rumah Pierce’s theory of semiotics, Rumah Gadang is becoming the gadang as the representation of Minangkabau ethnic identity icon of Minangkabau’s ethnic group and becoming their ethnic which appeared in different form of visual language. identity. The result is the classification of Rumah Gadang as a symbolic representation of ethnic identity. II. STUDY OF THE THEORY Index Terms—Identity, Minangkabau, representation, Rumah Gadang. A. Ethnic Identity Identity is a definition of self and the representation of self I. INTRODUCTION in personal and social contexts. In personal context, identity is a person’s persona, personality, and a self definition of Indonesia is a developing country struggle in a mainstream biological and psychological aspects of a person. In social of globalization. Globalization tends to change and determine context, identity is a differentiation from another person, and the direction of human culture in a modern ways. This form a way of other person’s perception of a self. Through identity, of modernization often minimizes the greatness of ethnic a self becomes subject of persona, and conveys specific culture, and in a way is reducing the symbolic meaning of messages of representation. Identity is marked out through traditional culture from the ethnic group of the country. symbols and by difference [1]. Globalization produces different outcomes for identity. Identity is a language of differentiation. The difference The cultural homogeneity promoted by global marketing between people is inherited but also formed in society. It is in could lead detachment of identity from community and place. nature and culture. Nature shaped a person’s gender, race, Alternatively, it could also lead to resistance, which could ethnic, and the biological aspects, while culture shaped a strengthen and reaffirm some local identity to the emergence person’s behavior, lifestyle, and the psychological aspect. of new identity position. A person’s nature identity includes race and ethnicity. Minangkabau as one of the main ethnic group in Indonesia Ethnicity is both a physical fact and a cultural creation. It is a is effected by the globalization itself. This ethnic group is genetic inheritance that embodies itself physically, but also a known for its dynamic ethnic culture. Minangkabau people sign with cultural meanings. It refers to a sense of group are used to travels around the country seeking for a better affiliation based on a distinct heritage or worldview as people. living, education, and experience. This tradition called Ethnicity is a cultural concept centered on the sharing norms, rantau and it is a common activity for young people from values, beliefs, cultural symbols and practices. It is not only ethnic of Minangkabau. Through the activity of merantau, based on primordial ties or universal cultural characteristic possessed by a specific group but also formed through Manuscript received September 24, 2013; revised November 28, 2013 discursive practices. Ethnicity is formed by the way we speak Elda Franzia, Yasraf Amir Piliang, and Acep Iwan Saidi are with the about group identities and symbols that identify the constitute Faculty of Art and Design, University of Trisakti, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Bandung 40132, Indonesia (e-mail: eldafranzia@ ethnicity [2]. Cultural conception of self-identities and social gmail.com, [email protected], [email protected]). perception formed the cultural self identity. DOI: 10.7763/IJSSH.2015.V5.419 44 International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, Vol. 5, No. 1, January 2015 B. Symbolic Representation identify images and to parse them according to the ways they Representation is the centered question of cultural studies. refer to the world. Visual literacy also identified with the It is how the world is socially constructed and represented to capacity to remember images. Beyond that, the interpretation in meaningful ways. The study of culture is the signifying is leading toward the understanding of pictorial content, practices of representation. It embedded in objects, images, significance, and use of the image [7]. or another certain materiality [3]. Therefore the representation is a signifying practice appeared to stand for or depict another object or practice in the real world. III. MINANGKABAU ETHNIC SELF IDENTITY Representation is the constitutive of culture, meaning, and Minangkabau is one of approximately 140 ethnic groups knowledge. from more than 3000 islands in Indonesia. Located in West Symbolic representation uses a symbol or a sign whereby Sumatra, the area is surrounded by Merapi Mountain, Sago items stand in for or represents another. Signs are commonly Mountain, and Singgalang Mountain. Therefore the land of organized into a sequence that generates meaning through the Sumatra Barat is known for their productivity. Besides of cultural conventions of their usage within a particular context. their land’s fertility, the people from Minangkabau have Such arrangement is called cultural codes. Sign become several unique traditions, such as merantau, matrilineal, and naturalized codes. They are appearing in meaning and their belief to Islam religion [8]. outcome of cultural habituation. The effect of this is to Merantau is the activity to travel out of their village to conceal the practices of cultural coding. search for a better life, education, and experience. It is not Every meaning requires a motif if it is to be visualized. Not only done because of urbanization process in modern culture, all the objects have clear connotations in all cultures. A but it already becoming a life tradition. Minangkabau males referent of a sign based on abstract entity which is cultural go throughout the Southeast Asia or beyond to seek fortune conventions [4]. Cultural conventions shaped the pattern of as merchants or become scholars. signification in communication basis. Matrilineal refers to familial relationship that can be traced The semiotic scheme from Charles Sanders Peirce consists through a female and maternal ancestor. It is a cultural of the sign, the interpretant, and the object. Signification is lineage. A person in Minangkabau ethnic group related to understood as involving all three in a complex interaction. their mother’s family clan or suku. Suku is a female lineage The sign stands to somebody or something. It addresses unit which inherited landholding and clan’s treasure. These somebody and creates in the mind of that person an family groups are typically led by a penghulu (headman) who equivalent or developed sign. That sign which it creates is the elected by groups of lineage leaders. A person’s clan name is interpretant of the first sign. The sign stands for the object, in his/her mother’s clan. Matrilineal is the opposite of reference to the ground idea of the object. patrilineal system which is more common in Islamic country. Peirce’s second triad explains the different kinds of signs Therefore it is a unique tradition of Minangkabau ethnic which human consciousness can interpret and accommodate. group. The triad consists of icons, index, and symbols [5]. The The Minangkabau are strongly Islamic, but also follow iconic sign resembles its conceptual object in certain ways. their ethnic tradition or adat. The relationship between Islam An icon takes its identity from its imitation of the signified, and cultural tradition is describes by the saying adat basandi and stands for itself. The most obvious icons are photographs, syarak, syarak basandi Kitabullah. It means that the tradition image, painting, sculpture, and also the artifact architectural is founded upon Islamic law, and the Islamic law is founded form such as rumah gadang. upon the Holy Qur’an. The tradition and Islamic believe is blend in their living. It C. Visual Language is not to be placed as an opposite, but it strengthens both. Visual language is a system of communication using visual Scholars and penghulu (headman in cultural clan) had as text to send the message to the target of communication.