The Contemporary Potrait of “Another Java”: Description on Alcoholic Drinking Culture in Central Java After Reformation Era

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The Contemporary Potrait of “Another Java”: Description on Alcoholic Drinking Culture in Central Java After Reformation Era THE CONTEMPORARY POTRAIT OF “ANOTHER JAVA”: DESCRIPTION ON ALCOHOLIC DRINKING CULTURE IN CENTRAL JAVA AFTER REFORMATION ERA POTRET KONTEMPORER “JAWA YANG LAIN”: DESKRIPSI KEBUDAYAAN MINUMAN BERALKOHOL DI JAWA TENGAH PASCA-REFORMASI Irfan Nugraha Center for Anthropology Study, University of Indonesia, University of Indonesia, Depok, West Java, Indonesia E-mail: [email protected] Naskah diterima: 24 Juni 2017; direvisi: 17 Juli 2017; disetujui: 4 Agustus 2017 Abstrak Kebudayaan Jawa secara popular senantiasa terdeskripsikan dalam nuansa romantis. Deskripsi popular dapat terlihat pada pengimajinasian budaya Jawa selalu termanifestasikan dalam rupanya yang ideal. Pengamatan mengenai minuman beralkohol di Jawa Tengah menunjukkan pertentangan dalam pandangan wacana Kebudayaan Jawa secara popular, terutama ketika memperbandingkan keberadaan minuman beralkohol dengan manifestasi budaya Jawa yang dianggap ideal. Temuan etnografis menunjukkan ciu dan lapen sebagai minuman beralkohol lokal tidak terujuk sebagai representasi ideal, akan tetapi peminumnya memandangnya sebagai salah satu manifestasi budaya Jawa. Permasalahan mengemuka ketika acara tradisional seperti jagongan (seremoni sosial yang hadir saat ritus kehidupan) yang berfungsi untuk mewadahi terjadinya praktik konsumsi minuman beralkohol melenyap. Peminum minuman beralkhol lokal yang umumnya dirujuk sebagai kelompok abangan kini tidak dapat mengonsumsinya secara terbuka akibat berkembangnya gerakan Islam. Temuan dalam tulisan ini tidak sekadar mempertegas pembedaan konsepsi manifestasi budaya yang ideal dalam wacana kebudayaan Jawa secara popular, namun juga mengamati timbulnya ketegangan antara gerakan revitalisasi adat serta gerakan Islam di Jawa Tengah sebagai bagian dari proses demokratisasi di Indonesia. Kajian mengenai budaya dan konsumsi minuman beralkohol sekiranya dapat menggambarkan dinamika yang terjadi pada masyarakat Jawa kontemporer. Kata Kunci: kebudayaan Jawa, manifestasi budaya, praktik minuman beralkohol Abstract The Javanese culture has been described in the popular discourse as having a romantic sense. Javanese cultural manifestation is imagined to always have an ideal form. My observation presents a paradox when I examine the disctinction between Javanese alcoholic drinks and another cultural manifestation that are perceived as an ideal. In my short ethnographic finding, I found out ciu and lapen as local alcoholic beverages are not considered as an ideal representation of Javanese cultural manifestation. The problem emerges when the traditional ceremony like jagongan (a form of social ceremony in rites of passage) that functions as a drinking haven in the past was faded. The drinker who is generally associated with abangan cannot publicly consume the local alcoholic beverages because the presence of Islam movement. I argue that my finding is not only to show the disctinction of cultural manifestation in the Java popular cultural discourse, but also to capture the tension between the revitalization of adat (customary law) and Islamic movement in Java which are part of the process of democratization in Indonesia. The study on alcohol drinking culture and practice could picture the dynamic of contemporary Java society. Keywords: Javanese culture, cultural manifestatin, alcholic drinking practice 17 A. INTRODUCTION become social-cultural phenomenon. However, there is no explanation about the consequences In this paper, the author presents a towards alcohol drinking issue, especially in contemporary portrait of Javanese culture and its Central Java which is dominated by devoted society after the collapse of Suharto’s New Order moslem and Javanese ethnic group. Second, there regime. The author is trying to construct a portrait is no comprehensive anthropological research on based on the alcohol drinking culture in Java. the subject of alcohol drinking and its practice The author sees the alcoholic drinking culture in Central Java. It is interesting because in could give different framework in understanding Java there are two well-known alcohol drinks: Javanese culture and its society. The drinkers – Ciu in Solo and Lapen in Yogyakarta, and also generally associated with abangan (Geertz: 1960) Oplosan – drinking from mixing alcohol with - as I observed cannot publicly consume the other substances. Furthermore, Ciu, Lapen, and local alcoholic beverages. In the past, there was Oplosan have attracted wide media attention as a traditional ceremony like jagogan where they they have been suspected to be a source of death. can drink ciu, but then it was banned in some Lastly, I find out that the alcoholic drinking and areas. The drinkers lost their drinking haven. its practice position would enrich the knowledge Today, the abangan have left such practices and about Javanese culture discourse. converted themselves to be a devoted moslem. However, in some cases, the idea and practice of This paper itself is divided into four parts. drinking alcoholic beverages still exist. I argue First, the author examines anthropological that this existence of drinking culture is related literatures that describe general perspective on to the tension between the revitalization of adat alcohol drinking subject. The second part, the (customary law) and Islamic movement in Java author examines the established discourse on which is part of the process of democratization in Javanese culture and its society. The third part Indonesia (Klinken, 2007: 36-38). shows the monograph of structuration process of alcohol drinking culture in Central Java. The last By the study of drinking culture, I would like part points out the contemporary picture of alcohol to reveal, firstly, the sophistication of Javanese drinker in Java. As discussion and conclusion, recipes of alcohol beverages that has become the revitalization of adat and the rise of Islamic simpler and more practical, and secondly the movement bring dynamics into Javanese culture problems of becoming a more devoted Moslem in discourse through the lens of alcohol drinker. Solo and Yogyakarta. The tradition of consuming By focusing on the alcoholic drinking culture alcohol as part of adat practices, the piety of being in Central Java, this paper intends to contribute good Moslem, and social-economic background to describe present Javanese culture discourse, of the drinkers have made the drinking culture especially to show a dynamic in constant portray in Central Java a complex thing and lead to a of the “sophisticated Java.” picture of a different Java as described in many literatures1 . There are two major questions to be examined, basically corresponding with the four It is an appropriate time to address these section of this paper: (1) How, and to what extent, questions for several reasons. First, the could the alcoholic drinking culture describe a democratized post-New Order does not only dynamic of Javanese culture and its society after affect the political aspect, but also the social and Soeharto’s era? (2) How did the revitalization cultural aspects. In some area, the revitalization of adat and the rise of Islamic movement after of adat and the rise of Islamic movement have Soeharto’s era give an impact towards Javanese 1 The content of paper has been presented in the abangan’s alcohol drinker? 3rd Kuala Lumpur International Conference for Education, Language and Social Science Conference on 28 Febuary 2016. The acknowledgment goes to Dr. Semiarto Aji Purwanto for the valuable support. B. LITERATURE REVIEW that the intoxicated individuals would remember past grievances and act upon them. Alcoholic drinking and its consumption have always been an anthropology research In other word, the alcohol drinking practice subject. Johansson (2001: 3846-2849) described is affected by community members’ beliefs that anthropological viewpoints have played about alcohol as well as the individual’s own a part to show a rich variation in multitude of more idiosyncratic beliefs and expectations, the cultural context. In various groups, societies, or disinhibiting qualities of alcohol, the individual’s communities, alcohol drinking can be identified emotional state, and the circumstances as legitimate symbol for an existing necessary. surrounding a drinking episode. It could be seen However, Johansson concluded there is no in the situation in which “being drunk” that way to stipulate a cultural level of tolerance of encourages an individual to bring out grievances alcohol; and anthropology has no immediate and conflicts and address them through physical solution to the problem of alcohol as a health confrontation. In this manner, alcohol acts as hazard. Aside from this, alcoholic drinking and a conduit for the playing out of conflicts and its practice could describe the form of relation tensions within the community. between culture and its agent. In this context, he However, Singer (1986: 113-110) took sees a social control in which socialization plays different lens to explore alcohol issue. She a role in the relation between the drinker and suggested toconsider global-economic forces. She community. Socialization will be the efficient argued that global political-economic forces have way to control drinker’s alcohol abuse and the reshaped social relations and drinking practice norms of community. cross-culturally. It reflected in privatization of It is interesting to look upon Nagasawa, Qian, alcohol monopolies in United State of America and Wong (2000: 581-603) research about social opinion ??. Room (1987: 509-530) noted in control and alcohol
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