REDEFINISI ETNISITAS DALAM KONTEKS KEBUDAYAAN NASIONAL
ABSTRACT: Ethnicity is a very
important issue for the pluralistic Indonesian society, but before ethnic
violences exploded in various places of Indonesia, not many social scientists
were interested in studying the topic, and their understanding of ethnicity was
mostly limited to the classic meaning of “an ethnic group’s identity”
introduced by Fredrik Barth in 1969. This classic meaning has obviously failed
to help us understand the dynamics of ethnic violences that occurred in Indonesia
during the 7-8 years after the 1996 Sanggauledo conflict because it implied
“old histories, local rivalries, and deep hatred” that could be traced back to
the beginning of tribalism, but had no real connection to contemporary
occurrences such as how ethnicity (of the Acehnese and the Papuan) was
mobilized as ‘identity politics’ at the level of nation-state which led to
state’s violences against those (ethnic) groups. Therefore, I think it is quite
critical to discuss the new definition of ethnicity as ‘a new cultural
dimension of difference’ and/or ‘the question of culturalism’, as well as its
significance within the present socio-political context of Indonesia. For
instance, is the (re)construction of ethnicity by the Acehnese, the Papuan, the
Dayak, the Riau-Malay, and others in mobilizing ethnic solidarity really ‘the
(re)making of ethno(local)-nationalism’ as some people have suggested?
Penulis: Thung Ju Lan
Kode Jurnal: jpantropologidd060027
