Strategi kebudayaan dan krisis tradisi Aceh: dari sistem berpikir ke festivalCultural strategy and the crisis of Acehnese tradition: from system of thought to festival
Kritik kebudayaan Aceh pascatsunami membedakan budaya sebagai simbol dan fungsi, yang tampak dalam festival dan upacara, dari budaya sebagai sistem berpikir yang diwariskan, seperti hadih maja. Krisis tradisi terlihat pada melemahnya otoritas ureung tuha dan ulama gampong, merosotnya makna gelar, naiknya peran ustaz, dan berubahnya pola ruang serta pergaulan. Strategi kebudayaan yang diusulkan adalah merumuskan kembali cara berpikir orang Aceh, bukan memperbanyak perlombaan adat.
Post-tsunami cultural criticism in Aceh distinguished culture as symbol and function, visible in festivals and ceremonies, from culture as an inherited system of thought, such as hadih maja. The crisis of tradition is seen in the weakening authority of elders and village ulama, the hollowing of titles, the rise of the ustaz, and changing patterns of space and sociability. The cultural strategy proposed is to reformulate the Acehnese way of thinking rather than to multiply customary competitions.
Pada April 2010, Wakil Gubernur Aceh Muhammad Nazar menyerukan pentingnya pendidikan dan budaya dalam pembangunan Aceh (Serambi Indonesia, 11 April 2010). Tanggapan kritis atas seruan itu mengajukan pembedaan dasar: budaya dalam arti simbolik dan fungsional, yang tampak pada festival dan ritual dari tingkat kampung hingga provinsi dan difungsikan sebagai norma oleh pemegang kewenangan, dan budaya sebagai sistem berpikir, yaitu kemampuan menyelami makna dari pemikiran yang otentik dan mewariskannya kepada generasi berikutnya. Budaya dalam pengertian kedua dipahami sebagai sistem pengetahuan kolektif; tingkat kebudayaan suatu masyarakat diukur dari kemampuannya memberi makna atas praktiknya sendiri.
Dalam kebudayaan Aceh, puncak sistem berpikir itu adalah hadih maja, nasihat padat yang dinilai sangat maju untuk zamannya, tetapi kini tidak diajarkan di lembaga pendidikan. Nalar berpikir semacam ini dahulu dilatih di dayah selama delapan tahun atau lebih, tempat santri belajar cara berpikir dan cara menyampaikan pikiran kepada masyarakat; nalar ini dipandang berada di atas ideologi karena bersifat terbuka. Sebagai pembanding disebut karya Shahnon Ahmad di Malaysia, Lembaga Budi karya HAMKA, dan Strategi Kebudayaan dan Pembaharuan Pendidikan Nasional karya H.M. Rasjidi (1980), yang menggugat apakah bangsa yang hampir seluruhnya Muslim mampu berpikir secara Islam. Di Aceh, menurut kritik ini, belum ada karya budayawan yang merumuskan cara berpikir orang Aceh secara utuh, sehingga yang terjadi hanyalah pengulangan budaya endatu tanpa sistem berpikirnya.
Pertanyaan "mampukah orang Aceh kembali ke tradisi?" dibuka dengan citra kartun Gam Cantoi di harian Serambi Indonesia, yang terdiri atas tiga panel: konteks sosial, "ide cerdas" sang tokoh, lalu kekonyolannya. Orang Aceh digambarkan gamang dan perlu "melengkapi panel keempat", yakni langkah strategis. Modal budayanya diakui besar: kemampuan meyakinkan orang, dari penceramah yang sanggup berbicara tiga jam hingga penjual obat keliling (tukang meukat ubat), serta etos kerja keras. Namun kemampuan persuasi yang salah arah melahirkan apa yang disebut tipu Aceh, dan etos kerja keras terkikis oleh budaya abdi negara.
Sejumlah tradisi sosial dijadikan penanda perubahan. Rumah Aceh lazim dibangun menghadap kiblat dengan sedikit kamar, karena anak laki-laki remaja tidur di meunasah dan anak perempuan mengaji serta bermalam di rumah teungku; tradisi ini kini hanya bertahan di kampung terpencil. Di gampong, pagar rumah rendah dan ditanami tumbuhan yang bermanfaat bagi tetangga, halaman menjadi tempat bermain, dan anak-anak dipandang sebagai "harta kampung". Di kompleks perumahan kota, rumah ditinggikan dan dipagari tembok, anak-anak dijaga agar tidak bergaul dengan yang "tidak selevel", dan sebagian generasi muda elite tidak lagi berbahasa Aceh serta malu mengaku orang Aceh, sebuah alienasi identitas.
Otoritas tradisional ikut tergerus. Gelar ampon, cut dan teuku yang dahulu menandai kedudukan sosial, serta gelar teungku bagi mereka yang memanggul kitab di dayah, kehilangan makna; sebagian dikenal publik justru melalui dunia hiburan Jakarta. Ulama yang dahulu mendatangi kampung kini harus diundang, dan semakin dekat dengan kekuasaan semakin sulit dihadirkan di majelis gampong. Di wilayah perkotaan, peran itu diisi ustaz yang mengajar mengaji dan berceramah di perumahan, sementara orang tua memilih pesantren terpadu yang menjanjikan bahasa Arab dan Inggris. Pergeseran "dari teungku ke ustaz" ini dinilai perlu dikaji, termasuk kaitannya dengan gerakan Salafi dan Wahabi yang memandang sebagian tradisi Aceh sebagai bid'ah.
Kesimpulannya, tradisi Aceh tidak untuk diperlombakan atau diseminarkan, karena festival adat justru dapat menginjak tradisi itu sendiri. Pemakai baju adat semestinya memahami adat, penari semestinya hafal makna tariannya, dan pemakai gelar semestinya menjaga tradisi yang melekat padanya. Diusulkan pula pendefinisian ulang tradisi Aceh agar tidak terbatas pada upacara adat yang terekam dalam etnografi Snouck Hurgronje, melainkan mencakup seluruh relasi sosial yang dibangun orang Aceh, baik secara individual maupun kolektif.
In April 2010 the Deputy Governor of Aceh, Muhammad Nazar, called for education and culture to be given weight in Aceh's development (Serambi Indonesia, 11 April 2010). A critical response proposed a basic distinction: culture in the symbolic and functional sense, visible in festivals and rituals from village to province and deployed as norms by those in authority, and culture as a system of thought, the capacity to grasp the meaning of authentic ideas and pass it on to the next generation. Culture in the second sense is understood as a collective knowledge system; a society's cultural level is measured by its ability to give meaning to its own practices.
In Acehnese culture the summit of that system of thought is hadih maja, dense counsel judged highly advanced for its time but no longer taught in schools. Such reasoning was once trained in the dayah over eight years or more, where students learned how to think and how to convey their thinking to society; this reasoning was considered superior to ideology because it is open. Comparisons were drawn with Shahnon Ahmad's work in Malaysia, HAMKA's Lembaga Budi, and H.M. Rasjidi's Strategi Kebudayaan dan Pembaharuan Pendidikan Nasional (1980), which asked whether a nation almost entirely Muslim was able to think Islamically. In Aceh, according to this critique, no cultural thinker had yet fully formulated the Acehnese way of thinking, so that what occurred was merely the repetition of ancestral culture without its system of thought.
The question 'can the Acehnese return to tradition?' was opened with the image of the Gam Cantoi cartoon in the daily Serambi Indonesia, composed of three panels: a social situation, the character's 'clever idea', and then his folly. The Acehnese were portrayed as adrift and in need of 'completing the fourth panel', a strategic step. Their cultural capital was acknowledged as considerable: the ability to persuade, from preachers able to speak for three hours to itinerant medicine sellers (tukang meukat ubat), and a hard-work ethic. Yet misdirected persuasion produced what is called tipu Aceh (Acehnese trickery), and the hard-work ethic was eroded by the culture of state service.
Several social traditions serve as markers of change. Acehnese houses were customarily built facing the qibla with few rooms, since adolescent boys slept in the meunasah and girls recited and spent the night at the teungku's house; the custom now survives only in remote villages. In the village, house fences were low and planted with species useful to neighbours, yards were play spaces, and children were regarded as 'the village's treasure'. In urban housing estates, houses are raised and walled, children are kept from mixing with those 'not of their level', and some elite youth no longer speak Acehnese and are ashamed to admit being Acehnese, a form of identity alienation.
Traditional authority has also been eroded. The titles ampon, cut and teuku, which once marked social standing, and the title teungku for those who carried kitab in the dayah, have lost their meaning; some bearers are publicly known instead through the Jakarta entertainment world. Ulama who once visited villages must now be invited, and the closer they are to power the harder they are to bring to village gatherings. In urban areas the role is filled by the ustaz who teaches Qur'an recitation and preaches in housing estates, while parents choose integrated pesantren promising Arabic and English. This shift 'from teungku to ustaz' was judged to require study, including its links with Salafi and Wahhabi movements that regard parts of Acehnese tradition as bid'ah (reprehensible innovation).
The conclusion is that Acehnese tradition is not to be turned into competitions or seminars, since customary festivals may themselves trample on tradition. Those who wear customary dress ought to understand adat, dancers ought to know the meaning of their dances, and bearers of titles ought to uphold the traditions attached to them. A redefinition of Acehnese tradition was also proposed, so that it is not limited to the customary ceremonies recorded in Snouck Hurgronje's ethnography but encompasses the whole range of social relations the Acehnese build, individually and collectively.
Gagasan kunciKey ideas
Simbol versus sistem berpikirSymbol versus system of thought
Festival budaya tidak sama dengan pewarisan cara berpikir.Cultural festivals are not the same as transmitting a way of thinking.
Hadih maja sebagai puncak nalarHadih maja as summit of reasoning
Tradisi lisan menyimpan filsafat praktis yang belum diajarkan secara formal.Oral tradition holds a practical philosophy not yet formally taught.
Dari teungku ke ustazFrom teungku to ustaz
Pergeseran otoritas keagamaan di kota berimplikasi pada sikap terhadap tradisi.The shift of religious authority in towns has implications for attitudes to tradition.
Ruang dan identitasSpace and identity
Perubahan pola rumah dan pagar mencerminkan runtuhnya etika ketetanggaan.Changing house and fence patterns reflect the collapse of neighbourly ethics.
Posisi dalam kerangkaPlace in the framework
Tokoh, lembaga, dan konsep yang paling dekat dengan entri ini, beserta sifat hubungannya.The figures, institutions and concepts closest to this entry, and how they relate to it.
Pertanyaan reflektifReflective question
Bagaimana hadih maja dapat diintegrasikan ke dalam kurikulum sekolah dan dayah sebagai sistem berpikir, bukan sekadar hafalan peribahasa?How could hadih maja be integrated into school and dayah curricula as a system of thought rather than mere memorised proverbs?
Kutip entri ini:Cite this entry: “Strategi kebudayaan dan krisis tradisi Aceh: dari sistem berpikir ke festival”, Acehnologi — Gerbang Studi AcehAceh Studies Gateway, https://acehnologi.com/entri/strategi-kebudayaan-dan-krisis-tradisi-aceh/