49/2023
The 7th International Conference on Social Sciences Organized by Faculty of Social Science
and Law Manado State University
Social Sciences
Technium.
The Innovation Breakthrough
in Digital and Disruptive Era
Mapalus and Disaster Risk Reduction: Exploring The Spirit of Mapalus Among Tombulu Community
Hilda Vemy Oroh
1*, Gisella Liberty Lasut
2, Mercy Maggy Franky Rampengan
3, Joyce Christian Kumaat
4, Anindya Puspita Putri
5135 Geography Study Program, Manado State University, Indonesia
2 Biology Study Program, Manado State University, Indonesia
4 Geography Education Department, Manado State University, Indonesia
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT
The perspective of disaster has shifted from that of an inevitable catastrophe to a natural phenomenon in which the impact can be reduced by strengthening existing capacity within the community. Local capacity played an important part in disaster risk reduction. This is especially true in Indonesia where disaster can strike anytime because of its geographic location. Several studies have been done to identify local wisdom related to disaster risk reduction in Indonesia. However, the study of Mapalus local wisdom in Tombulu people in Tomohon, North Sulawesi related to disaster risk reduction is little to non-existent. Therefore, an effort toward linking Mapalus local wisdom and practices in Tombulu community was made in an attempt to fill the gap in the literature. This paper correlates social and economic capital found in existing Mapalus local wisdom and practices with sustainable livelihood perspective for disaster risk reduction. Future research may refer to this paper as a stepping stone toward unraveling the spirit of Mapalus in disaster risk reduction context.
Keywords: Disaster Risk Reduction, Local Capacity, Mapalus, Tombulu
1. INTRODUCTION
Traditionally, disaster was seen as a divine punishment sent by gods for humankind [1][2].
However, as the scientific world develops, disaster came to be perceived as a part of natural phenomenon that is only catastrophic if it exceeded the capacity of communities to cope with disaster [3]. Strengthening existing capacity is argued to be a priority in disaster risk reduction strategies [4]. This is due to the fact that capacity is often easier to enhance when compared to the efforts of reducing vulnerabilities [5]. In order to enhance existing capacity, identifying local capacity is the first step to achieving the goal. There is an abundance of local capacity in form of local wisdom that is still in the state of tacit knowledge, waiting to be explored [6].
In a hazard-prone country like Indonesia, numerous studies have been conducted to identify the existing
capacity of the community to face disaster. Smong local wisdom in Simeulue people is one of the most well- documented local wisdom in disaster risk studies and stands as a pioneer in local wisdom research in the context of disaster risk reduction [7-10]. Other studies follow suit to identify local wisdom in facing earthquakes [11] to forest fire prevention [12]. All of those local wisdom identified are considered capacities that help the communities to cope and survive disasters successfully using their own strength. Thus, it is important to identify and recognize local capacities as part of disaster research.
In facing the Lokon volcano eruption, local wisdom of Tombulu community in Tomohon known as Mapalus played a huge part in reducing the risk of damage caused by the eruption. However, despite the significant role of local wisdom in disaster risk reduction, numerous studies in Lokon volcano research still
neglect its importance in determining Tombulu people’s preparedness to face Lokon eruption [13-17]. The studies resulted in an underestimation of the community’s preparedness and an overestimation of the community’s vulnerability in facing the eruption. The exclusion of local wisdom in mentioned studies is mainly due to the lack of literature about Mapalus in the context of disaster risk reduction. To fill in the gap in the literature, this paper use sustainable livelihood approach to connect the dots in existing Mapalus practices of the Tombulu community that made them cope and survive the Lokon eruption. In the following section, the importance of local capacity and sustainable livelihood will be discussed, followed by an analysis of the correlation between Mapalus local wisdom and disaster risk reduction. The findings further act as a stepping stone for future researchers to delve into Mapalus in disaster risk reduction context.
2. RESEARCH METHOD
This research is a qualitative type through literature study. [18] This research study discusses local wisdom in sustainable livelihoods for disaster risk reduction in community groups.
The stages of data collection are carried out both primary and secondary and construct from various sources of the literature such as books, journals and research conducted. In the advanced stages, data processing and or citation of references is performed to display as research results, abstracted to obtain complete information, and interpreted to generate knowledge for drawing conclusions. For the interpretation stage, content analysis or a comparative approach is used, so that the meaning, position and relationship can be identified. [19]
3. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
3.1. Urgency of Local Capacity
[20] argued that capacities are often rooted in resources that are endogenous to the community and which rely on traditional knowledge, indigenous skills, technologies, and solidarity networks. Therefore, capacity can be perceived as a local asset of the
community that helps them cope with disasters. In this study, the definition of capacity by [21] will be used.
They define capacity as the set of diverse knowledge, skills, and resources people can claim, access, and resort to in dealing with hazards and disasters.
In disaster risk reduction strategies, identifying and appreciating local capacities should be of utmost concern and physical mitigation should be de-prioritized [4]. This is because physical mitigation is often costly compared to strengthening local capacity. Often times, physical protection measures are not effective since it does not consider the capacity and strategies that the community has to face adversity. Moreover, failing to recognize the local cultural context reduces the effectiveness of disaster risk reduction strategies [22].
Therefore, it is urgent to incorporate local capacity when it comes to disaster studies and less on physical mitigation.
3.2. Local Capacity and Livelihood
The correlation between sustainable livelihood and the ability to cope with disasters has been discussed in previous literature [23-27]. [27] argues that to examine livelihood resources and vulnerability, sustainable livelihood approach is one of the best strategies to use in the context of disaster risk reduction. This implies that disaster risk reduction strategies include protecting resources that are at risk or that would be beneficial during disasters.
The community’s access to the existing resources varies continuously, which means that there is a need for capacity including access to resources in order to cope with adversity [26]. In this study, local capacity is appreciated from a sustainable livelihood perspective that identified the assets or resources, including culture, that enable them to cope with hazards [5]. Therefore, sustainable livelihood framework is suitable for this study to analyze existing livelihood resources and strategies that are essential for the community that lives in hazard-prone area, including in Tombulu community.
3.3. Local Capacity in Indonesia
Indonesia is home to 1.331 ethnic groups, each with its culture, tradition, and local wisdom that are exclusive to its community [28]. Cultural values that exist within their community will determine their action when faced with disaster [29]. [30] argued that traditional communities have their own unique culture, tradition, and local wisdom that would help them cope with adversity such as disasters. Therefore, local wisdom can be considered a local capacity that people resort to in times of danger to survive and mitigate disasters.
Local wisdom is a result of experiments and sustainable processes that dynamically evolve and form non-formal knowledge [31]. Local wisdom has been preserved by inheritance from generation to generation through stories, oral history, legend, myth, songs, poems, and the like. In an attempt to preserve local wisdom in Indonesia, experts have tried to document it through scientific articles. One of the most well- documented local wisdom in disaster risk studies is known as Smong [7-10]. The word “Smong” originates from the Devayan language, which means tidal wave.
Smong was found in oral history, bedtime stories, songs, and poems which explain the early signs of a tsunami [8].
This local wisdom in Simeulue people made them survive the 2004 Aceh tsunami, with only seven out of tens of thousands of people that lost their lives from the tsunami. Aside from Smong, there are also several indigenous knowledge in Indonesia that help the communities to overcome adversity. In Rote Ndao community in East Nusa Tenggara, the locals did not have sufficient knowledge about earthquakes but they do have myths surrounding the event. They believe that there exists a dragon that protects the earth’s realm.
Earthquakes occur when humans did not offer prayers and offerings to the dragon. Therefore, the Rote Ndao community shouted: “ami nai ia o” which means “we are here” to indicate that there are humans on earth to offer offerings to the dragon. The shoutings done by the locals served as early warning as well as the local capacity of Rote Ndao community because it made people go out of their homes to seek open fields and build barracks to protect the elderly and children in times of earthquake [11].
Meanwhile, Baduy community that lives in Banten province has a tradition of Ngahuru, in which people collected logs and excess waste they obtain in the surrounding area from clearing the forest for agricultural purposes and burned them together. This tradition must be done according to the stellar calendar in Baduy community, therefore it is done collectively by the locals. The idea is to have people watch over the ritual and prevent those logs and wastes to catch fire so that it would not cause forest fire disaster [12].
The three examples discussed serve as proof that Indonesia has an abundance of capacities that exist within the citizen in terms of disaster risk reduction.
Problems arise when such capacities are not documented and underexplored, such as an increase in vulnerability of the community because local wisdom that contains disaster risk reduction capacity ceases to exist. The first thing to do to prevent such problem is to first, identify existing local wisdom that may be in the form of tacit knowledge, and second, describe the sustainable livelihood capitals that are related to local capacity in facing disasters.
3.4. Mapalus and Tombulu People
Mapalus is local wisdom unique to the Minahasa ethnic group in North Sulawesi. Despite the discrepancy in its etymology within the Minahasan sub- ethnic group, experts agreed that the essence of Mapalus is the mutual assistance of each member of the community [32-35]. Mapalus serves as a compass for Minahasan to live a life together. It also places humans as social creatures who cannot survive without the help of one another [36]. As a cultural heritage, Mapalus has been studied and explored by experts to find its implication in the life of Minahasan people. The role of Mapalus has been argued to build tolerant attitudes [37], prevent conflicts [33], and even empower Minahasan community as a whole [35]. A culmination of existing literature clearly showed how much influence Mapalus has on Minahasan ethnic group.
Tombulu is one of the Minahasan sub-ethnic groups that resides in the city of Tomohon and Tombulu sub- district in Minahasa Regency. Albeit similar, the cultures and traditions that are practiced by the Tombulu
people are distinct from other Minahasan sub-ethnics.
The community even has its own unique language and dialect that are spoken on a daily basis, especially by elderly people. Even so, Mapalus is rooted in the Tombulu community as part of Minahasan local wisdom and continued to be practiced by the locals to this day [34].
[35] identify three different types of Mapalus that exist within Tombulu people in Tomohon which are: (1) agricultural Mapalus, (2) social Mapalus, and (3) financial Mapalus. The first type of Mapalus is in the form of agricultural activities such as clearing the land for planting to harvesting the crops. This was usually done in a group of ten to forty people. The agricultural Mapalus was further explored by [38] who argue that although changes have occurred in the tradition, agricultural Mapalus still exist to this day. The second type of Mapalus is in the form of social practices in times of grief and joy. For instance, at the time of grieving relatives and neighbors will help the grieving family by spontaneously setting up mourning tents and serving guests for the funeral procession [39]. The third type of Mapalus is financial Mapalus whereas social gatherings are conducted and the member contributes to and take turns in collecting money. All three types of Mapalus contribute greatly to the empowerment of the Tombulu community in Tomohon city [35].
3.5. Mapalus in Disaster Risk Reduction
Although Mapalus has been explored by scientists in many aspects of life, studies on Mapalus related to disaster risk reduction are little to non-existent. Some studies only implied the existence of Mapalus briefly without exploring it further [40-43].
As discussed before, sustainable livelihood has a strong relation with disaster risk reduction. [5] identifies six types of capital that directly and indirectly strengthen community’s capacities, which are political capital, economic capital, social capital, human capital, physical capital, and natural capital. Based on existing literature, we found that the indigenous practices in Mapalus contain capital that made their livelihood sustainable and their community resilient. Those
capitals are natural capital, economic capital, and social capital.
FIGURE 1. Correlation between Mapalus and Disaster Risk Reduction
3.5.1. Natural Capital
Living just right next to two active volcanoes, the Tombulu community in Tomohon inherit a vast arable land that contains tons of volcanic materials as the result of past eruption. Aside from fertile land, the climate and temperature also support farming activities because astronomically, Tomohon is located on the equator [44].
This allowed farmers to cultivate various crops such as rice, corn, cabbage, pumpkin, chili, and flowers. All year round harvesting is common in the community since people utilize both dry land and rice field by planting different types of crops in both fields.
Therefore, farming becomes the source of income for families in the city.
To maximize the harvest, the Tombulu community practice agricultural Mapalus in which they form a group of ten to forty people to do farming activities collectively, from clearing the land for planting seeds to harvesting the crops. Members of the group benefit from the reduced cost of fertilizers and land cultivation.
Although some changes have occurred in the practice, agricultural Mapalus still exist within the community [38].
3.5.2. Economic Capital
[35] found that financial Mapalus is the most active and widely practiced among Tombulu community in Tomohon. Financial Mapalus are conducted in the form of social gatherings where attendees are relatives, colleagues, or church members. Each member of the
gathering will save a certain amount of money to the treasurer and the treasurer will hand the collected money to the host of the gathering. The members then would take turns in hosting the gathering to collect saving along with the accumulated money. This type of Mapalus practice act as savings as well as a safety net for Tombulu community financially.
3.5.3. Social Capital
The practice of social Mapalus is often seen in times of joy and grief, for instance during wedding preparation and funeral precession. Kumawus is one of the practiced traditions of Tombulu community used when a member of the community passed away.
Neighbors and relatives would spontaneously build a temporary tent for the mourner to sit and gather to mourn for the lost one. They would also visit the grieving family on Sunday after the funeral to take part in consolation worship [39]. This Kumawus practice would in turn form kinship ties among Tombulu community. This solidarity serves as social resource which people would turn to when disaster strike.
4. CONCLUSION
In order to build a resilient community, strengthening existing local capacity is a priority.
However, in the case of Tombulu community in Tomohon city, the capacity is still undermined by government and researchers alike when determining the vulnerability of the community which will surely result in miscalculation of the community’s ability to face disaster. This is because the capacity has not been explored before in the context of disaster risk reduction.
Therefore, the natural, economic, and social capital that has been explored in Mapalus practices should be recognized in future assessments of disaster-related research in Tombulu community to achieve realistic result and better strategies for disaster risk reduction.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to the team that has worked together in the preparation of this article.
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