Islam Madura: Sebuah Studi Konstruktivisme-Strukturalis tentang Relasi Islam Pesantren dan Islam Kampung di Sumenep Madura, by Mohammad Hefni
Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: It is gratifying to see the recent publication of an exciting study on the interrelationship between two sub-variants of traditional Islam in Madura: Islam Pesantren (the more orthodox Islam propagated by religious leaders in Islamic boarding schools) and Islam Kampung (less orthodox Islam embraced by common villagers).Mohammad Hefni's Islam Madura: Sebuah Studi Konstruktivisme-Strukturalis tentang Relasi Islam Pesantren dan Islam Kampung di Sumenep Madura [Madurese Islam: A Study of Constructivism-Structuralism on the Relationship between Pesantren Islam and Village Islam in Sumenep, Madura]is a crucial addition to the field of Islamic studies of a rather neglected part of Indonesia compared to its closest neighbors Java and Bali.This book, based on the author's PhD thesis at Airlangga University Surabaya, consists of seven chapters.The first two provide an introduction, a literature review, and theoretical discussions.Chapter 3 discusses the history of Islam in Madura and how Islam became institutionalized on the island.In this chapter, the author mostly uses secondary and tertiary sources, and occasionally unverified online sources, such as personal blogs (pp.74, 83, 103).Chapter 4 focuses on the characterization of the two sub-variants of traditional Islam in Sumenep, the island's largest city, with more attention to Islam Kampung than Islam Pesantren.Using ethnographic methods, the author describes the people of the village Pinggir Papas (the author's research site) and their socioeconomic activities, the village chapter of the Nahdlatul Ulama (Indonesia's largest Islamic organization), and the village's religious life that consists of Islamic prayers (ṣalāh); fasting (ṣawm), alms-giving (zakāh), and pilgrimage to Mecca (ḥajj) (pp.163-182).Chapter 5 observes rituals practiced by the supporters of Islam Pesantren and Islam Kampung, again with much more emphasis on the latter.Hefni describes five calendrical and commemorative rites and rites of exchange and communion of the Islam Kampung tradition, which range from asking protection from the spirits of their ancestors to sanctifying the fishermen and ensure a great catch (pp.186-220).Chapter 6 acts as the core chapter of the book, as it investigates the relationship between Islam Pesantren and Islam Kampung.The author argues that there is an unbalanced relationship between the two traditions, in which the former has become dominant and the latter subordinate.Nevertheless, the proponents of Islam Kampung stage cultural adaptation Bijdragen tot de taal-, land-en volkenkunde 176 (2020) 405-447 Chapters 1-3 are long-winded.Having been lifted mostly unmodified from the author's doctoral dissertation, it probably would have been more coherent and readable to revise them into a single chapter.The theoretical discussions found in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 resemble decorative additions, as is often the case with doctoral dissertations in Indonesian universities.As a consequence, crucial discussions on the descriptions of Islam Pesantren and Islam Kampung only appear in Chapter 4, leaving their religious relationship unaccounted for in the earlier chapters.There are also several misprints scattered throughout the book.For example, 'berbeda-neda' (p. 2), 'melampuai' (p.46), 'bekalang' (p.79) and 'Rafless' (p.87).Despite these critiques, however, this book is a very positive addition to scholarship not only on Islam in Madura, but also contemporary Islam in Indonesia.Students and scholars of anthropology and Islamic Studies will find in it rich materials on religious expressions, rites, and identities, and an astute investigation of Muslims' everyday life.
Author: Yanwar Pribadi
Language: Indonesian
Subfield: Cultural Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W3035353382