MA'BADONG IN THE ARENA OF BOURDIEU'S CULTURAL PRODUCTION

Abstract

Ma'badong is a communal lament sung in a circular formation at the Toraja tribe's death ceremony (Rambu Solo'), serving as an expression of grief. Ma'badong is conducted following the slaughter of a tedong (water buffalo) in a quantity corresponding with the social rank of the deceased. Ma'badong is considered not only a symbolic gesture but also an endeavor to preserve and promote Toraja culture. This study aims to examine the contextualization of Ma'badong from the perspective of cultural production and its implications on the development of church music in Toraja. This research is characterized as descriptive and qualitative. This study examines the art of Ma'badong as portrayed in the Rambu Solo’ ceremony in Toraja, particularly in the Gandangbatu Sillanan District of Tana Toraja Regency. The analysis of the issues in this study is grounded in Pierre Bourdieu's theory, which is the Field of Cultural Production theory. The results of this study indicate that Pa'badong representatives, serving as both agents and traditional musicians in church music services, generate cultural practices appreciated by the Toraja community and church congregation members. The habitus of the Toraja community (Ma'badong) is shaped and regulated by agents based on the capital they hold, which enables them to exert dominance in the field of Toraja art, encompassing church music as well. The field controlled by agents is classified as an elite or limited cultural subfield. Ma'badong's implications for the development of church music in Toraja are the production of several ethnic-nuance congregational songs that incorporate its musical patterns and features. The incorporation of Ma'badong musical components has emerged as a significant characteristic of the Toraja Church, transforming congregational singing into a medium for expressing the local community's identity._______________________________________________________________________The page numbers for this article have changed from 140–162 to 92–114 due to pagination adjustments in the June 2025 issue. Consequently, the pages in the PDF file have been updated. Please note that metadata in indexing services may still reflect the previous page range; however, we have updated the official pages as required.Ma'badong is regarded as an attempt to convey social, economic, political, and educational statuses in addition to being an artistic creation and a product of Toraja culture. Ma'badong is a traditional Torajan vocal muisc that is performed in circles by groups of people as a way to convey grief during the Toraja tribe's (Rambu Solo') funeral rite. This study is novel because it attempts to examine the Ma'badong situation from a fresh perspective. It is a descriptive qualitative study. This study focuses on the use of Ma'badong in the Rambu Solo' rite in Toraja, specifically in the Tana Toraja Regency's Gandangbatu Sillanan District. The theory employed to analyze the challenges in this study object is based on Pierre Bourdieu's ideas, namely his notion of the cultural production arena. The representative of Pa'badong as an agent, along with the vocal music culture in the Toraja funeral ritual, termed Ma'badong, creates cultural practices enjoyed by the Toraja people. Agents oversee and establish the Toraja community's (Ma'badong) customs based on the resources available to them in order to govern the arena, in this instance Toraja art. The arena under the agent's control (Pa'badong) falls under of elite or restricted cultural sub-arena. Therefore, the focus of this study is no longer on music in rituals or art as a component of culture, but rather on the examination of Ma'badong in Bourdieu's arena of cultural production in order to uncover and examine the different social realities that are present in the art._______________________________________________________________________The page numbers for this article have changed from 140–162 to 92–114 due to pagination adjustments in the June 2025 issue. Consequently, the pages in the PDF file have been updated. Please note that metadata in indexing services may still reflect the previous page range; however, we have updated the official pages as required