Sumbawanese in Cultural Perspective

SUMBAWANESE IN CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

Siti Kasmarani

8th Semester Student, STKIP Hamzanwadi Selong

Culture is not a strange word in our ears. We often hear about it. Even children have known about it, for example, when they watch a cultural parade in their regency capital. From this ceremony, they know where the traditional clothes worn by different participants come from. Besides, we can also identify the variety of cultures. For instance, when a Javanese family organizes a wedding party, they usually practice Javanese culture.

We can say that each society, regent, nation or country has its own culture. So, what is culture? In my opinion, culture is part of life that includes clothes, tradition, habit, art, law, economics, society, politics, beliefs, and ways of thinking. Culture can be our distinct characteristics from which others people can identify us. In addition, culture has a big role in guiding people to improve their lives and to be in the right track of life.

  After we know what culture is, the next question that emerges in our mind is why we have different cultures. For example, Indonesia has diverse cultures that we should be proud of. Each society has a unique culture as their characteristics. There are some factors that contribute to different cultures even within one country. The contributing factors include different religions, habits, territories and backgrounds of history.

In this article, I would like to talk about Sumbawanese characteristics in order not to misinterpret about them. It can be a big mistake if we wrongly judge someone or culture. Therefore, we should know and understand others’ characteristics. This is in line with a classic proverb, “if you do not know someone, you will not care about her/him. If you do not care about her/him, you will not love her/him.” In particular, there are three misconceptions about Sumbawanese people that I counter argue below.

First, many people say that Sumbawanese are lazy. Nevertheless, in my opinion Sumbawanese are diligent. They always make a lot of efforts to get what they want and what they dream. Almost all of Sumbawanese continue their studies outside Sumbawa Island that generally need much money. It means they should work to get money. Many students in Sumbawa also study hard to get knowledge. Moreover, they have to compete with others who come from other regions to get something that will make their future life more comfortable. That is why they are very diligent. Besides, many of Sumbawanese people are successful in achieving their careers. For example, many Sumbawanese work as certified professional teachers so that they have double salary each month and quite a few of them serve as doctors who of course have high salary. Still many other Sumbawanese run their own business and live quite comfortably as tailors, mechanics, chefs, and many others.

Second, many people say that Sumbawanese are consumptive. Yet, I do not think so. It is very normal when someone buys something that he or she wants and needs. When they are able to buy anything, the people have increased economic standard. Increasing economic status has good effects to the regional social and economic development. So, it is not fair to say that Sumbawanese are consumptive.

The third characteristic that many people assume about Sumbawanese is that they are very choosy or picky about doing something which has low standard or with low salary. In fact, in real life, as I observe, many Sumbawanese want to sell fish, cakes and other food in the market. In other words, many Sumbawanese who do not get salary from the government (civil servant) want to work and do ordinary jobs. They can survive in their life. They can fulfil the necessities of their family. Moreover, their children can continue their studies and achieve their dreams. Furthermore, still a large number of Sumbawanese work as farmers and fishermen. It means they are not that picky to do any job that cannot settle their life.

The discussion above suggests that we should not understand the culture from outer perspectives. Instead, we should know and understand the inner side of one’s culture. Understanding culture is analogous to understanding an iceberg. We generally see its top part, constituting only 10% (clothes, food, etc.), while the bottom part of it constitutes 90% (beliefs, values, principles, etc.). So, let’s study culture in a true sense for better civilization.