The Slametan: Textual Knowledge and Ritual Performance in Yogyakarta

Woodward, Mark

doi:10.1007/978-94-007-0056-7_3

Mark Woodward²

Part of the book series: Muslims in Global Societies Series ((MGSS,volume 3))

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Abstract

This chapter concerns the slametan, a ritual meal at which Arabic prayers are recited and food is offered to the Prophet Muhammad, saints, and ancestors, who are implored to shower blessings on the community.

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Notes

1.
I would like to thank Bianca Smith for observations, in print, B. Smith, “Kejawen Islam as Gendered Praxis in Javanese Village Religiosity,” In: S. Blackburn, B. Smith and S. Syamsiyatun (eds.), Indonesian Islam in a New Era, Clayton, Monash University Press, 2008 and in person, concerning the role of women in the slametan and its role in the religious lives of women in Yogyakarta.
2.
Malay informants were interviewed in North Sumatra, Malaysia and Singapore. Pakistani, and Turkish informants were interviewed at the Islamic Cultural Center, Tempe, Arizona. “U”. denotes Urdu
3.
C. Geertz, The Religion of Java, Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press, 1960, pp. 10–15.
4.
The term “animism” has become increasingly problematical, but Geertz can not be held to task for using terminology that was generally accepted at the time he wrote.
5.
M. Kahn, Gardens of the Righteous. Riyadh as-Salihin of Imam Nawawi. London: Curzon Press, 1975, p.111, RS 523. Throughout this chapter Hadith will be referred to by the number they appear in the collection as well as by page number in the English translation.
6.
See M. Ali, The Religion of Islam, Lahore, 1944, pp. 458–60
7.
See Qur’an, 2:177, 262–65;76: 8; and esp., 107:1–7: “Hast thou seen him who cries to the doom? That is he who repulses the orphan and urges not the feeding of the needy. So woe to those that pray and are headless of their prayers, to those who make display and refuse charity”. Also, see Kahn, op. cit., p. 66, RS 267, 268, 270, 271.
8.
Ibid., p. 117, RS 553
9.
Ibid., p. 72, RS 306.
10.
One kejawen informant explained that he usually sent poor neighbors five kilos of uncooked rice and powered milk formula for their children. He stated that it was his obligation to give poor people what they need and that the small amount of slametan food they received was not sufficient. Generally speaking, close neighbors are among those invited to slametan. Given the fact that in traditional neighborhoods there is not a strong correlation between residence and socio-economic class, inviting one’s neighbors usually ensures that poor people are included among the guests.
11.
A “pure gift” is one in which there is no expectation of return, H. Mauss, The Gift. Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies. London: Cohen and West, 1966. The Javanese equivalent is a gift, which is give in the spirit of ikhlas, again, one in which there is not expectation of return.
12.
R. Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah, vol. 2:97 London: Longmans, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1855–56. This observation was made prior to the Wahhabi conquest of Mecca and Medina.
13.
C. Snouck-Hurgronje, Mekka in the Latter Part of the Nineteenth century Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1931, p. 121.
14.
G. von Grunebaum, Muhammaden Festivals, London: Abelard Schuman, 1951, pp. 73–76. See also Chapter 5.
15.
See M. Gilsenan, Saint and Sufi in Modern Egypt, London: Cruzon, 1973, p. 50.
16.
See H. Federspiel, Persatuan Islam: Islamic Reform in Twentieth-century Indonesia, Ithaca: Cornell University Modern Indonesia Project, 1969, p. 204.
17.
J. Cusinier, Danses Magiques de Kelantan, New Haven, Conn.: Human Relations area files, 1963, p. 15–E–5.
18.
See G. Herklots, Islam in India or the Qanun-i-Islam: The Customs of the Musalams of India Comprising a Full and Exact Account of the Various Rites and Ceremonies from the Moment of Birth to the Hour of Death, London: Cruzon, 1921, pp. 118, 201.
19.
C. Snoudk-Hurgronje, The Achenese, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1906, p. 204.
20.
On the Mawlid al-Nabi in Yogyakarta see Chapter 5.
21.
Herklots, op. cit., p. 207.
22.
Cuisiner, op. cit., p. 15–E–5.
23.
Snouck-Hurgronje, op. cit., pp. 210–16.
24.
Geertz, op. cit., pp. 11–15.
25.
N. Mulder, Mysticism and Everyday Life in Java, Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press, 1979, p. 202.
26.
Koentjaraningrat, “The Javanese of South Central Java,” In: G. Murdock (ed.), Social Structure in Southeast Asia, Chicago: Quadrangle Press, 1960, pp. 88–115.
27.
Geertz, op. cit., p. 13.
28.
P. Zoetulder, The Cultural Background of Indonesian Politics Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1967.
29.
See A. Jeffery, A Reader on Islam. Passages from Standard Arabic Writings Illustrative of the Beliefs and Practices of Muslims, The Hague: Gravenhage, 1962, p. 553.
30.
E. Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians London: Arden Library, 1908, p. 203.
31.
Kahn, op. cit., pp. 164–67, RS 848–7
32.
Ibid., p. 164, RS 850.
33.
Ibid., pp. 164–65, RS 852.
34.
C. van Arendock, “Salam,” In: H. Gibb and J. Krammers (eds.), The Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1953, p. 490.
35.
Kahn, op. cit., pp. 123, RS 585.
36.
For South India, see Herklots, op. cit., pp. 104–8.
37.
Surah Yasin is almost always among the passages recited.
38.
Kahn, op. cit., p. 234, RS 1402.
39.
Ibid., p. 234, RS 1403.
40.
Ali, op. cit., p. 416.
41.
As M. Nakamura, The Crescent Arises over the Banyan Tree, Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press, 1983, p. 165, observes, the salam greeting is used in sermons and other ritual contexts. When I was first in Java, it was rarely employed in ordinary social discourse. Nor is the slamet greeting always used. It is also common to greet someone by asking “where are going to/coming from?”
42.
See T. Burckhardt, An Introduction to Sufi Doctrine, Lahore: Ashraf, 1959, p. 151.
43.
J. Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in Islam. Oxford: Clarendon, 1971, p. 156.
44.
Khan, op. cit., pp. 72–72, RS 312.
45.
Ibid., p. 72, RS 308.
46.
Ibid., p. 66, RS 267.
47.
Ibid., pp. 111–12, RS 523.
48.
Jay, op. cit., pp. 206–13.
49.
Funerals are an exception. Everyone in the neighborhood, regardless of status, must attend.
50.
In Java adult men rarely eat together because of possible status conflicts. The higher status person should eat first. Because there are numerous sources of status (rank, wealth, religious learning, age, etc.) it is often difficult to determine whose status is higher. At a slametan everyone eats at the same time. While the temporary elimination of status distinctions is among the goals of the ritual, it is difficult to accept in the case of extreme status differences. This problem is particularly vexing in Yogyakarta where it is not uncommon for princes and poverty stricken migrants from villages to be neighbors. Nobles and the wealthy feel that to attend the slametan of the poor would place an extra burden on them because they would spend more than they could afford. The poor are afraid of making social or linguistic mistakes in the presence of nobles.
51.
Herklots, op. cit., p. 118, 184, 201; and R. Provincher, “Orality as a Pattern of Symbolism in Malay Psychiatry,” In: A. Becker and A. Yengoyan (eds.), The Imagination of Reality:Essays in Southeast Asian Coherence Systems, Norwood, N.J: Albex Press., 1979), pp. 43–53.
52.
Burton, op. cit., 2:201.
53.
Geertz, op. cit., p. 13.
54.
R. Miller, Mappila Muslims of Kerala, Bombay: Orient Longmans, 1976, p. 245.
55.
See Khan, op. cit., p. 118, RS 564. The term gunungan is used in Indonesian Hadith translations (see H. Bahreisy, Himpunan Hadits Pilihan Hadits Shahih Bukhari, Surabaya 1980, p. 234).
56.
See H. Quaritch-Wales, The Universe around Them: Cosmology and Cosmic Renewal in Indianized Southeast Asia, London: Probsthain, 1977, pp. 1–24.
57.
See ibid., pp. 84–111; and I. Mabbett, “The Symbolism of Mount Meru”, History of Religions, vol. 23, 198, pp., 64–83.
58.
This dish, which is colored with tumeric, resembles Indian Muslim biryani. Biryani is prepared with rice, gee (clarified butter), curds, saffron, and other spices. Dairy products are rare in Java, in part because of a high incidence of lactose intolerance. Coconut milk is a substitute for both butter fat (ghee) and curds. In Java and Pakistan yellow rice dishes are associated with the veneration of the Prophet and saints. In Yogyakarta large quanities of sekul wuduk are sold at the Garebeg Malud, which commemorates the birth and death of the prophet.
59.
R. Martin, Islam: A Cultural Perspective, Englewood Cliffs.: Prentice Hall, 1982, pp. 90–94; and A. Wensinck, “Kaba,” in Gibb and Krammers, eds., op. cit., pp. 191–98.
60.
See R. Nicholson, The Mystics of Islam: An Introduction to Sufism, London: Routledge and Paul, 1975, pp. 120–48.
61.
Khan, op. cit., p. 111, RS 523.
62.
See ibid., pp. 106–13, RS 494–523.
63.
Ibid., p. 107, RS 497.
64.
Ibid., p. 119, RS 568.
65.
See Chapter 5.
66.
T. Hughes, Dictionary of Islam: Being a Cyclopedia of Doctrines, Rites, Ceremonies and Customs, Together with the Technical and Theological Terms of the Muhammadan Religion, Clifton: Reference Books Publishers, 1965, p. 434.
67.
A. Wensinck, “Niyat,” In: Gibb and Krammers, (eds.), op. cit., p. 449.
68.
Kahn, op. cit., p. 138, RS 687.
69.
Nicholson, op. cit., p. 33.
70.
Ibid., p. 43.
71.
Kahn, op. cit., p. 111, RS 523.
72.
Jeffery, op. cit., pp. 556–57.
73.
Ibid., p. 558.
74.
See Hughes, op. cit., p. 123; Herklots, op. cit., p. 200; and Lane, op. cit., p. 383.
75.
See Kahn, op. cit., pp. 187–89, RS 1013–26.
76.
See C. Padwick, Muslim Devotions, London: SPCK, 1961.
77.
Geertz, op. cit., p. 13.
78.
Hughes, op. cit., p. 469.
79.
Ibid., p. 125.
80.
Ali, op. cit., p. 243.
81.
See Kahn, op. cit., p. 111, RS 523.
82.
Ibid., p. 151, RS 746–47.
83.
Ibid., p. 144, RS 710.
84.
See Chapter 5 for a more detailed discussion.
85.
See Turner, op. cit.
86.
S. Tambiah, World Conqueror and World Renoucer: A Study of Buddhism and Polity in Thailand against a Historical Background, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974.
87.
Beatty’s analysis of the slametan in Banyuwangi in extreme eastern Java is exemplary of the ways in which the process of bricolage can be shaped by the social and political context in which it occurs. A. Beatty, “Adam and Eve and Vishnu: Syncreticism in the Javanese Slametan,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, (N.S.) vol. 2, 271–288. In most respects Beatty’s analysis is congruent with that presented here. However, as he observes Banyuwangi was among the last areas of Java to become Islamic. Here, conversion to Islam was encouraged by the Dutch who, when the conquered the region in the late eighteenth century completely destroyed the “high culture” of the kingdom of Blambangan. In the 1960s Banyuwangi was one of the strongholds of the Indonesian Communist Party. The massacres of communists and their supporters in 1965 and 1966, in which Muslim organizations played major roles, led many in the region to “reconvert” to Hinduism. Beatty reports that in some instances Muslims and Hindus continue to participate in Slametan, though often with prayers appropriate for their respective communities, and that they share a common concern with social order and harmony. Unfortunately his otherwise penetrating analysis is limited by failure to appreciate the Islamic roots of Javanese mysticism (see Chapters 2 and 4) and his characterization of traditional santri Islam as unreflective and being based on “old-fashioned rural seminaries where village boys memorized the Qur’an and magical formula for healing” – p. 276. This is simply not the case. Many of the pesantren (Islamic Boarding Schools) to which he refers are, in fact, Islamic theological academies of the first rank. More careful consideration of the complexities of the textual foundations of all varieties of Javanese Islam would have greatly enriched his analysis. I cannot speak to his statement that in Banyuwangi the slametan is not referred to as an Islamic ritual. This may reflect either regional differences or the fact that by the early 1990s, during which his field work was conducted, the shift from agama to kebudayaan as a term of reference for kejawen ritual practice was well underway.

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Department of Religious Studies, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287-4302, USA
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Woodward, M. (2011). The Slametan: Textual Knowledge and Ritual Performance in Yogyakarta. In: Java, Indonesia and Islam. Muslims in Global Societies Series, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0056-7_3

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0056-7_3
Published: 13 October 2010
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