Internalization of Ecological Values in the Dutai Toyah Ritual of the Bajo, Bungin Island, Indonesia

Abstract

One way that can be done to overcome the ecological crisis is to explore the various potential local wisdom that exists in the local area. This article aims to show that in the ‘Dutai Toyah’ (DT) ritual, ecological values can make people aware, especially the Bajo people, that they must get involved in overcoming the current ecological crisis. This paper is descriptive qualitative using an ethnolinguistic and ethnographic approach—data obtained from interviews, observations, and other relevant sources. Data was collected using the listening method through interviews, recording, and note-taking qualitative descriptive techniques through transcription, translation, and classification techniques. This paper found (1) the existence of the DT ritual lexicon is motivated by three dimensions of social practice: the ideological dimension regarding the concept and understanding of the Bajo ethnic towards the lexicon, the sociological dimension describes the Bajo ethnic relationship with the environment as not only a functional relationship but also a relationship of friendship and brotherhood, the biological dimension describes the biological characteristics of the lexicon used as symbols in the DT ritual and (2) ecological values of an internalization of the concept that the sea is ‘sesehe’ (friend) and ‘danakang’ (family) which must be respected and preserved.