Ethnography Study in Malang, Indonesia: Petekan Tradition in Tengger Community

Abstract

This research is discussing about a tradition in Tengger community, Indonesia. The tradition is named as Petekan which means pressing or pushing lower abdomen in order to know whether a woman who is in fertile period is pregnant or not. The tradition was conducted because of the belief that if there is a pregnant woman without married (doing free sex), the local people will be suffered by disaster or infected disease ( pageblug) that is difficult to be healed. In this study, we used descriptive study by ethnographic qualitative approach. We found that Petekan ceremony has been conducted since long time ago and preserve until today. The community conducts the tradition once in three months. Almost every year, by conducting the tradition, they found a pregnant woman without marriage. The implementation of the Petekan involves all village members which shows how important if this activity for the people. Sanction for violation in the tradition is applied both for male and female.