Local Wisdom in Cultural Ceremony of Angkola Indigenous Community

Abstract

Language is the foundation of human verbal connection. Discourse in language occurs when the actual meaning of what someone says extends beyond a single sentence. Interpreting a discourse requires an examination of speech acts from the speaker. Members of the Angkola Batak ethnic group in Sumatra, Indonesia, conduct speech acts during mangupa cultural ceremonies where the utterances contain inferred meanings. This study seeks to discover these meanings as they replete sound advice and local wisdom. By employing textual documentation, observation, and interviews, it is discovered that phonologic, pragmatic, and semantic discourses explain the utterances in the mangupa cultural ceremony.