Strengthening Student Character with Local Cultural Metaphors: Messages Exploration from the Tiba Meka Dance

Abstract

The research aimed to analyze the metaphor constructions and pedagogic values in the tiba meka dance. Students’ character building through metaphor construction in traditional dance had not been widely investigated; meanwhile, the metaphors used in this dance contain great values for encouraging students’ positive attitudes. Metaphor construction had a fundamental role for the students to have creative thought and deepen their understanding of its nature and role as a real communication language. The proper metaphor’s construction encouraged a student to be a catalyst in cross-cultural communication and appreciated the values contained in the metaphor delivered. The research was carried out between February and December 2019 and involved 30 respondents. The instruments used in collecting data were a set of stationery, questionnaire, interview, documentation, field notes, and recordings. These data were analyzed qualitatively through the phenomenological method. The findings show that the tiba meka dance is inseparable from the use of metaphors, namely bird, vegetation, body, sun, and water metaphors that have great pedagogic values, such as honesty, responsibility, and disciplin that contribute to the character building for students. The ideologies that underline tiba meka dance are morals, identity, and economy.

Bedhi Luna: Uncovering Moral Values in Ngada Folklore

“…( 6) the value of mutual help, which means helping each other or working together with people who need help. (7) the value of justice is a condition of ideal moral truth regarding a right, whether regarding objects or people. ( 8) the value of forgiveness is an attitude that does not hold grudges.…”

“…Morals are practical, meaning practical human behavior that can give rise to good and bad judgments according to general standards of humanity [1], [6]. Moral values are part of the values that deal with good and bad human behavior [4], [7] Moral values can also be found in folklore. Folklore is a story from the past that is characteristic of every nation, which has a diverse culture, including the rich culture and history of each nation [8].…”

Personal pronouns It� as politeness marker in Manggarai language and culture, Indonesia

“…For example, changing 'I' become 'we" or changing you become 'we.' The word we is a part of personal pronouns plural referred to inclusive we ité in the Manggaraier's interactions (Menggo et al, 2021b;Yuliantari, 2017).…”

“…Language acts as a channel for interpreting various cultural events in human life (Asoulin, 2016;Janusheva & Neshkovska, 2018). Language use usually reflects the habits of society, the way of thinking, the work of the brain, the history of society, the internal relationship in society, cultural expression tools, and many more (Menggo et al, 2021b;Olan & Belló, 2016).…”

“…Language is thought to be a mechanism for transforming cultural values in real-world human interactions (Kramsch, 2014;Mazari & Derraz, 2015). Because the implementation of numerous cultural rites cannot be separated from the use of language by the speakers, the relationship between language and culture must be understood by all speakers and customary actors in every particular speech group around the world (Baydak et al, 2015;Menggo et al, 2021b). In Manggarai, all elements of cultural rite practices cannot be removed from the use of language functions that conform with the context of cultural rites.…”