The Kebo Ketan ritual art as a communication process in delivering the message of social cohesiveness in the Sekaralas village community, Ngawi, East-Java

Abstract

AbstractPerforming arts can be used as a medium to convey social messages in the form of ideas and even social criticism of the actual conditions that occur in society. Slightly different from performing arts, ceremonial arts have greater involvement of religious rituals that are integrated with the values that exist in society. The Kebo Ketan ceremony, which is held in Sekaralas Village, Ngawi Regency has a mission to convey a message of social cohesiveness for the village community. The purpose of this study is to analyze the communication process in conveying messages of social cohesiveness through the Kebo Ketan ceremonial art in the Sekaralas village community. This study uses a qualitative approach using ethnographic methods to understand the cultural dimensions, everyday interactions, and rituals that are mediated to form communication. Primary data was obtained from semi-structured in-depth interviews with several identified informants including the founder and chairman of the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Kraton Ngiyom, activists of the Kebo Ketan ceremony, the Secretary and also members of Kraton Ngiyom, the Head of Sekaralas village and the head of RT 8 of the village. The information obtained from several informants was also supported by direct observations in the field. After the information is collected, data analysis is performed using open coding. The findings from this study are that the Kebo Ketan ceremony is an art form that can be used to convey a message of social cohesiveness in Sekaralas Village, although there are still some deficiencies, because the message of social cohesion has not been fully interpreted and understood properly and the community still considers ceremonial art as entertainment. The implications of this research show that the Kebo Ketan ceremonial used as a medium for communication to convey messages to traditional communities. However, conveying the message must consider the ability of the traditional communities to interpret it.

Keywords

• Ceremonial arts
• communication process
• social cohesiveness
• Guangchao Charles Feng, School of Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
• Communication History; Culture & Development; Sustainable Development; Tourism; Culture; Cultural Studies