Making Sense of Muslim Societies: Belief and Praxis in Bantaeng

Abstract

In the last four decades, the study of Islam and Muslim societies has extended from only the so-called orientalist tradition and the current Islamicist trend into a trend in social research where these objects of study are observed in the spectacles of social sciences and humanities. Included in this trend, the anthropological studies of Islam and Muslim societies have experienced significant development since Evans-Pritchard (1949] conducted his observation on a Muslim society in North Africa. This development encompasses studies on Muslim societies in rural and urban areas, following the trend in contemporary anthropology which also makes urban societies as their object of research and fieldwork. In this trend, Muslim anthropologists who are associated to Virginiabased HIT (International Institute of Islamic Thought] have invented ‘Islamic Anthropology’ which imagines an ideal theological concept of Islamic society. This study challenges the basic assumptions of “Islamic Anthropology" through exploring the case of Muslim everyday practices and local traditions in Bantaeng, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Authenticity and orthodoxy will become the key issues: are questions of authenticity and orthodoxy relevant when looking at Islam and Muslim practices in non-Saudi areas beyond the heartland of Islam? Or, as I will argue, should there be a new understanding of authenticity and orthodoxy? This study addresses the question of how Muslims in Bantaeng claim their identity as authentic Muslims, while at the same time as authentic Bugis or Makassar; how are the values of Bugis-ness and Makassar-ness took part in the Islamisation of South Sulawesi; what is the nature of indigenisation or Islamisation in rural South Sulawesi; what is the nature of religious (Islamic] diversity in in this area. Throughout this study, through the cases of local imam, wedding father, Muslim seer, tomb visitation and local rituals, I have led my arguments to strengthen a position, which lets people under study to speak for themselves. In this regard, authenticity is defined by people who practice particular religion. I argue that Islamic anthropology cannot work well with conventional anthropology since they have set in their mind a model of an ideal Islamic society in advance, and eventually justify which one is Islamic or u-Islamic. In this vein, I suggest the use of the term 'anthropology of Muslim society’ to highlight that anthropology observes Muslims or Muslim societies, not Islam as a set of norms.