Ritual Tolak Bala sebagai Living Culture dalam Perspektif Antropologi Agama

Studi Berbasis Primbon Jawa di Desa Serbananti, Kecamatan Sipispis, Kabupaten Serdang Bedaga

Abstract

This study examines the Tolak Bala (warding off misfortune) ritual in Serbananti Village, Sipispis District, Serdang Bedagai Regency, as a form of “living culture” that integrates Javanese cosmology and Islamic values through Javanese  primbon  calculations. The study aims to explore the role of  primbon  in sustaining the ritual and negotiating its compatibility with Islamic beliefs. Employing a qualitative approach, data were collected through observation, in-depth interviews with customary leaders, religious figures, and ritual participants, documentation, and literature review. Data were analyzed using the Miles and Huberman interactive model and validated through source triangulation. The findings show that the continuity of the Tolak Bala ritual is supported not only by the historical significance of the graves of two early Islamic propagators but also by the adaptive function of primbon. It serves both as a framework for determining ritual timing and as a medium for negotiating cultural practices within Islamic beliefs. Consequently, practices such as  sesaji, tahlil, personal prayers, and incense burning are reinterpreted by the community as practices compatible with Islamic values. Differences in community perspectives regarding the ritual’s religious legitimacy further demonstrate the fluid and continuously negotiated nature of living culture. Thus, primbon functions as a local epistemology that mediates the preservation of Javanese-Islamic cultural identity while enabling the Tolak Bala tradition to adapt to changing religious and social contexts in Serbananti Village