Ruwatan Massal Di Tengah Pengaruh Budaya Kota (Sebuah Revivalisme Budaya Jawa)

A joint ruwatan ritual (ruwatan), or what the organizer (Lembaga Javanologi/Javanology institute) calls it Ruwatan Murwakala, is ruwatan ritual of an individual nature, the organization for which is carried out on mass. Ruwat, or ruwatan,is a tradition in the Javanese community, the goal of which is to set free a child, or wong sukerta, a person who either from birth, because of disability, or because he or she has gone against the norms of society, has been shackled by sukerta. This includes a person who is unclean, unholy or sinful, and for this reason his or her life is in threat of the danger of the supernatural (Bathara Kala). The person who is suffering from sukerta can only be freed from the threat of Dewa Kala by a ruwatan ritual. It is an extremely interesting phenomenon that a mystically ancient tradition, which is over 500 years old, has revived in big cities with modern infrastructure in the midst of the society with a more secular and rational realm of thought. The endurance and preservation of the tradition shows that it has prominent functions for its society. This.research is an attempt to understand the phenomenon of the revival of the tradition of the ruwatan ritual in big cities in the context of social changes and crisis undergone by some citizens as a result of the changes. In other words, this research takes it as the starting point social problems, and attempts to discover the answers from a cultural (anthropological) point of view. The techniques used for collecting data qualitatively include participation, observation, in-depth interviews and study of literature while functionalism and "model of" approaches are used to analyze. This "model of" approach is used not only to understand ritual (tradition) in the context of social changes, but to interpret social-cultural phenomena as well. Based on the analysis of the data obtained, it is discovered that the increase in the frequency of ruwatan is a mechanism to decrease social tension as a result of modernization and a reaction towards rationalization. The joint ruwatan ritual held together with shadow puppet performance is indeed a protest in disguise using ancient symbols. A protest makes against the authority through available traditional means is considered to be effective because most of the authority have the same cultural basis as the organizer and the participants of the joint ruwatan ritual. Urban culture and the lives of modern society in general are more oriented towards rationality, efficiency, and advances in technology. Based on this fact, the ruwatan ritual frequently held in some cities is an "invention of tradition" or a phenomenon of cultural revivalism. Keyword: Revivalism - tradition - moderni