Transformasi Kosmologi Kematian Masyarakat Suku Tonsawang: Dari Praktik Ritual menuju Memori Kolektif

Abstract

This article examines the transformation of death cosmology among the Tonsawang people of Southeast Minahasa through balosong, a spirit house formerly placed above graves. Within the Kaper religious system, death was understood as the soul’s journey to the negeri langit (heavenly realm) and was associated with pasolongan and relationships with ancestors. Although balosongand several Kaper practices are no longer performed, some of the cosmological knowledge associated with them remains in community narratives. This study employs a qualitative ethnographic approach using in-depth interviews, non-participant observation, documentation, and oral history in Tombatu and North Tombatu. The data are analyzed through Mircea Eliade’s concept of sacred space, Clifford Geertz’s theory of symbolic systems, William F. Ogburn’s theory of cultural change, and Maurice Halbwachs’s concept of collective memory. The findings show that the discontinuation of ritual practices did not simultaneously erase knowledge concerning the soul, negeri langit, balosong, and relationships with ancestors. Such knowledge persists primarily through the narratives of older generations, although its completeness varies across generations. This article argues that this transformation reflects a shift in the mechanism of cosmological knowledge transmission, from reproduction through ritual experience toward reproduction increasingly dependent on narratives, intergenerational relationships, and collective memory.