Abstract
This article aims at exploring the existing ideas of Angkola’s local wisdom with relevance to the roles of philosophy, culture, language, and Islam. This research employed the ethnographic method which utilised the data from figurative peoples in Angkola culture, Angkola’s cultural ceremonies, documents, and related media. The collected data were then reduced and analysed from philosophical, cultural, linguistic, and religious point of views to find the relevance. This research found that Dalihan Na Tolu covers triangle family members for Mora, Kahanggi, and Anak Boru. Dalihan Na Tolu consistently enhances humanity in harmony and it keeps warm in touch with the social profile. Angkola language has unique variations in the structure, coda sound, accent, and intonation to avoid saying subject as respect and the symbol of politeness. Dalihan Na Tolu creates and maintains norms in brotherhood and togetherness as an ingrained belief. The devotion poured in a sense of justice for triangle family members. The taste of brotherhood and togetherness is a fact that only humans have to think about expressing responsibility to unite humanity. The manifestation of Dalihan Na Tolu as a local, national, and perhaps international wisdom has faith, charity, and responsibility as the main point of view for humanity in harmony. The human faith in God has to be perfect with relevance for love, humanity and harmony. Charity humanises people. The responsibility unites humanity. Dalihan Na Tolu reflects many important values to learn from living in the society with particular philosophy, culture, langauge, and religion.
Contribution: This research describe about roles of philosophy, culture, language, and Islam in Angkola’s local wisdom of “dalihan natolu” in South Tapanuli, Indonesia. This research contributes to providing a comprehensive understanding of how the values in the local wisdom “dalihan natolu” can create social harmonisation.
Keywords: philosophy; culture; language; Islami; roles; Angkola Local Wisdom.
Introduction
‘Dalihan Na Tolu’ is a local wisdom held by Angkola community living in the southern part of Tapanuli. ‘Dalihan Na Tolu’ is defined as a cultural value, prime idea from the Creator that becomes the source or orientation of Batakese attitude and behaviour in their lives in the social and cultural correlation (Harahap 2016). In social cultural life, ‘Dalihan Na Tolu’ is a kinship system that involves three elements namely mora, kahanggi and anak boru. Mora [is the wife’s family side] kahanggi [is the family of acquaintance with the same family name] [marga], and [anak boru] is all groups of those who take wives. This kinship system reflects behavioural pattern in social structure based on the experience and interpretation, which clash integratedly in the ideal form and cultural physique (Rajamarpodang 1992). The researchers are curious to discover the relevance of ‘Dalihan Na Tolu’ as a local wisdom of Angkola’s community to philosophy, culture, language and Islam religion.
History has recorded human development with various evolutions and revolutions (Bénabou 2008; Eisenberg 2000). From the stone evolution era, the steam industry revolution era, the machine industry and the information industry, humans have continued to live with their dependence on their environment (Richards 2019). That is, humans develop as their needs increase and their dependence on the needs of their environment increases. Thus, humans are in the position of producers and consumers of the development of commodity goods and services.
Commodities of goods and services cannot be separated from human needs. Humans will produce and use goods and services at their level and development (Radulović & Stančić 2017). Therefore, various efforts have been made by humans to fulfill it. To fulfill their needs, humans have been perfect as divine beings with their minds. Intellect and mind make them different from other living things on earth (Palmadessa 2020). It is fitting for humans to be called creatures that are prioritised by the Creator. If humans use their minds and thoughts, especially in dealing with the problems of their life regarding goods and services, then they will be beautiful creatures.
Being means that he is alive, physical and has needs (Zamzami et al. 2018). Of course, life, physicality and needs are a problem. It does not matter, if it is alive, physicality and needs are the main problems for beings. This is because of their limitations as well as being. Boundaries become the differentiator between creatures and humans in life.
Life is not just a creature or just a human, but both. Life and humans cause synergy (Kachru 1996). The continuity of life is maintained because humans are said to be creatures because they have life, physicality and needs. In fulfilling these three, humans are also given reasoning and mind.
Life is bound up with the continuity of nature, namely entities, time and its series (Waddington 2017). When they are associated with beings and humans, they are both tied to nature and its series, entities, their needs and their timing and development. These three things are the basis for human thinking. Humans accommodate their thoughts to maintain and enhance life with nature, the entity and its time. This dependence of humans on nature, entities and their times gives birth to forms, interactions and social sequences in the form of culture.
A culture is a form of beliefs, norms and roles from the agreement of certain groups of people (Gelerstein et al. 2016; Hamka 2019a,b; Nashuddin 2020). The community agrees on a reference or source of belief, which is applied in the norms or rules of behaviour that produce a value of harmony between community members. These beliefs, norms and roles in turn give birth to a culture in general and or local wisdom in particular.
Wisdom is the value of kindness (Amri 2018). Local wisdom is the value of goodness or wisdom that is limited by the beliefs, norms and roles of the tribes and traditions in the local area. Wisdom belief refers to the truth of their experience, knowledge and religion. At this level, philosophical thinking allows humans to survive and develop in fulfilling their needs as social beings in harmony for achieving the creation of social norms.
Local wisdom that is different in each community group is wealth (Nashuddin 2020; Zamzami et al. 2018). Likewise, local wisdoms exist in the southern part of Tapanuli, North Sumatra Province. One of the endless list of local wisdoms in South Tapanuli, ‘Dalihan Na Tolu’ as a kinship system of Angkola’s community is the subject of this study. Previous research related to this topic is quite limited in terms of number. Moreover, the depth of similar studies is also lacking as the research only focusses on the more general point of views. Therefore, it will bring significances if this research is conducted to discover new descriptions of ‘Dalihan Na Tolu’ in relevance to the roles of philosophy, culture, language and Islam religion.
Methodology
The research aims at investigating the roles of philosophy, culture, language and Islam religion in Angkola’s local wisdom of ‘Dalihan Natolu’ in South Tapanui. The research employed the ethnographic method. The data sources were from figurative peoples in Angkola’s culture, cultural ceremonies, documents and media related to Angkola’s local wisdom. The data collection instruments used in this research were interviews, observations, documents and media related to ‘Dalihan Na Tolu’. The researchers collected the data by using an interview with traditional figures, Islamic scholars and potential figures. The researchers observed and proved the interview data by correlating them to traditional ceremonies and social activities. The researchers collected the data from documents to prove and enrich ideas of Angkola’s local wisdom in South Tapanuli. The data analysis technique implemented in this study was qualitative data analysis. The data collection was reduced and analysed with relevances to roles of philosophy, culture, language and Islam religion. Finally, the researchers made conclusions to promote the main roles of the existing Angkola local wisdom in ‘Dalihan Na Tolu’.
Findings and discussion
The role of philosophy in the strata of ideology, culture and situation as the local wisdom
Baginda Soripada Harahap (BSH) – Traditional figures (Harajaon) quotes that philosophy comes from the word ‘Philosophia’ (Greek), which means ‘love of wisdom’ (Susanto 2015:1). This means that philosophy contains a sense of love and thoughts in the form of policy. To do philosophy means to feel love and think about wisdom. Of course, people who feel love and think the policy is considered philosophically. The problem is that this love and policy come from life’s problems. The problem of human life as a creature capable of feeling and thinking is very complex.
BSH states that human complex problems are inseparable from time and space, which indicate the place determined by objects. The philosopher brings together the past, present and future. Every site, problem and period contains a philosophical view (Khozin & Umiarso 2019). Meanwhile, knowledge experts see space, which is a place determined by objects (Hamka 2016). It means that everything is unique philosophically.
BSH argues that philosophical thinking about culture is an attempt to find out the essence, history and cultural roles. This can be illustrated in the following Figure 1 (Kachru 1996). Figure 1 illustrates that philosophy is the science of truth from a questionable truth so that it becomes an essential, scientific and personal truth.
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FIGURE 1: The role of philosophy in the strata of ideology, culture and situation to create the local wisdom. |
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BSH illustrates that ideology comes from the word idea plus logic. An idea is a free word that defines the statement or points of a statement (Lee 2017). It is often also interpreted as a message. Logic is a suffix bound word that attaches itself to the idea that represents knowledge. Thus, ideology is the science of the message of a statement. The messages contained in the statement came from three sources. Religious statements or religious messages, scientific statements or scientific messages and statements of unilateral experiences or individual messages. Thus, this statement is also called truth. Truth is divided into three. Firstly, religious truths are called essential truths, secondly, scientific truths or scientific truths and third, experiential truths or personal truths. These three ideologies give birth to beliefs in the culture.
The role of philosophy propagates the strata of ideology, culture and situation to create Angkola local wisdom. Hamka Hamka declares that Angkola’s local wisdom requires ideology, culture and situation. Hamka Hamka says that ideology covers religion, education and experience. Furthermore, Hamka Hamka illustrates culture by requiring beliefs, norms and values. Hamka Hamkaends’ point of view that the situation in culture is dynamic and related to the field [what], tenor [who] and mode [how] the local wisdom goes on in society. Researchers adopt the Hamka Hamka ideas to develop things related to research needs. Therefore, Hamka Hamka ideas significantly help researchers to embrace the research data.
Panangaran Pane (PP) – Traditional figures (rich and/or smart people) illustrates that we grow a belief in the existence of an almighty substance in our body and soul. In addition, trust and conviction embody divinity (Zamzami et al. 2018). Thus, divinity has been embedded in the human body and soul. Panangaran Pane (PP) – Traditional figures (rich and/or smart people) argues that this divinity must be properly nurtured [religion], honed and nurtured to serve the purpose of life in education [science]. Our only obligation is to maintain the original belief that already exists [religion] so that the door is opened as widely as possible [knowledge] to struggle to find ourselves in the arena of life and guidance in seeking that is our pure reason [experience] (Hamka 2016:3). Divinity is a goal that must be maintained as an opening the door to life with reason and thoughts.
Ibrahim Siregar (academician and scholar), realises that culture is constructed by science. Furthermore, scientific thinking is thinking to understand the nature of existing and possible realities (Toenlioe 2018:5). Scientific thinking starts from understanding reality. Therefore, start thinking from a fact and find out what messages can be reached by that thought.
IS illustrates that science is a form of the nature of science. In discovering and developing knowledge using approaches, technical methods and strategies, the label of science becomes knowledgeable or knowledge based on knowledge. IS argues that everything starts from the word ‘knowledge’. Knowledge produces knowledge. Knowledge is a being, and knowledge is a process. There are four different categories of humans as owners of knowledge, namely:
‘There are people who know, he knows’
‘There are people know, he doesn’t know’
‘There are people who don’t know, he knows’
‘There people who don’t know, he doesn’t know’ (Sumantri 1999:21)
It is clear that in society, the four types of knowledge are owned by various individuals. Each individual has different knowledge. Thus, that knowledge also becomes an identity for himself as an individual and an identity for his community group in general. This knowledge will also be seen in terms of local wisdom that exists in the Angkola Tapanuli community group in the southern part of North Sumatra Province.
Dalihan Na Tolu in Angkola local wisdom
Basralhamidy Harahap (BH) – Traditional leaders and academics (BH), states that humanity in harmony keeps warm in touch with the social profile. Therefore, local wisdom is the result of values, norms, beliefs, traditions and others (Bohn 2022; Kachru 1996; Sartini 2004; Zamzami et al. 2018; Zulkifli & Ridwan 2019; Nashuddin 2020). Local wisdom is present in society along with roles, norms, beliefs, traditions and others. The local wisdom of Angkola in Southern Tapanuli can be described in several ways that bind it. The bonds are in the form of culture, region, nation and language. This discussion is always binding and inseparable from one unified whole. When talking about Angkola, it ties into what other thinks and how they behave.
Baginda Hatorangan Harahap (BHH) – Tokoh adat dan Akademisi, states that culture means different things to different people. Different people have different things related to them. Culture can also be interpreted as a series of roles, assumptions and norms that are planted to change the level of community groups and influence the way people perceive, think and behave (Team 2015). Culture is still abstract. Its abstractness can be seen from its terms or elements. Therefore, it can be seen that culture cannot be separated from the things that require it.
Maujalo Harahap (MH) – Traditional Leaders and Alim Ulama states that culture requires beliefs, norms and values. It is not called a culture if it does not have beliefs, norms and roles (Kachru 1996). Every culture in Indonesia reflects beliefs about divinity, knowledge and experience (Aziz, Dzofir & Widodo 2020). In its journey, culture is increasingly clarified by the marriage of certain religions, coupled with certain knowledge and carried out with certain experiences. Thus, this provision makes a culture that binds religious beliefs, knowledge and experience.
Baginda Hatorangan Harahap (BHH) – Tokoh adat dan Akademisi, illustrates that norms are traditional regulations such as in ceremonies and real-life events. Therefore, norms are the rules of the game in carrying out cultural traditions (Kachru 1996; Pennycook & Otsuji 2015). This can be seen from the stages in carrying out cultural traditions. Step by step, each cultural tradition is arranged according to the agreement of its users. In the beginning, there were various rules for carrying out cultural traditions. However, along the way, there have been many changes in the presence of religion, knowledge and experience. People call them ideology or belief. Ideology provides corrections and revisions to cultural norms so far which of course are contrary to ideological beliefs, thus creating a civilised culture.
Baginda Hatorangan Harahap (BHH) – Tokoh adat dan Akademisi, argues that the value of Dalihan Natolu is harmony. Value is the result of the application of ideology in a norm or value. The value of a culture is harmony. Harmony is coolness, comfort and safety in a civilised society. Angkola society is famous for its civilised society. This means that the Angkola people are bound to the attitudes and language they face.
Cultural diversity in Angkola reflects a very high-value tolerance. There are so many cultures, regions, ethnic groups and languages in Angkola. People can unite and be united by the youth pledge within the framework of Dalian Natolu (Amri 2018; Hamka 2017). Therefore, one of these cultures also includes the culture of the Southern Tapanuli.
The dominant beliefs in the Angkola culture are Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and several others beliefs (Amri 2018). At the level of education, the Batak people in particular, or the Angkola people in general highly value education. It is not surprising that when viewed from the population, it is very easy for almost every village to find more than dozens of university graduates. Also, it is very difficult to find illiterate people in this area. At the level of experience, each Angkola person has high roles and self-esteem. Issues of religion, family and dignity are very sensitive matters. Discussions about religion and family in the community are daily meals there. This means that talking about religion and family is open as long as there is no insult to each religious group. However, so far, even though this matter was very sensitive, there has never been any conflict about religion, family and anything in this area. History proves this is because of the strong kinship culture that binds one another and nothing is exaggerated or humiliated. Thus, the social strata and status of the kinship are tied to the motto Dalihan Natolu (Pane et al. 2020). This will be the discussion in point 2 below.
A piece of history based on a story of Angkola
Panangaran Pane (PP) – Traditional figures (rich and/or smart people) states that there are many versions of the definition and history of Angkola. However, all of them are based on folk tales and become sources of history from generation to generation. Angkola is a land in the south or downstream. In this Angkola, there is a large river named Batang Angkola by Rajendra Kola (Chola) I, a Chola king (1014–1044 AD) who came from South India who entered Angkola via Padang Lawas (Baker 2020; Pulungan et al. 2018). This is also the era of the entry and development of Hinduism as evidenced by the existence of the Bahal Temple in Padangbolak, which is around the eleventh century AD.
Previously, at the beginning of the eighth century AD, a temple was established in the lower reaches of the river or Batang Angkola to be precise in Siabu. Then it is called the name Siabu Temple. Ganesha carvings have been found (Perret et al. 2020). In Hinduism, Ganesha is the God of knowledge in Hinduism (Dash et al. 2019). This temple was studied for the first time by an expert on the history and historical objects during the Dutch colonial era in 1832 AD. The Netherlands at the same time became a missionary through German missionaries to develop Christianity in the Kota Nopan Mandailing, Angkola to the Toba area (Perret et al. 2020). This finding reported that the Siabu Temple was built in the early 7th–8th century AD. This report was very stirring at the time (Perret et al. 2020). Because Siabu Temple proves that the oldest civilisation in the archipelago is in Sumatra, especially in Siabu or Ancient Angkola, followed by Ancient Sriwijaya and Old Java.
This was proven when the Dutch first colonised the land of Angkola, starting from the West coast, namely Natal, heading for Nopan City, then Panyabungan. From this, Panyabungan developed the Dutch invasion of Angkola. While Siabu is the estuary between the two streams of the Aek Godang Panyabungan and Batang Angkola rivers from Angkola converge on Siabu. The flow where the two rivers meet is then called the Sungai or Batang Gadis
Many ethnic groups come and settle in Angkola. However, there are still many who defend their customs based on their family name or clan. These clans include Harahap, Siregar, Dalimunthe, Nasution, Ritonga, Lubis, Batubara, Hasibuan, Daulay, Pulungan and others.
Angkola local wisdom territory
The researchers explore Angkola’s local wisdom territory through a legal document. The researchers need this territorial exploration to limit the research location. The Southern Tapanuli Angkola is located in the southern part of North Sumatra Province. The southern part of Tapanuli was originally one, namely the South Tapanuli Regency. However, with the presence of the autonomy system, this region is divided into one city government and four district governments (Yakub et al. 2018). They are Padangsidimuan City Government, South Tapanuli Regency Government, Mandailing Natal Regency Government, Padang Lawas Regency Government and North Padang Lawas Regency Government. It can be seen that the Angkola area was originally one of the South Tapanuli district, which is almost a third of North Sumatra Province as in the following two maps in Figure 2.
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FIGURE 2: Map for Southeast Sumatra Province. |
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Initially, community groups were divided based on area and population. Areas are generally divided based on existing rivers and tributaries. It is given that the southern part of the Tapanuli is surrounded by evidence of rows; hence, there are many rivers and creeks. The river is the boundary of the area that is now called the district and city. Meanwhile, tributaries are usually the boundaries of a village or village area. The term region is called wilayat. It is the same in factthat it is only distinguished by the use of code ‘h’ to become code ‘t’. The territory is called Tanah Wilayat (Hamka 2019a). Thus, the land area of Angkola is the entire southern part of Tapanuli.
Angkola is divided into two, Angkola Julu (upstream) and Angkola Jae (downstream). Angkola Juli consists of Sipirok, Pargarutan and Parsalakan. Angkola Jae consists of Pijorkoling, Muara Tais, Sigalangan, Sayurmatinggi to Simangambat and Siabu. Between Angkola Julu and Angkola Jae is Padangsidimpuan City. Mandailing is also divided into two. Both are Mandailing Julu and Mandailing Jae. Mandailing Julu is starting from Nopan City, Mining to New Purba. Mandailing Jae consists of from the West Panyabungan area to Simangambat Siabu. Between Mandailing Julu and Mandailing Jae, there is the City of Panyabungan. Between Angkola and Mandailing, there is a city, which has long been famous as a place of trade, namely Siabu City.
The term Dalihan Na Tolu is the most popular term for Angkola local wisdom. The term for this Angkola local wisdom territory is popularly known as ‘Bumi Dalian Natolu’. Dalian Na Tolu is a term for local wisdom in the Tapanuli (Dalihan) region in general and the southern part of Tapanuli in particular. The difference is the use of ‘h’ in the word ‘Dalih’ changes to the southern part of the Tapanuli area with the word ‘Dalian’. This is different because of the different local wisdom in society. The following Figure 3 is about family ties that are not separated from one another.
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FIGURE 3: Dalihan Natolu local wisdom in family. |
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Dalihan Na Tolu covers triangle family members for Mora, Kahanggi and Anakboru. Dalihan Na Tolu consistently enhances humanity in harmony. The motto of Dalihan Na Tolu is dao (far), madonok (closer), donok (near) magomos (closer to each other). This is the value of unity in the Angkola and Mandailing kinship. The family is for unity and unity is for the family.
Angkola culture as a nation
Figurative people in Angkola culture state that Angkola culture is a nation. Therefore, the community group is also called the nation (Bangso) (Kachru 1996). The people in South Tapanuli then agreed to name their nation the Angkola nation. The Angkola nation is then also divided based on regions. Angkola Sipirok is the name for the Cipirok nation, and Angkola Sidimpuan is for the Padangsidimpuan people. Padangbolak Angkola for the Gunung Tua people, Angkola Sibuhuan for the Sibuhuan people and Angkola Mandailing for the Panyabungan people. However, all of them are more well known at the national level as people or people of Angkola or Mandailing.
Community groups usually mingle or socialise at a common level of interest about goods and services (David & Ortega 2022; Smith 1978). One of them is kinship. Family relations generally develop with inter-cultural, ethnic and national marriages. Very often people have difficulty differentiating between Angkola and Mandailing. This is because of the deep spiritual closeness between the two. That closeness starts from a familial relationship such as marriage between the two. So, between the two there is no longer a problem to be called a person or nation of Angkola or Mandailing.
People also say that Angkola and Mandailing are classified as Batak Nation. Baginda Hatorangan Harahap – Tokoh adat dan Akademisi (BHH), and IS illustrate that with the development of existing and open information, humans are scientifically more looking for rational and sourced truths. A civilisation in Sumatra cannot be built from the center of the island. Of course, it all starts from the coast.
Baginda Hatorangan Harahap (BHH) – Tokoh adat dan Akademisi, states that the Angkola and Mandailing civilisations are older than the civilisations in the Toba area or the North Tapanuli area. The Toba civilisation, let’s say Siraja Batak, began in the 12th century AD (1200s AD) when the war between the Srivijaya kingdom and the Haru Kingdom (Deli) occurred (Pane et al. 2020; Zulkifli & Ridwan 2019). So, the history of the Batak nation began in that century and year.
The Barus Kingdom was the first kingdom and trading city in the archipelago (Zulyeno & Assilmi 2018). Starting from the Barus kingdom in the range of centuries, 5, 6, and 7 AD (late 500s–700s AD). The city of Barus was a homogeneous city at that time. Islam entered the City of Barus through Indian Tamil Traders and Persian Islamic Traders. However, it is known that Islam at that time was still at the level of broadcasting Tauhid. Not yet at the level of Sharia such as Prayer, Fasting, Zakat and Hajj. So, many found in North Sumatra the belief in Parmalim or called Animism. Parmalim originates from the word Malim or Alim. Par– means people. So, this is also called the pious belief of people.
From this Barus City, Tamil traders from India and Persia explored the trade to the interior of Sumatra via the Batang Gadis River until it empties into Siabu City at that time (Sudarman et al. 2019). Of course, the Tamil merchants from the point of view of the profits poured out their travel funds. This is the influence of the Mandailing and Angkola crops that the community is not only farming but traditionally mining gold. So, gold is the main commodity of that trade.
For this reason, the debate is whether Angkola and Mandailing are included in the Batak nation. From the information above, it can be concluded that the Angkola and Mandailing people are older than the Batak people. There are significant differences between Angkola and Mandailing traditional clothes. Indeed, Angkola’s traditional clothing still reflects some of the Batak icons. But in Mandailing clothes, almost completely no longer wear the Batak icon or apparel as in Figure 4.
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FIGURE 4: Traditional custom of Angkola – Mandailing (a) Custom Angola, (b) Mandailing Custom. |
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Traditional houses also when viewed from their appearance with the Batak people are very different. The appearance of the traditional Angkola and Mandailing houses can be said to be the same. But, this is different from the traditional Batak house in general. Currently, Angkola and Mandailing traditional houses no longer function because the traditional houses of Angkola and Mandailing were the houses of kings in their era. Because the kingdom is no longer exists, then, now the royal house is called Bagas Godang, not a traditional house.
Traditional dances are known as Tor-tor. This regional dance is also different from the Batak dance or tor-tor. The difference can be seen from the series of events; the music, the singer (Paralok-Alok) and the clothes are very different too. The series of Angkola and Mandailing events is practically the same, and there is almost no difference. The following also in Figure 6 describes a party event accompanied by Angkola-Mandailing tor-tor.
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FIGURE 5: Traditional house Angkola – Mandailing. |
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FIGURE 6: Angkola – Mandailing traditional dance. |
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Figure 4 traditional custom of Angkola – Mandailing and Figure 6 Angkola – Mandailing traditional dance show that the traditional custom has changed from the original custom. The original custom was dominantly black, red and white. On the other hand, the newest traditional custom is dominantly red, gold yellow, black and white. IS, Maujalo Harahap – Traditional Leaders and Alim Ulama (MH) and Baginda Hatorangan Harahap – Tokoh adat dan Akademisi (BHH), agree that the domination of red and gold yellow colours is the effect of the Islamic role in society, especially in Angkola culture.
Panangaran Pane (PP) – Traditional figures (rich and/or smart people) states that Tortor dance has slow movement dance. The dance is accompanied by song lyrics. Baginda Hatorangan Harahap (BHH) – Tokoh adat dan Akademisi, argues that the song lyric narrates the dancer’s history, family, fight and hope in life. The narration of the lyric normally makes the dancer remind himself or herself to fight the world with his or her background. That means the Tortor dancers will have the spirit and motivation to fight for their life. Therefore, the researcher support Tortor with all the types of equipment to maintain especially for the Angkola cultural ceremony.
The role of Angkola language
Language is a system of meaning, form and language (Halliday & Matthiessen 2014; Hamka et al. 2021; Saragih 2006). Language is a series of meanings, formed in words, phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs or text in general and expressed in the form of symbols to be written and read and sounds to be pronounced and heard. There is no one language is better than another (Wang & Seepho 2017). The language is good and correct for its respective users because language is not to be contested by different parties. For Indonesians, even though we learn a foreign language, we must love Indonesian, we also have to love our local language more as our mother tongue (Hamka et al. 2021). Why is that? It is because language is a human identity, regional languages, national languages and foreign languages are multilevel identities of a person on a local, national and international scale.
Angkola language has unique variations in the structure, coda sound, accent and intonation to avoid saying subject as respect and the symbol of politeness. Angkola, Indonesian and English, for example, have their virtues in their respective languages (Hamka et al. 2021), as in the following sentence:
Variations in structure
Declarative sentence
Positive:
I go home
(S + P + C)
Saya pulang ke rumah
(S + P + C)
Got mulak au tu bagas
(P + S + C)
Angkola language declares the statement by starting the predicate at the beginning of the sentence. Baginda Hatorangan Harahap (BHH) – Tokoh adat dan Akademisi, states that the structure is to avoid calling the name(s) of the subject(s). The structure functions to have a politeness strategy for calling and saying the subject of a personal name in the Angkola language.
Negative:
I don’t go home
(S + Not + P + C)
Saya tidak pulang ke rumah
(S + Not + P + C)
Na got mulak au tu bagas.
(Note + P + S)
Angkola language deprecates the statement by stating ‘no’ at the beginning of the sentence. Baginda Hatorangan Harahap – Tokoh adat dan Akademisi (BHH), argues that the structure is to confirm the previous statement. The structure functions to clarify the confirmation as the main point of the previous statement in the Angkola language.
Interrogative sentences
Polar:
When will you go to work?
(QW + S + P +?)
Kapankah kamu akan bekerja?
(QW + S + P +?)
Andigan do get karejo hamu?
(QW + P + S +?)
Angkola language interrogates the information by starting the question words at the beginning of the sentence. Baginda Hatorangan Harahap (BHH) – Tokoh adat dan Akademisi, states that the structure has similarities to the general language in the world. The structure functions to have confirmation on the needed information.
An appeal for empathy
Statement:
What a wonderful day is today.
(Prhase + P + S)
Sungguh indah sekali hari ini
(Prhase + P + S)
Na jogi ma hari sadarion bah
(Prhase + S + P)
Angkola language supposes empathy in the statement by starting the compliment at the beginning of the sentence. Baginda Hatorangan Harahap – Tokoh adat dan Akademisi (BHH), states that the structure is to suppose empathy as the main point of the message. The structure functions to have a politeness strategy for calling and saying the subject of a personal name in the Angkola language.
Imperative Sentences:
Go to work at 7:30 tomorrow!
(Verb + adv!)
Bekerjalah jam 7:30 besok!
(Verb + adv!)
Karejo ho jam 7:30 ancogot!
(Verb + S + Adv!)
Angkola language asks a person such as how declarative structure is constructed. BHH – Tokoh adat dan Akademisi, states again that the structure is to avoid calling the name(s) of the subject(s). The structure functions to have a politeness strategy for calling and saying the subject of a personal name in the Angkola language.
The variation structure in the Angkola language points out that the names of subjects are avoided. The function of avoiding the subject is to respect personal honour as the realising harmony in life. Language is about politeness (Amri 2018; Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014; Huang 2018). Therefore, the Angkola language has philosophical and cultural entities to harmonise with humans.
The role of Islam in for Dalihan Na Tolu in Angkola local wisdom
The term ‘Dalihan Na Tolu’ is the most popular term for Angkola local wisdom. Dalihan Na Tolu covers triangle family members for Mora, Kahanggi and Anakboru. The generation system in the family of Angkola local wisdom adheres to male offspring. This patrilineal system has occurred since the founding of culture. This family generation system has not changed until now. Therefore, the researchers are interested to explore the role of belief in it.
Maujalo Harahap (MH) – Traditional Leaders and Alim Ulama believes that the generation system in Angkola local wisdom adopts Islamic law. Maujalo Harahap (MH) – Traditional Leaders and Alim Ulama argues that the adoption consequently proves Islamic mission with relevance to the history of Angkola culture. Therefore, Angkola territory and culture are dominated by Muslim society.
IS also believes that the generation system in the family of Angkola local wisdom influences the division of the inheritance system. IS argues that Angkola culture does not require the division of inheritance system. But, Angkola culture just requires harmony in all aspects of life. Thus, the Islamic mission realises the division of the inheritance system in Angkola culture as well.
Dalihan Na Tolu consistently enhances humanity in harmony. Humanity in harmony keeps warm in touch with the social profile. Angkola language has unique variations in the structure, coda sound, accent and intonation to avoid saying subject as respect and the symbol of politeness. Angkola local wisdom has an old history that people need to research more. Dalihan Na Tolu creates and maintains norms in brotherhood and togetherness as an ingrained belief. The devotion poured in a sense of justice for triangle family members. The taste of brotherhood and togetherness is a fact that only humans have to think about expressing responsibility to unite humanity. The manifestation of Dalihan Na Tolu as a local, national and perhaps international wisdom has faith, charity and responsibility as the main point of view for humanity in harmony. The human faith in God has to be perfect with relevance for love to humanity in harmony. Charity humanises people. The responsibility unites humanity.
Conclusion
The term ‘Dalihan Na Tolu’ is the most popular term for Angkola local wisdom. Dalihan Na Tolu covers the roles of philosophy, culture, language and Islam. The roles of philosophy, culture, language and Islam play inside and outside of the Angkola local wisdom culture. The roles of philosophy, culture, language and Islam exist in Angkola cultural ceremony and social life.
Dalihan Na Tolu covers triangle family members for Mora, Kahanggi and Anak Boru. Dalihan Na Tolu consistently enhances humanity in harmony. Humanity in harmony keeps warm in touch with the social profile. Angkola language has unique variations in the structure to avoid saying subject as respect and the symbol of politeness. Angkola local wisdom has an old history that people need to research more. Dalihan Na Tolu creates and maintains norms in brotherhood and togetherness as an ingrained belief. The devotion poured in a sense of justice for triangle family members. The taste of brotherhood and togetherness is a fact that only humans have to think about expressing responsibility to unite humanity. The manifestation of Dalihan Na Tolu as a local, national and perhaps international wisdom has faith, charity and responsibility as the main point of view for humanity in harmony. Dalihan Na Tolu adopts a patrilineal system and division of the inheritance system in line with the Islamic system. The human faith in God has to be perfect with relevance for love to humanity in harmony. Charity humanises people. The responsibility unites humanity.
Local wisdom may also be the terms ‘national wisdom’ and even ‘international wisdom’. In this era of globalisation, when the world seems to have become a kind of global village, local wisdom has a local image to emerge. This is a phenomenon of differential culture that only emphasises image and origin that appears different in the context of deconstruction.
At least, the following is a summary of the questions above and can also be a suggestion to do. The first manifestation of a local, national and perhaps international wisdom is faith, which is perfect when love for God is complete. Second, charity humanises people. Third, is the responsibility to unite humanity. Fourth, is behaviour that creates norms in togetherness. Fifth, manifestation is devotion poured in a sense of justice. Taste is a fact that only humans have to think about expressing.
From the conclusion, it is suggested for the interested parties related to this topic to make use of the theoretical implication of the philosophical, cultural, linguistic and religious in relation to Angkola’s local wisdom especially ‘Dalihan Na Tolu’. Further researcher are encouraged to pinpoint different angles of studying the complex elaboration of the local wisdom.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Chancellor of UIN Syahada Padangsidimpuan for his support in completing this research.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.
Authors’ contributions
S.M.H. was responsible for the preparing research plans, collecting data and compiling articles. H.H. together with S.M.H compiled proposals, collected data, analysed data and reviewed articles.
Ethical considerations
This article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. B-261/Sti.21/F.1/TL.00/09/2022. Sept, 23, 2022.
Funding information
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Data availability
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors.
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