The Meaning of Oko’ Mama in Traditional Marriage

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyse and get an overview of the meaning of Oko' Mama in traditional marriage in Tanini Village, Takari District, Kupang Regency through the identification of the ideal of the traditional marriage tradition, the process of traditional marriage. This study uses qualitative research methods to analyse data obtained from the field. In determining the informants, the researcher used a purposive sampling technique and 5 people who were interviewed were used, consisting of traditional leaders, communities, religious leaders, and young people. To find out the meaning of Oko' Mama in traditional marriage, so in this study, the qualitative research with a descriptive approach was used. The results of this study show that Oko' Mama has several meanings in traditional marriage namely value of deliberation, value of religious tolerance, value of responsibility, value of cooperation, mutual value, value of justice, value of equality, and value of manners. However, the tradition of traditional marriage is gradually not being favoured by the younger generation, influenced by several factors, such as lack of interest and understanding of the traditional meaning of Oko' Mama in traditional marriage and ancient traditions, lack of local cultural education, and globalization. So, there are several efforts made to overcome this, namely with the efforts of the family, the efforts of the community and the efforts of educational institutions to support and encourage the younger generation to preserve and develop the tradition of Meaning Oko' Mama in Traditional Marriage.