Islam, Pasanga ri Kajang, and Multicultural Feminism: Gender Equality in the Tanah Toa Kajang Community Through the Encounter of Islam and the Patuntung Teaching

Abstract

The current discourse on gender equality has explored the gender concepts and practices from various local communities in Eastern countries. Certain local ethnicities or communities are considered to have gender equality whose concepts, forms, and practices are not exactly the same as the feminism movement. This article aims to reveal the gender equality practices of the Tanah Toa Kajang community in Bulukumba. These practices are based on the culture and beliefs that they have embraced and practiced all this time. Based on this research using a qualitative method, it was found that the Tanah Toa Kajang community actually did not recognize the strict distinction between public and domestic spaces. Therefore, the assumption that women in the loca communities struggle more in the domestic sphere does not apply in Tanah Toa Kajang. Even if the Tanah Toa Kajang community wants to share the arena, it is more appropriate to call it a closed public space and an open public space. In addition, the concepts and practices of gender equality in this community are considered to have originated from local culture and beliefs called Patuntung. However, it has experienced a long encounter with Islamic teaching. The encounter between Islam and Patuntung in building the concepts of gender equality can be seen in Pasanga ri Kajang (the messages that came down on Tanah Toa Kajang). Thus, it can be concluded that the concepts and practices of gender equality in this community emerged from a process of the encounter between universalism and locality.