Transethnic Identity and Urban Cognition in Makassar: - Antropologi ...

Figure 8: Concepts about residential areas: emic vs. official
(selected concepts, empty fields: no complement observed)
the people distinguish several forms of dwelling
and see several strategies to build a house,
there are only two to three in the official maps,
labeled as ‘permanent’ (permanen), ’semipermanent’
(semi permanen) and ‘temporary’
(sementara). Whereas there are at least seven
emically differentiated ways of living in a dwelling
(Figure 7), officially there are only three:
‘posessed’ (milik), ‘hired’ (sewa) and ‘staying
with’ (‘free lodging’, numpang; e.g. In
Identifikasi Kawasan Kumuh Perkotaan 1991:6).
Whereas official documents speak of illegal
settlements (illegal) or dwellings without permission
(tanpa izin), the people speak of
‘guarding (other people´s) land’ (jaga tanah).
Regarding residential mobility, the consideration
of a household´s or individual´s ‘living
situation’ (situasi hidup) was emically of central
importance. This involves more than mere
ecomomic situation. It is a concept not reflected
in the official development standards of minimum
wage, calorie intake etc. Examplary local
categories of situasi hidup are ‘people seeking
work’ (cari kerja; I use the colloquial forms,
so here without pen-), ‘people seeking knowledge’
(cari ilmu), that is people coming the
countryside who are looking for education in
the city, and ‘people seeking experiences’ (cari
pengalaman). This latter concept is especially
interesting regarding decision-making. In
Makassar it is the locally accepted rationale, if
people try something radically new. Additionally,
people use specific notions of trial-anderror
behaviour. People say e.g. ‘try, try often,
try it again’ (coba, coba coba, coba lagi),
‘search, search again’ (cari, cari lagi) or ‘just
wait and see’ (tunggu saja). In a typical mestizo
Indonesian idiom some people called these
32 ANTROPOLOGI INDONESIA 65, 2001