Education Model Based on Local Wisdom: The Socio-Legal Studies

on the Socio-Economic Behavior of Samin Community

Rofi Wahanisa

and Shanty Oktavilia

Post Graduate Program of Legal Science, Diponegoro University and Faculty of Law, Universitas Negeri Semarang

Department of Economics Development, Faculty of Economics, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia

Keywords: Samin, socio-legal, socio-economic, preservation, environment, local wisdom.

Abstract: Indonesia has a cultural diversity that affects the socio-economic activities of society and its impact on the

environment. This study focuses on how the local wisdom of the Samin community enables them to conduct

economic activities while preserving their environment and local nature. The purpose of this research is to

de-scribe environmental education model based on local wisdom of society Samin. This research is socio-

legal by using legal and environmental economic approach. Results show that the traditional law in Samin

community is pretty solid and that people, there are still adhered to it. Most of Samin people rely on farming

activities, but this is only meant to meet daily needs. Samin people do not consider costs and losses and are

not familiar with the concept of trade. This economic philosophy enables them to preserve their environment.

Samin people up-hold the principle of cooperation and are not against cooperation with any party to help

preserve their nature. The educational model recommended from this research is observational learning and

self-regulation. The national government must also play a role in preserving the local wisdom of Samin

community as a cultural heritage.

1 INTRODUCTION

The development of a country depends largely on its

resources as the production factor in its economic

activities. Nonetheless, economic activities by people

of a country often result in negative effects for the

environment. Most economic endeavors focus on

quickly, effectively, and efficiently improve

economic growth without considering the future of

the environment. Many cases in different countries

point to false understanding that economic growth

and environmental concerns are two opposing sides.

Environmental degradation is then understood as the

cost for economic development of a nation (Basiago,

1999).

The phenomenon of environmental degradation is

of major concern in economic development in

developing countries. People dwellings in an area

play important roles in environmental changes.

Environmental use is an important factor in fulfilling

people’s economic needs. This often leads to

uncontrolled, detrimental, and excessive use of

nature. (Bannon and Collier, 2003)

Technological development brings real changes in

social life. Events in certain areas are known at the

other regions at an instant. People also tend to lead

individualistic lives, especially when it comes to

fulfilling basic needs. This individualism also affects

the way modern people make their livelihood, in that

they often cross borders and boundaries, hence the

term “homo hominy lupus”, meaning a man

consuming another, in real and implicit term.

The Samin communities are people clinging to

Saminism that was first disseminated by Samin

Surontiko in the mid-1890s. Samin communities

spread in some regions across Central and East Java.

They have contrasting views from ordinary Javanese

communities. They have a distinct language, religion,

and life philosophy. They tend to defy the existence

of a nation that they become ‘another entity’ living in

the midst of state and modern infiltration. These are

the main reasons as to why they are categorized into

a less privileged traditional community (Her-man,

1994).

As with the other traditional communities in

Indonesia, the local wisdom of Samin community is

very strong. They uphold certain attitudes and/or

Wahanisa, R. and Oktavilia, S.

Education Model Based on Local Wisdom: The Socio-Legal Studies on the Socio-Economic Behavior of Samin Community.

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Economic Education and Entrepreneurship (ICEEE 2017), pages 549-554

ISBN: 978-989-758-308-7

549

prohibitions when it comes to everyday living. They

must not have formal education, they cannot wear

trousers, they must not war ‘peci’, they must not

trade, and they cannot have more than one wife. Some

of those principles are almost impossible to keep

nowadays. One good example is the impossibility of

having formal education, as the government has

pledged nine years compulsory education for all

citizens. In the Samin community, children only learn

informal lessons from their parents. The present day

still wit-ness members of Samin community that do

not have formal education.

The view of Samin community on their

environment is very positive. They make use of

nature (e.g. taking firewood) as they need them

without any intention to exploit. This is in line with

their simple thinking of being enough and as it is.

They treat land as their mother earth that gives them

life. As farmers, they treat their land the best way they

can. They only plant seasonal crops and trees that fit

the cycle of both rainy and dry season. Samin

community is very much aware the sustainability of

natural resources depends solely on them.

Those phenomena emphasize the fact that in their

communal life Samin community strives to regulate

themselves in terms of thoughts, feelings, and

attitudes as to adhere to the principal of Samin

teachings and not over exploit nature. The local

wisdom of Samin community stems from self-

regulation, which is a process when individuals plan,

direct, and control their behaviors to reach certain

goals (obedi-ence to folk law and environmental

protection) by involving cognitive, affective, and

psychomotor el-ements. The ongoing modernization

and economic activities result in a sort of trade off in

decisions tak-en by individuals in a community. One

of those tradeoffs is the choice to utilize and maintain

envi-ronmental quality. This research is aimed at

analyz-ing how local wisdom of Samin community

affect the way they run economic activities by still

adher-ing to the folk law in order to preserve their sur-

roundings and the environment. This model of local

wisdom can be used as a model of environmental

economic education.

2 METHODS

This research observes socio-economic behavior of

Samin community in the socio-legal context that

stems from constructivism paradigm that never ceas-

es to discover values of truth. This type of research no

longer divide disciplines onto discrete subject, but

integrate law, humanity, social, and natural sci-ences

into an integrated socio-legal activity (Edward O

Wilson, 1998).

The data were analyzed qualitatively using logic,

in-duction, deduction, analogy/interpretation,

compari-son, and the likes. This research also

employs de-scriptive analysis founded on an

interactive model of analysis. This interactive

analysis is based on three components; data

reduction, display, and conclusion drawing

(Creswell. 2003).

3 LITERATURE REVIEW

3.1 Economic Growth and the

Environment

Economic growth acceleration in developing coun-

tries results in natural resources exploitation. The

higher production activities, the more production

factors are required. Environmental production fac-

tor may lead to resource crisis and even environmen-

tal destruction when it is not properly managed. The

more production factors are used, the less available

they will be (Sutikno and Maryunani, 2006)

The relationship of natural resources and

economic growth by the negative slope, as depicted

in Figure. 1a. This means that when economic growth

increases from Y1 to Y2, it results in fewer natural

resources available. That is, down from N1 to N2.

(a)

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550

(b)

Figure 1: The relationship of economic growth, natural

resources, and environmental pollution.

Other than fewer natural resources available due

to production activities and economic growth, there

are also negative externalities to the environment.

This is only natural as industrial and people’s

consumption rise. The next consequence is

environmental pollu-tion. Economic activities always

come with waste that can pollute the air, earth, and

water if they are not properly managed. The

relationship economic growth and environmental

pollution is described on a positive slope (to the right)

in Fig. 1b. Economic growth from Y1 to Y2 is

accompanied by increased environmental pollution

from Z1 to Z2.

This is the condition referred to as tradeoffs in

peo-ple’s economic activity. On one side, production

and consumption of goods and services results in

positive outcomes for economic growth and welfare.

On the other side, they come with the negative side,

which is waste or pollution (Fig. 2).

Figure 2: Flow diagram of economic and environmental

activities.

3.2 People and Education Model using

Self-Regulation and Local Wisdom

Education is a product of society and is a factor of

social change. This is also known as dialectic rela-

tionship of society and education. An education sys-

tem is a category of historical process related to all

stages of development and is also a geographical

category concerned with political, social, and ideo-

logical matters of a nation. Nowadays, education is

undergoing a crisis that a more creative and pure ap-

proach is required in order to refresh its organization

structure and method. One of those new methods is

an education model using self-regulation based on

local wisdom (Zimmerman and Paulsen, 1995 in

Boekaerts, 2000).

Samin community has some moral virtues in

dealing with the tradeoff of economic activities and

taking care of their environment. Samin community

has regulated themselves in terms of thoughts,

feelings, and attitudes as to adhere to the principle of

Samin teaching without over exploitation of nature.

Self-regulation is understood as a process of

activating the mind, attitude, and affection

continuously to reach the goals (Schunk and

Zimmerman, 2000). It is a personality process to plan,

direct, and control atti-tude in order to reach targets

(adherence to folk law and environmental protection)

by using cognitive, affective, and psychomotor

elements.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The Samin community or “Sedulur Sikep” (as they

prefer to be called) in Sumber village are still related

to each other and are di fourth direct descendants of

Samin Surosentiko (Predicted to be born in 1859).

The social order maintained by “Sikep” Community

stems from their understanding and humane sense as

creatures of God in social interactions and their rela-

tionship with the environment. Samin community

does have every day norms as their guide. The Samin

community referred to in this research is the one

known as Sedulur Sikep or “Wong Samin” living in

Sumber village, Kradenan sub district, Blora regen-

cy, Central Java. The other Samin communities are

spread in some regencies in Central Java such as Ku-

dus (Kutuk sub district), Pati (Kandangan sub dis-

trict), Blora (Kradenan, Klopoduwur, and Nginggil

sub districts), Brebes (Gunung Segara sub district),

Rembang, Bojonegoro (Tapelan sub district), and

Lamongan (Tlaga Anyar sub district), and also

Ngawi.

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551

Samin teachings concerns values in human lives.

These teachings are guides that tell people how to live

and behave. They do undergo changes in their

implementation over time. For Samin people howev-

er, the most important thing is their attitude towards

life.

Just as the other communities, Samin people also

have social groups that later affect their economic

activities. According to Bannon and Collier (2003),

communities are made of individual interrelation-

ships bounded by certain territorial boundaries while

making the most of the natural resources available

according to the regulation set by those communities

themselves. The social groups in the Samin commu-

nity of Sumber village are: first, the Primary group

that are attached to each other as they are part of the

nucleus family. For Samin people, the core family

members are those living together in a house. This

means that a house should only have the main core

members of a family, namely a father, a mother, and

their children who are not married yet. But this is not

the case found in the field. Interview results show that

some houses are occupied not only by the core family

members but also the other relatives such as nephews

or parents in law. This is later referred to as

household. These households serve as the bond that

ties the members together in their daily activities. The

more family members a household has, the more

activities are required to meet their primary needs like

place, clothes, and food.

Second, kinship, groups of people living close to

each other in one village known as neighbors. None-

theless, this type of relationship also applies to those

living in other areas. Members of this kinship group

will gather for their activities. This concept of kin-

ship is based on the feeling of being related/become

relatives. It encompasses wider members than the

people in the core family. They also term this rela-

tionship with ‘isih kulit’ or literally means still the

same skin, due to genetic relations and also relation-

ship by marriage. The process of social interaction in

this kinship allows individuals to easily solve prob-

lems in their social and economic activities.

Third, internal and external relations. This means

re-lationships among members of Samin

communities and relationship of Samin communities

with the out-side societies. Internal relations involve

members of one Samin community to the members of

the other Samin communities in many regions. They

have solid relations. The care about each other dearly.

They of-ten pay visits to members of the other Samin

com-munities. This feeling of belonging to one

another is very much evident. Their external relations

with the other members of the community is also

going well, they have harmonious relations with

them. They fol-low the traditions and customs of their

own society and those of the others’, even though

they do not always actively participate.

Most Samin people work as farmers. However,

they do not trade their produce. They only keep them

for their daily needs. Sedulur Sikep members do not

know the concept of profit and loss. They do not

understand trade. Kinship is everything for them.

They would rather sacrifice their belonging than hav-

ing to lose a relative. They uphold the philosophy of

‘tuno sathak, bathi sanak’ which literally means, it is

better to lose a fortune to get a relative.

Despite their ancient way of thinking. Samin

people also embrace modern farming practices. They

use tractors and employ some farming technologies.

The only thing Samin people cannot accept until

today is the existence of a central government, despite

the fact that it is an integral part of a changing society.

Nonetheless, Samin people are able to protect their

surroundings and nature with their old fashioned way

of living. Here are the principles of their teach-ings:

First, religious norm. The concept of religion be-

lieved by Samin people differs from those explained

by anthropologists and sociologists. According to

Samin people, ‘agama itu gaman lanang, Adam pen-

gucape, Dam, damele rabi’, meaning religion is a

weapon and guide to life. This philosophy is also

manifested in their social and economic lives. There

is more to life than the one we have on earth. There-

fore, cheating in trade is not worth it. This believe al-

so prevents them from damaging their nature and

environment.

Second, The norm of courtesy, habit, and attitude.

In terms of courtesy, Samin people are very nice and

friendly when it comes to paying a visit or welcom-

ing a visitor. They warmly welcome guests as they

believe that everyone, no matter where they come

from, is relatives. They also greet each other upon

coming across with one another. Once a hello is not

replied. A Samin person will come to that particular

person to pay a visit. Samin people uphold honesty

highly. Any disobedience to those norms results in

stigmatization. The norms of courtesy, habit, and at-

titude in Samin community include:

 Sabar lan ampun drengki srei, tukar padu,

dahpen, kemeren. Aja kutil jumput, bedhog

nyolong (Be patient and do not bother others.

Do not start a fight or be jealous. Do not steal or

take what is not ours).

 Wong urip kudu ngerti uripe, amargo urip bakal

digawa sak lawase (People must understand life.

Our attitude here on earth will be held accounta-

ble in the hereafter).

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552

The norm of courtesy and honesty in Samin

commu-nity is an educational model to prevent

damage to the environment. As people will be held

accountable to what they have done here on earth.

Third, custom norm. The custom norm in Samin

community is very much evident in their marriage

system. Sikep community believes in monogamy and

this is properly expressed in the term ‘siji kanggo

slawase’, meaning one husband/wife forever. The

sacred aim of marriage is to have descendants

(nurunke wiji sing sakbenere). Samin people still up-

hold the folk law that governs the way they live such

as using Javanese and the observation of ‘Nyadran’,

a procession of cleaning up the village and sacred

fountains that have provided great benefits for the

community. This customs are laid by their ancestors

and are passed on from one generation to the next via

habits. Although there is no written regulation, Samin

people still adhere to them and believe in them with

all their hearts.

In Indonesia, Samin community is known as one

of the folk law communities (MaHA). There are at

least five elements that deem a community a MaHA

sta-tus (Dominikus Rato, 2009: 107)

 A community of people feeling united and

bound by togetherness based on descent (gene-

cology) and/or territory;

 A group of people living in certain areas within

certain boundaries they agree on;

 A group of people having their own wealth, both

material and non-material in nature;

 A group of people led by a leader or a group of

leaders that represent that group with

his/her/their own legal power and recognition

bestowed upon them by the group;

 A group of people having proper norms that

guide them in their social life; and

 A group of people with no intention of separat-

ing themselves from each other.

Samin people are abided by the folk law,

especially the one concerning environmental

sustainability. There are traditional forests run by

Samin people themselves with the sole purpose of

improving the welfare of Samin people. The way

Samin people regulate themselves by abiding to the

folk law and preserving the environment (albeit local

wisdom) is governed by two mechanisms;

observational learn-ing, and self-regulation (Bandura

in Boeeree, 2008). It is said that a person will be

inclined to act in cer-tain ways (observational

learning whenever there is attention, retention,

reproduction, and motivation.

According to Schunk (in Susanto 2006), self-

regulation is the ability to control oneself. Samin

people continuously control their way of life. They

activate their thoughts, attitudes, and feelings in or-

der to live up to the values their ancestors have in-

herited them with as they strive to reach the purpose

of their life, despite the fact that their lifestyle dif-fers

greatly from those outside their community. In this

case, external influences fail to distract Samin people

from observing the values of self-regulation they have

always believed in.

5 CONCLUSIONS

Folk or traditional laws are still adhered to as they

serve greater goals for those observing them. Samin

people preserve their environment as they provide

them with greater goods in their life. They uphold the

principle of ‘gotong royong’ or working together and

are not against cooperating with external parties in

order to preserve the environment.

The educational model recommended in this

research is based on two concepts of observational

learning and self-regulation. The government must

also guar-antee the preservation of the local wisdom

of Samin community as it is an integral part of our

national culture.

People’s economic behavior must be directed

toward preserving the balance and sustainability of

nature for the future generation by making use of

technolo-gies and methods that are not against the

norms and ethics within our society.

The educational model proposed here is aimed at

narrowing the tradeoff between people’s economic

and social need and potential environmental degra-

dation caused by our attempts in fulfilling them, both

now and in the future.

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