Traces of the Reproduction and Redistribution of Islamic Texts Through the Betadut among Besemah and Serawai People: preliminary remarks

Abstract

Although nowadays it has faded, there is sufficient evidence that in the past, the Serawai and Pasemah ethnic groups in Bengkulu knew an oral tradition called betadut. Betadut (from the word tadut) means singing the text of the tadut. Betadut is a folk song without musical accompaniment performed by a group of adults in a certain context: at a certain time, place and for a specific purpose. The betadut group is led by a person called the pendulu and is followed by a group of relative accompaniments. It is called the pendulu because it is he who begins to recite or sing the tadut text which is then followed by the accompaniments simultaneously. Tadut texts are in the form of folk poetry, covering various themes, such as akhlak, fiqih, tauhid and tasawuf. Each theme has a number of topics and each contains specific messages as stated in the title, for example, tadut esat sembayang, tadut pesan rasul, tadut sejahat-jahat manusie. Each topic of tadut is presented in relative syntactic-semantic units. One topic may consist of one or more stanzas and each stanza consists of three or more syntactic-semantic units. The themes of tadut and the contents of messages in betadut topics show traces of the reproduction and redistribution of Islamic texts on various themes through oral traditions in the Serawai and Pasemah ethnic groups in Bengkulu.

Keywords: bengkulu, betadut, Islamic texts, redistribution, reproduction

DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/103-08

Publication date: December 30th 2024