ETHNOASTRONOMICAL STUDIES: LONTARAQ ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS IN BUGIS MAKASSAR COMMUNITY

• Main Author: Purwanti S, Endah
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/71893
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Ethnoastronomy is a multidisciplinary science concerning human perception and understanding of astronomical phenomena through a cultural and history approach that also includes calendars, celestial knowledge, celestial mythology and related rituals, cosmological concepts, and traditions. The Makassar Bugis community has ancient historical records in the form of Lontaraq manuscript. This manuscript contains various information related to the local wisdom including the use of astronomical aspects in determining time as a factor to consider before carrying out daily activities. The use of astronomical aspects in agricultural activities can be found in the pananrang alaurumang manuscript and for commercial activities in kutika abbalu balukeng. Analysis of astronomical aspects of timing in commercial and agricultural activities was carried out based on data from the Lontaraq manuscript. The data that are currently circulating and used by the Bugis Makassar community will be used as a comparison. Other related data were obtained through literature study and interview methods. In the determination of time in the Lontaraq manuscript, as well as in the society, there is a similarity in the division of one day into five parts, which refers to the position of the Sun to define time and the use of the appearance of the Moon as a reference for calculations, although there are differences from the actual synodic period of the Moon. There is, however, a difference in the media used for calculation. Lontaraq ancient manuscripts tend to use seeds, while in the society they use palms. We found that, out of 138 dates, the astronomical objects, such as stars, named with local terms in pananrang alaurumang, can only be observed on 69 dates for 2023 and 68 dates for 1600. This difference may be due to a partial or complete loss of information related to the Lontaraq manuscript as a whole, both in the process of making and rewriting the determination of time that has occurred from generation to generation.