Pembicara pada ?Wednesday Forum? Oktober 14, 2009 adalah Melanie Nyhof, kandidat doctor dari Pittsburgh University. Sedangkan moderator kali ini adalah Roy Alan Brango Tolentino. Melanie mempresentasikan artikel penelitiannya berjudul ?Allah Shape is like the sky, children understanding of God?. Dalam diskusi ini, ia melihat bahwa konsep-konsep agama tentang hal yang bersifat supernatural bukanlah sesuatu yang terberi demikian saja, melainkan terorganisir melaui pemikiran. Fokus penelitian Melanie adalah pada anak-anak Indonesia yang baru berkembang dalam memahami makna Tuhan. Mereka mempunyai perbedaan latar belakang berdasarkan agama, usia, kultural dan psikologis.

The speaker during the Wednesday forum on October 14, 2009 was Ms. Melanie Nyhof, a doctoral candidate from Pittsburgh University, and the moderator was Roy Alan Brango Tolentino, an ICRS-Yogya student. Ms. Nyhof presented her paper entitled ?Allah?s shape is like the sky: Children?s Understanding of God)

In the discussion, she examined the foundation of religious and supernatural concepts which should not be taken for granted; it must be organized in cognition. The focus of Ms. Nyhof?s research was on Indonesian children?s development in examining the concept of God; children with Moslem and Catholic background. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, she accounted and narrated the concept of God according to Indonesian children based on age, psychology, culture and religion. Ms. Nyhof stated that most researches related to children?s development on the concept of God are based on Christianity.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”13″]”Patrick Guiness adalah antropolog yang pertama kali datang ke Indonesia pada tahun 1970 an. Tulisan etnografinya yang paling mengesankan adalah “Five Families on Sand Diggers” (lima keluarga penggali pasir), bercerita mengenai kehidupan penggali pasir di Kali Code, Yogyakarta di tahun 1977. Tulisan bersifat life history inilah yang kemudian menjadi disertasinya dan menghantarkannya meraih gelar PhD. Patrick juga menulis tentang orang-orang gelandangan di Yogyakarta. Tak lama setelah itu, ia menerbitkan buku tentang ‘Kampung: Harmony and Hierarchy in a Javanese Kampung’ (1986). Buku ini sangat menaruh simpati dan pembelaan terhadap masyarakat Kampung Ledok, yang tinggal di bantaran Kali Code, Yogyakarta. Keteguhan Patrick sebagai “antropolog sejati” yang membela rakyat kecil terus berlanjut dengan kembali ke Kampung Kali Code pada tahun 1999. Kali ini ia bermaksud melihat proses perubahan warga kampung Ledok pasca keruntuhan Orde Baru.”[/perfectpullquote][perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”13″]”Saya mewawancari Patrick Guiness secara singkat di sebuah workshop ‘Growing Up in Indonesian: Experience and Diversity in Youth Transitions’ di kampus Australian National University. Wawanca berlanjut pada sebuah peluncuran buku terbarunya ‘Kampung, State and Islam in Urban Java’ (2009) di Asian Book, Canberra. Di dua tempat ini, Patrick Guiness berbincang tentang penelitiannya di sebuah kampung bernama Ledok, bagaimana masyarakat di sana bernegosiasi dengan konsep ruang dan perubahan sejarah dalam merespon perubahan politik, ekonomi dan sosial secara lebih luas.”[/perfectpullquote]

Patrick Guiness is an anthropologist who first came to Yogyakarta in the 1970s; his most impressive ethnographic work which is highly recognized until now is “Five Families on Sand Diggers.” It talks about the sand diggers in Code River in 1977. This work is a sort of a life history which later became his dissertation that made him obtained his PhD degree. Dr. Guiness also wrote about the scavengers in Yogyakarta. Shortly after that, he published his book about the kampong society entitled “Harmony and Hierarchy in a Javanese Kampung” (1986) which gives sympathy and advocacy to the citizens of Kampung Ledok living in the riverbank of Code River in Yogyakarta.

Prof. Makoto Koike saat membangun Uma Ratu (blogspot.com)

“Nama Sumbanya adalah Umbu Haharu,” kata seorang laki-laki dari desa Wunga, Sumba Timur. Nama Sumba tersebut diberikan kepada Prof. Makoto Koike ketika ia memulai penelitian doktornya di Sumba Timur. Penelitian etnografinya (Desember 1985 – Juni 1988) berusaha untuk melihat dan memahami budaya dari masyarakat desa Wunga, terutama terkait dengan mitos, aturan kawin-mawin, dan aktifitas-aktifitas religiusnya. “Wunga adalah kampung pertama di Sumba, bernuansa mitos, jadi menarik juga”, ujar Antropolog asli Jepang ini.

Prof. Makoto Koike with Uma Ratu (blogspot.com)

Umbu Haharu is the name given to Professor Makoto Koike by the villagers of Wunga Village in East Sumba when he was doing his ethnographic research for his doctoral dissertation in December 1985–June 1988. The effort was done to delve into the culture (courtship, marriages, arts, dances and social manners) and beliefs (religious, myth and legends) of the village. “Wunga is the first Kampong in Sumba, mythical and interesting,” Makoto said.

In an interview with CRCS at Elvin Hotel in East Sumba, Makato disclosed that he chose Sumba because he had developed interest on Sumba while doing a library research on Eastern Indonesia for his Master Degree thesis at Tokyo Metropolitan University. This post-graduate work in the same university is a concretization of his desire of visiting Indonesia, especially Eastern Indonesia.