The Kaago-Ago Tradition of the Muna Tribe in Southeast Sulawesi from the Perspective of Islamic Legal Anthropology

El-Usrah: Jurnal Hukum Keluarga https://jurnal.ar-raniry.ac.id/index.php/usrah/index ISSN: 2620 – 8075 ║ E-ISSN: 2620 – 8083 Vol. 8. No. 2. December 2025 DOI: 10.22373/ujhk.v8i2.30125 The Kaago-Ago Tradition of the Muna Tribe in Southeast Sulawesi from the Perspective of Islamic Legal Anthropology Kamaruddin, 1 Cecep Soleh Kurniawan, 2 Asni, 3 Syamsul Darlis, 1 Ermianti Ato1 1 Institut Agama Islam Negeri Kendari, Indonesia 2 Universiti Islam Sultan Sharif, Brunei Darussalam 3 Universitas Islam Negeri Alauddin Makassar, Indonesia Email: Abstract The dialectic between Islamic law and customary law continues in Indonesian communities. Islam brought with it the value of harmonizing theoretical and practical concepts, so that religion does not exist in a cultural vacuum. This study aims to explain the practice of the kaago-ago ritual for the Muna community in Southeast Sulawesi. This research is an empirical study analyzed using the theory of Islamic legal anthropology. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, observation, and document studies. The results show that the kaago-ago ritual is carried out as a medium for conducting cross-dimensional negotiations with supernatural beings to request permission to open plantation land for the Muna community in Southeast Sulawesi. The ‘urf study argues that the kaago-ago ritual does not qualify as customary law according to sharia, because the ritual contains no benefits, is contrary to common sense, and contradicts the qath'i text. This ritual phenomenon certainly requires Muslim scholars worldwide to continue striving to carry out ijtihad regarding the integration of tradition and Islamic legal provisions. This article's study of the anthropological conception of Islamic law finds novelty that in the kaago-ago tradition there is a dialectic between Islamic teachings and tradition as well as between humans and nature which aims to find harmony and order as the function of law in society. Keywords: Kaago-ago, Muna tribe, tradition, al-‘urf, anthropology of Islamic law. 1040 Kamaruddin, et.al., The Kaago-Ago Tradition of the Muna Tribe 1041 Abstrak Dialektika antara hukum Islam dan hukum adat terus berlanjut di masyarakat Indonesia. Islam membawa serta nilai harmonisasi konsep teoritis dan praktis, sehingga agama tidak berada dalam ruang hampa budaya. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menjelaskan praktik ritual kaago-ago bagi masyarakat Muna di Sulawesi Tenggara. Penelitian tersebut merupakan studi empiris yang dianalisis menggunakan teori antropologi hukum Islam. Data dikumpulkan melalui wawancara mendalam, observasi, dan studi dokumen. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa ritual kaago-ago dilakukan sebagai media untuk melakukan negosiasi lintas dimensi dengan makhluk gaib untuk meminta izin membuka lahan perkebunan bagi masyarakat Muna di Sulawesi Tenggara. Studi al-‘urf berpendapat bahwa ritual kaago-ago tidak memenuhi syarat sebagai hukum adat menurut syariat, karena ritual tersebut tidak mengandung manfaat, bertentangan dengan akal sehat, dan bertentangan dengan teks qath'i. Fenomena ritual ini tentu membutuhkan para cendekiawan Muslim di seluruh dunia untuk terus berupaya melakukan ijtihad mengenai integrasi tradisi dan ketentuan hukum Islam. Studi artikel ini tentang konsepsi antropologis hukum Islam menemukan hal baru bahwa dalam tradisi kaago-ago terdapat dialektika antara ajaran Islam dan tradisi serta antara manusia dan alam yang bertujuan untuk menemukan harmoni dan ketertiban sebagai fungsi hukum dalam masyarakat. Kata Kunci: Kaago-ago, suku Muna, tradisi, al-‘urf, antropologi hukum Islam Introduction The dialectic between Islamic law and customary law continues in Indonesian society. Islam brings with it the value of harmonizing theoretical and practical concepts, so that religion does not exist in a cultural vacuum. Every community in Indonesia has experienced a transformation from Islamic law, defined as fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) as understood by scholars of various schools of thought, to its application by scholars of the archipelago in Islamic legal practices with local characteristics. The practice of harmonizing Islamic law and local customs can be seen from the era of the archipelago kingdoms through independence and into the contemporary era. 1 One such community is the Muna tribe, whose majority population is Muslim, in Indonesia, specifically in Southeast Sulawesi Province.2 The people of the Muna tribe generally believe in the existence of spirits (unseen creatures), both 1 Muh. Fathoni Hasyim, et.al., “The Walagara Marriage Ritual: The Negotiation between Islamic Law and Custom in Tengger,” Journal of Indonesian Islam 14, No. 1 (2020). Abidin Nurdin, et.al., “Mappatammaq Mangaji in Mandar, West Sulawesi: Childrearing Patterns Based on the Qur'an in the Anthropological Perspective of Islamic Law,” El-Usrah 7, No. 2 (2024). 2 Henny Kasmawati, Sunandar Ihsan, and Rani Suprianti, “Kajian Etnomedisin Tumbuhan Obat Tradisional Suku Muna Desa Oe Nsuli Kecamatan Kabangka Kabupaten Muna Sulawesi Tenggara,” Pharmauho:Jurnal Farmasi, Sains, Dan Kesehatan 5, no. 1 (2019), p. 21–24. https://jurnal.ar-raniry.ac.id/index.php/usrah/index Vol. 8 No. 2, December 2025 Kamaruddin, et.al., The Kaago-Ago Tradition of the Muna Tribe 1042 evil and good. Therefore, they often hold rituals related to various aspects of life to provide goodness to themselves, nature, and the supernatural beings around them.3 The Muna tribe community has their main livelihood as farmers to meet their daily living needs. In agriculture, the Muna community is known as deghalu.4 Muna farmers have the characteristics of a traditional farming system, starting from clearing the forest using slash-and-burn techniques, planting seeds using sticks (wood with one end sharpened to make a hole in the ground), using human power, relying on rainwater, and farming move frequently. The shifting farming system is not carried out haphazardly, that is, it is not just looking for new land, but some rules have been mutually agreed upon. When the land that has been cultivated for two or five years no longer produces a large harvest, they will ask the traditional authorities to find new land for them to farm. The traditional holders in question are "the owners of the ancestors" or are called "Kamokulano Liwu".5 Traditional leaders will look for land that is not on someone's land that has already been occupied. This is because, when cultivators have moved to look for new fields, one day they will return to the land they once worked on to carry out farming activities again. Because the land they had left was believed to be fertile again after not being cultivated for a long time. Therefore, the role of the garden shaman (Parika) is very important in determining good land for farming. After getting new land, they performed the kaago-ago ritual. For the community, this ritual is considered to play a very important role. They carry out this ritual with the bel (...truncated)