Case Studies of Community Leaders and Their Environment: Lesson from Jampang Jawara Betawi

Jakarta was known as Batavia and became the center of Dutch colonial government. As the center of colonial government, the community certainly lived in various socio-economic and cultural dynamics. People who live in Batavia came from all over the world. It means they had different ethnic group. The community gathered and mingled with the new socio-cultural order, although not leaving the old cultural order, but there was leeway in its implementation. Lots of people started not to apply strict customs, but instead received new cultural influences. This condition can be seen from the various habits undertaken by the community at that time. One of the simple example was about bringing their own cultural customs but not apply them strictly. This paper reviewed about the activities of Betawi women who often told the story about Betawi jawara namely si Jampang to her son. Jampang was a unique storytelling because everytime people wanted to tell the story they must recite the pantun. As most women told the story to their children, the story would be ended when the children were asleep. Jampang story is actually a story full of messages and meaning to be conveyed. There were three steps must be considered to convey the message and the meaning of the story. The first, people needed to understand the meaning of the story. The second step was understanding the message to be conveyed and the third step was to understand the meaning to be conveyed through the story. By understanding the meaning of the story, then we can understand the message and meaning within it.