Ritual Authority and Cultural Memory: Competing Narratives of Azan Pitu in Cirebon, Indonesia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15575/rjsalb.v10i2.44436Keywords:
Azan Pitu, cultural memory, cumulative narrative legitimation, ritual authority, sacred soundAbstract
This study examines how conflicting narratives regarding the Azan Pitu contribute to the formation of ritual authority and cultural memory in Cirebon, Indonesia. It explores the tension between the seven forms of the muezzin that have become established in contemporary practice and the heterogeneous representations found in various textual, historiographical, oral, and contemporary sources. This study employs a qualitative historical design that combines document analysis, historical source criticism, comparative narrative analysis, and a corpus audit of eleven textual sources, editions, and historiographical works related to the Cirebon tradition, supplemented by documented oral traditions, contemporary research, cultural documentation, and media reports. The findings indicate that the corpus of texts under study does not provide a single consistent narrative regarding the Azan Pitu: one source describes a protective call to prayer performed by a single figure, while another source depicts disturbances, fires, or threats to the mosque without mentioning the involvement of seven muezzins. The concept of seven muezzins is most clearly documented in oral, academic, and contemporary media representations. Despite their factual differences, these narrative layers converge around recurring motifs such as crisis, sacred space, spiritual authority, sacred voice, protection, loss, and the restoration of order. These findings suggest that the authority of the Azan Pitu is best understood through the interplay of cultural memory, ritual practice, and various forms of transmission rather than through a single, recoverable origin narrative. As a conceptual contribution, this study proposes cumulative narrative legitimation to explain how historically non-identical and even contradictory narratives can remain associated with the same ritual and provide symbolic resources through which ritual authority is articulated over time.
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