Women’s Agency in the Belangar Funeral Ritual: Social Solidarity in the Sasak Community of Lombok

Abstract

The Belangar tradition is a funeral ritual practiced by the Sasak community in Lombok that functions not only as a religious and cultural practice, but also as a social mechanism for building and sustaining communal solidarity. This study aims to examine how women interpret and enact their roles within the Belangar tradition and how their participation contributes to the formation of social solidarity. Employing a qualitative approach with an intrinsic case study design, the research was conducted in Surabaya Village, East Lombok. Data were collected through participant observation, in-depth interviews, and document analysis, and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings reveal that women act as organizers of collective action, maintainers of reciprocal social relations, and mediators of collective emotions within the Belangar ritual. These practices reflect women’s social agency operating through non-formal and relational processes that actively produce and sustain social solidarity. The study concludes that social solidarity in the Belangar tradition is not an automatic outcome of cultural inheritance, but a socially constructed process mediated through women’s ritual and relational labor. Theoretically, this research contributes to discussions on social solidarity and social capital in indigenous contexts, while offering practical implications for social education and culturally grounded community development.