International Conference of Integrated Microfinance Management (IMM-16)

Microfinance practice in Batakese traditional

wedding party
Niko Saripson P. Simamora1*, Estro Dariatno Sihaloho2
1
Business Administration, School of Business and Management, Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia
2
Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, Padjadjaran University, Indonesia
*Corresponding author: [email protected]

ABSTRACT Keywords—Microfinance, Local Wisdom, Cooperative,

Credit Union, Rural Bank
Indonesia is a multiethnic country. Batak is one of
ethnicities in North Sumatera Province. As an ethnicity, INTRODUCTION
Bataks implement the culture as their way of life.
Culture came from the ancestors who shaped culture Finance is the science and art of managing money
based on their needs at the time. As time goes by and (Gitman & Zutter, 2015). Microfinance is part of finance
science rapidly develops, culture can be reinterpreted. that can be defined as finance practice in the microscale
One example is a way of solving the financing problem of money. The practice of managing money is
with the traditional means. implemented by individual and group. The term of
microfinance more often used as an institution that
Batakese believe that marriage is one of the most served the customer with microlending, microcredit,
important phases of life. This marriage is often microinsurance, etc. In other words, (Beatriz Armendariz
celebrated with the royal wedding party by inviting the de Aghion, 2005) de Aghion (2005) stated that
family from both sides of bride and bridegroom. The microfinance emerged as an especially promising way to
family might come from each of their great- reduce poverty, fight gender inequality, and strengthen
grandparents. This royal wedding is held with the communities.
amount of money, excluding the dowry (sinamot-Batak)
which is bride-price that must be paid by bridegroom Microfinance could be understood as a way to solve the
after negotiating between the families. In general, all of financing problem but not limited only as an institution.
the expenses along the party become the responsibility Most people in the world face financial activities in their
of bridegroom side. daily lives. Everyone has her/his own way to practice
those financial activities. In Indonesia, as a multiethnic
The burden of the cost that expended by the bridegroom country, people have their own custom to practice
could be balanced from the tumpak, obligatory presents finance and solve money problems. Batak is one of
brought by the family of both bride and bridegroom. ethnicities in North Sumatera Province, Indonesia. As an
Tumpak usually consist of money that conforms to the ethnicity, people of Batak are implementing their culture
invitee relationship with the bride and bridegroom. The as the way of life.
other present, like amount of rice and ulos (traditional
woven cloth) could be sold by the family to gain some Marriage is one of the important stages of Batakese
money. This revenue excludes the presents from the cultural life. Batakese ethnic group consist of 6 (six)
friends, colleague, or others non-family partners. sub-ethnicities: Toba tribes, live around Toba Lake;
Mandailing tribes, live around South Tapanuli; Angkola
The Batakese traditional wedding party/ceremony shows tribes, live around Sipirok and Angkola; Karo tribes, live
a way for microfinance practice to solve the needs of around Karo highland; Simalungun tribes, stay in
celebrating the wedding party. This paper has objectives Simalungun; Pakpak tribes, live in Dairi or Pakpak land
to show the local wisdom in financing and the (Bangun, 1982).
relationship between local practice in microfinance and
the institution of microfinance such as cooperative, Marriage is as important to all six of Batak sub-
credit union, and rural banks. ethnicities, which is an important role in the Batak socio-

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 International Conference of Integrated Microfinance Management (IMM-16)

cultural aspect. Likewise, the Batak Toba, marriage is example, a collateral so that not everyone
the first step to be able to participate in the system of could get it easily.
Dalihan Na Tolu. Dalihan Na Tolu is a kinship system iii. Selling valuable property which is often
in the Batak Toba which consists of three elements of done by parents, for example: jewelry,
the Hula-Hula, Dongan Sabutuha, and Boru (Marbun &
vehicles, land, etc.
Hutapea, 1987). (Sinaga, 2012) Sinaga (2012) explained
that the Hula-hula is greeting the parents and brothers
Batakese people who uphold the customs could be
from bride, Dongan Tubu are people who have the same
identified with their strong kinship relations. Batakese
surname with suhut (bridegroom family), and Boru is the
society, especially Toba, hold strong familial
husband of the female side of suhut-dongan tubu.
relationships based on the customs of their ancestors. For
the people of Batak Toba, the kinship form emerged
Thus in the Batakese, especially Toba traditional
based on lineages arising from the pedigree group of
marriage, the wedding ceremony is a bridge which unite
clans/surname (Sibeth, 1991). Clan or surname also the
Dalihan Na Tolu of bridegroom with Dalihan Na Tolu
one that shows the kinship system of Dalihan Natolu.
of the bride (Siahaan, 1982). In addition to comply with
Tumpak will usually be given by a family who came to
requirement of entering Dalihan Na Tolu, traditional
the traditional wedding party. Although the amount is
wedding party also becomes an important key to the
small and cannot meet the cost of a wedding party,
Batak Toba because through this event the family shall
tumpak is enough to help and show concern of Dalihan
have the right to hold custom events for the child's birth,
Natolu from bridegroom family and Dalihan Natolu from
marriage, death, and other ceremonies. Families who do
bride family as well.
not hold marriage traditional ceremonies, in Batak Toba
language called mangadati, not entitled to give to others
METHOD
and also not entitled accept custom from others (Siregar,
2015). In this study, all the data used are primary data collected
through the interview process of 30 people of the Batak
Traditional Batakese wedding party is costly. It is Toba who had been entitled to and can do the custom of
because the wedding party should invite all the large Batak Toba. Those Toba people who responded are
families of the Dalihan Na Tolu from bridegroom and people who live in urban setting.
bride. For the bridegroom family, in addition to bearing
the cost of wedding party, they also must pay a sum of The method used in this research is the qualitative
money as a dowry to the woman. At the beginning of method from interview, study of literature, and
marriage, it is commonly defined as the purchase of a quantitative method using ordinary least squares process
bride, in which woman is released from her family after with STATA 12 to get a comprehensive outlook.
the payment transaction has been agreed in advance.
Transactions could be payment with valuables, animals Ordinary least-squares (OLS) regression is a generalized
(pigs, buffaloes, cattle) or the amount of money to be linear modeling technique that may be used to model a
given to the woman. The transaction process is called single response variable which has been recorded on at
Sinamot (Manik, 2012). least an interval scale. The technique may be applied to
single or multiple explanatory variables and also
Batakese will find some ways to bear the cost of the categorical explanatory variables that have been
traditional wedding party which is not small (Manik,
appropriately coded (Hutcheson, 2011).
2012). This is done to implement the customary wedding
party because marriage is a very important thing for the
Batak Toba. Some efforts that can be done are:
i. Asking for help from family, in the local RESULTS
language called papungu tumpak. Amount
Below is the result of our interview with 30 respondents.
of money were collected usually very small. These data illustrate the custom of Batakese people,
It is not sufficient to cover the cost of the especially Toba tribes, in attending traditional wedding
wedding party. parties/ceremonies.
ii. Borrowing to the others or colleagues. To
obtain a loan, it would have the requisite for Table 1. Number of Attending Batakese Traditional
Wedding Party/Ceremony (in the latest month)

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 International Conference of Integrated Microfinance Management (IMM-16)

Table 5. Amount of Money Given in Bataknese

Traditional Wedding Ceremony
Table 1 shows people of Toba attend traditional wedding
party at least once in a month. In the other hand, there Besides data about tumpak, the respondents also asked
also some people who attend the traditional wedding about whether they ever hosted a traditional wedding
ceremonies more than four times in a month. It can be party. The total cost that they spend varies, in average
said that, they might attend a traditional wedding party about IDR 162 millions. As this traditional wedding
more than once in a week. It is quite surprising since ceremony is a custom of the Batakese, they are very
most of the Batakese arrange their ceremony on happy to organize it. Most of them are satisfied with
Saturday, then some people also attend the party on total earning that come from collected tumpak. If it is in
Friday. deficit, they usually borrow from their close relatives or
colleagues. But if it is a surplus, the host party will be
In order to attend the traditional Batakese wedding party, happier.
people of Batak have to bring an obligatory gift such as:
tumpak consist of money, ulos (traditional woven cloth), From our data we get the interval of total marriage cost
or amount of rice. Below is the table that shows the type from bridegroom side from IDR 50 million to IDR 500
of traditional gift given by the respondents when million including dowry/sinamot. While if it is excluding
attending the traditional wedding party/ceremony (Table dowry the cost is from IDR 30 million to IDR 150
2). milllion. The bride side also spends a total marriage cost
from IDR 50 million to IDR 250 million. This indicates
Table 2. Type of Gift Given in Batakese Traditional that the bridgegroom most likely spends bigger than the
Wedding Party/Ceremony bride.

Table 3 shows the amount of rice given to the party, We calculate the dowry (sinamot) in relation with the
usually brought in a tandok (a traditional webbed marriage cost using ordinary least-squares method in
pandanus bag). Tandok would be brought by women on STATA 12. The result is shown in Table 6 below.
their heads when entering the party. A half of
respondents bring 5 kg of rice to the wedding party. It is Table 6. Relation Between Dowry/Sinamot and Total
equal to IDR 50,000 if the price of one kilogram rice is Marriage Cost in Batak Toba
IDR 10,000 (Oct. 2016). That rice can be sold after the
wedding ceremony. The data above shows the relationship between the
number of total marriage costs to be incurred by the
Table 3. Amount of Rice Given in Batakese bridegroom against the number of sinamot given to the
Traditional Wedding Party/Ceremony bride. The value of sinamot positively affect the value of
marriage costs which means that the total cost of the
marriage party will be increased if the amount of
The following table (Table 4) shows the price of ulos sinamot increased. The marriage cost will be increased
brought by the respondent to the traditional wedding by IDR 1 when sinamot is increased by IDR 2.7.
party. These ulos can be sold after the wedding party.
Some people collect the ulos and use it as their tumpak The regression results above also show that calculated t
to future wedding parties/ceremonies of their relatives. is at 5.01 larger than the t-table of 2.8 with a significance
level of 99%. The t-test showed that value of sinamot
Table 4. Price of Ulos significantly affect the total cost of the wedding
ceremony. Interview data indicate that the lowest
sinamot is IDR 20 million with the total cost of the
Money as a tumpak is a compulsory thing. As an entrant wedding IDR 100 million and the highest sinamot is
to a Batakese traditional wedding party/ceremony, IDR 100 million with the total wedding cost IDR 500
people at least bring an envelope containing money. The million.
host party can use this amount money to cover the cost
of their ceremony. Table 5 below shows the amount of Table 7. The Relation Between Tumpak and Ulos
money given to the wedding party. Price in Batak Toba Marriage

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 International Conference of Integrated Microfinance Management (IMM-16)

Each person or family that attend the wedding party is microfinance institution like cooperatives, credit unions,
likely to bring tumpak (money) and ulos (traditional or rural banks.
woven cloth) at the same time. The Table 6 above is a
regression that shows relationship between price of ulos Conflict of interest: the data used in this research came
given with the value of tumpak given simultaneously at a from the upper middle class of Batak people who live in
wedding ceremony of Batak Toba. Calculated t is -0.69 urban areas. The result might have been different if the
on the regression results above show that the effect of data are obtained from the middle to the bottom of the
the price of ulos on tumpak value is insignificant or the income classes or who live in rural areas.
two are unrelated. This is relevant with the interview
results, where respondents indicate that in the Batak ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Toba customs, the value of tumpak does not influence
the ulos price given. It is influenced by the We would like to thank the members of Perkumpulan
individual/family/clan position in Dalihan Na Tolu Gaja Toba Semesta (PGTS) who actively contributed as
(kinship). respondents in this research.

REFERENCE
DISCUSSION
Bangun, P. (1982). Kebudayaan Batak . Jakarta:
This research is about the marriage of men and women Koentjaraningrat-Manusia dan Kebudayaan di Indonesia.
in general of Batak Toba custom. For further research, it
is necessary to distinguish how much wedding expenses Beatriz Armendariz de Aghion, J. M. (2005). The
are borne by the men and the women. It also needs data Economics of Microfinance. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
on the value of tumpak, rice, ulos in rupiah so that we
can calculate the number of those invited necessary to Gitman, L. J., & Zutter, C. J. (2015). Principle of
cover the cost of a wedding party in Batak Toba. Managerial Finance. Edinburgh: Pearson Education.

In a subsequent study it will require a larger number of Hutcheson, G. D. (2011). Ordinary Least-Squares
respondents to show stronger interpretation. In the Regression. Dalam G. D. Hutcheson, & L. Moutinho,
future, it is also necessary to examine the other Batak The SAGE Dictionary of Quantitative Management
tribes.
Research (hal. 224-228). Manchester: Sage Publications.
CONCLUDING REMARKS Manik, H. S. (2012). Makna dan Fungsi Tradisi Sinamot
From the data above, we can conclude the following: dalam Adat Perkawinan Sukubangsa Batak Toba di
1. People of Batak, especially Toba tribe attend a Perantauan Surabaya. BioKultur.
minimum one traditional wedding party in a month and
they have to bring traditional gift like tumpak, rice Marbun, M., & Hutapea, I. (1987). Kamus Budaya Batak
and/or ulos to that wedding party. Toba. Jakarta: Balai Pustaka.

2. The total cost of hosting a Batakese traditional Siahaan, N. (1982). Adat Dalihan Na Tolu Prinsip dan
wedding party varies. It is related to the sinamot given to Pelaksanaannya. Jakarta: Grafina.
the bride. The ceremony may incur a deficit or it can
earn a surplus related to earning from tumpak. Since this Sinaga, Y. V. (2012). Ruang dan Ritual Adat
is an obligatory ceremony for Batak people, they have to Pernikahan Suku Batak Toba. Depok: Universitas
arrange the traditional wedding party regardless whether Indonesia.
it is deficit or surplus.
Siregar, M. (2015). Konsumerisme dalam Upacara
3. We may say that the Batakese traditional wedding
Perkawinan Batak Toba di Kota Denpasar. Denpasar:
party is a custom-based practice of microfinance. Batak
people’s lives are dominated by a strong kin relationship Universitas Udayana.
(Dalihan Natolu), so they first ask help to the family and
they tend to avoid borrowing money from commercial

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 International Conference of Integrated Microfinance Management (IMM-16)

Table 1. Number of Attending Batakese Traditional Wedding Party/Ceremony (in the latest month)

Number Number of
of visit Respondent %
1 12 40%
2 5 17%
3 5 17%
4 3 10%
5 0 0%
6 3 10%
7 0 0%
>8 2 7%

Table 2. Type of Gift Given in Batakese Traditional Wedding Party/Ceremony

Number of
Type of Gift Respondent %
Rice, Ulos,
Money 12 40%
Ulos, Money 9 30%
Money 9 30%

Table 3. Amount of Rice Given in Batakese Traditional Wedding Party/Ceremony

Amount of Number of
Rice (kg) Respondent %
5 6 50%
4.5 1 8%
3 1 8%
2 1 8%
1.5 1 8%
1 1 8%

Table 4. Price of Ulos

Price of Ulos Number of

(Rp) Respondent %
50.000 3 14%
100.000 6 29%
150.000 7 33%
200.000 3 14%
300.000 2 10%

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 International Conference of Integrated Microfinance Management (IMM-16)

Table 5. Amount of Money Given in Bataknese Traditional Wedding Ceremony

Amount of Number of
Money (Rp) Respondent %
50.000 5 17%
100.000 11 37%
150.000 5 17%
200.000 5 17%
250.000 2 7%
300.000 2 7%

Table 6. Relation Between Dowry/Sinamot and Total Marriage Cost in Batak Toba

Table 7. The Relation Between Tumpak and Ulos Price in Batak Toba Marriage

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