HYBRID IDENTITIES IN KAMPUNG TUGU JAKARTA

Abstract

Abstract: This paper aims to describe the plural identities in Kampung Tugu in North Jakarta. Those characters, as Anthony Reid proposed (2002), could be identified if we explore four cultural elements of language, cloth, culinary, and material culture. After the Dutch established Batavia in 1619, many Portuguese and their descendants visited and inhabited Batavia. The first group, Portuguese retired armies in India, came to Batavia to serve their Dutch master. The Dutch also imported the Portuguese-Eurasian slaves (or the local slaves who spoke Creole Portuguese). The last group came to Batavia after the fall of Malacca in 1641. The Dutch merely permitted them to inhabit the middle of swamp, outer of Batavia. The Peranakan Portugis (Portuguese-Eurasian descendant) formed the new ethnic and lived in the outside of Batavia. They have preserved their hybrid culture that we can find it at present. Using ethno-historical approach, we can identify their four hybrid identities. They formed Creole Portuguese as a means of communication and borrowed some Portuguese words in their language. They also have some Portuguese motifs in their cloth. Besides cooking the Portuguese dish, the Portuguese descendant composed some new dishes after adapting some Indonesian dishes with the local taste. For the material culture, they kept preserving Tugu Church, the house of Tugu Society, and the funeral place.

Keywords: Batavia, cultural hibridity, Dutch, Portuguese, Tugu