Menjaga Air, Menjaga Hidup: Kekuasaan, Pengetahuan, dan Agensi Perempuan Adat Sumba dalam Krisis Ekologi Kontemporer

Abstract

This study analyzes the representation of power and knowledge in the lives of indigenous women in Sumba through Michel Foucault's theoretical framework. By examining social practices, traditional rituals, and gender relations in three indigenous regions of East Sumba, West Sumba, and Central Sumba, this study seeks to reveal how the bodies and experiences of indigenous women become an arena where traditional power, state power, and economic power converge. Data was obtained from reports by institutions such as the Indigenous Peoples' Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), and Mongabay, as well as from secondary interviews with indigenous women leaders documented in official publications. The research method is descriptive qualitative with Foucaultian discourse analysis focusing on three layers of power: indigenous discourse and local morality, state regulations and development programs, and capital relations in the context of the tourism industry and land. The results of the analysis show that Sumba women are not merely objects of power, but subjects of knowledge who play an important role in ecological preservation and the reproduction of social values. The practices of land care, water management, and fertility rituals become spaces of resistance that challenge the dominance of masculine and colonial knowledge. This study emphasizes the importance of reading the experiences of indigenous women not only as part of gender issues, but as a form of epistemic resistance against the power structures that govern their lives. These findings are expected to enrich cultural studies, gender and the politics of knowledge in contemporary Indonesia.