Cause and Effect Essay

The Negative Impacts of Cultural Integration

     Cultural integration is a process of adjusting elements of one culture to another. It is generally looked upon as a positive thing because it intends to bring social compatibility in people’s lives. However, not all good intentions lead to positive results. While cultural integration might bring benefits for people, it can also cause several bad effects.

     First, cultural integration can endanger cultural diversity. When different cultures live together, maintaining the characteristics of each culture might be a challenge. For example, when Javanese, Madurese, and Sundanese people live in the same place, each of their cultural identity will slowly dissolve as they are constantly adapting to one another.

   Second, cultural integration can cause discrimination and conflicts. Discrimination usually happens to marginalized cultures, such as people of Papuan tribes who are sometimes discriminated because of their skin colour. Also, when various cultures collide and integrate, a conflict might burst out because different cultures usually hold on to different principles.

    Third, cultural integration can decrease the values of local culture. When people get used to seeing various local cultures in their daily lives, they might not be impressed anymore. In some cases, they may even seem ignorant of their own cultures and feel prouder when taking part in promoting foreign cultures.

     In conclusion, even though cultural integration means good intention, it can also result in several negative impacts. It may endanger cultural diversity, cause discrimination and conflicts, and decrease the values of local culture. Therefore, cultural integration must be applied carefully in order to minimize the disadvantages.

By: Muzlia Pertiwi

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Exemplification Essay

Traditional Dances in Indonesia

        It is commonly speaking that there are more 700 ethnic groups in Indonesia. Mostly, they have their own dances. Totally, there has now been 3000 Indonesian original dances. Traditional dances are distinctly different from the other dances because they typically have historical value, they show repetitive movements, and they become region’s identity.

        First, traditional dances have historical value. For example, Hudoq dance of Dayak people, means this dance aims to pray so that their fields will grow abundantly. It is symbolized by dancers who wear masks representing pests and jackets made of banana tree bark. The two human hudoqs come out and chase the pest hudoqs. While Cakalele dance of Maluku people, Male dancers are wearing red and yellow costumes that represent heroism, courage, and patriotism of Maluku people.

        In addition, traditional dances show repetitive movements. For example, Tor-Tor dance of the Batak people of North Sumatra, represents the movement to communicate providing an interaction of people in the ceremony. Moreover, Kuda Lumping dance symbolizes the attraction of being strong and powerful. It reflects heroism and military aspects of troops like riding a horse in a war. It was also used to attact the Dutch people—the colonialism.

        Finally, traditional dances become region’s identity. For example, Reog dance is as Ponorogo’s identity, Jaipong dance is as Sunda identity, Ma’badong is as Toraja identity, and Joget Melayu is as Melayu identity.

        Briefly stated, Traditional dances have various reflections. Those may become country’s assets that can be used to maintain the nation’s cultures.

By: Farhan Atoillah

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