Page 344 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

in relation to the transition of the social style and strategy in the society. They keep their
life by basing their perspective of understanding of the future in the context of the changes
that happen very fast. That is why some aspects among local values and traditional
religions have a big influence on all the efforts trying to find the original life from the past.
To PNG people, local values and spirituality are two fundamental things in the society;
both of them are one entity that connects to one another. Local values have a holistic
characteristic, meaning the information, skills, and values that are rooted to a particular
environment are so important that is impossible to omit from the daily life. Everything
connects to the society, history, experience, and any traditional heritage. This knowledge
is dynamic and gives strength to people who live in society (Nongkas and Tivinarlik, 2004).
In general, spirituality is not only an experience of spiritual life but also the pattern of
life discipline that is influenced by belief, intellectual position, and moral choices. Besides
exclusively being a spiritual issue, spirituality is also a way for people to put their life in
order. Basically, spirituality is not a means to get something, but the fact of human’s life,
which sees spirituality as a ‘life process’ and not just a series of good deeds (Nongkas and
Tivinarlik, 2004, Schulte-Nordholt, 1971).
What our ancestors experienced was passed on orally from generation to generation,
spiritually or religiously. The life of the PNG people shows the relationship between
pure knowledge and spirituality. The one that is very obvious now is that life is always
connected to the spiritual world. The Melanesian characteristic is very strong in people’s
life as it connects to the present and future times, which are impossible to divorce from
the spiritual world and everything that has something to do with God. Most traditional
Melanesian people try to retain the harmony in the cosmic relationship between the
worlds of the spirits and humans (Nongkas and Tivinarlik, 2004, Schulte-Nordholt, 1971).
In that level, a ritual is seen as human’s reflexive strategy on how important are the
real world, the present life, and the spiritual world, where the ancestors, as the ones
who control lives, always help people. Until now, many members of society always join
the rituals, but most of them do not know why they do it. The core of spirituality lies in
the traditional culture. Spiritual belief is closely related to all aspects of life in particular
contexts. So, Melanesians’ spiritual awareness is an important part in understanding the
social and cultural lives of the Melanesians. This can be compared to Zocca and De Groot
(1997) who emphasized that there was no separation between the empirical and non-
empirical, the nature, and the supernatural in the cosmos. The inter-connection between
nature and the supernatural is a different concept in Melanesia and in the western world.

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