ABSTRACT
The expression of prohibition (pamali) is a way of parents in the past advising or forbidding their children from doing something that is considered taboo or dangerous. Each region has expressions of prohibition observable in everyday life as this is a form of oral tradition passed down from generation to generation. Oral tradition always experiences development as a result of the intersection of a tradition with modernisation so that adjustments are necessary for a region to preserve the customs as an ancestral legacy. This study attempts to explore the potential of oral tradition by identifying expressions of prohibition existing in the Tengger community. Implementation of the expressions of prohibition covers the sexes, both male and female, different age groups (elderly, adolescent, children), marital status (unmarried or married), and certain situations that occur in the community. One of the targeted areas of research is the Tengger community located in East Java. The people of Tengger are known to have local wisdoms that are positive, harmonious, adaptive, and religious. The study shows that the process of internalisation and socialisation of cultural values of the community has run very well to maintain the value of tradition as a religious system in the practice of everyday life. The religious system refers not only to the belief in religion but also the belief in the strength of the ancestor’s advice, including expressions of prohibition as both a living memory and a living tradition of its generation. For the people of Tengger, belief in magical and mystical things still exists, while the assumption of expressions of prohibition can be identified given the potential of the oral tradition to be almost neglected and marginalised. There is also an assumption that something derived from orality is only a memory.
