ABSTRACT
Posuo is a specific ritual intended for Butonese women, spanning from the menstrual period to the pre-wedding period. The purpose is to mark a woman’s maturity as a sign that she is ready to enter a new phase of life in marriage. The advent of modernity and globalisation has brought about a change in posuo. Originally, it signified the transition of women’s status from adolescence to maturity, but nowadays it has drifted away from adat (customs). In this study, we analyse the impact of such a change by first describing the structure of posuo and then looking at how today’s community in Buton respond to it. Ethnographic approach is used to obtain as much data as possible from various resources. The next step is to answer how posuo survives despite the change, causing the change and the ways in which the Butonese community give meaning to such a change. There are three reasons for the existence of posuo until today: (1) as part of the local traditional customs, it is not considered to be against Islamic teachings, (2) it serves as one of the requirements for women who are about to enter marriage life and (3) and it has become an inseparable element of cultural identity.
