Page 704 - Proceedings Collega2023

THE DYNAMICS OF COMMUNICATION IN THE COMMUNITY: SUSTAINING REWANG PRACTICES IN
URBAN MALAYS WEDDING

Norhayati Baba
Mohd Nazri Ibrahim
Norhayati Ramlee
UiTM, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
norhayati9382@uitm.edu.my
nazri3498@uitm.edu.my
hayati165@uitm.edu.my

ABSTRACT

The wedding ceremony in the Malays community is generally the most important ritual whereby
its knowhows have been passed down from one generation to another. The practice of ‘rewang’ or ‘gotong
royong’ during the wedding feast or ‘kenduri’ is one of the social events that gather all family members,
relatives, and neighbours. ‘Rewang’ creates work structure, charted work flows, and mapping the
communication flows during the tedious preparation of the ‘kenduri.’ At the same time, ‘rewang’ instils a
community value among group members. Interestingly, the practice of ‘rewang’ illustrates the communal
dynamic communication flows such as downward, vertical, and horizontal altogether. ‘Rewang’ for Malays
wedding feasts is not entirely on the scrumptious food preparation part but it covers various aspects of
the ceremony such as inviting guests, preparing the dais, decorating the bridal room, doing the delivery,
arranging eggs and ‘manggar’ flowers, preparing the bride and groom’s family dining, taking care of
souvenirs guests, and cleaning the house and lawn areas. This pilot study employed the participatory
observation method and face-to-face in-depth interview with key informant that aims to identify the
practices of the ‘rewang’ in urban Malays community wedding; to identify the economic and socio-cultural
changes towards cohesiveness in the community, hence to understand its effects on group communication
and unity; and finally the study aims to show the dynamics of communication processes in the context of
the ‘rewang’ among the urban Malays in managing the wedding ceremony. The findings indicate
adaptation of ‘rewang’ practices due to socio-economic changes in the urban Malays community. Core
practices that usually time consuming have been adapted to be more practical and compact in line with
the refined concept of Malays weddings in the modern environment. In the modification of ‘rewang’
practice, the flow of communication also occurs in three directions which makes it a meaningful social
process. Thus, this paper includes the occurrence of sharing the meaning of communication in the
management of ‘rewang’ wedding feasts of the urban Malays community. The group communication
dynamic occurred through social interaction and symbolic communication during face-to-face encounters
and mediated by the digital media platform too.

Keywords: Communication dynamics; Rewang; Wedding; Urban Malay Community

Pengenalan
Majlis perkahwinan adalah perkara asas yang melengkapi kehidupan setiap bangsa dan sarat
dengan unsur-unsur agama dan budaya. Majlis perkahwinan adalah upacara yang mengesahkan status
perhubungan antara seorang lelaki dan wanita secara perundangan atau keagamaan. Setiap bangsa
mempunyai tatacara pengendalian majlis yang diwarisi dari nenek moyang sejak zaman-berzaman. Acara
ini ditekuni dan diperhatikan untuk diamalkan sehingga ianya menjadi pengetahuan yang diwarisi sama
ada secara lisan atau bertulis.

International Conference on Local Wisdom of the Malay Archipelago (COLLEGA 2023) Page - 691 -