Beyond state intervention: how hambor sustains Peace in Manggarai society, Indonesia

This study explores hambor, a tradition that functions to preserve peace in Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara – an Indonesian region with a high potential for violence. Other regions across Indonesia have experienced conflict necessitating state intervention in various forms to resolve such conflicts. Manggarai has succeeded in maintaining peace despite facing conditions of a similar nature. Understanding the hambor mechanism is particularly important given that conflict resolution in many cases calls for locally grounded approaches rather than political or governmental ones. This study employs Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of habitus as its analytical lens. Habitus is used here to account for hambor as a practice stabilised within Manggarai society through various forms of social engagement, even as contestations within the arena of social struggle continue to evolve. The study adopts vignette analysis as its method for elucidating grassroots perspectives on how community members understand and enact hambor as a tradition of peace.