Power Representation on Sundanese Proverbs

This study examines the representation of power on a number of Sundanese proverbs. The objective is to analyze traditional views on the perceptions of power in Sundanese society and explore the interrelation between language, power and culture. The data for this study were collected from Rosidi (2005, 2010). The results showed that power is represented mostly in neuter and noble contexts. This study concludes that Sundanese proverbs depict that anybody can hold power, regardless their genders, social status and ages, as long as they have the supporting factors, i.e. wealth, nobility and knowledge.


Introduction
Sundanese (Basa Sunda, 'language of Sunda') is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by the Sundanese people. It is the second largest mother tongue of Indonesia, after the Javanese, with at least 42 million native speakers. It is spoken in almost all provinces of West Java and Banten as well as the western region of Central Java, in parts of Jakarta and other migration places of Sundanese in Indonesia and abroad.
Just like any other cultures of the world, Sundanese use their language to preserve and transmit their system of values and nobilities from generation to generation (Haviland, 1999:14), and the branch of language to do this is proverbs or sayings. By this, it is expected that their successors can take them as their grip in life.
Proverbs have been existing since ancient times, as far back as ancient Egypt about 2500 BC, yet their structures and meanings remain the same today. Djajasudarma states that the fixed rules of the structure and meaning of proverbs are intended to preserve the cultural values of the proverbs (Kodariah & Gunardi, 2015: 114). Karagiorgos states that the Greek Philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC) considered proverbs a survival of an older wisdom (Njagi, 2013: 15).
Studies on proverbs in the area of gender and power are abundant. For instance, Rasul (2015:61) examined how power relationships of different genders are determined through linguistic choices in different languages/societies, in this case Urdu and English. He argues that 'Proverbs, as folk wisdom, present the way SHE is expected to be, not the way SHE actually is'. In regard to it, Rasul exemplifies Urdu proverbs bhul gai chwani bhul gai taat, khanay lagi ghiyon ki roti sonay lagi khat and ganji kabutri, mehlon mein dayra which actually means 'death of wife is equated with a small injury that is soon forgotten'. It indicates that the improvement of women in their economic and financial status after marriage is insignificant. Mubarok (2017) also looks at the fraility of women in Sundanese proverbs. He argues that 'Sundanese proverbs tend to present women in particular ways, most of which can be interpreted as derogatory, negative or subservient'. However, this study does not fully support this point.
On the other hand, Njagi (2013) looks at the use of African proverbs, with a focus on Ki-Embu language, to socially construct power relations between genders and between ages. She argues that in Embu cultural set-up wisdom comes from the elders. It is depicted in, for example, Mŭgì nì mŭtare which actually means 'a wise one has been counseled'. The proverb exerts the need for children to heed counsel from their parents and elders. Thus, it can be inferred that knowledge and age hold power-a point that this study supports.
People somehow pay much attention to power and dominance, and the authors personally believe that power is socially constructed and depicted in language. Unlike in African culture, proverbs in Sundanese society does not hold important position. One's position in society does not depend on his ability to use proverbs in his speech or in daily communication. However, through proverbs we can see the representation of power. In language-power relationship, proverbs acquire great significance. Therefore, this study examines the representation of power on a number of Sundanese proverbs. The objective is to analyze traditional views on the perceptions of power in Sundanese society and explore the interrelation between language, power and culture. It is a long-held view that language and culture are intertwined as Rosidi (2005:7) states that since proverbs are the mental and language wealth of a culture, people of the same cultural environment may understand proverbs though the meaning of each constructing lexicon differs from the meaning of the saying.

Critical discourse analysis
Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is considered the best way to analyze social issues, especially ones shown in discourse. CDA emphasize one's capacity to produce and reproduce meaning. One is not considered a neutral subject that can freely interpret discourse according to his wisdom for discourse is closely related to and influenced by the power of social construction.
In CDA, language is considered a representation of certain subjects, themes and strategies. Budiwati (2011) cites six indispensable concepts of CDA.
(a) Action. A speaker or writer does not speak or write to interact with himself, but with others. Discourse is considered a means, for example, to influence, to debate, to persuade, etc. In addition, discourse is expressed in control and conscious.
(b) Context. CDA takes context into account, i.e. the background and other influencing factors. Discourse is influenced by two important contexts: (i) participant, the creator of discourse. Age, gender, education, social class, ethnic, religion, and other relevant contexts may influence the creation of discourse; (ii) social setting is an important context to comprehend a discourse.
(c) History. This is useful to understand why a discourse is created in a certain way, why a certain style is used, and other historical factors.
(d) Power. This is one of key concepts to reveal the relationship between discourse and society. CDA is not only limited to analyze the details of text or the structures of discourse, but also to relate discourse to certain power and condition in certain social, cultural, political, and economic conditions.
(e) Ideology. Text, speech and other forms of discourse represent or apply certain ideology. Classic theory states that ideology was built to reproduce and legitimate the domination of a group. It is implied that inherently the nature of ideology is social. It means that it has to be shared among people. However, it is used only among members of the group.
(f) Representation. This is the production of meaning or concept that we get from codes, such as language and picture. Representation connects the concept to language in order to make us refer to something in the real world.

The data
The discussion in this study is based on a number of selected proverbs that relate to power from written sources. The proverbs were collected from Rosidi (2005) and Rosidi (2010). The context of the proverbs varies, including gender, age, wealth and knowledge.
The authors then put the proverbs into several categories based on their understanding of the proverbs, formed as a result of native speaker competencies and prolonged contact with the language community. The categories are: 1) Neuter, depicting one's power in general; 2) Wealth; 3) Social status; 4) Age; 5) Knowledge; 6) Gender; and 7) Noble. Using critical discourse analysis approach, the authors aim to analyze traditional views on the perceptions of power in Sundanese society and explore the interrelation between language, power and culture.

Findings and discussions
Out of about 1500 proverbs and idioms, the authors found twelve proverbs and idioms depicting those who are powerless, eleven depicting those who are powerful and eleven depicting the powerless versus the powerful, as shown in the following Based on the findings, the authors view that Sundanese tend to portray that generally anybody can be the powerless or the powerful. It is proven from the domination of neuter with eight proverbs. By neuter here the authors mean that there is no specific factor that defines one's powerless/powerful; it does not refer solely to gender, age, wealth, social status or noble, but it may to all of them.
(1) Ambek nyedek tanaga midek anger intensified power off Lit. 'One's anger is rising, but he has no power.' Actual. 'Depicting the state of someone who, though angry and wants to fight, is unable to do anything because the opponent is superior in every way.' (Rosidi, 2005:19) (2) Teu daya teu upaya no power no authority Lit. 'no power, no authority' Actual. 'One who has no power at all' (Rosidi, 2005:60) ( Actual. 'Against people who is far more powerful.' (Rosidi, 2010:75) Here we can see that all the proverbs above do not state the background of the powerless/powerful, either it is women, men, elders, youths, rich men, poor men, nobles or commoners. They only state that a weaker party interacts with a stronger party. For example, if a noble meet a commoner, he may feel superior because he has everything, such as a good house, well-fortune, beautiful wife, nice vehicles. This points the noble is the powerful and the commoner is the powerless, but this condition is reversal as portrayed in the following proverb. Actual. 'The nobles were defeated by the commoners; the natives were defeated by immigrants.' (Rosidi, 2005:87) As far as the authors' concerned, life is like a spinning wheel-sometimes our life is at the top, sometimes at the bottom. So is the life of a noble. He may face his downfall, and turn into a commoner or worse. At this point, he may be inferior to the commoner. Thus, he is the powerless and the commoner is the powerful. Nevertheless, most Sundanese believe that the downfall of a noble would not be as bad as a commoner, as protrayed in the following proverb.
(10) Sakuru-kuruning lembu as thin as possible cow Lit. 'As thin as possible a cow' Actual. 'The downfall of the noble or the rich will not as worse as that of the little people.' (Rosidi, 2005:103) In another case, say when he meets a higher noble, he may experience (1) where he can't do anything when the higher noble does something unpleasant to him because he at this point is inferior.
The proposition above is supported by the gendered proverbs. Though some studies, such as Mubarok (2017) Actual. 'Refers to women in the past time whose fate depends on men who becomes their husbands, who must accept whatever their husbands' desires.' (Rosidi, 2005:64) Here the authors see that (11) and (12) depict the submissiveness of women, but in a positive way. In Sundanese culture, a wife must obey her husband and be with him in any condition, joy and sorrow, for the sake of the well-being of their household, and it doesn't mean that a husband is legitimated to do anything as he wishes to his wife. This is due to most of Sundanese people are Muslim, and they are taught that a husband must treat a wife well. Actual. 'An uneducated servant who is married by his employer.' (Rosidi, 2005:65) (14) Nyalindung ka gelung take shelter to bun

Lit. 'Take shelter under a bun.'
Actual. 'A man who marry a very rich woman, and the necessities of his life are fulfilled by her so that he is afraid of her because he had no authority.' (Rosidi, 2005:143) In (13) and (14), the case is on the contrary. Here a man is portrayed as the powerless when his condition is inferior to a woman in knowledge (13) and wealth (14). He is the one whose needs are fulfilled by his wife. Thus, he has no authority over his household and he ① dika-tengah-keun = put in the middle, imah = house.
has to subject to his wife. At this point, women are the powerful when they have knowledge and wealth. In addition, women are also considered stronger than men when it comes to handling the temptation to disobedience as depicted in the following proverb. Actual. 'Women are stronger than men in facing the temptation to disobedience. (Rosidi, 2005:26) However, the authors still found another proverb that depict the powerless of women.

Lit. 'Being mistresses of a ruler.'
Actual. 'Being a mistress of a ruler.' (Rosidi, 2010:116) Historically, proverb (16) is originated from the Dutch colonialism era in Indonesia. The proverb portrays a condition where some women lived together with some Dutch rulers like husband and wife but not in a marital bond. This is due to that the Dutch rulers came to Indonesia without their wives, so they took local women for the sake of their biological needs. This in turn made the women in powerless side because they couldn't ask for their rights as a spouse since de jure they were not wives.
As stated in the earlier paragraph, knowledge and wealth may be the factors of power. When one owns them, they will be the powerful side. On the contrary, if one is uneducated and poor, they will be the powerless. Actual. 'One who is considered uneducated' (Rosidi, 2005: Actual. 'Depicting someone who is highly knowledgeable or a magic person who is not easily say something because it may come true in real life' (Rosidi, 2005:55) Proverb (17) or (18) is usually used by Sundanese to apologize when they do something wrong as a result of their ignorance as in the following expression: Lit. 'Sorry, but my kid is far from the drum, don't even know the curved alif.' Actual. 'Pardon me, but my child is far from being educated.' Proverb (19) is usually used to show the superiority of one who is expert in some fields. Sundanese usually add ulah 'don't' before the proverb as in the following expression: Lit. "Don't teach duck how to swim." Actual. 'Don't teach your grandmother to suck eggs!' Meanwhile, proverb (20) depicts the superiority of one who has reach full knowledge that he tends to be a magic person because what he says will come true. Actual. 'Someone rich and powerful to count on whenever you face difficulty. (Rosidi, 2010:60) (24) Cécéndét mandé kiara, cileuncang mandé sagara groundcherry imitate filicium, puddle imitate river Lit. 'Groundcherry imitates filicium, puddle imitates river.' Actual. 'The poor who wants to rival the rich or the noble.' (Rosidi, 2005:53) (25) Hunyur mandéan gunung anthill imitate mountain Lit. 'The anthill imitates the mountain.' Actual. 'The small against the great, the poor against the rich, the weak against the strong.' (Rosidi, 2005:81) (26) Luhur kuta gedé dunya high wall big world

Lit. 'High wall big world'
Actual. 'Rich and very influential' (Rosidi, 2010:57) Proverb (23) depicts that one who is rich and powerful can be relied on to help you when you face difficulty. Meanwhile proverb (24) and (25) portray poor people who want to rival the rich or the noble. Proverb (26) clearly states that becoming a rich man makes one very influential in his society. Thus, it can be inferred that those who has knowledge and wealth hold power. Social status also determines power. But it is usually still related to wealth and nobility as shown in the following proverbs. Actual. 'The little people who are never taken into account; a member of an organization who is considered unimportant.' (Rosidi, 2005:49) (28) Cacah kuricakan people small

Lit. 'Small people.'
Actual. 'The poor; the little people who are never taken into account' (Rosidi, 2010:38) (29) Sireum gé ditincak-tincak teuing mah ngégél ant even trampled on often Int. bite Lit. 'Even ants, when they're often trampled on, will bite.' Actual. 'Even the little people will fight if they are insulted repeatedly. (Rosidi, 2010:150) Surprisingly, considering the cultural life of Sundanese where youth must put their respect and obedience to those who is older than them, age becomes the least depicted factor of power in Sundanese proverbs. This may be due to that this study took data from books that acquired proverbs from written sources, in this case modern literature works, whereas the origin of proverbs is oral traditional. The authors only found the following proverb.
(30) Budak bau jaringao child smell sweet flag Lit. 'A child whose smell like a sweet flag.' Actual. 'One who has not been taken into account or is considered immature or underdog.' (Rosidi, 2005:87) Proverb (30) clearly portrays that one who is immature, usually from children to teenagers to young adults, is not taken into account when, for example, deciding something important for the family or society. However, sometimes a young man is not considered budak bau jaringao if the elders see him have enough wisdom. This proverb is also used to insult an opponent if he is viewed as an underdog as in the following expression: The other significant factor of power in Sundanese culture is nobility. This is proven with the domination of noble with eight proverbs, including proverbs (9) and (24) Actual. 'Against powerful people with higher dignity' (Rosidi, 2010:107) The occurrence of noble proverbs like above has a historical background. Long time ago Sundanese Land (Tatar Sunda) was ruled by the nobles because the form of their government was kingdom. The prominent Sundanese kingdom is Padjadjaran with Prabu Siliwangi as the most popular king. Even modern Sundanese still admire the greatness of the king and the kingdom. This may be the reason why Sundanese commoners in the past time made up proverb (32) that clearly portrays that if you're not a noble, please don't bother the nobles because they can do harm to you. In addition, most Sundanese still view that a commoner is not a match for a noble in many aspects, as depicted in proverbs (35) and (36).
Kaum ménak 'the nobles' in the past time called themselves gusti 'king', while those who serve them, including their people, were called abdi 'servant.' Proverb (33) depicts that the prosperity of the nobles determines that of people. If the well-being of the nobles is good, so is of the people. Besides gusti, the nobles are also called purba and wisesa. As a result, when one is under the control of a powerful party, most Sundanese depict his/her condition as proverb (34) which literary means 'under the control of the nobles (past rulers).' Though today Sunda Land, in this case West Java and Banten, is not a kingdom anymore, but a part of Indonesia, and the nobles no longer exist, it doesn't mean that the noble proverbs are not relevant anymore. This is due to the fact modern Sundanese still see those who holds important positions in the government as the nobles, as depicted in the following proverb. Actual. 'Wanting to seize higher office or position' (Rosidi, 2010:126)

Conclusion
Considering the findings and discussions, the authors conclude that Sundanese proverbs depict that anybody can hold power, regardless their gender, social status and age. However, the uneducated ones are never considered to be powerful. The supporting factors of power are nobility, wealth and knowledge. Nobility has a long, strong historical background because Sunda Land was a kingdom. In gender context, though many studies show that women are powerless, especially in marital life, this study shows that women may have a powerful position in marriage as long as they have wealth and knowledge.
actual meaning Art. article CDA critical discourse analysis Int.
literal meaning PA partical asserting