Politicization of duan lolat culture as an electoral strategy in the 2024 regional elections in Tanimbar Islands Regency, Indonesia

Abstract

This study examines how Duan Lolat culture was politicized as an electoral strategy during the 2024 Regional Head Election in the Tanimbar Islands Regency, Maluku, Indonesia. The research employs a qualitative-interpretive case study approach to understand the transformation of customary kinship relations into instruments of political mobilization within the context of local democracy. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with twelve key informants consisting of political actors, customary leaders, election organizers, and community members, supported by limited participant observation and document analysis. The data were analyzed using thematic coding techniques and triangulation procedures to ensure credibility and analytical consistency. The findings reveal that Duan Lolat culture has experienced a functional shift from a form of social capital grounded in solidarity and reciprocity into a political instrument for electoral mobilization. The study identifies three principal mechanisms of politicization: structural informality, relational emotionality, and material-symbolic hybridity. Through these mechanisms, customary kinship networks were strategically utilized by political elites to construct symbolic legitimacy, strengthen emotional loyalty, and mobilize electoral support based on kinship obligations rather than programmatic political preferences. The study also identifies a normative gap referred to as kosong, namely a regulatory space between customary law and formal electoral regulations that enables identity-based political mobilization to operate informally beyond institutional oversight. These findings indicate that while local democracy in Tanimbar procedurally functions in a stable manner with relatively high voter participation, substantively it remains vulnerable to identity polarization, patronage politics, and cultural manipulation. This research contributes to the broader literature on identity politics, social capital, and hybrid governance by demonstrating how indigenous cultural systems can be transformed into symbolic and political resources within local electoral contestation in Indonesia.