Philosophy of Dalihan Na Tolu as Social Capital in Creating Dynamic Religious Harmony

Abstract

According to Durkheim, religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relating to sacred things and beliefs and practices that unite into a single moral community. Here we can see that something is called religion, not seen from the substance of the content but from the form, which involves these two characteristics. Furthermore, we will also see later that according to Durkheim religion always has a relationship with society and has a historical nature. Cultural values guide society to act in dealing with various problems in life. So, the end concept of culture is more on a guide for assessing the symptoms that are understood by culture doers. The meaning contains the assessments of actors in that culture. Based on the description above, it is needed to conduct research on Dalihan Na Tolu as social capital in creating dynamic religious harmony from a sociological and anthropological perspective. This is a qualitative research with a survey method, the sample was selected by using a snowball sampling technique. The research findings as follows, first, Dalihan Na Tolu is a life philosophy of Batak people as well as a special bond that makes a human unity into a society is a unique pattern of behavior regarding life factors within the boundaries of that unity which becomes a custom and is continuous, creating strong integrity through social integration by actualizing values that serve as guidelines for living together in a society. Second, Dalihan Na Tolu as social capital from the cultural values of the Batak community becomes the social glue that integrates the Batak community even though there are religious differences. These are referred to (1) Mutual Trust (honesty, egalitarian attitudes, generosity), (2) Social Networks (participation, solidarity, cooperation), and (3) Social Institutions (shared values, rules) that continuously realized in social actions and inherited from generation to generation will ensure the creation of religious harmony.