Motif Kecerdikan dalam Sastera Lisan di Indonesia: Suatu Pemahaman Budaya dalam Upaya Harmonisasi Antara Etnik

Indonesia is well known as a country that is rich in culture. The richness is marked by numerous ethnic and language diversity. Out of approximately 500 ethnic groups, there are 746 languages being used as a means of expression to convey thoughts and ideals in the form of literature, especially oral literature. This literature can be used for understanding the thinking and culture of Indonesian. One of the oral literatures with variety that can be studied is a cleverness motifs. Among Indonesian, cleverness story is well known in many areas and the most popular story in this motif is “Pak Belalang”. In Javanese, Madura, the story is “Modin Karok” and “Pak Banjir” of Central Java. These stories are also shared by people of Bangka, Batak, and Minangkabau. This article studies the unity and diversity of five stories. There are eight similar motifs in the stories: for example cleverness, clever person, sham strologer, sham of prowess, test of resourcefulness, and lucky accident.