Beschreibung
This study analyzes ritual and domestic water use in a rural
and an urban community in West Java, Indonesia. This is an
area where water quantity and quality is a problem. The
focus is on people who live at the edge of Citarum River,
one of the most polluted rivers in the world. Most people
there are Muslim. What is the relation between people’s
perceptions of pollution (of Upper Citarum River) and
purification (in Islamic teaching) and their practices of
water use. It studies the perceptions of pollution and
purification of Sundanese Muslims in West Java and the
effects of those perceptions on practices of domestic and
ritual water use. Making a discourse analysis of local
narratives the study argues that most people don’t see
pollution as problematic. For them it has become normal.
They make a distinction between clean water (in medical
sense) and pure water (in ritual sense).
