Universitas Indonesia Conferences, The 8th International Symposium of Journal Antropologi Indonesia

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Facing Pandemic Crisis: Local Alcohol and its Usefulness During Covid-19 in North Sulawesi and Gorontalo (Local Perspectives and Mass Media Reports)
Nono S. A. Sumampouw

Last modified: 2022-06-05

Abstract


March 2020 until the end of the year was the earliest attack of panic period to Indonesian in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. Almost all basic needs in preventing virus purposes were overpriced and scarce to find publicly, especially masks and hand-sanitizer. With special attention to local alcohol beverages, several regions used local drinks with relatively high alcohol content as mediums of prevention, either by changing its forms into hand-sanitizer or simply consume it as healthy-drinks that are arguably believed to prevent subjects from virus transmission. A product with the most significant usage to locals adapted to health policy and took media publicity were cap tikus, originally from North Sulawesi and it even practically spreads over administrative region to Gorontalo. As mentioned, in this ‘panic’ period of time, cap tikus were using with two basic models; converts into hand-sanitizer and then locally distributed, or; simply consume as healthy-drink. This article aims to capture and compare applicative models of cap tikus by locals when they were facing early period of Covid-19 pandemic, in short as adaptive-strategy during difficulties and its social-dynamics intertwined in North Sulawesi and Gorontalo. Methodologically; views, values, beliefs and practices of local people in using this product are the basis of description and analysis. On the other hand, additional perspectives from mass media reports are also uses to show how this beverage utilized by two largest ethnic-groups in two different provinces with basically has two religious backgrounds; North Sulawesi with predominantly Christian society with less prohibition of consuming alcohol but in opposite Gorontalo, a predominantly Muslim province with more strict alcohol prohibition, these background leads to generate the utilization and configuration models of cap tikus on these two communities, then also particularly affected to each social units or entities by their own approach in using local alcohol in facing early period of pandemic crisis.


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