Communal work
Communal work is a gathering for mutually accomplishing a task or for communal fundraising. Communal work provided manual labour to others, especially for major projects such as barn raising, "bees" of various kinds, log rolling, and subbotniks. Different words have been used to describe such gatherings.
They are less common in today's more individualistic cultures, where there is less reliance on others than in preindustrial agricultural and hunter-gatherer societies. Major jobs such as clearing a field of timber or raising a barn needed many workers. It was often both a social and utilitarian event. Jobs like corn husking or sewing could be done as a group to allow socializing during an otherwise tedious chore. Such gatherings often included refreshments and entertainment.
The word bee is also sometimes used for other social gatherings without communal work, for example for competitions such as a spelling bee.
In specific cultures
Africa
East Africa
Harambee is an East African tradition of community self-help events, e.g. fundraising or development activities. Harambee literally means 'all pull together' in Swahili, and is also the official motto of Kenya and appears on its coat of arms.Rwanda
Umuganda is a national day of community service held on the last Saturday of each month in Rwanda. In 2009, umuganda, which means "coming together in common purpose" in Kinyarwanda, was institutionalized in the country. It is translated as 'coming together in common purpose to achieve an outcome'.Ethiopia
A social event is held to build a house or a farm, especially for elderly and widows who do not have the physical strength to do it on their own.Sudan
is an Arabic word used in parts of Sudan to describe particular types of communal work undertakings. Naffīr has been described as including a group recruited through family networks, in-laws and village neighbors for some particular purpose, which then disbands when that purpose is fulfilled. An alternative, more recent, definition describes naffīr as 'to bring someone together from the neighborhood or community to carry out a certain project, such as building a house or providing help during the harvest season'.The word may be related to the standard Arabic word which describes a band, party, group or troop, typically mobilized for war. In standard Arabic, a refers to a general call to arms.
Naffīr has also been used in a military context in Sudan. For example, the term was used to refer to النَّفِّير الشَّعَبِي or "the People's Militias" that operated in the central Nuba Mountains region in the early 1990s.
Liberia
Kuu is a labor-sharing arrangement in Liberia, especially for seasonal work.Asia
Indonesia
Gotong-royong is a conception of sociality ethos familiar to Indonesia. In Indonesian languages especially Javanese, gotong means 'carrying a burden using one's shoulder', while royong means 'together' or 'communally', thus the combined phrase gotong royong can be translated literally as 'joint bearing of burdens'. It translate to working together, helping each other or mutual assistance. The village's public facilities, such as irrigation, streets, and houses of worship are usually constructed through gotong royong, where the funds and materials are collected mutually. Traditional communal events, such as the slametan ceremony, are also usually held in the gotong royong ethos of communal work spirit, which each member of society is expected to contribute to and participate in the endeavour harmoniously.The phrase has been translated into English in many ways, most of which hearken to the conception of reciprocity or mutual aid. For M. Nasroen, gotong royong forms one of the core tenets of Indonesian philosophy. Paul Michael Taylor and Lorraine V. Aragon state that "gotong royong cooperation among many people to attain a shared goal."
Background
In a 1983 essay Clifford Geertz points to the importance of gotong royong in Indonesian life:
An enormous inventory of highly specific and often quite intricate institutions for effecting the cooperation in work, politics, and personal relations alike, vaguely gathered under culturally charged and fairly well indefinable value-images—rukun, gotong royong, tolong-menolong —governs social interaction with a force as sovereign as it is subdued.
Anthropologist Robert A. Hahn writes:
Javanese culture is stratified by social class and by level of adherence to Islam....Traditional Javanese culture does not emphasize material wealth....There is respect for those who contribute to the general village welfare over personal gain. And the spirit of gotong royong, or volunteerism, is promoted as a cultural value.
Gotong - royong has long functioned as the scale of the village, as a moral conception of the political economy. Pottier records the impact of the Green Revolution in Java:
"Before the GR, 'Java' had relatively 'open' markets, in which many local people were rewarded in kind. With the GR, rural labour markets began to foster 'exclusionary practices'... This resulted in a general loss of rights, especially secure harvesting rights within a context of mutual cooperation, known as gotong royong."
Citing Ann Laura Stoler's ethnography from the 1970s, Pottier writes that cash was replacing exchange, that old patron-client ties were breaking, and that social relations were becoming characterized more by employer-employee qualities.
Political appropriation
For Prime Minister Muhammad Natsir, gotong royong was an ethical principle of sociality, in marked contrast to both the "unchecked" feudalism of the West, and the social anomie of capitalism.Ideas of reciprocity, ancient and deeply enmeshed aspects of kampung morality, were seized upon by postcolonial politicians. John Sidel writes: "Ironically, national-level politicians drew on "village conceptions of adat and gotong royong. They drew on notions "of traditional community to justify new forms of authoritarian rule."
During the presidency of Sukarno, the idea of gotong royong was officially elevated to a central tenet of Indonesian life. For Sukarno, the new nation was to be synonymous with gotong royong. He said that the Pancasila could be reduced to the idea of gotong royong. On June 1, 1945, Sukarno said of the Pancasila:
The first two principles, nationalism and internationalism, can be pressed to one, which I used to call 'socionationalism.' Similarly with democracy 'which is not the democracy of the West' together with social justice for all can be pressed down to one, and called socio democracy. Finally belief in God. 'And so what originally was five has become three: socio nationalism, socio democracy, and belief in God.' 'If I press down five to get three, and three to get one, then I have a genuine Indonesian termGOTONG ROYONG . The state of Indonesia which we are to establish should be a state of mutual co-operation. How fine that is ! A Gotong Royong state!
In 1960, Sukarno dissolved the elected parliament and implemented the Gotong Royong Parliament. Governor of Jakarta, Ali Sadikin, spoke of a desire to reinvigorate urban areas with village sociality, with gotong royong. Suharto's New Order was characterized by much discourse about tradition. During the New Order, Siskamling harnessed the idea of gotong royong. By the 1990s, if not sooner, gotong royong had been "fossilized" by New Order sloganeering. During the presidency of Megawati, the Gotong Royong Cabinet was implemented. It lasted from 2001 to 2004.
Philippines
Bayanihan is a Filipino term taken from the word bayan, referring to a nation, country, town or community. The whole term bayanihan refers to a spirit of communal unity or effort to achieve a particular objective. It is focused on doing things as a group as it relates to one's community.Etymology
The term bayanihan originated in the practice of volunteers from a community helping a family move by carrying the house itself, a tradition which remains the classic illustration for the concept as a whole. The feat is accomplished by building a frame from bamboo poles, which individuals stationed at the ends of each pole then use to lift and carry the house. The family traditionally shows their gratitude for the assistance by hosting a small fiesta.Usage
In society, bayanihan has been adopted as a term to refer to a local civil effort to resolve national issues. One of the first groups to use the term is the Bayanihan Philippine National Folk Dance Company which travels to countries to perform traditional folk dances of the country with the objective of promoting Philippine culture. The concept is related to damayán.In computing, the term bayanihan has evolved into many meanings and incorporated as codenames to projects that depict the spirit of cooperative effort involving a community of members. An example of these projects is the Bayanihan Linux project which is a Philippines-based desktop-focused Linux distribution.
Filipino author Rhadson Mendoza and communication media law and ethics professor DC Alviar cited a case where bayanihan was brought into disrepute as they reflected on a publicity stunt of takoyaki store Taragis whose owner offered a prize for anybody showing a tattooed logo of the store on their forehead. The store owner would later claim that the prize-winning man needed more money and their April Fool's Day joke led netizens to "join bayanihan" which was wrong on many levels, according to Mendoza and Alviar.
In ethnic newspapers, Bayanihan News is the name of the community newspaper for the Philippine community in Australia. It is in English and in Filipino with regular news and articles on Philippine current events and history. It was established in October 1998 in Sydney, Australia.