The effect of marriage culture in Batak Toba to the children

ABSTRACT

Marriage is a very sacred thing in human life, therefore everyone strives to carry out the marriage ritual with the hope of securing happiness and producing offspring that would be useful to family, society and the State. This would make them live in harmony with the help of Almighty God. This study is a descriptive normative study whose data was collected by interview method. The study also made use of observation, the data for which were collected from primary and secondary data sources. Purposive sampling was used to select the participants of the study. The results of the study showed that in marriages of the indigenous Batak Toba people, the purpose of marriage is to obtain offspring and obtain happiness by carrying out marriage traditions based on religious and customary procedures. This does not include marriages carried out in the Civil Registry. Children born to the marriage are considered to be legitimate children and get positions as biological children and as heirs, descendants and successors. Although positive legal regulations require registration of the marriage and if there is a policy from the government, Batak Toba indigenous people remain loyal and obedient to fulfill it especially for the future of the child, because anakkoki do hamoraon in au (my child is my wealth).

KEYWORDS:

• Marriage
• culture
• Batak Toba