EKSPLORASI ETNOMATEMATIKA PADA KESENIAN RAMPAK KENDANG DI CIREBON: STUDI ETNOGRAFI DI SANGGAR GRIYA SUPER

Abstract

This study explores mathematical practices in Rampak Kendang at Sanggar Griya Super, Gegesik Kulon, Cirebon, by viewing culture as a knowledge system with its own logic. A qualitative ethnographic approach was employed through observation, semi-structured interviews, visual documentation, and field notes. The main participants were trainers and studio members purposively selected based on their involvement, experience, and knowledge of Rampak Kendang. The analysis used Bishop’s six mathematical activities as sensitizing concepts while distinguishing practitioners’ emic meanings from the researcher’s etic representations. The findings show that mathematics is integrated into tepak structures, eight-beat periodicity, spatial reasoning in formation changes, body- and movement-space-based measurement, and proportional reasoning in technical performance needs. Counting, locating, measuring, designing, playing, and explaining form an embodied and collective network of temporal-spatial actions. The findings affirm that Rampak Kendang is a cultural practice in which mathematical knowledge is enacted. It therefore has potential as a contextual resource for culturally based mathematics learning, linking patterns, periodicity, measurement, proportion, and spatial reasoning with formal mathematical representations without diminishing cultural meaning.