SONG AND PARTICIPATION IN SUNDANESE AND MALAY CHILDREN’S PLAY

Abstract

Cingciripit in Sundanese play and Tepuk Amai-Amai in Malay children’s culture both place sung or rhythmic language inside children’s activity, but they do not organise participation in the same way. This article examines the two practices as a focused comparison within a broader qualitative comparative study with an ethnographic orientation. The study used in-depth semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and documentary material in Sundanese and Malay communities. Participants were recruited purposively from tradition bearers, players, and community or cultural figures, with snowball sampling used to extend recruitment. Interview, observation, and documentary material were analysed thematically through familiarisation, inductive coding, theme development, review, and cross-case comparison. Three patterns are relevant to the present article. Cingciripit uses the end of a song as a timed cue for withdrawal and role assignment, whereas Tepuk Amai-Amai is more often situated in rhythmic clapping, family interaction, and early childhood teaching. Adults and researchers attach cultural and educational meanings to both practices, but those interpretations are not equivalent to evidence of what children learn from participation. Transmission also depends on setting and on the people who introduce, demonstrate, or explain the practices. The comparison therefore separates four kinds of evidence that are often merged in accounts of oral play: verbal form, action, attributed meaning, and learning. The study supports a functional comparison between the two practices, but it does not establish a shared historical origin. The comparison shows where the record on each practice is detailed and where it is thin; it does not show whether children internalise the values adults attribute to the games.