Metaphor Construction in Caci Performance of Manggarai Speech Community

The construction of metaphoric expressions has awesome power in organising flexible performance aesthetics. It provides new angles on values of cultural rituals, encourages interlocutors’ psychological functions in producing appropriate figurative languages, utilises awareness of all forms of linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge, and increases the awareness of a community’s values, belief systems, ideologies, and culture intertwined in speakers’ minds. The aims of this study were to analyse and disclose the metaphor constructions in caci performance. The study was conducted between February and October 2018 and involved 24 caci actors from six villages in the Manggarai region, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia. Interviews, a set of stationery, field notes, and audio-visual recordings were used to collect data. These data were then analysed qualitatively through the phenomenological method. The findings revealed that caci performance is thick with metaphor usage, such as animal, plant, physical, and water metaphors, and these were used in three stages of caci performance. Two ideologies underline caci performance, namely pragmatism and indoctrism. Caci actors are advised to employ metaphoric expressions to help them think and act, to reflect on living in harmony, and to deliver cultural values to the younger generation appropriately.