Practice of space sharing in high-density Kampung Cikini

Practice of space sharing in high-density Kampung Cikini 2/5
Evawani Ellisa (Universitas Indonesia)

So, it is a traditional form of sharing that becomes characteristic of the rice cultivation culture area.
Perhaps, they have never been considered that it is a form of sharing. Sharing food in this way is a part of life itself and a belief system. Even they have to always (symbolically) share everything with the ancestors. Whether it has the same meaning as "sharing" (in term of modern etymology) is still a question.

Are the sharing activities seen in the kampung community in the city also have their traditional life as the cultural background?
When it comes to the life at urban kampung, men usually work outside and go back home to sleep, while women spend time mostly at home. But most women have to support their husbands to generate income by doing small business. In high-density Kampung, such as Kampung Cikini, the women have certain strategies to cope with the scarcity of living space. They apply various ways to use available space for multiple purposes. They skillfully divide the limited available space based on the time zone. For example, in a house with a narrow frontage but elongated space, during the daytime, the area in the home adjacent to the street becomes a place for women to do small business［8］(Mizanni and Ellisa, 2019). The homeowner sells sweets and snacks and shares half of the house to the customers, who interfere inside the house to choose and to buy the commodities. When it comes to the night, the business space is transformed into something like a living room. Now the whole house becomes a space for private life. Is it a form of space sharing?
On the other hand, it is common for streets, alleys, and small open space outside the house to be temporarily occupied by specific groups or individuals. For example, by covering the street with a canopy, the community will temporarily occupy the space [9] and holding a meeting, or by laying a rug on the road surface and sitting on it [10] to do something. A narrow, arcade-like market alley runs through Kampung Cikini, right in the middle, and it is filled with the usual overflowed customers and crowds. But when it comes to the time for Islam Friday praying, everything will be tidied up. Men with plastic vinyl carpets go and spread them on the alley, and suddenly the mats are lined up in rows of men practice Friday praying. Market alley will temporarily become a place of worship [11], but it will return to the market again when it is over.

Everyone is tolerant of using public space as an extension of private space.
Similarly, they are generally cooperative in providing temporary private space in the house. The ultimate example of this can be seen in the Islamic funeral [12]. The process starts from transporting the bodies from their homes to the riverside and then cleaned the body in a spot by the river. However, it is often very difficult for people to transport the body back to their homes. It is usual for practical and convenient reasons to use other people's houses near the river to wrap the body after cleansing. There is no complaint nor objection when somebody's house should become the place for temporary final rest of his/her neighbor's corpse. After a while, the community will carry the corpse to the mosque to be prayed before transport by ambulance to the burial ground.