ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sociol.
Sec. Medical Sociology
Cultural Barriers to Stunting Prevention: A Case Study of the Baduy Indigenous Tribe in Indonesia
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta, Indonesia
- 2Institute of Pharmacognosy, University of Szeged, H-6720 Szeged, Hungary, Szeged, Hungary
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Stunting is widely understood as a chronic manifestation of malnutrition. In Indonesia, the national prevalence of stunting in 2024 stands at 19.8 percent; however, in the Baduy tribe of Banten Province, stunting prevalence have been reported as high as 60 percent. This disparity raises a critical question: what cultural barriers significantly hinder stunting prevention within the Baduy community? To address this question, we conducted the present study that employed a qualitative research design with purposive sampling, drawing on in-depth data from 20 informants representing both Baduy Dalam and Baduy Luar tribes. From this study, we identify three dominant cultural barriers related to stunting: limited nutritional knowledge which resulting from restrictions on formal schooling, strict prohibitions against keeping or slaughtering four-legged animals which limit their nutritional intake, and constraints on the use of modern transportation. This study also demonstrates that processes of embodiment, objectification, and institutionalization in the development of cultural capital are effectively sustained within Baduy society; however, these processes also simultaneously reinforce social separation from the broader population and consolidate a traditional belief system that poses significant challenges to public health interventions. Addressing stunting in this context therefore requires culturally embedded strategies that institutionalize collaboration between traditional leaders (jaro) and health workers (bidan). Such strategies should be framed in modern health practices through locally meaningful symbols, ensuring alignment with Indonesia's legal framework for child protection and stunting reduction, as articulated in Presidential Regulation No. 72 of 2021, Law No. 35 of 2014 on Child Protection, and Law No. 17 of 2023 on Health.
Keywords: Bourdieu framework5, Cultural capita1, Habitus3, Indigenous health4, Symbolic violence2
Received: 14 Oct 2025; Accepted: 02 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Adi, Pujihartati, Humsona and Wirasisya. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yustia Atsanatrilova Adi
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