Research on Humanities and Social Sciences www.iiste.org ISSN (Paper)2224-5766 ISSN (Online)2225-0484 (Online) Vol.4, No.17, 2014 112 Transformation of Values of Makassarese Local Culture Based Character Building : From Symbolization to Philosophy Ery Iswary, Ph.D, M.Hum Department of Buginese-Makassarese Faculty of Letters, Hasanuddin University, Indonesia Email : eiswary@yahoo.com/ ery.iswari@gmail.com Abstract This paper describes Buginese-Makassarese cultures based the educational values found in several Makassarese manuscripts in the forms of messages, songs (a kind of traditional poetry), and folklores. The problem statements of the working paper are: what is the concept form of the local culture based the character building found in Makassar manuscripts, what is the model of the transformation of values of the character building in order that it is appropriate with the era development at the moment. Data of the research were a number of Makassarese manuscripts. The research used the qualitative descriptive method by using a number of data collection techniques namely scrutinizing the manuscripts/observing, and interviewing to find out the philosophical symbols of the character building values. The data analysis result indicates that a number of the character building values is generally disclosed by the symbolization having the philosophical meanings. The character building to intertwine the social relationship in the community teacher to become the useful people the value concept of “tau” meaning “human being” with the derived words sipakatau ‘to humanize/to respect one another’, pattau ‘greeting other people’, katauang ‘genitals (of male and female)’. The character building values concerning honesty, cooperation, and motivation to progress are mostly found with the various symbolic manifestations because the character is regarded that it is very important to develop and lead a nation. The character indicator development refers to the philosophy of a number of the objects which is familiar with the socio-cultural life of Buginese-Makassarese community such as a cock (the characters of being tough, time aware, responsible), deer (the characters of being capable and smart), pigeon (the character of loyalty), betel (the character of high motivation like its creeping nature), areca nut (the characters of high ideals and honesty because of its straight stem nature). The transformation model of the character building can be applied by the reconstruction model (development of printed teaching material/multimedia), integration (in the curriculum of learning with various character substance types). The transformation of the local culture based the socio-cultural values is very important to be carried out as one of the solutions of the modernization and globalization consequences, and a social shift in the 21 st century, so that it is still relevant with the era development. Keywords: Transformation, character, culture, symbolization, philosophy. 1.Introduction “We can lose a leader and loose of economy, which means that we only lose somebody and something. However, the loss of nation character means the loss of everything as a nation” (Yudi Latief). Human beings in interacting with other people in various aspects of life undergo the dynamics with various implementations. The life dynamics triggers the emergence of various social transformations of social change, either the change in interaction itself in various forms or the change in the behaviour pattern. The behaviour pattern in interacting in the family and social domain particularly among the young generation in this era brings about the very significant anxiety. They do not esteem the cultural values and norms happening in accordance with the custom in the community; the behaviour pattern change is indicated in various setting records and events in carrying out their daily routine. The behaviour pattern change seems to be wilder and more uncontrollable, so that it neglects the humanity values among themselves as the human beings. The conflict phenomenon or fight among the school students, which causes the victims among themselves and has improved recently makes all parties apprehensive. The thing which makes us concern is because the doers and victims of the fight are the school students themselves who mainly are among the educated personnel and the persons intelligent candidates who should use the brain more to act and behave, not the violence (muscles) to attack one another. The ignorance phenomenon of the positive character values is more conspicuous among the school students, generally in Indonesia, and particularly in Makassar. As the result, all parents and educators are more anxious of the moral decadence experienced by the school students. The working paper tries to look closely at the manuscripts which contain the concept of Makassarese local culture based the character building which become the reference of the behaviour pattern and moral values professed by the community for a long time. Is the character building concept still relevant to be applied?, and what is the transformation model in order to be able to be adopted in the globalization era? Since a long time ago Buginese-Makassarese community had the socio cultural values held firmly and practiced in carrying out their life, either in the community itself or their adventure, so that they could be the successful people and could be accepted by all