Komunitas 7 (2) (2015): 283-296. DOI:10.15294/komunitas.v7i2.4837 KOMUNITAS International Journal of Indonesian Society And Culture http://journal.unnes.ac.id/nju/index.php/komunitas The Ethnography of Kerinci Asvic Helida 1 , Zuhud EAM 2 , Hardjanto 3 , Y. Purwanto 4 and Agus Hikmat 5 1 Program Studi Konservasi Biodiversitas Tropika, Institut Pertanian Bogor, Bogor, Indonesia 1 Universitas Muhammadiyah Palembang, Indonesia 2 Tropical Biodiversity Conservation, Institut Pertanian Bogor, Indonesia 3 Forest Management, Institut Pertanian Bogor, Indonesia 4 Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI), Indonesia 5 Tropical Biodiversity Conservation, Indonesia Permalink/DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15294/komunitas.v7i2.4837 Received : August 2015; Accepted: September 2015; Published: September 2015 Abstract Ethnography is an activity to describe and explain the culture of a society either in the past or the present which is presented in the form of descriptive narrative, covering the history of the origins, general state of location, location of the village and settlement patterns, language, family structure and composition of population, technological systems and equipment, knowledge systems, livelihood systems, religion/belief as well as art and traditional ceremonies. This study aims to describe ethnographic society in Kerinci which is one of the indigenous people in Indonesia who live in Kerinci Regency Jambi Province. People of Kerinci have a unique characteristic in culture both in terms of language, livelihood systems, knowledge systems, religions or beliefs system and art and traditional ceremonies. The data was collected through observation and participatory documentation study through interviews with the people based on everyday life of Kerinci community for 8 months from October 2013 to May 2014. The study sites were Baru Lempur Hamlet Gunung Raya District, Lama Tamiai Hamlet, Batang Merangin District and Ulu Jernih Hamlet Gunung Tujuh District. The data was analyzed qualitatively through the stages of data collection, transcription of data, categorization of data, temporary inference, triangulation and the final conclusion which was then presented in the form of a descriptive narrative. Data analysis was carried out in the field according to the context or situation that occurred when data was collected. The study results show that Kerinci community has unique and distinct characteristics, considering their elements of ethnography. In the case of language, they have their own script called ‘incung’, have a system of socio- cultural values which are typical, have art and traditional ceremony called ‘Kenduri Sko’ as well as the system of knowledge on natural resources and biodiversity especially the plants. Keywords: ethnography; kerinci community; baru lempur hamlet; lama tamiai hamlet; ulu jenrih hamlet;incung script; sko ceremony  Corresponding author : Address: Jl. Jend. A.Yani No.13 Palembang Email : saktiintan@yahoo.co.id INTRODUCTION By defnition, ethnography means writings or reports of a tribe that is written by an anthropologist based on the results of feld- work for a period of months or years. Me- anwhile, according to the terminology of language, ethnography is derived from the word ethnos, which means the nation and graphi which means writing. Therefore, eth- nography means writing about the nations. And defnitively, some experts provide limi- tations on ethnography as an activity which describes and explains a cultural communi- ty either in the past or present time (Sprad- ley 1997). Some other opinions express eth- nography as a description of the culture of a nation that includes language, technolo- gy system, economics, social organization, knowledge systems, art and religious system (Koentjaraningrat 2009). Another perspective states that ethno- graphy is basically research activities to un- derstand the way people interact and work together through the phenomenon which is observed on a daily basis (Genzuk 2003). Hence, ethnography aims to describe a cul- ture as a whole, i.e. all aspects of the culture including material culture such as artifacts, © 2015 Semarang State University. All rights reserved p-ISSN 2086 - 5465 | e-ISSN 2460-7320 UNNES JOURNALS