Agrarian Culture in the Northern Coastal Community of Belitung Island

The availability of environmental resources is one of the fundamental considerations in satisfying the needs of human life. This understanding leads to the assumption that inland area provide agricultural resources, while coastal areas provide aquatic resources. In the coastal areas of the Belitung Regency, this general understanding does not hold true. Communities in the region tend to use terrestrial resources and practice agriculture as a subsistence system. This paper discussed the selection of environmental resources used by the community of Sungaipadang village in Sijuk district, Belitung regency. The identification of informants was based on their expertise in the social and cultural system of Sungaipadang village in particular and the Malay community of Belitung in general. An inductive paradigm with an emic approach was used for the analysis. The research findings revealed that the Sungaipadang community tends to be driven by the context of the community's cultural history in their decisions to adapt to their environment. The agricultural activities of the Sungaipadang community was a knowledge system that was passed down from generation to generation. It was inferred that the Sungaipadang community's adaptation strategy was to use environmental resources that supported agricultural activities.