During 2014-2015,
Indonesia experienced the fever of arkenstone. This emerging fondness of arkenstone,
or agate, (“batuk akik” in Indonesian) among people is indicated by a growing
population of stone hunters, stone smiths and mostly, people who accessorize
their fingers with colorful arkenstone on rings. This trend hits Indonesian
like a tidal wave, as it affects not only ordinary citizens but also government
officials; from Minister of Manpower, Hanif Dhakiri—who collects arkenstones
and view them as part of national culture to Minister of Social Affairs, Khofifah IndarParawansa who stated arkenstone craftsmen/stone smiths as one of the new
occupation in East Java and considered it to be effective in reducing the number
of divorce in the area. The arkenstone itself, known as ‘agate’ in geological
terms, is a mineral structure consisting of various components of hard and
colorful silicon layers. As the popularity of the mineral among people raised
so is the price. Depending on various aspects such as size, pattern, color,
texture and origins, the price may vary from a few hundred thousand to millions
of rupiah.
However, there
are yet any studies conducted to investigate the cause of this ‘fever’. All we
know from the news, articles and the increasing number of arkenstone trader is
that people buy, collect and admire them for many purposes. This sudden trend
has also left us puzzled, as this is similar to the flowerhorn fish trend back
in the early 2000s where many people started to breed them for good luck and
prosperity. This is the first article, to our knowledge, to ever investigate
the psychosocial aspects underlying the arkenstone trends among Indonesian by
outlining a few possible social-psychological factors that might have caused
the trend. We propose that individual’s Aesthetic Style, Health Beliefs,
Illusory Belief, and Connectedness to Nature play roles in determining the
favoring of arkenstone.
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