From cultural difference to social integration: mempolong merenten as a practice-based mechanism of intercultural sensitivity in North Lombok, Indonesia

This study examines mempolong merenten, a Sasak kinship tradition in North Lombok, Indonesia, as a community-based cultural practice through which cultural difference is transformed into social integration. Responding to the limited engagement between dominant intercultural sensitivity models and non-Western, practice-based forms of intercultural competence, this article explores how reciprocal ritual participation, multilingual accommodation, ancestral attachment, and mutual assistance shape everyday intercultural relations. Using an interpretative phenomenological approach, the study draws on in-depth interviews, participant observation, field notes, audiovisual documentation, and cultural documents. The findings show that mempolong merenten operates not only as a cultural value but also as a social mechanism that converts difference into repeated interaction, interaction into empathy and trust, and trust into broader social integration. The study contributes to intercultural communication theory by demonstrating that intercultural sensitivity may emerge from collective practice and moral obligation rather than from individual attitude change alone.