STRENGTHENING STUDENT CHARACTER WITH LOCAL CULTURAL METAPHORS: MESSAGES EXPLORATION FROM THE TIBA MEKA DANCE

The research aimed to analyze the metaphor constructions and pedagogic values in the tiba meka dance. Students’ character building through metaphor construction in traditional dance had not been widely investigated; meanwhile, the metaphors used in this dance contain great values for encouraging students’ positive attitudes. Metaphor construction had a fundamental role for the students to have creative thought and deepen their understanding of its nature and role as a real communication language. The proper metaphor’s construction encouraged a student to be a catalyst in cross-cultural communication and appreciated the values contained in the metaphor delivered. The research was carried out between February and December 2019 and involved 30 respondents. The instruments used in collecting data were a set of stationery, questionnaire, interview, documentation, field notes, and recordings. These data were analyzed qualitatively through the phenomenological method. The findings show that the tiba meka dance is inseparable from the use of metaphors, namely bird, vegetation, body, sun, and water metaphors that have great pedagogic values, such as honesty, responsibility, and disciplin that contribute to the character building for students. The ideologies that underline tiba meka dance are morals, identity, and economy.


INTRODUCTION
In everyday life, people do not only express their common sense literally but also by using metaphors. Metaphor is an alternative way of articulating insights in achieving a new sense, including tiba meka dance in the culture of the Manggarai ethnic in eastern Indonesia. Manggarai speech community has various traditional dances that offer fundamental cultural and philosophic values (Jama et al., 2020). Figurative expressions are encountered for several types of traditional dance in this region, namely tiba meka dance, roko molas poco, naka meka, sanda dance, gerep ruha ritual, the ritual of a newborn's naming child, and many more dances. Metaphor construction from a tiba meka dance viewpoint strongly indicates the philosophical value that flows from the daily life of the Manggarai people. These metaphors have adhered to the tiba meka dance of the Manggarai people. The tiba meka dance is preceded by the metaphor constructions uttered by the spokesman at the welcoming stage. The metaphor constructed affects the psychology of dancers and guests. The cultural values are in line with the metaphorical structure expressed and the dancers' movements, costumes, accessories, and other equipment used in the dance (Menggo, 2018;Tay, 2017).
The spoken metaphors play an essential role in conveying insights and values in a particular speech community (Thibodeau, Matlock, & Flusberg, 2019;Tseng, 2017). The metaphors expressed and dance performed can arouse the guests' emotions who come to a village or an institution. Figurative expressions and the art of dance in tiba meka have tremendous power in stimulating guests' psychology to unite with the native villagers or community members of a particular institution. The metaphors uttered uncountable display values, such as honesty, discipline, self-confidence, politeness, art, bravery, togetherness, religion, and familiarity. All these values ensure students have a strong personality, competent intercultural speakers, which can adapt quickly to society. The family, the traditional dance community, and the school have a vital role in encouraging students' metaphor competence and positive attitudes in respecting diversity.
The use of metaphor implies the language function in traditional dances. Metaphor speakers are suggested to speak functionally. The forms of lingual units conveyed certainly contain specific purposes and objectives (Menggo, 2017;Pandor, 2018). Functional communication affirms the inter-dependence of language function, traditional dance, and human life. It guides somebody to become a competent speaker (Lee, Choi, & Marqués-Pascual, 2016;Menggo et al., 2019). Therefore, the speakers are encouraged to perform their functional communication understanding so that they are able to adapt to the real interaction context. This idea strengthens the role of metaphor construction in tiba meka dance. The metaphors constructed in this dance give a sense of security, language function, comfort, and full of intimacy with the guests who come to a village or an institution.
Metaphor construction is an aesthetic manifestation in customary communication and a strategy to provide a sense of security and comfort (Alhusban & Alkhawaldah, 2018;Hani'ah et al., 2019). They have claimed that metaphor construction is a suitable medium of cultural communication. It contains noble values, offers sound advice on good practice and potential pitfalls guidance, which can be used in cultural rituals and dances. The substance of metaphor construction is also a problem of ideology understanding (Díaz-Peralta, 2018). Ideology is understood as a foundation in constructing metaphors in various traditional dances. The metaphors delivered in the tiba meka dance are based on local cultural values that have many meanings in everyday life.
Several studies confirm the construction of metaphors as a medium to speakers in delivering the cultural values knowledge and transferring humanistic values in a certain kind of speech community. It can also generate a new understanding for new meaning in human interaction (Padillah, Firmawan, & Purwaningsih, 2016;Surip & Mulyadi, 2019;Susamto, 2018). However, students' character building through metaphor construction in a traditional dance has not been widely investigated. This void can be revealed in this analysis.
A figurative expression is seen as an alternative way to transfer humanistic values and understand all intentions and ambiguous situations in traditional dance. It functions to encourage the speaker's language intelligence to deliver great insights of cultural values toward interlocutors, a basis to stimulate the thoughts, feelings, personality traits, and recognize cultural knowledge. It is a bridge to unite and establish human brotherhood (Brugman, Burgers, & Vis, 2019;Ivanovic, 2017). The research is focused on metaphor construction in a traditional dance, cultural values that support inter-cultural communications, and its impact on students' character building.
Some studies have shown that the construction of metaphors is a medium capable of providing three educational domains, namely cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. These three domains are inseparable aspects for assessing the quality of student achievement. Metaphor construction plays a vital role in helping students to articulate excellent insights into humanity's life (Creed & McIlveen, 2018). Students not only construct metaphors, but they also analyze, evaluate, and then produce appropriate metaphorical expressions.
Metaphor construction is also part of human belief. It is viewed as the basis for students to have new knowledge and generate a new understanding of particular cultures (Negro, Šorm, & Steen, 2018). Metaphor construction shapes people's perceptions, assumptions, expectations, and actions. Besides, metaphor construction provides an excellent linguistic framing, influences students' thoughts, perceptions, advances students' understanding of language knowledge, and generates mental images as visual associations on language and discourse (Müller, 2018). Furthermore, metaphor construction has a functionally complex role, such as cognitive linguistics, role, affective, and pragmatic role (Ponterotto, 2007). Ponterotto (2007) has further claimed that metaphor construction facilitates the relationship between universal human conceptualization, social experience, and discourse structure.
Ethnicity is a person's personality entity, and every ethnicity has rites that have valuable values. It can create and re-create innumerable moral values and beliefs of a particular ethnic group (Shuangyun & Hongxia, 2020;Swami, 2020). The Manggarai ethnic group in eastern Indonesia has a unique traditional dance, namely tiba meka. The word tiba meka comes from the term tiba, meaning 'accept' and meka meaning 'receive' or 'welcome guest'. A newborn child is called meka weru, meaning newly born guests (Ndiung & Bayu, 2019).
In the daily life of the Manggarai people, there are several purposes for the arrival of guests in a village or an institution. First is meka lako léjong, meka lako liba (guest(s) who accidentally stopped at a village), such as meka pika barang (those who traversed a village to sell merchandises), meka ata kawé kaba, jarang agu meka masa waé (those who want to find a horse or buffalo, and just drink). Second, meka ata poli rekéd be bolon (the guests who have promised to come to a village). The second type of guest is those who come to a village because of a need, such as a government guest, religious figure, or guest of the Non-Government Organization (NGO). They come because there are matters related to family, village, institution, or society. Third is meka léjong toé reké (guests who come without notice), such as those of adventures or just leisure.
From the three types of guests stated, which are usually welcomed, customary dance is meka ata poli rekéd be bolon (the guests who have promised to come to a village or an institution). The guests included in this category are grouped into several types. First is meka ata undang lité (guests) in traditional ceremonies, such as meka penti (guest of thanksgiving for the harvest), meka randang tana (guest of opening new land), meka caci wagal (guest of thanksgiving for the marriage celebration), meka céar cumpé (guest of the naming of a newborn child celebration), meka congko lokap (guest of the inauguration of a traditional house), and many more. Second is meka ata manga perlud agu ité (guests who need with of this villagers), for example, meka mai ba reweng porong ngo acara adatd (guests who came to invite the villagers to attend their celebration), anak rona mai sida (the wife's family is asking for prayer and support), anak wina lamar anak dité (the man's family who came to propose to our daughter), and many more. Third is meka pemerinta, toko agama, agu meka toko masyarakat (government guest, religious figure, and public figure). They usually come to support material and spiritual for the advancement of a village or an institution.
The research merely focuses on analyzing metaphors construction in the tiba meka dance of tiba meka ata poli rekéd be bolon (welcoming guests who have promised to come to a village or an institution). Metaphors constructed in this dance provide philosophic values, anthropologic, sociological, psychological, and character values (Ndiung, 2017). Those values are needed to be activated and internalized in supporting students' character and Manggarai people to have a holistic personality.
Metaphor construction has been a matter of finding secondary meaning in daily communication, including intercultural communication. Speakers are encouraged to interpret a meaning that differs from something abstract to concrete, from its primary to direct application (Kendenan, 2017;Lai, Howerton, & Desai, 2019). Therefore, metaphor is viewed as a symbolic speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable (Nurhaida & Marlina, 2017;Venkatesan & Saji, 2020).
Moreover, metaphor is viewed as a space of expressions that analogizes particular objects into real everyday life. It acts as a catalyst for transforming a configuration of abstract structures into a specific version of reality (Kitis & Milapides, 1997;St. Clair, 2004). Metaphor is understood as a figure of speech in traditional linguistics in which people understand abstract target domains in terms of concrete sources (Kelly, 2016). Metaphor expressions are used in daily communication and contribute to all domains of human life, including building students' character and intercultural communications.
Metaphor culture is used as a toolkit that offers much for social work theory building, practicing, and increasing the understanding of complex phenomena that occurred in society (Ahmady et al., 2016;Mason, 2018). They have further claimed that an analysis of cultural metaphors is a bridge to discover hidden cultural values. This notion is in line with Otoo's (2007) concept, who reported that metaphors as culturally loaded expressions whose meaning has to be inferred through reference to cultural knowledge. This idea means that there will be variations in the interpretation of metaphorical expressions in daily communication.
Metaphor use is a part of human life (Tseng, 2017). According to Tseng (2017), metaphor use has been manifested in everyday verbal expressions. Tseng has provided an example of the metaphor 'thought is food' or 'ideas are food'. These metaphors combine insights from cognitive linguistics with an intercultural performative view of food presentation and food metaphors. The metaphor is also a medium for sharing cultural values and beliefs of a particular ethnicity (Lang, 2020;Roselani, 2020). Besides, metaphors could be found in all languages and cultural rituals, and those used refer to the universe (Ivanovic, 2017;Veliz, 2017).
Ideology is understood as a set of ideas through which people fashion themselves and others within specific socio-historical contexts and promote the prosperity of certain groups (Cavalaro, 2001). Ideology transforms the individual into a social being. In this context, ideology is a way of thinking in a particular speech community that leads students to generate a path of understanding cultural values. Ideology is an absolute choice in constructing metaphors and an inextricable and irreducible part of shaping a discourse (Kitis & Milapides, 1997;Sunil & Verma, 2018). This claim is in line with Kelly (2016), who reported that ideology is considered a critical discourse in which people are culturally motivated, reflect the cultural values, beliefs, and behave based on a particular discourse community.
Ideology is viewed as a belief in organizing moral behavior in a particular speech community (Sukri, Duile, & Daud, 2020). They have affirmed that ideology is a great concept that leads someone to behave toward specific goals. Ideology plays an essential role in building students' character by constructing figurative languages in the learning process. It is a basis for students to present a proper attitude and produce metaphorical languages appropriately to achieve meaningful cultural and intercultural communications in their daily lives.
The primary orientation of all educational processes is to guide students with academic excellence, qualified skills, and character and adapt the knowledge they have acquired to the broader community. This idea is aligned with the student evaluation orientation, which would cover three dimensions of the assessment: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor (Hoque, 2016;Sönmez, 2017). Character education is absolutely necessary to address these three domains, especially in strengthening students' affective and psychomotor aspects. It is understood as a conscious effort on interested stakeholders, such as teachers, parents, and community members, to support sensitivity, conscientiousness, and responsibility (Amin, Mansur, & Sulistiono, 2020;Haryanto & Akhirin, 2018;Herman et al., 2020).
Certain cultural rites' performance is interpreted as a space for the transformation of values that can form the personality. Tiba meka dance has a variety of values that can help the building of a student's character, such as bravery, responsibility, discipline, empathy, willingness to work together, independence, tolerance of differences, and consistency in thought. These values strengthen the five core values of studentbuilding character, namely religious, nationalist, autonomous, mutual cooperation, and honesty (Mansur, 2020;Muassomah et al., 2020).
Figurative languages in local culture have functioned as a medium to help in building the students' character. Indeed, parents, cultural figures, and community members have the same responsibility as educators to teach cultural values through metaphorical construction. This process promotes students' attitudes and language use in a particular culture. The more people of a certain ethnicity are involved in teaching the language and cultural values, the higher the attitudes and language use of the generation of that ethnicity (Menggo & Suastra, 2020;Thamrin, 2018).

METHODS
The research applied a qualitative study with a phenomenological method. It was proposed due to determining natural phenomena and involving several methods to analyze them (Bungin, 2005). Besides, a phenomenological method was applied in the research, strictly interpreting individuals' experiences in constructing metaphors and training the traditional dance of tiba meka. The research was done from February to December 2019. It involved 30 respondents who had been teachers that taught local culture subjects in several elementary and junior high schools in the districts of Manggarai, East Manggarai and West Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara Province, eastern Indonesia. The 30 respondents were chosen by using the purposive sampling technique. Then, data were obtained through questionnaires, interviews, observation, documentation, and recordings.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The four results of the research are, first, metaphors used in tiba meka dance are metaphors in welcoming outsiders, government guests, religious leaders, and guests of a community leader. Second, three ideologies are encountered in constructing the metaphors; economy, identity, and moral. Third, tiba meka dance has uncountable pedagogic values in building students' character, such as honesty, responsibility, independence, discipline, politeness, art, bravery, togetherness, religion, and familiarity. Fourth, metaphor types in tiba meka dance are bird, vegetation, body, sun, and water metaphors. These are found in the six stages of welcoming guests of Manggarai people.
The first stage is reis tiba di'a (well welcoming). This part has three stages: opening greeting, core activities (excitement expressions), and closing. Metaphor's type obtained in opening greeting refers to body (physical) metaphors and plant metaphors. The physical metaphors found are, "Yo, ema/ema pastor/ ema pemerinta, bengkes nai dami anak'm dom manga ranga dite. Langkasn dami nawa cai itét ema pastor/ ema pemerinta cé béo dami" (Yes sir, we are pleased about your arrival. Our soul is happy for your coming to our village), "Ema, langkas nawa, mésé békék ita ranga dité" (Sir, we welcome you gracefully, and our hearts are happy). Besides, the plant metaphor encountered is, "kapu lami ité ema ného wua pau, naka lami ité ného wua pandang" (we welcome you joyfully, like mango and pineapple fruits). These metaphors are constructed for government guests, religious leaders, and community leaders. Identity and morals are ideologies are found in this opening greeting stage.
The metaphors type discovered in the core activities (excitement expressions) is the body (physical) and water and sun metaphors. The physical metaphor expressed is, "leles kébé ema, tadang salang landing kudut cumang ami anak'm cé béo dami" (you have crossed long trips, the hill, and the abyss just because you want to meet us in this village). While the water and sun metaphor is, "mori, éma inung waé tebur itét sengaji,one salang. Mori..., neka na'a one nais oné waé's koés laud, oné leso's salé'd sangged situ" (Sir, maybe you drank the turbid water; hopefully, it all faded with running water and sunset). These three types of metaphors are constructed for government guests, religious leaders, and community leaders, and moral is an ideology given in this stage.
Then, in the closing stage, animal and plant metaphors are found (Figure 1), Ema, hoo kin manuk bakok agu tuak robo te kapu ité lami (this is a white rooster and palm wine as a sign of our acceptance). The white rooster used in this ritual symbolizes sincerity in welcoming outsiders, honesty, responsibility, and hard work in supporting the family in the daily life of the Manggarai community. The palm wine is also utilized in the procession of welcoming guests (see Figure 1). Many metaphors used in the daily life of the Manggarai people are always associated with the palm wine tree, such as totality, kindness, and the power of togetherness in mutual progress). These metaphors are uttered for government guests, religious leaders, and community leaders, which is ideology taught in this closing stage. The use of the word ema (sir) can be replaced by ende (madam) or use both depending on male or female guests. Ema and ende are used by the guests of the government and the public; then, the word of ema pastor (priest) is used for a religious leader. The second stage is Raés agu raos cama laing (various joys and togetherness). Three stages are also done in this part, namely greeting, intimacy response, and closing. The physical metaphors are encountered in this greeting stage, "yo...ema, néka babang agu langat sanggéd kasi asi dami anak'm cé béo ho'o" (yes sir, do not be surprised and stunned by our limitation in this village). The metaphors are uttered for government guests, religious leaders, and community leaders; then, the economy functions as the ideological aspect in this opening greeting stage.
In the stage of intimacy response, the physical metaphors are expressed, "ongko weki dokm ce'e béo, tadangs sanggéd gori bana oné leso ho'o ai mésén nuk té kapu ité" (we gather and sit together because we are delighted and enthusiastic when you visit our village), "Ema, toé ngancéng kapu langsung lami mendim anakm, ai mésén békék, langkasn nawa ditét mori" (sir, we want to hold on to our lap but our body is small, you are much bigger than us, and we are tiny for you). Identity and morals are ideologies given in this stage. In the closing stage, animal and plant metaphors are found, "ema, ho'o kid tuak agu manuk kapu dami anak naka ité" (sir, take this palm wine and white rooster so that you can take a rest and relax). The moral is the ideology taught in this closing stage.
The third and fourth stages are pandé cepa (physical and spiritual togetherness) celebration, and inung cama laing (drinking together as a sign of intimacy). The third stage highlights on giving betel nut without metaphor construction. Betel nut is served by women. Even without metaphor construction, pandé cepa is full of symbolic meaning, such as permanent brotherhood, fellowship, intimacy, and respect for diversity. In the culture of Manggarai, betel nut is firstly served after greeting the guests, and it is used as a symbolic welcome. Betel nut mixed with betel lime, which in use does not run out soon. This utterance symbolizes that brotherhood for the Manggarai people is done permanently. Moreover, betel nut also symbolizes fellowship and intimacy. Enjoy betel nut means guests are part of the Manggarai family and enjoy the atmosphere of fellowship. After giving betel nut, then serves waé kolang (drinking water) as an appetizer. Welcoming guests with drinking water (coffee, tea, mineral water, or palm wine) is Manggarai people's culture. Drinking water is usually served with snacks, such as cake, cassava, banana, yam, and other local foods.
The fifth stage is tegi reweng (asking for edification or motivation). Three stages are also done in this part, namely greeting, recognition, and closing. The physical metaphors are discovered in this greeting stage, "yo, ema, am babang ité ema landing ami anak toé baca ranga'm" (yes…, sir may be surprised seeing our face is not radiant). The metaphors are uttered for government guests, religious leaders, and community leaders, then the economy as an ideology in this opening greeting stage.
In the recognition stage, the physical metaphors are also found, "am ruak ité ema lélo ami mendi anak'm, toé ngancéng baca surak" (maybe sir is angry because we cannot read), "Lélo lité ami anak'm am ngondé ba weki. Somba ta, ema" (look at us as your children who might be lazy. Forgive us, sir). The moral is an ideology given in this stage. In the closing stage, plant and physical metaphors are found, "ho'o kin tuak dami kudut tegi mu'u luju agu lema emas dité" (this our wine to ask for your valuable statement, sir). The moral is an ideology taught in this closing stage.
The sixth stage is wali di'a (asking for safety for guests). Four stages are done in this part, such as thankful greeting, expectation, apology, and closing. The physical metaphors are expressed in the thankful greeting stage, "yo, ema, delek kéta nai dami dengé reweng di'a dité. Mai dité ema kudut pandé jari mosé dami" (yes, sir, our heart is happy to hear your advice. Your arrival makes our life better and full of hope). The metaphors uttered for government guests, religious leaders, and community leaders are then moral as an ideology in this stage. In the expectation stage, the physical metaphors are also found, "tegi dami ema kamping mori agu ngaran porong téing koe ité jari di'a agu mosé lewe kudut ngancéng kin ité mai cé béo dami nggerolon" (our prayer to God, you are blessed a long life and success in business so that we can meet again in the future). Moral and economy are ideologies delivered in this stage. Moreover, in the apology stage, physical, water, and sun metaphors are obtained, "ema, am manga salan ba weki dami, yo… somba ta… ema, néka koé na'a lité oné nawa, agu néka kandi koe lité oné nai. Porong oné waés laud, oné lesos saléd" (Sir, if there are utterances and actions are displeased given by us to you, we are very sorry, sir. Please, do not keep those things in your heart and soul. May all be thrown away with running river and sunset). In the closing stage, water metaphors are found, "ho'o kin tuak baro sala dami anak'm" (this is palm wine as a sign of our apologies). The moral is an ideology given in this closing stage.
The metaphorical construction in these six stages clearly shows the values of character embedded inside, namely responsibility, independence, discipline, respect for diversity, and familiarity. These values are consistent with the questionnaire results and are validated by the data from interviews with 30 respondents. Based on the respondents' observations, it is noted that all the students who have been directly involved in this rite display a high level of encouragement of the values of a character.
In welcoming the guest from every stage described has different metaphoric expressions and contains character values for students and the Manggarai people, such as openness, intimacy, humility, politeness, honor, responsibility, and courtesy. In internalizing these values, the role of the spokesman, community members, and dance trainers (educators) are crucial in constructing the appropriate message. However, not all guests are welcomed customarily dance. The guests who are welcomed by the tiba meka dance (Figure 2) are custom guests, government, religious leaders, and guests of community leaders (Pandor, 2020). As carried out at the tiba meka dance, the dance of welcoming the guest contributes to the intercultural communications for the students and Manggarai people. This dance encourages students' character building (Ndiung & Bayu, 2019). They have further reported that there are six stages of welcoming the guest in the Manggaraian tradition called tiba meka (welcoming guest) dance. The guests welcomed with this dance are commonly meka ata poli rekéd be bolon (the guests who have promised to come to a village), such as customary guests, government, religious leader, and community guest leader.
Several metaphor groups are constructed in each tiba meka dance. Those metaphors consist of bird, vegetation, body, sun, and water metaphors. These metaphors are applied based on morals, identity, and economic ideologies-ideology as a rationale for tiba meka spokespersons in constructing metaphors. Some philosophical values within tiba meka dance, such as anthropologic, sociological, and psychological values able to live in harmony in welcoming guests of this ethnic (Ndiung, 2017;Pandor, 2020).
Moral ideology is an instrument for the Manggarai ethnic group. It is used to teach and advise the students or the younger generation to show their openness, humility, honor, honesty, and courtesy. Moral ideology is used as a basis for shaping the speaker's personality, who highly respect the values of diversity (Ellemers et al., 2019). Moral ideology stimulates students to be competent inter-cultural speakers and survives in the multi-backgrounds community (Chowdhury, 2016;Sua, Anshari, & Maman, 2017). They claim that moral value expressions could educate speakers to respect diversity, be gentle, honest, and polite toward each other in running everyday life.
The next metaphor used in this dance is based on the ideology of identity. The metaphor of "yo... ema, ngalis kéta nai dami anak'm woko cai ité ema pemerinta/pastor. Nggalas kéta dami nawa woko ita ranga'd ité ema adak cé béo dami" (yes sir, we are very happy for your arrival. Our soul is happy for your coming in our village) shows the villagers' dignity in welcoming guest. This expression makes the guest truly glorified, appreciate their cultural heritage, and understand the villagers' economic limitations.
Metaphors are constructed to reflect the personality and socio-economic conditions of an ethnicity (Vengadasamy, 2011).
Metaphor construction is also found, "yo, ema, néka babang agu langat sanggéd kasiasi dami anak'm cé' béo ho'o" (yes sir, do not be surprised and stunned by our limitation). This metaphor construction indicates the economic limitation of the villagers. Villagers show their transparency of economic limitation but still glorify toward guests who come to their village. Economy ideology should be understood by the speakers in constructing metaphors that are relevant to the situation of all villagers (McKinnon, 2013).
The metaphorical construction of each stage of the tiba meka dance has the values of life that can strengthen the students' character. In fact, meka dance has tremendous value in developing students' holistic personalities, i.e., individuals with academic excellence and universal human values. The research respondents have emphasized that the tiba meka dance could stimulate students' thoughts in interpreting the various metaphorical utterances they hear in this dance. Moreover, students are encouraged to be directly involved in this procession for forming a responsible and civilized personality.
Students' direct involvement in the metaphor construction is the correct approach to internalizing the five key values of character education: religion, nationalism, independence, cooperation, and honesty. Strengthening these values reduces intolerance and racism that can undermine the value of citizenship literacy. The sense of honesty, responsibility, sensitivity, and civic literacy is urgent and essential to students' lives today (Abdullah et al., 2019;Istiqomah, 2019;Sari, Zainiyati, & Hana, 2020).
Three ideologies as the basis for metaphorical construction in the tiba meka rite are moral, identity, and economy. These ideologies have been part of the life of the Manggarai people. All people in this region, particularly the custom spokespeople, students, and dance trainers of tiba meka in this speech community, are recommended to use metaphoric expressions in welcoming guests, keep the cultural heritage, teach the students and the younger generation to be able to adopt the character values of tiba meka dance in their daily life, such as honesty, responsibility, independent, discipline, politeness, brave, togetherness, religion, and familiarity.