Negotiating heritage and faith: Younger generations and the sustainability of traditional Malay midwifery in Islamic contexts

Abstract

Traditional Malay Midwifery (TMM) constitutes a vital yet increasingly contested domain of Malay intangible cultural heritage, historically shaped by the interplay of indigenous knowledge and Islamic values. In the face of expanding biomedical authority and shifting religious interpretations, its sustainability depends not on preservation alone, but on how younger generations actively reinterpret its relevance. This study critically examines how youth engagement mediates the continuity, transformation, or decline of TMM within contemporary Islamic contexts. Drawing on qualitative data from oral histories and participant observation in Peninsular Malaysia, the study foregrounds intergenerational knowledge transmission as a site of negotiation, whereas authority, authenticity, and religious legitimacy are continuously contested. The findings demonstrate that younger actor’s function not as passive recipients but as epistemic agents who selectively validate, reframe, or discard practices based on their alignment with Islamic principles and modern healthcare rationalities. This results in a reconfiguration of TMM as a hybrid knowledge system that is simultaneously rooted in tradition and responsive to present-day religious and institutional demands. By advancing a conceptualization of TMM as a dynamic and negotiated heritage, this study contributes to the discourse on Islamic civilization and cultural sustainability by challenging static models of preservation. It argues that sustainable heritage within Islamic societies emerges through processes of critical engagement, adaptation, and epistemic negotiation