Minangkabau women: Change in a matrilineal society - article ; n°1 ; vol.13, pg 79-103

Joke Schrijvers, And Andelspostel-Coster

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Archipel - Année 1977 - Volume 13 - Numéro 1 - Pages 79-103
25 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

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• Publié par: ARCHIPEL0
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1977
• Nombre de lectures: 18
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

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Joke Schrijvers
Els Postel-Coster
Minangkabau women: Change in a matrilineal society
In: Archipel. Volume 13, 1977. pp. 79-103.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Schrijvers Joke, Postel-Coster Els. Minangkabau women: Change in a matrilineal society. In: Archipel. Volume 13, 1977. pp. 79-
103.
doi : 10.3406/arch.1977.1328
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/arch_0044-8613_1977_num_13_1_132879
MINANGKABAU WOMEN : CHANGE IN A MATRILINEAL
SOCIETY.
by Joke SCHRIJVERS and Els POSTEL - COSTER.
I. MINANGKABAU CULTURE ; ADAT AND ISLAM.
Introducion. (*)
Before visiting Minangkabau (West Sumatra) on a short fieldwork
trip in 1973, we stayed in Jakarta for some time to get the necessary
permits and to perform some documentary work. The amount of
Minangkabau immigrants in that metropolis is estimated at some
500.000 (Mochtar Nairn, 1971). Their presence is visible in the many
"rumah makan Padang" (Minangkabau restaurants), which are spread
over the city. The immigrants will also be found in a range of different
occupations, from newspaper-seller to university professor.
Although the were not the specific subject of our study,
we naturally tried to get into contact whenever we happened to come
across a person who came from the area that had already interested
us for some years. Looking for Minangkabau novels in a small
bookshop in Jakarta, we were addressed by the owner. Hearing of
our planned trip to West Sumatra he was beaming with joy : that was
the right thing to do ; it was his homeland, and he could tell us it
was the most interesting part of Indonesia. People there were still
living in matriarchy !
(*) In this article we have made use of data collected during a fieldwork trip in
1973. We want to express our gratitude to Keebet von Benda-Beckmann, who
was so kind as to provide us with some very recent information.Her contribution
is mainly to be found in the third section. 80
Politely we showed our interest. Did this mean that power was with
the women ? Oh no, he hastened to answer, it should be understood
as rule of inheritance, established long ago by a famous ancestor called
Datuk Perpatih nan Sabatang. There followed a lesson of the type
we would hear very often afterwards : on formal rules and their roots
in tradition, leaving us completely in the dark on what interested us
most : the actual role relations between presentday Minangkabau
women and men.
Adat
The term Minangkabau originally refers to the central highlands
North East of Padang, in the midst of the isle of Sumatra. Although
this part is still regarded as the true source of Minangkabau culture,
the area designed by this name is now much wider, covering the
whole of the province of West Sumatra, including the coastal region.
According to tradition, this whole area has been populated by
emigrants from the highlands, who gradually spread over the
country. This, indeed, is one of the ideal patterns of behaviour, for
young men in particular : to roam about and see the world outside
one's own village without however loosing contact with one's family
and place of birth.
Minangkabau culture is characterized by a matrilineal family system,
the idea of which is cherished not only by our bookseller, but by many
others as well, as the nucleus of their cultural identity — although
it is felt as a burden at times. In connection with this system there
exists a whole body of rules, traditions and beliefs commonly called
adat (x), which finds its expression in hundreds of proverbs and
sanyings. Minangkabau adat is mainly concerned with the matrilineal
family system and its implications for behaviour patterns and socio
political organization.
Disregarding for the moment the many local variations, the social
organization may be briefly described as follows :
The largest social units are the suku, or matrilineal clans. Their unity
merely consists of a common name : one suku is usually widely spread
over the country, but there is no organization linking its members
together. A child become a member of its mother's suku at birth. The
suku is not strictly exogamous. A member of the suku Bodi, for
instance, may take a partner from the same clan as long as he, or she,
The concept of adat is not typical for Minangkabau. It is used throughout
Indonesia to denote local traditions and customary law. 81
is not from the same village. This is not felt as incestuous, although
a clan chief told us that an extra ceremony was required at such a
wedding.
At the village level, the suku are real groups, exogamous and leaded
by a male chief (penghulu}. Ideally, there are four suku in each
village, each living in its own quarters. In practice this number may
differ. The penghulu of the different suku together form a council
that formerly ruled the village. The villages used to have a high
degree of autonomy. There was little central authority and each
village could develop its own style in the common adat tradition.
Since the beginning of this century Minangkabau gradually became
part of greater organizational units : first the colonial government
and later the national Indonesian State. In this process the villages
lost much of their autonomy, and the power of the penghulu demi-
nished. Although not enough data are available to be quite explicit
on the position of the penghulu at present, it seems safe to state that
they mainly decide on family affairs, marriages and matters of
inheritance and common property.
In the village the suku are divided into smaller units, the indig
enous name for which is derived from the Minangkabau word for womb.
We will refer to these as "entended family". This group consists of
one or more women, their married and unmarried daughters and the
young children of the latter. The members of an entended family
traditionally lived together in a longhouse : the famous Minangkabau
house with the "horns" at both sides. Head of the family is one of
the eldest brothers of the mother, or grand-mother. Mamak is the
general name for mother's brother : one of them is chosen as the head
of the house. His sister's children are his kemanakan.
Boys were not supposed to live in their mother's house after the age
mens' of 7 or house 8 years. also By used that for time religious they began instruction, sleeping until in they the surau, married a
and ''home" had was access an to ambiguous their wife's one house. for a man. Even Although after that, he the slept notion in his of
wife's house, as a mamak he kept his obligations to his mother
sisters and sisters' children. His regular presence in their house was
required. If he went to his wife too early in the evening, he was
even ridiculed. (Korn, 1941). When old and sick he was taken back
to his .sister's house, to die and be buried in the ancestral ground.
This uncertainty about what is home is often thought to bear a
relation to the "mercmtau"-pattern, the traditional migration of young
men mentioned above. Although the idea of merantau is also known
from other parts of Indonesia, without being connected with matrilocal 82
residence, it seems probable that it has been reinforced by the
ambiguous position of men.
Contrary to this, women were the stable factors in society. They kept
living in the house in which they were born, with their own family.
Only when the extended family became too large, it was split up, and
a new house was built near the old one. The traditional Minangkabau
house is divided lenghtwise into two parts : in front is a huge
rectangular room covering the whole frontispiece. This is the daily
living and reception part of the house. Behind this are several smaller
rooms : one for each daughter with her husband and children, and a
kitchen which is the common domain of the women of the house.
The house is built on a piece of land owned by the extended family.
Further common property of the family are ricefields and certain
ancient heirlooms. It is not allowed to sell any of these, except in
highly specific cases. It is the sacred property of the extended family,
called harto pusako. In contrast to this there is a category of individually
onwed property, or harto pencarian (literally : acquired property) : a
person's earnings from trade or wages, and the land used for cash
cropping. A man is free to give of this harto pencarian to his own
children, while the harto pusako will always remain the common
property of his kemanakan.
Obviously, the harto pencarian mainly spring from the modern
sectors of society. Ever since the introduction of the money economy to
Minangkabau in the beginning of this century, their relative importance
has grown. The end of the matrilineal system was even foretold by
Schrieke (1955, first published 1928), on the supposition that its
economic basis, the common pusako property, was about to di
sappear. This is not what actually happened. Although the matrilineal
institutions lost part of their economic and political functions, they
are by no means extinct. Much of what has been described above in
the past tense, might have been w