Rusli Amran and the Rewriting of Minangkabau History

Rusli Amran and the Rewriting of Minangkabau History

by Jeffrey Hadler

Rather than review Rusli Amran’s five books on West Sumatran history, this essay will serve as a brief introduction to Minangkabauist historical debates among so-called amateur historians in Indonesia. (All titles are given in English translation. See Reference list for Indonesian citations.) Most Indonesianists are familiar with the writings of Taufik Abdullah, Deliar Noer, Alfian, Harsja Bachtiar, and other foreign-trained Indonesian scholars of Indonesian history. But there is another group of informal historians whose books were written in an entirely Indonesian context and for an Indonesian audience. These historians deserve our attention.

By the middle of 1961 Minangkabau patriotism was ruined. The PRRI “Revolutionary Government” secessionists, whose three year struggle against the national state had been a protest against the central government’s perceived Javanism and communism, were beaten. Minangkabau people left West Sumatra for Jakarta and Medan, never to return. This was a time of rantau cino, permanent “Chinese” out-migration, when Minangkabau gave their children Javanese names and grumbled that at home in Sumatra “the winners (yang Minang) have all left, what remains are the water buffalo (Ka[r]bau).” Jakarta’s　Padang restaurants boomed and migrants from Sumatra, ethnicity withheld, fitted themselves into lives far from ancestral highlands and unhappy memories.

1963 brought another slap to the exhausted Minangkabauists. In his wonderfully bizarre “Tuanku Rao: Hambali Islamic Terror in the Batak Lands (1816-1833),” the Mandailing writer Mangaradja Onggang Parlindungan scoffed,

“Brothers from Minang sangat parah handicapped, karena kepertjajaan mereka akan mythos2 tanpa angka2 tahunan. Mythos Iskandar Zulkarnain Dynasty, Mythos Menang Kerbau, Mythos Bundo Kanduang, Tambo Minangkabau, dlsb., semuanya 100% ditelan oleh Brothers from Minang. Tanpa mereka sanggup selecting-out 2% facta2 sejarah dan kicking-out 98% mythologic ornamentations dari mythos2 itu. Tanpa mereka sedikit pun usaha, mentjarikan angka2 tahunan untuk menghentikan big confusions” (679).

[The Brothers from Minang are severely handicapped due to their belief in ahistorical myths. The myth of Alexander the Great’s dynasty, the myth of the Victorious Buffalo, the myth of the Ur-Mother, the Legend of Minangkabau and the like have been swallowed whole by the Brothers from Minang. They have been incapable of selecting-out the 2% historical facts and kicking-out the 98% mythologic ornamentations within those myths. They have not made the slightest effort to seek out accurate dates and put an end to the big confusions.]

It took the fall of Sukarno and the destruction of the Indonesian Communist Party for the brothers from Minangkabau to answer Parlindungan’s challenge. The first “History of Minangkabau” was published in 1970 and included a self-congratulatory foreword by Parlindungan himself. With accurate dates and a substantial bibliography, the authors synthesized the ethno-mythical history of Minangkabau and the political history of West Sumatra. The great Islamic populist intellectual, Hamka, directly challenged Parlindungan in his 1974 book “‘Tuanku Rao’ Between Fact and Fantasy.” But the most concerted effort to rewrite the history of Minangkabau was undertaken by Rusli Amran, a retired officer of the Indonesian Foreign Service.

Rusli Amran was born in Padang in 1922 and educated in the Dutch, Japanese, and national school systems. During the Revolution he helped found the newspaper Berita Indonesia and in the early 1950s joined the state bureaucracy, first the Ministry of Defense, then Economy, and finally Foreign Affairs. He represented the Republic of Indonesia in Moscow and Paris through the decade when Minangkabau was most alienated from the nationalist project. When Amran retired in 1972 he devoted himself to a massive historical project: the writing of West Sumatran history in a form both comprehensive and accessible to Indonesian students.

Rusli Amran loved the archive. He spent much of the 1970s and 1980s mining the resources in the Netherlands and Jakarta, paying particular attention to research and reports available in nineteenth century Dutch colonial journals. His first of five books, “West Sumatra up to the Plakat Panjang,” is a massive history that includes archaeological sources from the thirteenth century, but is most concerned with the interactions of British, Dutch, and Minangkabau up through the Padri Wars and the “long declaration” (Plakat Panjang) that marked the beginning of intensive Dutch administration in West Sumatra. Amran’s research is rigorous but his style is informal. He is careful to translate all quotations and sources into Indonesian, and titles a chapter on initial European penetration “Masuklah Si Bule,” Enter Whitey. This first book is his most ambitious – almost 700 pages long, with a thorough bibliography and legible facsimile reproductions of archival documents and original source materials. His second book, “West Sumatra Plakat Panjang,” is a continuation of the first and along with translations of Dutch sources contains appendices of data culled from Dutch journals. Both these books make linguistically and logistically difficult Dutch sources easily accessible to Indonesian students of West Sumatran history.

Amran’s third book in the series, “West Sumatra: The Anti-Tax Rebellion of 1908,” closes his history of the coffee cultivation system and nineteenth century colonial exploitation with a study of reactions to the imposition of a money tax. His fourth book is a break with the narrative – a quirky tribute to his hometown of Padang that mixes archival and anecdotal sources to focus on personal histories and studies of the Eurasian community and the role of the Javanese. He also includes an impressive collection of reproduced photographs. This work in many ways anticipates much of the current scholarship on race and social change in the colonial period. Amran’s insistence on using the name “West Sumatra” rather than the ethnically-defined “Minangkabau” in all of his writings reinforces his important interpretation of West Sumatra as a multi-ethnic society and its history as one of interactions among Europeans, Chinese, Javanese, Batak, and Minangkabau. Amran’s final book, published after his death in 1996, is a collection of essays entitled “Old Tales from the Pages of History.” These essays are wonderful explorations into some of the stranger figures and moments in West Sumatran history and make for light and stimulating reading.

As important as Rusli Amran’s writings is another extraordinary act of generosity. While undertaking archival research, he photocopied every available journal article and manuscript relating to West Sumatra. This is an enormous collection of documents. Amran then made multiple copies of this collection and deposited them in three locations in West Sumatra: the library of the Literature and Humanities Division of Andalas University in Limau Manis; the reading room of the West Sumatran Arts Council in the Abdullah Kamil Building in Padang; and the Center for Documentation and “Inventorization” of Minangkabau Culture in Padang Panjang. Through Amran’s efforts students of West Sumatran history have access to books that provide lucid and unpretentious introductions to the colonial period. And they also have access to the primary sources without having to travel to the Netherlands or even Jakarta. Finally, Rusli Amran’s widow has established the Yayasan Rusli Amran in Jakarta to house a study and documentation center and to support research into West Sumatran history. While largely unknown internationally, Rusli Amran has done much to foster the study of Minangkabau history in Indonesia. His books are well worth reading.

The author is assistant professor in the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley.

References

Parlindungan, Mangaradja Onggang. 1963. Pongkinangolngolan Sinambela gelar Tuanku Rao: Terror Agama Islam Mazhab Hambali di Tanah Batak 1816-1833. Jakarta: Penerbit Tandjung Pengharapan.

Mansoer, M.D. et al. 1970. Sejarah Minangkabau. Jakarta: Bhratara.

Hamka. 1974. Antara Fakta dan Khayal “Tuanku Rao.” Jakarta: Bulan Bintang.

Amran, Rusli. 1997. Cerita-Cerita Lama Dalam Lembaran Sejarah. Jakarta: Balai Pustaka.

Amran, Rusli. 1988. Sumatra Barat Pemberontakan Pajak 1908: Bag. Ke-1, Perang Kemang. Jakarta: Gita Karya.

Amran, Rusli. 1988. Padang Riwayatmu Dulu. Revised edition. Jakarta: C.V. Yasaguna.

Amran, Rusli. 1985. Sumatra Barat Plakat Panjang. Jakarta: Sinar Harapan.

Amran, Rusli. 1981. Sumatra Barat Hingga Plakat Panjang. Jakarta: Sinar Harapan.

Traditional Dance of Minangkabau

The Piring Dance is very popular among the West Sumatran people. It involves great skill and exotic and dynamic movements while the dancers hold plates or saucers in their palms! It is also known as the Candle Dance. Randai Traditional Drama and Theatre of Kota Nan Ampat is a Minangkabau Traditional art centre and the drama there has an educational message. The Rantak dance is created by Gusmiati Said and is dominated by Pencak Silat, the traditional martial art of West Sumatra, with movements such as taping, hand movements, waving and jumping. The composition takes great consideration of space, time and energy (power) thus resulting in an entity presented as an art of expression. Tiupan Saluang is a traditional art expressing the feeling followed by the blowing flute, while the Tabuik Festival of Pariaman regency is a traditional cultural ceremony held on 1st - 12th Muharram. Tabuik comes from Bengkulu to respect Huse in (The grandson of Prophet Muhammad) who died in the war against King Yazid. Tari Payung or the umbrella dance is anothervery well known dance among the young people from the land of Minangkabau. Danced to the tune of "Babendi-bendi" (a song about a horse drawn carriage which is original to that area), this dance portrays the happy bantering between newly married couples on their honeymoon. The umbrella becomes a symbol that the husband should always protect his wife from the rain and heat of life. --------- For more information on workshops & training sessions for "Traditional Dances of Sumatra, Indonesia" --- EMAIL

MINANGKABAU - VOA

MINANGKABAU

The Minangkabau are a society in West Sumatra, Indonesia, which is based on matriarchal influence and Islamic belief. In a Minangkabau village, the practices and rituals are based on "adat." Adat emphasizes the maternal in daily life where women control economic and social issues.

Historically, the Minangkabau have dealt with their share of conflict. In the 14th century, a Javanese prince invaded the area and tried to institute a male-dominated regime. The Minangkabau "successfully withstood and struggled against it." In the 19th century, there was strife between adat officials and Islamic fundamentalists, but again, they found a way to accommodate both adat and Islam.

The Minangkabau system of matrilineality is more like a "partnership," according to cultural historian Riane Eisler. Ms. Eisler said Peggy Reeves Sanday's book on her experiences, Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy, dispels the notion that society has always been and always will be male-dominated.

"The Muslim religion and culture were superimposed on their system," Ms. Eisler said, "and they now consider themselves Muslim. But if you really look at the description that Peggy has of how they look at nature, how they look at gender, how they look at some, you know, pretty basic things, what you find is much more of the remnants of their earlier belief system."

Islam and matrilineal adat are accepted as equally sacred, but there is an emphasis on female jurisdiction that Islam does not have. For example, many of the ceremonies, particularly weddings, call on the women to run the show. Women go to pick up the groom and return him to the bride's house - the opposite of the Muslim tradition. Property rights are in the hands of women, and they inherit land and can instigate divorce and child custody.

Source: VOA, 30 May 2002

May 2002

From University of Pennsylvania

Indonesia's matriarchal Minangkabau offer an alternative social system

For the last century, historians, anthropologists and other scholars have searched both human history and the continents to find a matriarchy--a society where the power was in the hands of women, not men. Most have concluded that a genuine matriarchy does not exist, perhaps may never have existed.

Anthropologist Peggy Reeves Sanday disagrees. After years of research among the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra, Indonesia, she has accepted that group's own self-labeling, as a "matriarchate," or matriarchy. The problem, she asserts, lies in Western cultural notions of what a matriarchy "should" look like--patriarchy's female-twin.

"Too many anthropologists have been looking for a society where women rule the affairs of everyday life, including government," she said. "That template--and a singular, Western perspective on power--doesn't fit very well when you're looking at non-Western cultures like the Minangkabau. In West Sumatra, males and females relate more like partners for the common good than like competitors ruled by egocentric self-interest. Social prestige accrues to those who promote good relations by following the dictates of custom and religion."

Dr. Sanday decided to propose a new definition of matriarchy after living for an extended period with the Minangkabau. The R. Jean Brownlee Endowed Term Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, and Consulting Curator at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (UPM), she has spent most of the last 21 summers and some sabbaticals living in a Minangkabau village, conducting research supported in part by the Museum. In 1997, she curated a UPM photography exhibition, "Eggi's Village: Life Among the Minangkabau of Indonesia." She's followed that public exploration with a provocative new book, Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy (Cornell University Press, May 2002).

Who are the matriarchal Minangkabau and why should we care? Dr. Sanday comes to her research as an expert on gender issues, violence and sexual politics in American society. (She's the author of A Woman Scorned: Acquaintance Rape on Trial [Doubleday, 1996], and Fraternity Gang Rape: Sex, Brotherhood and Privilege on Campus [New York University Press, 1990].) For her, it's a question to be passionate about, because the answer helps to broaden our understanding of the range of social possibility.

Today, four million Minangkabau, one of the largest ethnic groups in Indonesia, live in the highlands of the province of West Sumatra. Their society, Dr. Sanday discovered, is founded on the coexistence of matrilineal custom and a nature-based philosophy called adat. More recently, Islam was incorporated into the foundation. Despite the recent outbreak of violence associated with Islamist ideologies in many parts of the world, Dr. Sanday describes a peaceable, almost violence-free Minangkabau society.

Adat, the Nature Based Philosophy

The key to Minangkabau matriarchy, according to Dr. Sanday, is found in the ever-present adat idea expressed in the proverb "growth in nature must be a teacher."

"One must nurture growth in humans, animals, and plants so that society will be strong," people told her.

The emphasis on nurturing growth, she asserts, yields a unique emphasis on the maternal in daily life. "While we in the West glorify male dominance and competition, the Minangkabau glorify their mythical Queen Mother and cooperation," said Dr. Sanday. In village social relations women are likened to "the center where the fish net meets." Senior women are associated with the central pillar of the traditional house, which is the oldest pillar because it is the first erected. The oldest village in a group of villages is referred to as the "mother village." When they stage ceremonies in their full ceremonial regalia, women are addressed by the same term reserved for the mythical Queen. Such practices suggest that matriarchy in this society is about making the maternal the center, origin, and foundation, not just of life but of the social order as well.

The power of Minangkabau women extends to the economic and social realms. Women control land inheritance and husbands move into the households of their wives. Unlike many other societies in which anthropologists say women are exchanged between families at marriage, in this society men are exchanged. During the wedding ceremony the wife collects her husband from his household and, with her female relatives, brings him back to her household to live. In the event of a divorce the husband collects his clothes and leaves. Yet, despite the special position women are accorded in the society, the Minangkabau matriarchy is not the equivalent of female rule.

"Neither male nor female rule is possible because of the Minangkabau belief that decision-making should be by consensus," Dr. Sanday said. "In answer to my persistent questions about 'who rules,' I was often told that I was asking the wrong question. Neither sex rules, it was explained to me, because males and females complement one another. As with everything else, the Minangkabau have a proverb to describe the partnership relationship between the sexes: 'Like the skin and nail of the fingertip.'"

Islam and the Minangkabau

Today, according to Dr. Sanday, while the Minangkabau matriarchy is based largely on adat, Islam also plays a role--but not in the way one might expect. Islam arrived in West Sumatra sometime in the 16th century, long after adat customs and philosophy had been established. At first there was an uneasy relationship between adat and Islam and, in the l9th century, a war between adherents of adat customs and fundamentalist beliefs imported from Mecca. The conflict was resolved by both sides making accommodations. Today, matrilineal adat and Islam are accepted as equally sacred and inviolate, handed down from the godhead. "At a time when consumerism is more prevalent in Indonesia than ever before, these sacred principles of Minangkabau culture and society act to support one another," she noted.

Resurgent Islamic fundamentalism, nationalism, and expanding capitalism--all are realities that Dr. Sanday acknowledges can erode the Minangkabau's nature-based matriarchal culture and the adat that infuses meaning into their lives. She remains optimistic that their culture has the innate flexibility to adapt to a changing world. "Had the Minangkabau chosen to fight rather than to accommodate the numerous influences that impinged on their world over the centuries, had they chosen to assert cultural purity, no doubt their 'adat' would have long ago succumbed. The moral of the Minangkabau story is that accommodating differences can preserve a world" (from Women in the Center).

Women in the Center (288 pages, 31 halftones, $29.95) is available through the University of Pennsylvania Museum Shop. For more information and to order call toll free 1-877-359-4695.

Women in Minangkabau

Women in Minangkabau

On 11 June 1996 Joke van Reenen defended her PhD Thesis entitled: Central Pillars of the House: sisters, wives, and mothers in a rural community in Minangkabau, West Sumatra. Her position as AIO, Doctoral Assistant (PhD student) at the Research School CNWS: School of Asian, African and Amerindian Studies at Leiden University, had come to an end in December 1995. Discussing the position of assistant and the subject of her passion: Minangkabau, we present a portrait of Joke van Reenen.

By Dick van der Meij

The first question that springs to mind is rather predictably: Why Minangkabau?

In 1984 an anthropologist and a sociologist specialized in non-Western societies were invited to Padang to help developing a Department of Anthropology at Andalas University in this West Sumatran city. This request for funding was submitted to the Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation and to the - then called - Netherlands University Foundation for International Cooperation (Nuffic). So I went to Padang. I spent 5 years in West Sumatra setting up the Anthropology Department and training university staff. While I was there of course I had the opportunity to look around and conduct some research of my own. After my appointment had ended I had the opportunity to do yet another six months of research, so I had a fairly good idea of what I wanted to do and Minangkabau presented itself as the ideal and natural choice.

The second question: Why women?

Gender relations and women's views on gender have always had my special interest. I had conducted earlier research on female perspectives in Tunesia, and it seemed to me to be a natural progression to continue investigating female views in the Minangkabau matrilineal setting. As a matter of fact, I do feel that to try to understand a culture, or even part of it - how can one even begin to try to understand a whole culture? - it would be best to study both male and female roles and perspectives. However, since the roles and perspectives of males had already been studied, I decided to make a complementary study of the female views.

One of the most striking phenomena in Minangkabau is merantau, going out of Minangkabau and seek experience elsewhere. How does this affect the lives of the women who stay behind?

It very much depends on the individual. Many women have no problem at all seeing their husband leave for abroad. Some even encourage their men to leave and find a way to earn money. You see, the problem is that agriculture is no longer sufficient to make a living. There is very little cash around to pay for school fees, uniforms, transportation, and what have you, so the men are forced to leave for longer or shorter periods to earn money. It is really as simple as that.
Some women are really very low after their husbands have left, and some also spoke of the sexual problems this causes, but on average, they can cope fairly well. I have not come across any instances where the women have actually forced their husbands to leave to get rid of them, but this may occur. Nowadays many women follow their husband out of the Minangkabau area, joining them for instance in Jakarta or other places in Java to be with them. Women themselves go out to merantau, for instance for study or in order o find a job. It is no longer an exclusive male prerogative. Another new phenomena is the permanent merantau situation where a single man or a couple decide to stay away from the Minangkabau area, permanently settling elsewhere.

I have the feeling that matrilineal systems like that of the Minangkabau are very rare in the world, is this indeed so?

Actually not really. There are quite a lot of societies which might be labelled matrilineal. However, societies which combine matriliny with matrilocal residence are rare. Intriguingly, there are certain features of Minangkabau matriliny which may be called unique. In Sumatra we have evidence that other societies used to be matrilineal too. For instance, in Aceh where the kinship ties are now organized bilaterally but the settlements are matrilocal, in some aspects the situation resembles that in Minangkabau. Similar systems also existed in South Sumatra, for instance Enggano springs to mind.
At present the matrilineal organization is being evaluated by the Minangkabau people themselves and the views they express are far from unanimous. Many Minangkabau are critical of certain aspects of their own culture, yet few would actually advocate the abolition of the matrilineal kinship system.

What are your feelings about the phenomenon 'Doctoral Assistant'?

Well, before I begin on that, let me tell you that I have been very lucky throughout. I had already done a fair amount of research when I started as assistant and, of course, I knew the field very well. Another great help was that I already had my assistants in the field. So my experiences are not really comparable to those of the average AIO who starts with his/her research in a field he/she does not know. Also, because of my prior research I have used much more than the 4 years allotted to an AIO. By the way, I really needed that time!
While gratefully acknowledging these advantages, I have some criticisms. Even though I feel that 4 years is not unreasonable, I have the impression that both AIOs and their supervisors are still uncomfortable with that time limitation. Sometimes the scope of the research is too ambitious in relation to the time available, thus causing a lot of time to be lost by using it for problems which would have been avoided.
In fact, on the bottom line what I mean to say is that what happens now is that people are required to write a traditional book in a modern setting. Those two are incompatible.
A question of equal importance is: What are we to do with all those young people who have just defended their thesis? Especially, is you remember that the traditional network is still very much in effect, it seems to be fairly pointless to produce a bred of young doctors who will have a terribly hard time to find a suitable job. Many young people who are now doing research have so little experience in anything but research that they find themselves caught short in the skills needed to find a job outside academia. Sadly, in academia, jobs are very rare at the moment. So, I have my reservations about the effect of the new system, but perhaps everything will turn out fine in future.

What are your plans for the future? Going back to Minangkabau and doing more research?

O, yes indeed. I would love to go back to Minangkabau. Of course, I would like to present my book to the people there. They have every right to know what I have made of their information.
On the other hand, I would also like to go back to the Ministry of Development Cooperation. I feel it would be a good thing to work on defining new projects and making contacts with new counterparts. It need not necessarily be in the field of Indonesia, or Southeast Asia. Other places in the world are equally interesting and I am open to whatever job presents itself.

MATRIARCHAL, ISLAMIC AND PEACE-BUILDERS:

MATRIARCHAL, ISLAMIC AND PEACE-BUILDERS:
THE MINANGKABAU OF INDONESIA OFFER AN ALTERNATIVE SOCIAL SYSTEM

Pictured here is a wedding march to collect the husband. Photo: Peggy Reeves Sanday, 1996.

For the last century, historians, anthropologists and other scholars have searched both human history and the continents to find a matriarchy—a society where the power was in the hands of women, not men. Most have concluded that a genuine matriarchy does not exist, perhaps may never have existed. Anthropologist Peggy Reeves Sanday disagrees. After years of research among the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra, Indonesia, she has accepted that group's own self-labeling, as a "matriarchate," or matriarchy. The problem, she asserts, lies in Western cultural notions of what a matriarchy "should" look like—patriarchy's female-twin. "Too many anthropologists have been looking for a society where women rule the affairs of everyday life, including government," she said. "That template—and a singular, Western perspective on power—doesn't fit very well when you're looking at non-Western cultures like the Minangkabau. In West Sumatra, males and females relate more like partners for the common good than like competitors ruled by egocentric self-interest. Social prestige accrues to those who promote good relations by following the dictates of custom and religion." Dr. Sanday decided to propose a new definition of matriarchy after living for an extended period with the Minangkabau. The R. Jean Brownlee Endowed Term Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, and Consulting Curator at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (UPM), she has spent most of the last 21 summers and some sabbaticals living in a Minangkabau village, conducting research supported in part by the Museum. In 1997, she curated a UPM photography exhibition, "Eggi's Village: Life Among the Minangkabau of Indonesia." She's followed that public exploration with a provocative new book, Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy (Cornell University Press, May 2002). Who are the matriarchal Minangkabau and why should we care? Dr. Sanday comes to her research as an expert on gender issues, violence and sexual politics in American society. (She's the author of A Woman Scorned: Acquaintance Rape on Trial [Doubleday, 1996], and Fraternity Gang Rape: Sex, Brotherhood and Privilege on Campus [New York University Press, 1990]. For her, it's a question to be passionate about, because the answer helps to broaden our understanding of the range of social possibility. Today, four million Minangkabau, one of the largest ethnic groups in Indonesia, live in the highlands of the province of West Sumatra. Their society, Dr. Sanday discovered, is founded on the coexistence of matrilineal custom and a nature-based philosophy called adat. More recently, Islam was incorporated into the foundation. Despite the recent outbreak of violence associated with Islamist ideologies in many parts of the world, Dr. Sanday describes a peaceable, almost violence-free Minangkabau society.

		ADAT, THE NATURE BASED PHILOSOPHY
		Most of the family groups have a traditional matrilineal long house. As dictated by custom the entrance of the house faces Mt. Merapi. Photo credit: Peggy Reeves Sanday, 1985.

The key to Minangkabau matriarchy, according to Dr. Sanday, is found in the ever-present adat idea expressed in the proverb "growth in nature must be a teacher." "One must nurture growth in humans, animals, and plants so that society will be strong," people told her. The emphasis on nurturing growth, she asserts, yields a unique emphasis on the maternal in daily life. "While we in the West glorify male dominance and competition, the Minangkabau glorify their mythical Queen Mother and cooperation," said Dr. Sanday. In village social relations women are likened to "the center where the fish net meets." Senior women are associated with the central pillar of the traditional house, which is the oldest pillar because it is the first erected. The oldest village in a group of villages is referred to as the "mother village." When they stage ceremonies in their full ceremonial regalia, women are addressed by the same term reserved for the mythical Queen. Such practices suggest that matriarchy in this society is about making the maternal the center, origin, and foundation, not just of life but of the social order as well. The power of Minangkabau women extends to the economic and social realms. Women control land inheritance and husbands move into the households of their wives. Unlike many other societies in which anthropologists say women are exchanged between families at marriage, in this society men are exchanged. During the wedding ceremony the wife collects her husband from his household and, with her female relatives, brings him back to her household to live. In the event of a divorce the husband collects his clothes and leaves. Yet, despite the special position women are accorded in the society, the Minangkabau matriarchy is not the equivalent of female rule. "Neither male nor female rule is possible because of the Minangkabau belief that decision-making should be by consensus," Dr. Sanday said. "In answer to my persistent questions about 'who rules,' I was often told that I was asking the wrong question. Neither sex rules, it was explained to me, because males and females complement one another. As with everything else, the Minangkabau have a proverb to describe the partnership relationship between the sexes: 'Like the skin and nail of the fingertip.'"

ISLAM AND THE MINANGKABAU
Family photo at a house-building ceremony. Photo credit: Peggy Reeves Sanday, 1985.

Today, according to Dr. Sanday, while the Minangkabau matriarchy is based largely on adat, Islam also plays a role—but not in the way one might expect. Islam arrived in West Sumatra sometime in the 16th century, long after adat customs and philosophy had been established. At first there was an uneasy relationship between adat and Islam and, in the l9th century, a war broke out between adherents of adat customs and fundamentalist beliefs imported from Mecca. The conflict was resolved by both sides making accommodations. Today, matrilineal adat and Islam are accepted as equally sacred and inviolate, handed down from the godhead. "At a time when consumerism is more prevalent in Indonesia than ever before, these sacred principles of Minangkabau culture and society act to support one another," she noted.

Resurgent Islamic fundamentalism, nationalism, and expanding capitalism—all are realities that Dr. Sanday acknowledges can erode the Minangkabau's nature-based matriarchal culture and the adat that infuses meaning into their lives. She remains optimistic that their culture has the innate flexibility to adapt to a changing world. "Had the Minangkabau chosen to fight rather than to accommodate the numerous influences that impinged on their world over the centuries, had they chosen to assert cultural purity, no doubt their 'adat' would have long ago succumbed. The moral of the Minangkabau story is that accommodating differences can preserve a world" (from Women in the Center).

L'aphabet Minangkabau

L'aphabet Minangkabau Dérivé fortement de l'arabe, cette écriture note la langue Minangkabau parlée dans l'île de Sumatra..