Minangkabau

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Traditional construction rumah gadang ("big house"), on both sides storage houses rangkiang (palace in the village of Pandai Sikek near Bukittinggi , Sumatra, 2005)

The Minangkabau are an ethnic group on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and with over three million members the largest still existing matrilineal and matrilocal culture worldwide. The Minangkabau see themselves for the most part as Orthodox Muslims ( Santris ) , but at the same time follow their customary law ( Adat ) to different degrees, i.e. they practice a patrilineal religion in a matrilineal society. Some of the rice fields are still passed on to the daughters today, and Minangkabau women have strong authority, especially in private life.

The settlement area of ​​the largely homogeneous ethnic group stretches from the traditional core area, the highlands of Western Sumatra , surrounded by the volcanoes Gunung Singgalang , Gunung Marapi , Gunung Sago , Gunung Malintang and the Barisan Mountains , to the ancestral area in the direction of Padang , the traditional rantau of the Minangkabau . On the Malay Peninsula , near Malacca and in Negeri Sembilan , immigrant Minangkabau influenced history even before the arrival of the Portuguese .

They speak Minangkabau as their mother tongue , a Malayo-Polynesian language, and recently, increasingly, the Indonesian official and teaching language Bahasa Indonesia .

Surname

Minangkabau woman in traditional clothing (photo from 1929)

Minang (also menang ) means "victory" and kabau (today kerbau ) means "buffalo". According to one version, the name Minangkabau goes back to a traditional double word creation: "the lucky ones" and "who have a water buffalo" (and thus a good means of nutrition). Another version is based on a legend , "The victorious buffalo" , according to which a huge Javanese army once wanted to conquer the land of the Minangkabau. The kings agreed to have two buffalo fight each other. The Minangkabau then starved a young calf for a long time before the fight and fastened a spearhead to its snout. Thirsty, it pounced on the Javanese buffalo and killed him.

history

Sources about the culture of the Minangkabau exist only since the colonization of Indonesia by the Portuguese in the 16th century and above all through the records of English and Dutch colonial officials and military . The Minangkabau had a script, but it is only preserved on a few stone relics. The wooden houses with their textile design could not survive in the hot and humid climate, so that only a few representational legacies from earlier centuries have been preserved. The Minangkabau themselves explain their history using various myths .

It is known that the Minangkabau were a kingdom with an extremely decentralized administrative structure and without a military . The gold trade seems to have played an important economic role. After the Islamization of Western Sumatra , which took place about 100 years later than in the rest of Indonesia due to the spatial inaccessibility, the old Adat system was not fundamentally changed, but rather reshaped and integrated according to the Minangkabau's self-image.

In recent years, culturally conscious circles have increasingly tried to emphasize the traditional rules of the Adat , which make up the political and social system of the Minangkabau, and to protect them from decay. The Adat rules are passed on to the following male generation - despite the drastic increase in nuclear families in the new home instead of the large matrilocal kinship groups - in the Adat house, by the men of their own kinship group.

Culture

Minangkabau wedding (2011)
Randai performance in Padang Panjang, West Sumatra (1 minute, 2007)

The Minangkabau have quite complex social and societal structures. Four clans (suku) are the oldest ethnic groups in Western Sumatra : the Bodi, Caniago, Koto and Piliang .

In addition to matrilineal succession, the adat determines, among other things:

  • the inalienability of the common property of the clan
  • the inheritance of intangible Adat titles with rank and influence within the Adat decision-making structures from uncle to nephew within a mother family
  • the marriage rules
  • the autonomous regulation of the social, political and economic affairs of the nagari in adat meetings by the council of elders of the clans (penghulu)
  • the matrilocal residence
  • the dress code and cultural everyday and holiday rules
  • the language rules for men in the ritual representation of the adat
  • the art of self-defense
  • to merentau the regulations for adolescent male adolescents , d. H. first to leave the mother house and to live and study in a men's house (since the Islamization in a Surau ).

Nevertheless, with the formation of small families, the matrilineal inheritance law, a core part of the Adat, is gradually being undermined. In parallel to the changed inheritance law, the living conditions are also changing. While in traditional society the residence of women was matrilocal, that of men was duo-local, this has clearly been transformed into a combination of matrilocal residence with the formation of a nuclear family.

According to legend, Islam rose from the coasts while Adat descended from the mountains, which brought about peaceful coexistence . The extent to which this is a conflict-reducing theory that does not correspond to reality can only be checked using individual indicators. The written codified norms of Adat and Islam, the tambo and the Koran , at least leave a lot of room for interpretation and are often used by the Minangkabau as a source of legitimation depending on the situation. Nevertheless, Islam has become a central, culturally significant power - not only evident from the dress codes for women, which are moderately practiced in Indonesia.

Historical stories and myths are packed into the pantun verse and performed in the traditional Saluang jo dendang style with the accompanying Saluang bamboo flute . A larger orchestra appears at the Volkstheater Randai .

eat

The Minangkabau have a special form of traditional Padang cuisine ( Masakan Padang ), the rendang , which is mainly made from beef . The vegetable dish Daun ubi tumbuk is also widespread .

Meaning today

As the world's largest matrilineal ethnic group, the Minangkabau social system is of particular importance. The research interest in this culture, which lives between modern and traditional Adat norms, on the part of various disciplines ( ethnology , sociology , anthropology , educational science ) is great and particularly focused on the gender perspective.

literature

  • 2017: Liazzat JK Bonate: Islam and matriliny along the Indian Ocean rim: Revisiting the old 'paradox' by comparing the Minangkabau, Kerala and coastal northern Mozambique . In: Journal of Southeast Asian Studies . tape 48 , no. 3 , October 2017, p. 436–451 , doi : 10.1017 / S0022463417000571 (English, full text).
  • 1998: Isabella Andrej: Southeast Asia regional area: Minangkabau on Sumatra. Chapter 6 in: Matrilineal Societies: An Inquiry from an Ethnological and Historical Perspective. Diploma thesis University of Vienna 1998 ( full text on elaine.ihs.ac.at ( Memento from July 12, 2015 in the Internet Archive )).
  • 1998: Dieter Weigel : travel mosaic - cheerful, serious, everyday, unbelievable among the Minangkabau - Sumatra. Jahn and Ernst, Hamburg 1998, ISBN 3-89407-208-3 (experience report ).
  • 1996: Astrid Kaiser : Girls and boys in a matrilineal culture: Interactions and values ​​among primary school children in the Minangkabau highlands on Sumatra. Kovac, Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-86064-419-X .
  • 1995: Ute Marie Metje: The strong women: Conversations about gender relations among the Minangkabau in Indonesia. Campus, Frankfurt / M. / New York 1995, ISBN 3-593-35409-8 .
  • 1985: Cäcilia Rentmeister : “A rooster cannot lay eggs”: the Minangkabau of today. In: Frauenwelten - Herrenwelten: For a new cultural-political education. Leske, Opladen 1985, ISBN 3-8100-0474-X , pp. 44-64: Chapter 2.1.5 ( PDF downloadable from cillie-rentmeister.de ).
  • 1984: Werner Kraus: Between Reform and Rebellion: About the development of Islam in Minangkabau (West Sumatra) between the two reform movements of the Padri (1837) and the Modernists (1908). A contribution to the history of the Islamization of Indonesia (= contributions to research on South Asia. Volume 89). Doctoral thesis, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University. Franz Steiner, Wiesbaden 1984, ISBN 3-515-04286-5 .
  • 1981: Henning Eichberg : Social behavior and regional development planning: modernization in the Indonesian relations society (West Sumatra). Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1981.
  • 1979: Franz von Benda-Beckmann : Property in Social Continuity: Continuity and Change in the Maintenance of Property Relationships Through Time in Minangkabau, West Sumatra. Martinus Nijhoff, Den-Haag 1979, ISBN 90-247-2368-X (English; summary by Anke Holznagel on Ganz-recht.de ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )).
  • 1951: Patrick Edward de Josselin de Jong: Minangkabau and Negri Sembilan: Socio-political structure in Indonesia. PhD thesis, Eduard Ijdo, Leiden 1951; 1980 edition: ISBN 0-404-16732-2 (English; Negeri Sembilan is a state of Malaysia).

Documentaries

Web links

Commons : Minangkabau  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Minangkabau  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Deutsches Filminstitut - Announcement: Film premiere November 24, 2019: "Motherland - The Matriarchy of the Minangkabau". In: dff.film. October 2019, accessed on October 30, 2019.
    Claudia Schülke: Largest matriarchy in the world: Compensatory justice. In: Faz.net . January 7, 2020, accessed January 14, 2020; Quote: “With the Minangkabau in Indonesia, the women are in charge. The film 'Motherland', which has now been shown in Frankfurt, tells about the greatest matriarchal culture in the world. "
  2. ↑ Uschi Madeisky , interviewed by Michaela Doepke: The matriarchy lives from care - interview on the film “Motherland”. In: Ethik-Heute.org. August 12, 2020, accessed August 17, 2020.