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West Sumatra's Minangkabau
| Article
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10849 |
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Section : |
Culture
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1986 |
2,368 Words |
| Author
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Nikki R. Keddie
Nikki R. Keddie, author and photographer, is a professor of
history at UCLA. |
The Minangkabau people, who make up the vast majority of the population of three million in West Sumatra, Indonesia, have a number of unusual characteristics that are almost unknown to nonspecialists. Chief among these is that they have, as far back as history records, been organized matrilineally (that is, in such a way that kinship structures pass in the female line), while at the same time they are strict and pious adherents of the predominantly patrilineal and patriarchal Muslim religion. How this apparent contradiction is reconciled among them, and how the matrilineal Minangkabau have adapted to patriarchal influences and conquerors, are questions that excite the study of this unique people.
West Sumatra province, the northern part of which lies on the equator, consists largely (apart from western islands that have little contact with the main island of Sumatra) of a hot, humid, and formerly malarial coastal lowland plain. From this plain, one ascends rather precipitously (and formerly with much difficulty) to the inland highlands, which are relatively cool and rainy but not humid. Several mountains, including the volcanic Mount Merapi, punctuate the inland landscape, and there are two large volcanic lakes surrounded by mountains, as well as several rivers, which were once important in trade.
The volcanic soil is highly fertile and can support more than one crop, usually of wet rice, the chief local staple. Year-round rainfall makes it possible to grow rice in all seasons, so that at any one time rice can be found at all different stages of growth, from planting to harvest, often within the same area. Except for plowing with the ubiquitous water buffalo, women do most of the work involved with rice growing. The fact that
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