Adat and Islam: An Examination of Conflict in Minangkabau

Abstract

The area, which lies on the west coast of Sumatra, is one of the most Islamized regions in Indonesia. At the same time it is famous for its strong attachment to its adat (body of local customs), which, it has commonly been assumed, stands opposed to islamic law. It is this contradiction that causes Bosquet to find the case remarkable paradox in the sociology of Islam(1) and Van Ronkel to ponder how the antithesis between adat and Islam, between the local custom and the universal religion, can make a synthesis that becomes the foundation of the Minangkabau character.(2) I wish to consider here the extent to which the eternal conflict between adat and Islam exists, whether it creates a situation in which a certain reconciliation can be achieved, and how the people of the area themselves see a situation in which the apparently opposing systems are able to impose simultaneously their patterns of behavior and standards of values. The question, it seems to me, involves the whole problem of the position and function of conflict in society.