From unity in diversity to culture wars? Aceh women's mastery over Adat, Islam, and the state inheritance laws

Abstract

This article explores “Asian values” and conflicts purported by normative pluralism in Asia from an anthropological approach. Instead of a zero-sum narrative of culture wars, this article proposes a narrative of social order through public reasoning that takes value plurality into account. This article contextualizes the concept of value in a specific social and cultural context as a query to the abstract, homogenizing nature of the concept itself. What happens when religious and state civil laws prescribe certain family values and behaviors, but the same values and behaviors are nonetheless culturally unjustified? This article is based on an anthropological analysis of Muslim women's perspectives in Banda Aceh. The study of inheritance law aims to provide a forum for evaluating legal engagements in a culture characterized by competing and contradictory values, such as in Aceh. The Acehnese hold legal pluralism: Adat, Shari'a, and state civil laws. Acehnese's choices of Adat, Shari'a, or civil laws are influenced by her social relationships and belongings. From an Acehnese standpoint, no single law has complete control over what is good and improper about inheritance. What is clear from the Aceh context is that the state is not the sole provider and protector of rights and justice. Aceh people use the state law and Shari'a law as a last resort when parties with no mutual interest have conflicting claims regarding inheritance. Further, the Acehnese promote public reasoning in which the plurality of laws are valued equally and one's coercion is consistent with one's respect for others.