The nuclear family in Minangkabau matriliny: the mirror of disputes

Abstract

Many disputes among the matrilineal Islamic Minangkabau of West Sumatra, Indonesia, are among kinfolk ? preeminently among matri lineal kin, then among kin related by marriage.1 In the latter instance a dispute often initiates between a woman and her husband, then expands outwards to include wider and wider circles of kin ? of both her and his matrilineal kin groups. Information on Minangkabau disputes can shed light on both the dynamics of kin interaction in Minangkabau society and on some aspects of change, but only in the context of Minangkabau ethnography and history (Tanner 1976). In deed, simply to understand the disputes themselves ? let alone use disputes as a key to comprehend patterns of social and cultural change ? is a major endeavor (Tanner 1969, 1971). Not only do the Minangkabau have differing modes of settling disputes out of court and within the courts, but also they utilize principles from three legal heritages ? their adat or 'custom', Islam, and the West (Tanner 1970, 1975, n.d.). Even more basic, to study disputes among kin necessitates considerable familiarity with the intimate workings of family life. I thank the many who entrusted detailed and private information to me in four years of fieldwork during the 1960s and 1970s in and around Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, Indonesia, and hope I have not misrepresented these delicate and oft-times painful aspects of their lives. The Minangkabau have been called duolocal, uxorilocal, matrilocal, and now also, for those who leave their villages, neolocal: duolocal because men still stay very attached to their mother's matrilineally extended family and household, often returning during the daytime for