The Transformation of the Lampong Society in South Sumatra under the Rule of Bantam

Abstract

Indonesia consists of various ethnic groups each of which has developed its own social institutions as a community based on adat or customary laws. One of the examples can be seen in the clan system called marga in Batak Region and South Sumatra. The social institutions of Lampong District which the author is going to discuss also derived from this system.This district was opened up around the fifteenth century by the Malay migrants from Central Sumatra. They continued to maintain the kinship structure they had held in their previous place of residence, until their society also came to be known for its marga system. It implied that the legitimacy of a clan chief was determined by his lineage in relation to the original settlers. His authority, however, was nothing more than that of primus inter pares.It was against this background that Lampong fell under the rule of Bantam since the middle of the sixteenth century. The kingdom held sway over these clan chiefs, turning them into its poenggawa or government officials; it imposed on them the duty of delivering pepper for the purpose of securing its exclusive supply. Especially, the penjimbang mega or marga chiefs were those whom the kingdom furnished with much power like that of a feudal lord, and, in return, saw to it that they forced their populace to cultivate pepper. Nevertheless, the Bantamese attempt at strengthening the position of marg chiefs was utterly fruitless.The intensified rule at the Bantamese in Lampong, however, caused some economic as well as social changes in the district. The predominant clan-consciousness prior to the conquest gave way to the increasing importance attached to the social relationship based on location rather than blood. In the southern coastal sub-districts where this trend was observed most conspicuously the clan system was replaced with that of bandaria headed by bandar or immigrant potentates by origin who formed a part of the administrative officialdom of Bantam. Even in other districts where the tendency was less obvious the naturally formed villages called tioeh tended to take over the functions previously performed by marga. This change was reflected in the newly introduced institution of pepadon or merit system under which the Bantamese government distributed honors, mostly in return for donation of money, to the Lampong chiefs in the form of a symbolic chair decorated with a pattern of dragons. The traditional clan chiefs used this system often as a means of “repurchasing” their social prestige in the past.In general, the author sees in the course of Lampong history during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries a gradual process of its emerging from the clan society tied to blood relationship.