THE HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF GAYO SOCIETY VARIATION AND CHANGE IN THE HIGHLANDS OF ACEH

BOWEN, JOHN R, 1984 T T-1V^-T Dissertation - L J ' l V l ' l Information Service-

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THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
fuir April 24 10 84

John Richard Boven Aafcw The History and Structure of Gayo Society:

July 19, 1951 hOM Variation and Change in the

Highlands of Aceh

Anrhropologv
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Ph.n.
Decree

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Permission is herewidi granted to the University of Chicago to make copies of the above tide, at in discretion, upon the request of individuals or institutions and at their fsycint.

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THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

THE HISTORY AST) STRUCTURE OF GAYO SOCIETY VARIATION AND CHANGE IN THE HIGHLANDS OF ACEH

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE DIVISION OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY

n
JOHN RICHARD BOWES

CHICAGO. ILLINOIS AUGUST 1984

" 'i
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTIOU CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW AND ANALYTICAL ISSUES Social Structure . Social Units and Variation Marriage Economy . Religion and Ritual Ritual, Tine, and Art The Life Cycle Death and the Funeral Issues for Analysis CHAPTER 2: GAYO REGIONS AND BEGINNINGS Social Geography The Lake District The Isak Valley The Southern District. Serbojadi Gayo Population . . . . . . . . . . . ................

Xi ** 1 1 2 7 . 9 11 12 1* 21 26 33 33 37 40 42 44 4S

Gayo Origins and Political Organization 46 Early Accounts. . . . . . . . . .....46 ire-Colonial Political Organization. . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 CHAPTER 3: COLONIAL HISTORY AND RELIGIOUS MODERNISM Interventions and Territorialization Military Encounters Political Reorganization Colonial Political Econoay Order and Authority Expansion and Exploitation il . 64 64 66 69 71 ...72 75

- - -.^.^^. ^ . ^ . ^ ^ t u a M

iii The Japanese Period: 1942-1945 Reformist Islam and Political Organization Political Organization CHAPTER 4: MYTH AND POLITICAL STRUCTURE Dynastic Myth Version A Variations on Version A Political Analysis of the Myth Origin and Journey Marriage Relations Death and Remarriage Children and Succession Politics and Kin Relations lsak Political Structure Isak Economy The Agricultural District Village Space and Village Structure From Village to District Political Levels Domain, District and Village lsak: District Politics and the Lineage Lineage and Sarak Opat CHAPTER 5: KINSHIP, KIN TERMS, AND NAMES Kin Ten Relations Siblings Parents and Children Kinds of Fathers and Mothers Great-grandparents and Ancestors Mother's Brothers and Father's Sisters Mother's Brother as Source Father's Sister Cousins Affinal Relations Changing Categories of Relatedness Names and Teknonyms The Form of Names Naming Ritual Names, Character, and Conduct Teknonyms Kinds of Teknonymic Expressions Titles Modes of Referring 5 7 'l 101 11 12 1' 112 112 H* 117 11* 123 125 125 130 136 1** 151 154 157 165 170 I70
,79

1*1 19 200 202 203 206 208 - 210 217 > 223 223 226 231 236 238 240 241

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- -

iv
CHAPTER 6: MARRIAGE AND LINEAGE Marriage Categories and Lineage Structure Virilocal Marriage Uxori local Marriage Uxorilocal Marriage and the Lineage Uxorilocal Kin Terms The Sociology of Marriage Exogamy and Domicile in lsak The Status of Uxorilocal Marriage Marriage and.Resources in Kute Kroail Political Status CHAPTER 7: TRANSFERS OF PROPERTY: INHERITANCE AND MARRIAGE PAYMENTS Land, Inheritance, and the Lineage Marriage Payments Bridewealth Escorting and Bride Goods A Sliding Scale of Uxorilocality 248 248 248
255

257
259

261 261 271 276 279

286

287
3

1 *

301 30

311

Changing Transfers: History, Structure, and Low 317 Marriage Payments from 1900 to 1978 317 Law, Inheritance, and the Reinterpretation of Tradition . . 330

CHAPTER 8: PROCESS AND EXCHANGE IN MARRIAGE RITUAL The Marriage Process

347
347

Binding
Sequence and Delay Purification and Bewailing Wedding and Exchanges Bringing the Groom and the Wedding Joking and Obeisance Reciprocal Visits Formal Speech and Social Ties The Bride's Reincorporation Ritual and Structure CHAPTER 9: THE SOUTHERN GAYO VARIANT History and Political Structure Marriage

%?
3S0 356

37

370 377 3

*1

386

*03 5 *0'

40

'

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Lineage, Village, and Kinship Kin Relations Exchange and Cousins Ritual and Reciprocity

419 425 427 435

CHAPTER 10: SERBOJADI TRANSFORMATIONS History and Politics Economy Politics and Immigration Contemporary Society Village Composition Marriage and Access to Land . . . . . . . Kinship Marriage Ritual Conclusion: Historical Tranforaation CHAPTER lis CONCLUSIONS Variation History Household and Houses BIBLIOGRAPHY Publications and Manuscripts Official Reports

441 441 441 444 448 448 450 458 462 464 466 466 469 473 478 478 492

....

LIST OF TABLES

Tabic 1 : Gayo and Arabic Month Haines 2 : Gayo Sank in the Late Nineteenth Century 3 : Administrative Divisions of the Gayo Region, 1906 to 1945 4 : Leading Imports and Exports, Takengon, 1934 . . . . . . . 5 : Gayo Region Population Data, 1881 to 1980 6 : Population of Isak, 1980 .. 71 78 80 128 13 56

7 : Distribution of Households by Size, Kute Kraail, 1979 . . 12S 8 : Rainfall (on. and days) by Month. Isak, 1978 9 : Gayo Kin Terms, Male and Female Speaker . . . . . . . . . 10 s Gayo Affinal Tens 11 : Enclitic Pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 177 178 178 190 193 . . . . . . . 245 246 . 276

12 s Alternate Sets of Terms for Father's Brother* . . . . . . 13 : Cayo/Kalay Pairs 14 : Referring Expressions for Wife and Husband 15 : Feature Hierarchy for Wife T e n s 16 : Current Marriages of Household Heads by Origin, Kraoil 17 : Riceland Cvued by Uxorllocal and Virilocal Couples, KramU 18 t Current Marriages of Household Heads, Bebeten

278 284

MHaaslliiiBBisssiiMi^^

table 19 : Frequency of Tenure Arrangements, Kramll 1979 20 : Ownership and Area of Riceland, Kraail 1979 21 : Brideuealth Payments and Marriage Label 22 : Isak Prices of Foor Commodities, 1938 to 1983 . . . . . . 290 291 312 327

23 : Value of Bridevealth in Rice and Buffalo, 1938 and 1978 . 330 24 : Virilocal Marriages by Belah, RerebS 25 : Marriages In Three Villages by type of Domicile . . . . . 422 452

vil

LIST OF FIGURES

Figur 1 : Plan of a Gayo Longhouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 : Longhouse Locations, Kramil c.1930 3 : Plan of Joined Low Houses, Isak 4 : Two-level elder/younger Representation 5 : Dual Role of Key Isak Lineages 6 : Relatives in Same and Ascending Generations . 7 : Affinal Relatives, Male Ego . . . . . . 8 : Affinal Terms, Female Ego 9 : Multiple According of Elder Rank 10 : Four Affinal Relation, Same Generation 11 : Categories of Referring Expressions 12 : Trunk and Branch Lines In a Lineage . . . . . . . . . . 13 : Uxorllocal Kin Terms, Second Generation 14 t Marriage and Descent in The White Pig ........ ... 137 139 140 144 . 150 172 174 176 199 211 244 258 260 275 317

15 s Hierarchy of Marriage Features in Isak 16 : Buffalo Prices as Multiple of Rice Prices, 1938-1978, Isak 17 : Case One, Mah Atur to Kute Baru 18 : Case One, Marriages Implied by the Exchanges 19 t Case Two. Mah Atur to Kute Rye

328 398 . . . . . 399 400

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Figur 20 : Case Three, Mah Atur Exchange to Robel 21 : Genealogy of Reje Jabo, Terangon . . . . . . . . 401 423 424 431 433

. . . . . . . . . . .

22 : Rerebe Founding Genealogy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 : Wali Relations Betveen Cousins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

24 : KIn Terms after MBD Marriage, Terangon

25 : Hierarchical Distribution of Cousin-Types by Marriageability 26 : Genealogy of Kejurun Aboq Office-holders to 1900 27 : Contrast of Terangon and Lukup Reciprocal Visits ... 434 445

. . . 463

ix

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LIST OF MAPS

1 : Province of Aceh, Showing Cayo Research Sites and livers. 2 s Province of Aceh, Shoving Kabupaten Boundaries 3 : Isak and Surrounding Communities .....

36 36 126

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The research on vhich this thesis is based was conducted in the Cayo region of Aceh province, Indonesia, between February 1978 and June 1980, and was supported by doctoral dissertation research grants fro the Social Science Research Council,, the Fulbright-Says program, and the Rational Science Foundation. I an grateful to the Universitas Sylah

Kuala, Darussalam, Aceh, for sponsoring ny fieldwork, and to the presi dent of the university. Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Hassan, for his support and encouragenent. During ny stay In Aceh, a number of people provided Invaluable aid and encouragement. They include Dr. Syamsuddin Mahmud and Dr. tat Castles at the Universitas Syiah Kuala, and. In Takengon, the Bupati M. Beni Bantacut and the Sekwilda Mahnud Ibrahim. The entire community of Isak gave ne all the help a field researcher could expect, especially Aman Das, Aman Rat, Inen Rat, and Tgk. Asaluddin. My thanks to then for allowing me to enjoy ny stay in the Cayo region as well as to learn fron then while I was there. Particular thanks go to ny Cayo family, B. Aman Muhammad sekeluarga. In Chicago, ny dissertation supervisors have given ne careful, cogent, and constructive suggestions and crltlclsn of ny writing: Marshall Sahlins, Bernard Cohn, Valerio Valerl, and Paul Vheatley.

xi

xii

James A. Boon, James J. Fox, Sally Falk Moore, Janes T. Siegel, and Bur Talman have also given me helpful comments on ideas contained herein. The Institute for International Development at Harvard University provides me with the space and time to write down the results. Finally, special thanks to ny parents, who have always been there, and to my wife, Vickl, who has provided boundless encouragement.

fcl1aiMIIiailaciMal^^

INTRODUCTION

I became interested in working in Gayo society for both ethnographic and theoretical reasons. While there bad been many field studies of Batak societies, to the south of the Gayo, and several fine ethnographies had been compiled in Aceh, to the north, there had been no firsthand study conducted in the Gayo area. This ethnographic gap also, however, posed interesting theoretical questions. The Gayo appeared to lie on a line of sharp contrast in social structure. Batak societies have been described in terms of their patrilineal clans and lineages and the affinal relations between them (as wife-givers to wife-takers) which provide the framework for control of land, village affiliation, and access to political office. Acebnese society, however, has been described primarily in terms of affiliation to villages, nxorilocal residence, and a bilateral kinship structure. What night Gayo society look like, caught in the middle as it is? In the course of fieldwork I found that Gayo society contained features which resembled those in Batak society, and others which were closer to Acehnese social structure. Moreover, Gayo social structure exhibits variations in the relative importance of one set of elements or relations vis-s-vis another. In the course of this dissertation, I analyze some of these variations in what I will call local structures,

i.e., particular configurations of elements in a district, within the context of a global structure, i.e., the overall set of relations which

define Gayo society over and against Acehnese, Batak, or any other

xiv
society. Variation in social structure within a delimited culture area has been the subject of several anthropological studies (e.g., Yalman 1967; Eggan 19S0; Maybury-Lewis 1979), and a long tradition of research centered in Leiden has used the concept of a "field of ethnological study" to compare related societies in Indonesia (Josselin de Jong 1980s). Years of comparative work in Eastern Indonesis has given rise to a recent collection of essays seeking the underlying features which characterize societies in that region (Fox, ed. 1980). A similar approach to Western Indonesia has been urged on several occasions by de Josselin de Jong (e.g., 1975; 1980b). The present work is meant in part as a contribution towards the goal of understanding variation across Sumatra societies. It is also possible to approach variation as a challenge for historical explanation. In Sumatra, historical approaches have been taken

to the study of Minangkabau (Dobbin 1983), Aceh (Siegel 1969; Lombard 1967), and Batak (Castles 1975) societies, among others. In the present study of the Gayo, I make use of historical materials (both oral and written) In order to understand the trajectories followed by different districts or divisions of the society. An historical approach may in turn help us to understand what otherwise appears a* surface variation in social forms within a single society. The dissertation analyzes the points within the structure of Gayo society where a relation of ambiguity or tension exists between alternative social representations. It is at these points that an historically-specific push in a particular direction is effective. The

XV

structure has a dynamic tension at its core, since it does not resolve into a single representation of society. The dissertation analyzes Gayo society in terms of structure and history, beginning with an overview of the society within its Sumatran context (Chapter 1) and then the nature of late nineteenth century Gayo political leadership and its initial interactions with Dutch colonial power (Chapter 2). Chapter 3 analyzes

the differentiating transformations of social, political, and economic life by Dutch colonial authority in the period prior to World War II, and the revolution in political control and social interpretation which occurred thereafter, changes which were marked principally by the increasing influence of reformist Islamic leaders and institutions. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 together analyze Gayo social structure as I was able to study it in the sub-district of Isak from 1978 to 1980. I begin with an analysis of the dynastic myth of the entire society, in which the constitutive elements of the structure may be seen. Following sections then examine the interrelations between these elements with regard to the political history, kinship system, and marriage relations in Isak. Chapter 7 examines changes in inheritance and marriage payments and the bearing they have had on the ideology of marriage and property in Isak and Takengon. Particular attention is paid to the

effect of religious reformism on the interpretation of social practices. Chapter 6 presents the sequence of rituals which make up the marriage process, and the way in which exchanges and speech-making represent the local structure. The key point of ambiguity in Gayo social structure is in the relationship between virilocal and uxorilocal modes of marriage. Each

W-in

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ode has different implications for, inter

alia,

descent ideology, the

control of property, and political legitimacy. Virilocal marriage is ideologically dominant, and is licked to a representation- of lineages as internally structured by relations between brothers, and as related to each other through affinal ties. Either form of marriage may be the most common, however, with the less common form represented as a special case, a figure standing out from a more common ground. In Isak, uxori-

local marriages may be re-presented as if they were virilocal, or the uxorilocally-msrried man may be "borrowed back" by the members of his patrilineage. This dominant tension is manifested in the political field as well. The political unit may be defined either as a territorial-based system of offices and subjects or as a system of lineages, defined in terms of patrilineal descent and siblingshlp. Political and spiritual powers may derive both from indigenous, patrilineally-transmitted status and from external, marrying-in sources. In each case, these points of tension have been the focus of intervention by particular historical actors. The structure thus both shapes the course of history (by locating its points of effectiveness) and is differentiated and transformed by historical events. In Isak, Dutch political and economic policy had the effect of playing down the exchange relations between lineages, and collapsing two poles of authority onto a single line of territorial rule. local weightings of elements (exchange vis-a-vis locality, indigenous and external sources of authority) were thus reshaped by colonial intervention. Reformist Islam, reinterpreting marriage and inheritance in person-centered terms, reinforced the colonial emphases in these domains.

xvU

The nature of these historical effects becomes clearer when, in the second half of the thesis, three permutations of the marriage system are explored. The first is the highlighting of virilocal carriage and affinal exchange between patrilineages, examined in the southern village of Serb (Terangon district), and also, briefly, in Bbesn in the north. In both cases political developments have accentuated the differentiation between lineages in the village, the frequency of intravillage marriage, and an emphasis on the patrilineal-virilocal side of the structure. The southern villages have begun to resemble Karo Batak society in which cross-cousin marriage is highly valued. The mirror-image of the southern permutation is to highlight uxorilocal marriage and the continuity of relations between daughters and land. In the eastern district of Serbojadi, examined in the final chapter, men move between villages, and in and out of the district. This relatively recent district was settled by immigrants from elsewhere in Gayoland, but also from the eastern Malay-Acehnese coast. These immigrants married uxorilocally and attained positions of political importance in the community. Seasonal migration by men out of the area has been a central part of the local economy as well. As in Isak, villagers are affiliated with a lineage category (within which the infrequent virilocal marriages serve to define its patrilineal character), yet it is the ties of daughters to village land and house which have been emphasized. A further development of the system would leave it defined entirely by locality, with no lineage category at all, as is the case is coastal Acehnese society.

""-

.1

xviii
The third permutation analyzed in the dissertation is found in Takengon, where the boundaries between lineages and villages have been de-emphasized, and the shares in an estate are distributed to sons and daughters by reference to Islamic law and a person-centered reinterpretation of local custom. Particular marriage arrangements are accompanied by contracts in which the rights of husband and wife to predetermined portions of their earnings are made explicit. Ve may see in these developments the effects of reformist Islamic reinterpretations of marriage and wealth, the rise of new cash-crop opportunities, and the nature of Indonesian national legal attitudes towards marriage, inheritance, and value. Pushed further, the system would resemble more closely the Javanese one which has served as a model for national judicial ideology, and which is defined by bilateral descent and the apportioning of property to individuals rather than to lineages. In each alternative permutation, structure has responded to history, but has also organized it, providing the points at which change has taken place. Structure is perceived here, then, as including the relations of implication, tension, and ambiguity between social categories, schmas, and representations. These characteristics of the structure sake the society relatively open to historical change, and define the significance of that change in culturally appropriate terms. 1 have used a simplified system of transcription in the thesis, one that nonetheless represents the phonemic distinctions made in Gayo. Special characters have been used with the following approximate values: as expressed by the French aigue accent; as in the French grave accent;

- .

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xix
e the schwa sound; es in French feu.

The vowels o, u have the same sound as in Italian, and the i always is a short vowel. Final consonants are not released; consonants in other positions sound much like the equivalent consonants in Italian. The r, however, is closest to the light r in Central French pronunciation.

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CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW AND ANALYTICAL ISSUES

SOCIAL STRUCTOU

There are about 200,000 Gayo, most of whom live in the highlands of the province of Aceh, Indonesia. Most Gayo live in villages of SO to 150 households, and more than half of them live within two miles of the town of Takengon in the kabupaten Aceh. (sub-provincial district) of Central

Increasingly large cumbers have moved to cities elsewhere in

Indonesia, particularly Banda Aceh, Medan, and Jakarta. The term "Gayo" is used by Gayo and others alike to refer both to a people and to a language (babasa Cayo).

There is virtually no mention of the Gayo in western writings prior to the beginning of the Aceh-Dutch war in 1873. The first detailed description of Gayo society was provided by C. Snouck Hurgronje in 1903, who worked with informants who had left the Gayo region and were living on the coast. Subsequent reports from Dutch officials cover the period from the arrival of Dutch forces in Takengon in 1904 to the Japanese occupation in 1942, and provide the only written first-hand accounts of the society. There are four principal geographic subdivisions of the Gayo highlands. Gayo Laut is the area around Lake Tawar and Takengon, while Gayo Drt is the adjacent district to the south. Both districts are in the 1

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2 kabupaten

of Central Aceh, and will be referred to together as "northern

Gayo." Gayo Lues consists of the northern half of Southeast Aceh, and will be called "southern Gayo." Gayo Serbojadi is a small highland district in East Aceh. Gayo speech differs slightly among districts, primarily in lexicon and in the degree of nasality. Gayo grammar is constant across these divisions and is very similar to Malay grammar. The main part of the fieldvork on which the dissertation is based was conducted in the village complex of Isak in the Deret district. Shorter periods were spent in several villages near Takengon, in the Gayo Lues sub-district of Terangon, and in Lukup village in Serbojadi.

Social Units and Variation

There are several social categories which appear in different combinations in Gayo society. Two terms are used to refer to a lineage or localized lineage segment. Belah has the sense of division or side, referring to divisions in a territorial unit, either a village or vil' lage complex, with reference to a core patriline. The tera may be used for the lineages in a single village which may intermarry and thus stand as opposing sides of the village in marriage. Opposition in marriage and in fighting or battle are both designated by the word belenen, to be able to marry implies standing as an opposite side in ritual encounters. In most southern Gayo villages, each village has several and

belah which may intermarry or marry into ether village*. In Isak in 1900, the tera was used to refer to the three patrilines which provided the rj (headman), petu (assistant), and imm

(religious official) for the five-village complex of Isak. In the die-

b^-.^^.^^^,.^..^..,^...,,^....,-,...,.....,.,^,,^

,..

....^..^.,

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tionary cctnpiled from data gathered in 1900-01 we find, under the entry blah, the sentence: i Isak blah rj' i Kute Kring, blah ciq i Kramil

Bur (in Isak, the headman's belah

is in Kute Krieg, the belah of his

assistant (wakil ciq) is in Kramil Bur (Kazeu 1927).* Vhile these two lineages could not intermarry, they could marry into other villages in Isak. A second term for lineage is kuru. Vhile the several belah in is

village may or may not trace co-descent from an ancestor, a kuru

always one branch of a more encompassing lineage, and does not have the sense of opposition which is associated with belah. Kuru usually come

in threes, each associated with one of the three village offices. The relationship among them is usually represented as the descendants of three brothers or two brothers and a sister. The kuru may be subdivisions either of a belah or of a village.

Within a lineage, a distinction is made asong several patrilines or keturunan. In most of Gayoland, this term refers to the line of

patrilineal descent from an ancestor, although in Serbojadi it often means bilateral descent. The reasons for this difference will be dis* cussed later. Within a lineage, the line which has descended froa the founding male ancestor is often distinguished from those lines which descend from sisters, as trunk line vis-a-vis branches. As one Isak aan said about his own descent line:

1 Throughout the thesis I have adopted a consistent spelling for Gayo words, and altered the spelling in quotes taken from other sources for greater clarity.

4
Our keturunan is the trunk line (.batang) of the kuru, because we are tie descendants through men. Other lines are from uxo* rilocally married (angkap) men, and so are only branch lines (cabang). The lineige includes men and women whose patrilineal origins art from outside the lineage as well as those who descend from the founders. A maxim was justed to me to illustrate the difference between lineage and patriline: pun sara kanan, tumpit sara kuru (the pun birds fly

together, wbi^e the tumpit birds (the pipit) come together (to feast on rice plants)). The people in a lineage similarly have come together without all being of one patriline.' The village, or kampung, residential area, is thought of as a physical place, a

which does not necessarily correspond with any other

social unit. Ic most cases, however, the village is thought of as the place of the sarak opat sarak (four social statuses). The headman of the or pengulu. A

opat iasti usually of the village), is the rj

petu' serves as his assistant, while an imm is charged with collecting the zakat and fitrah (religious taxes), ensuring that collective prayers

and religions feasts were properly observed, and officiating at marriages. Succession to all three offices traditionally followed the patriline. The same officers perform these functions today, but in the Indonesian national context the headman is known as the kecik. Gayo villages consist of one sarak opat. Most

In Takengon, however, there

Kits as. eye to the international situation at the time, one man mentioned tiat tne dispute between Shi'ites and Sunni Muslims was over this distinct ton. Shi'ites had adhered to the party of Saidina Ali, the son-in-law cf Muhammad. Vhile Muhammad's daughter, Fatimah, was his keturunan, Ali and their children were only Muhammad's kuru. The other Muslims thus would not follow thea.

5
are villages which each have several sarak opat.

These units are combined in different ways. There are three basic configurations of village, sarak opat, kuru and belah. In the first, In most

one village and sarak opat consists of three or four belah. villages in southern Gayo, the four or five belah

which make up the

village frequently intermarry; in one such village, Rerb, more marriages were within the village than with other villages. In these villages, the three offices of the sarak belah, petu, opat each are transmitted within a r'j, belah

and give their names to these three lineages: belah belah ie.

In several of the villages downstream from Isak, two

or more belah may intermarry but rarely do so, most marriages being with other villages. In Penarun, a village downstream from Isak, there are three belah in the village, named Benu, Kala, and Payung. Kala aay

marry Benu and Payung, but the last two may not intermarry. Each furnishes one of the three officers mentioned above. Other, nearby villages consist of only one belah. opat,

In the second combination, the village is again the sarak

and is composed of of three kuru which aay not interaarry. Many villages in the Isak valley are of this form. In this case, too, the three

lineages are named for the three offices. To the extent that several villages together formed a higher-level political unit, these villages, or their core lineages, might be referred to as belah. In the early

part of the century three villages in Isak were interrelated as the villages in which were located the ruler, representative, and imm for the Isak sub-district, and so were referred to with the term belah, as

was mentioned above. With the demise of this political interrelation-

ship, the term belah

was dropped from use (see Chapter 4 ) .

In the third combination, one large village contains several belah, each of which in turn has its own set of three kuru. opat. Furthermore, each belah Each belah

is its own sarak

has branches in other of the lineage

villages, each with a representative (bedl head.

or vakil)

In any one of these outlying villages there are segments or

branches from several of the original lineages, each responsible, not to a village authority, but to the ruler of its own lineage. The belah thus cross-cuts village lines. This third combination of forms characterizes most of the Takengon district, where two large villages, Kebayakan and Bbsn, are the focal points for many other villages. Kebayakan has four such belah, each

with branches in a number of villages in the Bukit domain. Bbsn has six belah, and different combinations of these six appear in all the In both Bukit and Ciq is not permitted even

villages of the Ciq domain, including Pegasing. domains marriage between members of the same belah

if they are from different villages. In those villages with more than one localized lineage marriage between these lineages is soaetimes possible. Other villages consist of only one such lineage, and so marriage

within the village is not permitted. Both the terms belah and kuru may be translated as "lineage,"

depending on the particular combination of units in which they find themselves. the sarak In Isak, the kuru is the lineage, and the village is also

opat,

so I will use the terms lineage and village to refer to In Southern Gayo, the belah is the lineage, and the tera

these units. kuru

is rarely used; it is sometimes used with the sense of a two or

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three-generation patriline, a category for which the tera would be used in Isak. In Takengon, the belah

keturunan

in a particular village is the

is best translated as "localized lineage," while the entire belah

lineage proper. I will reserve the term "clan" for the higher-level grouping of the four Bukit lineages as the descendants of a single ancestor, Sengda.

tiarriage
Two forms of marriage serve to articulate interliceage relations. In the ideologically dominant marriage form, a couple lives in the husband's village after marriage, and all children from the narriage are affiliated to his lineage (virilocal residence and patrilineal descent). More precisely, the domicile of the couple is fixed by the marriage, and the lineage affiliation of the children follows suit. The term domicile

will be used here to indicate an official status in a village and the term residence to indicate physical location at any one time (following

Leach 1956:125). A perduring relationship of exchange and visiting is thereby established between the wife-giving or "source" line (raliq) and

the wife-taking line, referred to as the "child of the old one" (anak juln). Ju'ln, As the Gayo terms suggest, this marriage fors, itself called involves a bridewealth payment from the man's to the woman's

close relatives. In the second form of marriage, the husband is talen into the wife's lineage and becomes "like a son" to her parents. Eather than based on an idea of exchange, this marriage form is thought of as a "picking up" (angkap) of a man, a term which is also the name of the

s
marriage type. an angkap In certain Gayo districts (in particular, in Gayo Lues),

marriage is a response to certain specific conditions (a house-

hold with no sons and men with little bridewealth to offer) and Is relatively rare. In the district of Serbojadi this form of marriage is marriage has been made,

the statistically prevalent one. When an angkap children remain affiliated to the wife's lineage.

The division of an estate and the succession to an office have traditionally followed lineage lines, with all children who have remained in the lineage receiving a share. In Gayo Lues, however, a

strong patrilineal ideology is associated with a bias in estate divisioa towards virilocally married couples. Children and inherited property also remain in the lineage after divorce. The spouse who had married into the lineage returns to his or her natal lineage, taking only that property which had been brought into the marriage. The customary rules of marriage, inheritance, and divorce have undergone substantial changes since the beginning of Dutch rule in 1904. Two important sources of change have been Islamic reform and the establishment of Islamic courts throughout Aceh. Modernist Islam entered

Gayo in the late 1920's through the influence of West Sumatran traders. Takengon soon became the center for activities of the reformist group within the region, the kaum muda ("young group"), which sought to change traditional practices deeded to be contrary to the tenets of Islam, including the traditions and legal norms governing marriage, inheritance:, and divorce. Shortly after Independence (1945), a separate Islamic court was established in Takengon and began to hear divorce and inheritance cases.

'

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9

The ispact uf the court was felt most strongly in its strict application of Islasic inheritance law, which allots shares to both sons and daughters at a ratio of 2:1, irrespective of lineage affiliation. An opportunity was thus created for descendants of married-out children to sue for a redistribution of ancestral wealth. Some villagers did bring such

suits to the courts and generally won their cases. The result has bees as increasing tendency to divide property along Islamic lines in order to prevest the possibility of future lawsuits, and to make gifts of property to children before death, thereby removing some fro the domain of inheritance law. (hibab)

property

In addition, since the child is sou

virtually guaranteed a share of the parertal estate regardless of the aarriage form followed, a secondary result of this change has been to dowrplay the formal postmarital affiliation to either the husband's or the wife's lineage. This change is discussed further in Chapter 7.

Ecemoamr The nutritional, social, and ritual focal point of the Gayo ecojscarr is the wet rice plot, une. Even in the dry, uplands area north of

Tafcecgoc where coffee grows superbly but rice barely survives, Gayo fazaers will tend a plot large enough for their own consumption needs. Aad, as far away as Jakarta, wealthy Gayo will order the best Takengos rice to be shipped to tbea, despite the availability of nearby admittedly equally high quality West Java rice (Cigentur beras kepala).

The Gayo area produce roughly the same amount of rice that it ooasuaes. although significant quantities of rice are sold to traders daring the first few months after harvest, and corresponding quantities

10

must be purchased from outside the area eight to ten months later. Only local rice varieties are grown, with productivity between two and four tons per hectare in the simply irrigated fields. Rice plots are prepared for planting by driving water buffalo around in circles, trampling down the wet earth, then hoeing and leveling the area to be planted. Seedlings are transplanted into the plots by hand, usually by the household that farms the plot, although wealthier households will recruit planting teams. Harvesting is generally performed by sa2ll groups of women, but threshing is a joyous collective occasion where large numbers (10-30) of boys and girls work in the afternoon or evening, stamping the grains out of the rice with a pressing and pushing motion of the feet, and also exchanging glances, jokes, and comments that often lead to more permanent liaisons. In Gayo Lues a significant number of households also farm rice on dry plots, and in most of the region tobacco has long been an important cash crop. However, since the 1960's the principal source of trading income for the region has been coffee, largely of the Arabica variety, grown in small, one to two hectare gardens on mountain slopes in Central Aceh. Coffee plantations grew rapidly in the 1970's, with a sudden spurt in new plantings after the international price rise in 1976. Uncontrolled clearings of new gardens has led to severe problems of erosion around Takengon. Most export of coffee from the region has been handled by Acehnese traders, whose Medan-based export firms ship Gayo coffee to Singapore for reshipaent to Europe and tb United States. However, efforts have been made recently to place soae of this trade in Gayo hands.

11 The Gayo do not strictly delimit economic activities by gender. Although a man will refer to his wife as "the owner of the house" (mpun umah), women engage in peddling trade, the management of small enter-

prises, and social activities outside the village as often as do men, who are often occupied with tending livestock, working in ricefields, or bunting. Men and women work together in the ricefields, and men are Rural Gayo

frequently occupied with the care of younger children.

rarely engage in the circular migration characteristic of the Acehnese and Minangkabau, nor do Gayo men today spend long periods away from home (with the exception of men in the Serbojadi region). In the non-agricultural sector, Gayo have generally preferred the civil service, banking, and other relatively safe guaranteed-pension occupations to the rough-and-tumble world of trade, or to careers in the military or police forces.

RELIGION AND RITUAL

Although there are no written sources for the history of Islam in Gayc, we can surmise from indigenous traditions and the long-term Acehnese suzerainty that the Gayo have been Islamic for at least three centuries. Many Gayo myths show an influence from Islamic (often origi-

nally Judaeo-Christian; tales. The origin myth for the area begins with a voyage over a flooded earth from Rum (Constantinople), the founding of Isak is told in a story which strongly resembles that of Joseph and his brothers, and the story of Cain and Abel provides the mythic armature for the relations of humans to hunting spirits. Gayo attribute their

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early conversion to Islam to the missionary work of Abdurrauf, the earlyseventeenth century Vest Aceh 'ulama whose commentary on the Qur'an was probably the central religious text in early Aceh. There are no indigenous tales in which the Gayo are represented as non-Islamic.

Ritual,

Time, and Art

Ritual practice in Gayo appears to rest on a basis of Sufi ontol-

ogy, with frequent references to the Light of Muhammad (Nur Muhammad) and the power to be derived from gnosis (a'rifat , Gayo maript). Gayo

esoteric theories of creation and the nature of being are very close to Sufi ideas that were expounded by Hamzah Fansuri, the late sixteenth century Acehnese theologian and poet. Creation, in Hamzah s writings and in Gayo texts, took place by the progressive concrete manifestation of inner being along a chain from God to man, and man's soul is a prexistent concretization of the Light of Muhammad, the archetype of all souls, as Muhammad is the archetype of all being. These Sufi ideas are the source for exegeses of rituals that employ spells (doa), (isyarat). concentrated gnosis (maript), and ritual objects and uncooked

Incense, a certain citrus frait (the mungkur),

rice of four colors (representing the four constituents of all matter: earth, air, fire, and water) are combined with various cooked foods at ritual meals (kenduri). The kenduri are held for major life crises

(name-giving, circumcision, birth, death), for points in the agricultural cycle, or for any significant change in a person's condition (curing an illness, changing a name, departing on a journey).

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Months and years are figured according to the Islamic calendar. The Arabic and Gayo names for the twelve months of the year are listed

Table 1 : Gayo and Arabic

Hontb Karnes

No. Gayo Name 1. Muharam

Arabie Name Mukarra

Feast

Days

Kenduri Muharam on the 10th; celebrates past Islamic battles.

2.

Sapar

Syafar Rabi'al-awwal Kenduri Mawlid held on the 12th for Muhammad's birthday and in succeeding months.

3. Rabil awal/ Mawlid pertama

4. Rabil akhir/ Mawlid kedua 5. Jemadil awal 6. 7. Jemadil akhir Rjp

Rabi'al-akhir Junada ' l - awva 1 Jumada'1-akhir Baj a b Sya'ban Ramadhan Fasting month. Sight of Power on odd days after 21st. 1st is Hari Raya. Halal bil halal held on 2nd.

8. Sben 9. Pasa

10. Reraya 11. Berapit 12. Haji

Syawwal Dzu 1-qa'dah Daz 1-hijah

10th is Reraya Haji, sacrifice.

below. The years are in an eight-year cycle that is of use in planting. The eight years are named by letters in the following order: alif, jim, za, dal awal, ba, way, dal akhir. ba,

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14

Within a month there are two kinds of days to avoid. One should never undertake a major activity on the last Wednesday cf the month, called Rabu nas (translated by Gayo as "unlucky Wednesday"). Dates of the month are in a six-day cycle called the menggu. Tnese dates cor-

respond to the date on which God created each of six objects. In order they are: humans, water buffalo, iron, gold, rice, desk. The cycle repeats over the month, so that the first, seventh, thirteenth, etc. days of each month are menggu' ni jema (the birth-date of humans), and so on. No important feast or ritual should be carried oct on the menggu' of humans; buffalo should be allowed to rest at their day, and, some say, rice should never be harvested on its day. The Islamic festivals are occasions for kenduri. Three major

festivals are widely and enthusiastically reserved tfcrocg&oat the Gayo region: Idul Fitri or Eari Raya (as a feast celebrating the end of the fast), Idul Adha, Hari Raya Eaji or Hari ssrbn, 'celebrating the pilgrimage), and Mawlid (the Prophet's birthday, on itch, iooseholds and villages exchange meals and chants). Of ties three feast days, Idul Fitri is clearly the most important for tb* Gayo, a dsy when each relative is visited in strict order of seniority, graves are cleansed and repaired, new clothes are worn, and each person forgives the other for the sins, slights, and insults of the previous year. In every Gayo village the five-times-daily rit&al prayer Gayo semiyang) (sbalat,

is regularly carried out by a number ef the adult men,

others observe only one or two of the prayers. Tb* dmsk prayer (maghrib) is often conducted at a mosque or prayer loxse; the other four

prayers, when observed, are carried out at home. Friday prayers in the

15

mosque are a regular feature of life in all villages, with the sermon (khotbah) given in a mixture of Indonesian and Gayo.

Gayo verbal art is also infused with Islamic topics. The saman is heard primarily in Gayo Lues. It is a series of songs and chants per-

formed by boys (in rare instances, by girls). The performers kneel in a long row and sway from side to side, accompanying their song with unison slapping of hands to knee, chest, and each other's hands. The saman closely resembles the ratib, chanting "la ilaba illallah" (there is no

God but Allah) until a trance-like state ensues, and religious songs, including songs commemorating the war with the Dutch, are part of the saman repertoire. The didong is a competitive genre of sung narrative. In Gayo Lues

the contest is primarily between two individuals; elsewhere, between two teams of 20-30 boys each. Didong are conducted either at the festivities accompanying a marriage, or on national holidays. The content of these narratives varies from love songs to historical ballads to tales of Islamic prophets. Several hundred didong songs have been recorded in

cassette form and are sold in Takengon and Jakarta. Didong teams have appeared at the Jakarta arts theater on several occasions. Poetry (sya'ir) was a major vehicle for reformist Muslims who, in

the 1930's, began to criticize traditional ritual and legal practices. These poems, in Gayo, were composed and sung in the Laut and Drt districts in the 1930's and 40's. Several such texts were written down in Arabic script, and constitute the earliest known written Gayo literature. The sya'ir dealt exclusively with religious topics, and, when

skillfully presented, were instrumental in persuading many Takengon-area

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Gayo to adopt a reformist stance towards social affairs. The style of conduct based on avoiding shame or embarassment (kernel) colors Gayo social interactions with a tone of reticence and

reserve, and an investment of feeling in kin ties turns the Gayo community living outside the homeland in upon itself. Gayo are considered by others to be close-knit and lacking the aggressive desire for advance I ent attributed to the Batak or the trading spirit of the Acehnese. However, an attitude of silent watching has been of aid to the Gayo in their recent gradual advancement within the national bureaucracy. A fluent command of Indonesian has also helped them in these endeavors. More importantly, perhaps, Gayo have been successful in preserving a texture of social discourse and artistic production that provides a relatively undiluted core of cultural continuity, even in Jakarta.

Tbe life

Cycle
opat) to their children

Parents are said to hold four debts (utang

which are realized as four rituals which define the life cycle. The first stage is the ritual bathing of the child, turun mani, which takes

place seven to fourteen days after birth. The child is introduced to tbe natural and social worlds, bathed, and named. This ritual will be examined in greater detail in Chapter 5. Circumcision or incision (sunt, menjelisen) takes place shortly before puberty for boys, but in Education,

infancy for girls, and makes of the child a full Muslim.

which traditionally meant training in Qur'an reading, is the third debt; today this debt is often interpreted as both religious and secular schooling. Marriage is the fourth step in the debt cycle. The child

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then assumes responsibility for care cf the parents, burial at death, and assistance to the dead spirit of the parents through feasts and remembrances. These four debts are often recited during the rituals of marriage, as a recounting of the steps by which the boy or girl arrived at the point of leaving the family. The following speech was recorded in Isak. It describes the four steps, but considers them at a distance, inserting reformist Islamic comments on one of them, the bathing of the child. The speaker begins with the origin of all things and of all of us, and then introduces the child's birth: "Ujn berasal angin berusul perbuten muasaliya asaliya ni perbutni awal berpemulon, achi r berkesudahan, karena kit ni keturun ni Nabi e'dm oru'n Tuen Siti Hw bahwa reny ku kit Keta dt ari Puta Mer'num, hukum ari Syiah Kuala, keta dt ni gr bercer orum hukum, dt itetunung hukum, hukum itetunung dt. kerna berup-rup ke nge ara kit. nge iluahi kit, nge ara buah hati. nge ara buah hati ini, masuk utang opat perkara. Rain has an origin, wind a source, actions reasons. The reasons for these actions, the start has a start, the end an ending. Because we descend from Prophet Adam and Mistress Eve. directly to us. Now adat is from Puta Merhum, and Islamic law from Syiah Kuala. Now adat does not separate from law, adat is followed by law, and law by adat. because, it seems, now we are there, we are married, there is a child and once there is a child, we take on four debts. mani, the bathing of the

The first of these debts is the turun

infant shortly after birth, which is here is presented as a "perbuten iiumang", a forbidden act, and is prefaced by the whispering of the "28 letters" (a synecdoche for the Qur'an, what is actually whispered is the call to prayer) in one ear and the gamat (short responding call to

18 prayer) in the other ear of the iniant, giving the step somewhat of an Islamic ring to it. "rup utang opat perkara ni pertama, ng lahir buah hati sine, isisun huruf dua lapan ku kemiring kun, qamat ku kemiring kiri "Nge mari oya, nge sawah pitu lo beta iaai ku waih lagu perbuten sumang. Irilingen kir ruj igcpn orum kelati iilangen rarae sawah ku waih. sawah kon p kati enti trh kin Stan, bange, kati enti rap penyakit. "j. Keta ng mari oya ng sawah ke waih p ng lagu perbuten sumang. Beta ke dt ni Puta Merhum saat n, orua Syiah Kuala saat n. IbeIahen kramil ku ulue kati enti trh kin gegur. keta ng mari oya p ng sawah miyen k'umah irasin geral Irasi gerla, ke si rawan, Genali, ke si banan, Sri Mersa It seems these first, when the child the 28 letters into his right and qamat into four debts is born, are whispered ear his left.

Now after that, when it has been seven days, he is brought to the river as if a forbidden act. A cloth is rolled up, and held in a betel-cutter; fire is lit when they reach the river. When they arrive there, So he does not fear the Devil, perhaps, so that sickness does not approach. Rj. So after tbat, when they have reached the river, it is as if a forbidden act. And so is the cdt of Puta Merhum, just now and of Syiah Kuala just now. A coconut is split over his head so that he will not fear thunder. And then after that once they have returned to the house be is given a name. He is given a name, if a boy, Genali, if a girl, Sri Mersa. mani ritual a 'forbidden act , the

Even while dubbing the turun

speaker has cleverly added that the ritual is done because it has been banded down as dt (Malay "adat") from Puta Merhum (Iskandar Muda) and

Syiah Kuala, who is usually cited as the complementary source of Islamic law, and not adat. Islam is thus implicated in the history of, and thus

19

the reasons for performing, the bathing ritual. In the section that follows, which I will not quote in full, the speaker names the second debt, serahn ku nahma guru ("handing over to a

teacher"), whereby the child learns the bases of Islam. The third debt, circumcision or incision, is skipped over here. This has happened at other speech events and with other speakers, and 1 would guess that its ommission is due to its ambivalent character in the Gayo life-cycle.
i

For boys, circuscision is a public event that takes place shortly before the onset of puberty. The physical mark tbat signifies religious adherence is inscribed upon them, visibly changing their condition. It is a

highly salient and meaningful event, even for reformist, urban Gayo where the operation is performed in a hospital without the adat rituals. At a traditional circumcision, several steps are taken to ascertain his fate, and, when necessary, to bring about a change in his conduct by transferring ill-fate onto a chicken, through a process known as sedui, and which is described in Chapter 5 as it is carried out at (bujang).

birth. This is the moment when the boy becomes an adolescent

Although his parents still have the obligation of finding him a wife, Gayo view this final obligation as less serious for a boy as for a girl, since a boy may carry by himself, without the presence of a guardian. For a girl, on the other hand, incision is not the occasion for public ritual. It is carried out shortly after one year of age, without any public pronouncement. Unlike male circumcision, it does not mark the entry of the girl into a new stage of life, but is considered an act which must be done to make her a properly cultural person. It carries

less cultural weight than does circumcision, and, in fact, is often said

BH

20

not to be a "debt" at all, so that, in some versions of the life-cycle, girls have only three "debts"; boys four. In the speech quoted above, although the general formula was given as the "four debts", the third was left out as being inapplicable to a girl, the "Sri Mersa" hypothesized by the speaker. Other formal speeches have included circumcision as one of the debts. I resume the narration of the life cycle with a different version, one which concerns a bojr. "ketige itekaran si haram itengkapi si halal anak sah kin tn." Third, the forbidden is thrown away, the permitted is rolled back, the child is legitimate as a sign.

The child (boy) is now legitimate as a member of the Islamic community. As a circumcised male, he is his own sign of a change in status. Now he grows older and can be married: "Melnkan ng sawah atw, rj; Waris lagu si nge ngok iwajiben; ringen nge ngok ibereten. Melnkan sana we. anak sah kin tn, karena sara kir mujadi roa. "Melnkan sana karena sara nge mujadi roa ni. Ninget kite rues kir bertungku, raliq kir berperdu." Vow his heart is already there, rj; the permissible, as if it can now be made required; the light can now be made heavy. And what can one do, the child is legitimate as a sign, because one bas become two. But what: because one has become two bere. Ve remember plant-sections have bounds, trunks have offshoots.

With marriage the child is now legitimate as a sign of adulthood, i.e., the proper rituals have been held. The envoi in this section is

one of those key parallel maxims that reverberates throughout Gayo culture. The figures employed refer to the plant domain, are key metaphors

for tiae, and also demarcate the two primary dimensions of the domain of

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21

kinship and marriage. The rue's refers to the section of a plant (bamboo was always used to explain this to me); the boundaries between sections are the tungku. The image is often used to mean "fitting", or comple-

mentarity", such as in "rues finds its tusgi^", two matched objects come together: a boy and a girl, a singer and a scng, or a person and an is often used to mean "hucan body"; this image

activity. The word rues

occured several times even in the short bits of crying-through-words cited earlier. It is also used to mean "descendants", or. more gener-

ally, the linear quality of descent throngs time, drawing on the repetitive feature of the plant image, generations marked by the joints. The second half of the parallelism, raliq beperis, refers to the shooting

out, rather than down, from a trunk, an iinsge which is used to characterize the relation of a source line to its married-out offshoots.' Tbe four stages of the utang opat br;-g the individual to the beginning of adult life. The final ritual sndergone by tbe individual is burial.

Death and the Funeral

Death is seen as two parallel series of events. In one, tbe body decomposes and tbe soul gradually departs, both from the body and from the community. In tbe ether, the community performs a series of rituals

in order to ease tbe passage of tbe soul scA. to ritually manage the emotions that accompany tbe deatb.

' Compare the description of similar imagery in an Eastern Indonesian society in Barnes (1974:229-233,1-

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Gayo speak of four souls that together account for different psychic states during life and death. Briefly, the nyana secures life,

and its presence sets off the class of sentient beings from all others; its departure at death is sudden and irreversible. After death it The semangat,

ceases to play a role in the individual's social being.

on the other hand, is a kind of passive transformer of external actions (particularly those of malevolent spirits) into states of well- (or ill) being. It, too, only exists during life. on the other hand, roams in and out of the body during Some Gayo at (or even

The ruh,

life, allowing the individual to dream of far away places. say that this soul becomes the fourth category, the arwah,

40 days before) death; others say that they constitute separate entities that can roam independently. In any case, it is the amah alone that is

important after the moment of death.

Gayo conceive of death as an insout of the individual's

tant, when the angel of death wrests the nyawa possession.

At death, all souls leave the body, but the arwah hovers near it as it is washed, wrapped in a white shroud, and carried to the place of burial.* The burial itself takes place as soon as possible after death, and the service is conducted by men for both men and women.* A key ele-

* The procedures for burial are essentially the same for women and men, except that women wash the body of a female corpse, sen and women that of a male. This downplaying of gender distinctions for the subjects of ritual is characteristic of Gayo culture and of many other societies in western Indonesia. * In a gender-based division of spiritual labor, the religious leadership of each village is invested in a husband-wife pair. While the reading of prayer and perfornance of official public functions is the responsibility of the husband, the purifying and cooling of a bride

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23

ment in the burial ritual is the reading of the telkin talqin, "instruction") by the imem.

(from the Arabic

The telkin is always in the form of

an Arabic language printed text. Unlike all other important incantations or recitations it is never memorized, nor, is it ever translated into Gayo as lessons and homilies usually are. It is thus as direct a

conveying of the written word as is possible through speech, and testimony to the power of written Arabic. Immediately after the casket has been lowered into the grave, the imem takes hold of a stick that has been inserted into the head of tbe grave so that the spirit (arwah) may hear him read. Near the beginning

of the text is the passage "everything with a soul (nyawa) must die" which is read three times, slowly. Upon hearing this passage, the

spirit returns to tbe body. The person awakes, feels the ragged, ripped edge of the shroud and realizes that he has died. The imem then continues, reading what one might call an Islamic catechism to remind the deceased of the basic tenets of his religion: your God is Allah, your prophet is Muhammad, your book is the Qur'an, and so forth. This instruction is very useful to the deceased, as he will be visited momentarily by the two angels Mungkar and Nakir, who pose these very questions to hi, and beat him if he answers incorrectly. The telkin thus serves as a sign of the continued presence of the dead as sentient being as well as a ritual of great instrumental importance (and thus morally central in the eyes of those concerned about the deceased's welfare).

and her mother, bathing of a newborn child, and the preparation of a female body for burial are responsibilities of tbe wife.

24

Ritual meals (kenduri)

are then held on the first, third, seventh

and 44th nights after the death. These meals are put on by the immediate family of the deceased (assisted somewhat by contributions from others in the lineage), and can be quite substantial. They are spoken of as "alms from tbe deceased." the recitation of Qur'anic verse at to God, who sends

these meals constitutes the sending of merit (pahala),

it on to the soul of the deceased and eases his continuing torment. The berkat (Arabic baraka, "blessing", here "spiritual essence and

power") of the food eaten at these meals is also sent to the deceased through prayers and the burning of incense. The word kenduri is from Persian, and in the Syafi'i law books (from

that were written in Indonesia kenduris are equated with sedekah, the Arabic shadaqah, "alms").

At this "official" level the two are

spoken of as ways of giving food as alms to those who attend, and of lending merit to the host through the recitation of scripture. In traditional practice the succession of funeral kenduris receive an additional semantic load, that of transmitting this merit to tbe deceased and of demarcating stages in the soul's progress. Gayo key these stages to the progressive decomposition of the body meals thus mark three periods in this progress: The foor

* An extensive body of knowledge in the village concerns the merit and value of various sura from the Qur'an. In these recitation sessions, called either ngaji (to recite) or samadiyah (chanting, from Sanskrit samadhi). The key verses are Al-Fatihah, which is said to include the whole of the Qur'an, and Al-lkhlas, which contains the name of God and whose recitation 1000 times brings release of the deceased from all his sins, redeeming him from his torments. * This relationship was noted by Hertz for Indonesia generally (1960;27-37).

1) Days 1-3: The body is intact, and the spirit remains within it. The meal held on the night of the third day is accompanied by a recitation <ngaji) session.

2) Days 3-7: During this period the body decomposes and the spirit becomes restless, moving in and out of it. It is on the night of the seventh day that the spirit leaves the decomposed body. The meal on this night is the major meal of tbe funeral process, and the moment is one of emotional climax, a release from the too-correct tension and stoic conduct of the first seven days. Children ask forgiveness from their parents for their misdeeds, women moan, and the debts of the deceased or to tbe deceased must be declared, and then either forgiven or settled. At the meal, the major chanting, the samadiyab, takes

place, redeeming the deceased for bis sins in tbe currency of Quranic verse. 3) Days 7-44: The morning after tbe seventh-day meal stones are erected on the grave as the new home for the spirit (replacing the decomposed body). Tbe spirit will wander in and out of tbe community during this period, and does not definitively leave until the 44th day, when the "days are ended" as that final, relatively simple meal is called. The spirit may return to tbe community when called or at propitious moments (the night before Friday prayers, fasting month). But after the 44th day it is said to have left for the awang-awang, a place

that lies somewhere between heaven and earth (not a well-defined place; the phrase is tantamount to saying, in our figurative sense, "up in the clouds").

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26

ISSUES FOR ANALYSIS

The dissertation is informed by several questions about Sumatran social organization. In particular, I am concerned with analyzing what

appears to be a similar set of relations in several Susatran societies, and which have combined in different ways and developed historically to produce what are analyzed as separate social structures. In the study of Sumatran societies it has been useful to distinguish among several kinds of social relations. Descent groups, defined most narrowly as property-holding corporations based on a principle of descent, can be discerned in several societies in Sumatra, most noticeably the Minangkabau of Vest Sumatra and the Toba Batak of North Sumatra (Lando and Thomas 1983 compare these two societies). Descent catego-

ries, however, may be well-defined outside of or across the boundaries of descent groups (Scheffler 1965:39-63), such that a complete picture of a social structure is not provided by a description of its organization into descent groups. Other kinds of social relations may modify our picture of the society still further. In particular, the obligation

to provide property to a son or daughter may derive neither from a descent category nor as part of a descent group's control over land; in Aceh, this relation, and not descent, is the principal defining feature of the society. Such an obligation may be formulated in terms of a

residence rule (or, as defined above, a rule of domicile), or it may be a basis for residence choice and be logically independent of residence.

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27 Minangkabau society has been presented as a classic case of a harmonic patrilineal regime because of the congruence among uxorilocal residence, matrilineal transmission of property, and the exercise of authority by the mother's brother (Josselin de Jong 190b:9-10; Junus 1964). However, the matrilineal descent group is but one of several

kinds of relations which shape Minangkabau society. First, the control of stuch property, including land, is not in the hands of the descent group. While ownership of ancestral w=t rietland and houses in the highland areas of Minangkabau territory devolve from mothers' brothers to sisters' sons, other categories of land and gov* ables are inherited by sons from fathers. Wealth earned by a man is usually passed or. to his sons, and the joint earnings of a husband and wife are claimed by their respective natal lineages upon tbeir deaths (Josselin de Jong 1980b:6-10). The property worked by a oarried couple

thus includes property owned by each party, as well as property belonging to the natal lineages of each, to which use rights have been granted. Secondly, the patrilineal descent category is the basis for the claiming of titles and the explanation of conduct. Individual charac-

ter bticb, such as an aptitude for divination, prowess in the martial arts, or success in economic activities, are often said to pass from fathers to sons. The patriline (bako) is recognized in traditional law-

as well as in everyday evaluation of conduct (Benda-Beckaann 1979:150-167). Titles may be claimed in either the aatriline or patri-

line and membership in the aristocratic class was primarily patrilineal.

28

In coastal areas inhabited by Minangkabau, land has beep transmitted in the patriline, at least since the early nineteenth century (Dobbin 1983:45). emigration. Descent groups were not created in these centers of

Matrilineal descent thus appears not as the defining fea-

ture of Minangkabau society, but as a set of relations limited in scope to the control of property and succession to office within the highland lineages. The complexity cf Acehnese society has recently been summarized by Chandra Jayawardena (1977:33):

The Achehnese organize their relations with consanguines and affines by incorporating bits and pieces of the formal types we, as anthropologists, distinguish in our typologies. In their recognition of kin they are bilateral. Through the regular practice of uxorilocality over several generations they develop what looks like matrilines. Through their obedience to Quranic iaws and their Muslim ideology generally, they accept the "patrilineal" bias of Islamic orthodoxy and reckon kin of the father's side more extensively and value them more in formal terms. As Jayawardena cakes clear, the uxorilocality of the area of Aceh where he worked (Aceh Besar) is in fact the outcome of an obligation of parents towards daughters, not primarily a residence rule. have a right to a house and farmland. Daughters

Usually this is provided by a In

girl's father, in which case the couple lives in the wife's village.

this case the property is not transmitted matrilineally, but from father to daughter. Alternatively, a man may promise to give his wife a bouse

in his own village, and thus meet the requirements of the rule while residing virilocally (Jayawardena 1977:32). The particular combination of descent, property relations, and residence described by Jayawardena for Aceh Besar is recombined (or

29

transformed) in adjacent Acehnese societies.

In Pidie, immediately to

the east of Aceh Besar, a greater emphasis is placed on uxorilocal residence; indeed, residence of the couple is in the same bouse-yard as the wife's parents where possible (Siegel 1969:51-54). not given to daughters are inherited by sons. Ricefields that are

In West Aceh, sons and

daughters ay receive gifts of land or house-space upon marriage, but residence is most often virilocal. Concepts of kinship are as described

by Jayawardena (my fieldnotes, Jeuraa, 1981). The Karo Batak lie just to the south of Gayoland. Karo social As

structure exhibits interesting affinities to Gayo society.

Singarimbun describes the residence patterns (1975:184-85), Karo mayreside either virilocally or uxorilocally. Virilocal residence is One son

represented in terms of the continuity of the patrilineage.

generally does reside with his father in order to continue the line in the household. Leadership of the village comes from a category of

patrilaterally related men, so that a man who is likely to take up a leadership position will reside in his father's lineage (ibid:93,184). On the other hand, "there is no end to the other-daughter relation". Uxorilocal residence is "also consistent with Karo kinship kesidence in the wife's natal lineage secures use

values" (ibid:184).

rights to land, and couples often base a residence decision on the relative availability of land in the two communities. There is an approximate equality between the frequencies of the two alternatives. Singarimbun presents the residence pattern as a function of individual access to resources. It may be, however, that both the relative

weight given to the two "kinship values" as well as political and eco

*>i*>*iitiiii*Miitlfc^^

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30

nomic differentiation within the society play roles in shaping the direction of choice. Even in the two classically unlineal Sumatran

societies, the Toba Batak and the Minangkabau, alternative modes of post-marital residence and lineage affiliation are present. Two recent

ethnographers of the two societies have given a hint of the relationship between these alternatives:

The reader should note that the minor residence forms, uxoripatrilocality for Toba, viri-matrilocality for Minangkabau, and viri-neolocality in both societies are secondary options which have, as far as we can tell, full validity in the appropriate circusstances. At the very least, the minor residence forms are important in the initial establishment of what we think are integral patron-client relationships (Lando and Thomas 1983:59). Recent studies in eastern Indonesia have attempted to specify the relationship between alternative modes of affiliation as part of a larger system of social, political, and economic relations (see Barnes 1980, Valerio 1976, Forman 1980). In particular, Valerio has pointed to

the existence of stratification between elder and younger categories in terms of tbe payment of bridewealth to secure virilocal residence and patrilateral affiliation of the children of a marriage. In many socie-

ties in this area, residence is uxorilocal (and affiliation of some or all children is matrilateral) unless a series of bridewealth payments is completed. Viewed in terms of descent categories, a society with what

Firtb called "heterogeneous filiation" (with a tendency towards one mode of affiliation or another) may be shaped principally by the nature of bridewealth payments (Firth 1963; Cunningham 1967). In Gayo society, the relation between alternative modes of affiliation exhibits a high degree of internal variation. While patrilineal-

iitttaiiiMirfilii'iiwV'ntiit
i I

31

ity is the ideologically dominant form in most districts, uxorilocality has become the rule in one district, and accounts for between onequarter and one-third of the carriages in sample villages located in several other districts. However, there is a range of conditions atteaiisg uxorilocal marriage in Gayo society, a range that appears in other societies in Sumatra. GE one end of this continuum are those uxorilocal marriages which are redefined in terms of patrilineality (the classic ambil anak case, oftec called "adoptive marriage"). In these cases, the man who carries

into a lineage is classified as a son, and all children of the carriage are affiliated to the wife's father's lineage. The Toba Batak case appears close to this pole of uxorilocality. On the other end of the coBiirsue the position of the husband is quite different; he is not assimilated into the wife's family, or only marginally so, and the futxre status of both the couple and their children is open to further definition. This second ideal type characterizes Minangkabau postmexiza.1 residence, sometimes called duolocal because the husband continues to spend considerable tioe and contribute labor in his natal house and fields. Marriage and residence in Pidie (Aceh) could also be placed near this second type; there, no ties of material support exist between the wife's natal household and the newly-married couple. These two possibilities define a range, from the incorporation of a husband into tbe wife's group, to situations where the relationship between the husbai/i and the wife's group is little more than temporary physical resi-

&

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32
In Gayo society, the internal cultural variation includes variation along this continuum of uxorilocality as well as a variable emphasis on nxorilocal and virilocal Bodes of marriage and residence. The variation within Gayo society suggests that the social structure may be relatively open to historical change. Two sources of change are explored in the thesis: the importance of circular migration in the socio-economy of eastern Gayoland, and the role of reformist Islam in bringing about reinterprttions of marriage ritual, inheritance law, and property rights in the northern Gayo districts of Laut and Drt. Other Sumatrar. societies also exhibit a high degree of incorporation of external elements into a social structure, sometimes leading to the interpretation and charge of the society (Dobbin 1983; Siegel 1969;. It may be that this characteristic of such societies is the
l

result of centuries of acting as culture brokers between universalistic ideologies fHinduisn, Islam, Christianity) and local traditions. In the

remainder of the thesis 1 will explore this relationship between ideologies and features of Gayo social structure.

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CHAPTER 2: GAYO REGIONS AND BEGINNINGS

SOCIAL GIOGRAPW

This chapter examines the main spatial divisions of the Gayo region and the political organization of the area in the period just before Dutch colonial rule. The Gayo homeland lies across the highland center of Aceh province, between 3' 50* and 4* 50' S latitude, and 96* 30' and 97' 40' E longitude. The region is cut off fron the north, east, and west coasts of Aceh by the curving ridges of the Bukit Barisan mountain range, which runs the length of Sumatra. The meandering range creates four plateaus in the interior highlands: the Lake Tawar district, the Isak river valley, Gayo Lues, and Serbojadi. (see Map 1).

Each of these plateaus contains the headwaters of a major river, and the relatively easy passage along these river valleys has dictated the geographical orientation of its inhabitants. The physical Isolation of the area from trading centers meant that residents of each of the four plateaus made frequent trips to the closest coastal towns. Today Gayo speak about a major direction for "getting salt" Inango pos).

Cultural orientations to and from the outside world also traveled along these salt routes. Each of the four plateau areas is surrounded by high ridges and mountains covered with deciduous and coniferous forest, in particular 33

I I

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34

Straits of Malacca

Indian Ocean

*n

Altitude cvar 1000 to.

Map 1 : Province of Aceh, Showing Gayo Research Sites and Rivers

35
Pinus Herkusii, the resin of which became the basis for the major colo-

nial enterprise in the region. Each major road between districts enters the forest at the pintu rim' (gate to the forest), and these points also

defined the boundaries between political domains. The traditional domains have continued as the primary political divisions of the region through the colonial period and under the present Indonesian national administration. paten Map 2 shows the division of the area among three kabu-

(Aceh Tengah, Aceh Tenggara, and Aceh Timur) and the location of

the research sites. While Aceh as a whole receives rain year-round, the interior ridges prevent some rain from reaching the plateaus, with the result that Gayo lands receive somewhat less rain than the coast. Kain arrives from two directions. In November through February or March, the nor-

theast tradewinds bring in heavy rains from the North China Sea. This period is the rainiest in all four Gayo plateaus. From April through October, the prevailing winds are from the southwest. These winds are the southeast trades, which have blown across southern Sumatra to the Indian Ocean and are deflected back across the equator, carrying lighter rainfall off the ocean to Aceh. In Takengon, November and December are generally the rainiest months, with about 200 mm./month aoi 10-15 rainy days. However,

extremes of wet or dry C2C appear in any of the other months (in one year, December was one of the dryest months). From 1952 through 1977,

the total annual rainfall in Takengon varied from 1163 mm. in 1977 to 289 mm. in 1956. Temperatures are generally between 55' and 80* Fahrenheit, although lows of 45* occur.

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37

Rainfall totals decrease in the areas south of Takengon, such that Isak asd Blangkejeren have less rain and acre pronounced dry seasons than does Takengoa (Dobby 1964:37).

The Lake

District

The lake Lact Tawar ("freshwater sea") is in fact the deepest part of a collapsed volcano lying 1300 Deters above sea level in the northern part of the highlands. The lake itself is about 20 km. long and 4-5 km. wide. Two semi-dormant volcanoes lie to the north of the lake, and on three sides the land rises to mountains cf 2400 to 2B0O oeters. The Peusasgan river flows south-westward from the lake at the site of the town of Takengon. and then northward to tie coastal town of Bireuen. Most of the agricultural land in the soctvest river valley is used as wet ricefields (une), while hilly lands are used for dry gardens (empas), planted in vegetables, coffee, and tree crops (oranges, avocaLineages in Peusangan valley villages are branches of

dos, mangos).

lineages in the hone village of Bbsen near Takengon, and form part of the Ciq political desain.' Steep mountain slopes cone close to the northern and southern shores of Lake Tawar. The northern shore is virtually uninhabited, bat the narrow strip cf land along the southern shore and at the eastern end of tie lake has been turned to wet riceland. Many of the inhabitants

1 There "are also several lineages cf emigrants from Isak who settled fa these villages and then became part of the Ciq domain. These lineages retain tee memory of their ties to Isak, but may intermarry with ail Isak lineages.

38

make their living from fishing from the lake; several species of carp provide the major part of their catch, along with the depik fish, a

small fish looking like a minnow which is a speciality of the area. Villages in the area immediately west and north of the lake, along with all but one of the villages on the southern shore, are part of the Bukit clan, centered on the large village complex of Kebayakan.* The town of Takengon, while traditionally in the Bukit domain, now contains many non-Gayo (in particular, Acehnese, Chinese, and Minangkabau), as well as Gayo from other areas. The center of the town is a low-lying area comprising three rows of shops. At one end is a new, two-story market building, with a lively fish market on the bottom level. The other shops in the town center sell clothing, furniture, cloth, and food. The basin is flanked on one side by a steep hill, at the top of which sits the former Dutch officers' club, now a simple hotel. On the other side, the street climbs slowly to the official residence of the bupati, the official in charge of the kabupaten of Central Aceh.

Farther along the same road lie a new hospital, schools, the military post, and a new market and bus terminal area. A number of national government construction grants were made to the area in the 1970's, financed by the increase in oil revenues. At about the same time, construction of a large petrochemical complex began on the north coast, near the city of Lhokseumawe. Along with the rising coffee incomes in the late 1970's, these developments raised hopes for a rapid boom in

1 The single exception is the village of Nosar on the south shore, which formed the independent domain of Syiah Utama.

Jk

39
marketing in and around Takengon. A large share of the new funds were

spent on two market complexes, and the shops made available for purchase. However, the downturn in coffee prices in the 1980's has led to a sharp decline in the local volume of trade, and many of these shops are still empty. The land rises sharply to the north of the lake, and the hilly slopes are used primarily for small coffee gardens. The road to the coast winds through this area, and the area of cultivation has been expanding northward along its length since it was opened in 1913. A processing plant for pine resin lies 20 km. along the road. The plant was opened in the late 1920's, and brought many Javanese to the area as contract laborers. The plant has recently ceased production, and many of the Javanese immigrants have become coffee growers. Many of the villages in this northern expanse are composed of Javanese and Gayo residents. Although a we 11-paved road makes it possible to travel by bus, car or motorcycle in 2-3 hours from Takengon to Bireuen on the coast, the journey could take up to a week in the 19th century. The pintu rim',

the last settlement on the trade route north, was the village of Blang Rakal, about 40 km. or 1-2 days walk from Takengon. From there the trip

to the coast took another 3-4 days or longer. Travelers reached the coast either at Juli, a major trading center, or at Aw Geutah, a 19th century center of Islamic teaching and the school where most early 20th-century Gayo religious teachers were trained. Travel from Takengon today is still along this route.

40

Tbe Isak

Valley

The district of Gayo Drt ("land, "inland" Gayo) lies just south of Lake Tawar and is separated from it by a 2200-2500 meter-high mountain range. The villages and hamlets that Bake up the district are stretched out along the Isak river (known officially by its Malay name, the Jambo Ayer). Tbe river begins to tbe west of Isak, the largest settlement in tbe district, and flows about 60 km. to Jamat, at the other end of the district, before continuing on to the city of Idi on the east coast, near the old site of Pasai, the first Islamic kingdom in Indonesia. The Isak river valley is about 900 at. in elevation, slightly lower than Lake Tawar, and also somewhat warmer. Temperatures in Isak range between 55* and 95* Fahrenheit, with a wider range during tbe dry season (April to September). The coffee plants that have provided cash income

to Takengon residents grow less well in this lower and warmer environment, particularly the export Arabica variety. Some Robusta coffee is grown for local sale and consumption. Conversely, fruit trees (coconut, durian, orange) do somewhat better than they do in Takengon. Searly all Gayo living in the valley plant rice in irrigated fields located in the narrow river valley. The Isak valley forms the site of tbe traditional political domain of Linge, also the name of the small village on the eastern edge of the domain that was tbe seat of the head of the domain, tbe Kejurun Linge. Gayo traditions relate that the first person to arrive in Gayo floated across the ocean to the tip of the Linge bill, in the middle of tbe .

41

village.

The Kejurun Linge lived in the village until the 1920's, when

the Dutch moved his headquarters to Isak as part of the establishment of a colonial system of territorial rule. Until the Takengon-Bireuen road was completed in 1913, travel from Isak to the north coast required a minimum of 7 days. A much shorter

trade route lay to the west, traveling via the swidden hamlet of Jagong (the pintu rime) and emerging in three days at Beutong, in the Seunagan Gayo brought tobacco and sometimes horses

district on the west coast.

with them to sell in Seunagan, buying in return salt, cloth, and other trade goods, as well as water buffalo, which, although they were raised in Isak, were much cheaper in Seunagan (Snouck Hurgronje 1903a:37-43). Travelers from Isak to West Aceh often stayed on after conducting their business. In 1906 many Gayo were reported to be panning for gold Friendships and trading alliances

in the area (Veltman 1906:1937).

developed between Gayo and Acehnese men, and many of the Acehnese returned to marry into Isak households--particularly when it was to their advantage to avoid Dutch administrators. The social status of

these men in Isak was bimodal: some were destitute, either fleeing crimes or seeking land and security; others, however, were educated traders who were invited to come to Isak to settle. Children of these

marriages were unambiguously Gayo, in most cases speaking only rudimentary Acehnese (many of these children were among my older informants in Isak). Travel to Seunagan continued to be frequent up through the 1920's, by which time Minangkabau traders and their Gayo imitators had begun to sell goods in Takengon, which could be reached within a day from Isak.

itf'

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42

Chinese and Gayo traders opened shops in Isak, and Javanese plantation workers were housed only 10 ka. downstream. Tne pine resin processing

plant eventually drew most of its resin from Isak valley pines, and the traffic between Takengon and Isak was probably heaviest in the early 1940's, at the height of the plant's activities.

The Southern

District.

The district of Gayo Lues ("specious, wide" Gayo) lies to the south of the Isak valley, separated from it by the Intim-Inti mocatain range. The area's shape is defined by the Trip river valley, which

begins in the southern part of Gayo loes, winds eastward to the town of Blangkejeren, then around to the northwest (picking up the road to Isak), and finally westward tc the village complex of Terangon <s-e Xap 1). The river continues on to Susoi on the southwest coast. Today, the town of Blangkejeren serves as capital for the are* and is unofficially designated as the keuedhanaan administrative level). center (an earlier-used

The road from Blangkejeren south to Ksitacane

(the Alas area), Kabanjahe (Karo Bata&land), and then Medan has just recently become passable by car. Villagers living near Blangkejeren engage in small-scale growing of frcits and vegetables for sale to Kutacane and, also cultivate wet rice. The traditional ruler of the domain of Gayo Lues, the Kejurun Petiamang, lived in the village of Penampaqan near the town. The district comprises four kecamatan. Besides Blangkejeren, the Rikit Gaib lies in a

others are Rikit Gaib, Kuta Panjang, and Terangon. narrow valley to the north of Blangkejeren.

Its residents claim that

Jl

43
the restricted area available for farming have led to a greater degree of emigration from there than frem. other parts of Gayo Lues. Kuta

Panjang lies west of Blangkejeren, and is a spacious rice producing area. Terangon lies farther to the west, two to three days' walk from Blangkejeren. Faroers in this area grow wet rice, but they engage in

more swidden agriculture (rice and tobacco) than do Gayo in any other part of the region. In the nineteenth century, traders from Terangon

required three to four days to reach Susoh on the west coast, bringing with them tobacco and buying cloth, opium, salt, and steel. Susoh was the first pepper port on the west coast and was visited largely by American shippers beginning in the 1790's. There may be mention of Gayo traders in shipping records fre this period. Today, although this

trade continues (dried fish freue Susoh remains an important part of the diet), most of the tobacco grown in the area is carried on horseback to Blangkejeren. Gayo Lues has been (and still is) the most isolated of the four plateaus, with far fewer of its inhabitants migrating to the towns and cities outside of'the Gayo region, and without the increased employment opportunities that resulted from Dutch occupation elsewhere. Indeed,

the Gayo Lues area has itself been a migration area for northern Gayo, and many of its inhabitants retain ties to a particular village in the north.

Jl

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44

Serbojadi
The Serbojadi plateau lies to the east of the Isak valley, but it is most often, reached either from Gayo Lues or from the east coast. The Serbojadi x&rttT flows through the area and on to Kuala Simpang on the coast. Villages are gromped into two clusters. The largest is centered around the Tillage of Lokup (another name for the district as a whole). A smaller grouping, Bunin, lies about four hours walk north of Lukup. The Kejurun Aboq, the traditional ruler, resided in Lukup village, and before Dulci occupation his domain was restricted to the Lukup area proper (Snosck Hurgronje 1903a:262-67). His role was extended to the entire domain, under Dutch administration. From Serbojadi, people travel regularly to the east coast, usually by foot, but sometimes by boat. The trip by land now takes 2-3 days; Snouck Hurgronje reports that the first Dutch army expedition to the area in 19DC took 6 days to complete the journey (1903a:46-7). Wet-rice cultivation in this area is uniformly of low productivity. Yield* are about 1/2 to 2/3 those obtained in Isak, where farmers use similar techniques and inputs. While 1 have not undertaken any independent investigation of this problem, Lukup farmers tell me that the problem is soil with a high lime content. Whatever the reason may be, most younger men and women engage in non-rice activities during the period between harvest and the next year's planting (4-5 months). Many travel to ta coast during this season and work on oil palm and tobacco estates. Cthers, a decreasing number, distill, dry and cut gambir, a plant product used in betel-nut chewing. The product is then sold on

45
the coast. Coffee (Robusta) has been planted in the last ten years and is a rapidly increasing source of revenue. The non-rice sector appears as even more important here than in Gayo Lues or Drt.

Gayo

Population Recent Indonesian census data are not analyzed by ethnic group or

primary language. However, we can attempt to make a rough estimate of the Gayo population using the 1960 national census. The total population of the kabupaten of Central Aceh was reported as 163,339. I esti-

mate that this figure includes between 140,000 and 150,000 Gayo; most of the rest are Javanese living in the northern two kecamatan. tion of 40,926 is given for the four kecamatan A popula-

of Gayo Lues in Southeast kabupaten

Aceh. There are probably more Gayo living elsewhere in that than non-Gayo living in these four kecamatan. about 42,000 Gayo in the kabupaten in East Aceh are in the kecamatan

I would guess that there

as a whole. Most of the Gayo living of Lukup/Serbojadi, which was reported

as having 7,384 residents in 1980. There are probably around 8,000 Gayo in all of East Aceh. These estimates suggest a figure of about 190,000 Gayo in the homeland. The vast majority of the Gayo households living in these districts are in rural areas, engaged in farming. In Central Aceh there are

28,420 rural households and 2,100 urban households, mostly around Takengon. The latter figure contains a large percentage of non-Gayo (all the Chinese, most of the Acehnese and many of the Javanese families). An additional 277 urban households are reported for

Blangkejeren; all other Gayo households are rural.

k.

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. , = ^ K ^ . . .

.-- .-^.~~-

...^~.-~

. ^li^^fcina

46
There are certainly more than 10.000 Gayo living in the rest of Indonesia; more than 5,000 in Banda Aceh alone. There are few marriages between Gayo and non-Gayo outside of Jakarta, and there, the close-knit nature of Gayo community life (frequent social functions, artistic performances in the Gayo language) serves to induce a sense of being Gayo in most children of these marriages, even when the active Gayo language skills have not been built up to native fluency. Gayo consider these children to be Gayo, so I include the in the definition of the population. Total Gayo population could thus be estimated at between 200,000 and 210,000.

GAYO ORIGINS AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION

Early

Accounts The single explicit reference to the Gayo region that appeared

before the late 1800's was in a Malay-language text, the Hikayat Raja-Raja Pasai (Story of the Kings of Pasai, ed. Hill 1960). The manu-

script is dated 1814, but much of tbe text dates from the fourteenth centory.' This text describes the life of the first Sumatran king to be converted to Islam, Merah Silu (known after his conversion as Malik

* Hill (I960) considers the text as 14th century in its entirety. While ouch of the text is probably that old, wc cannot date all passages accurately. Malay texts have been transmitted by copying, and inclusions, ommissions and alterations of texts in line with current perspectives'frequently took place at each generation. I have analyzed the political significance of one such systematic change in successive versions of a similar chronicle, the Sejarah Helayu (Boven 1983).

llMMMittMiMiMa^^

'itiii li

mmhtimanaiiimaiitmmlMm

47

us-Saleh) of the kingdom of Semudra or Pasai on the north Aceh coast. Towards the beginning of the narrative, before he founds Sesudra, Merah Silu journeys to the headwaters of the Peusangan river (the site of Takengon), where he finds people faming wet-rice and planting banana trees (Hill 1960:52). Sonetime later, after all the coastal peoples have converted to Islaa, the narrator remarks that:

And those who tell the story say that there was a group (kaum) in the country (negeri. Semuara) that did not wish to convert to Islam. So they fled to the headwaters of the Peusangan, and because of that they have been called Gayo till today.* This story of a flight may have been inserted into the story after the original composition of the chronicle, as a folk etymology of the name "Gayo." The story also corresponds to the lowlands Acehnese view of Gayo as highlands, nearly-aninist, unsophisticated people. It may be that earlier versions of the story do not contain such an account. The passage cited earlier from the same source reports that the highlands area was already populated before the conversion of Pasai to Islaa. Moreover, neither Gayo traditions nor Acehnese ones make any other references to a movement to the hinterlands by a coastal people. Gayo myth presents the society's history in terms of a movement outwards froa a single origin point (Ling in the Isak valley), and current Acehnese accounts portray conversion to Islaa as a process that spread quickly

* (Hill 1960: 59, ay translation). Snouck Hurgroaje (1903a: 76, n.5) suggests that the connection between fleeing and the name "Gayo" is due to the sound similarity between a word in the Pidie dialect of Acehnese, kayoi-kayoi, "to flee," and "Gayo". Contemporary speakers of Pidie Acehnese do not recognize this word.

48

from Pasai inland to an already populated Gayoland . However, comparative linguistics suggests that there may have been a Gayo population living on the coast. Within the Au6tronesian language family, Gayo is syntactically close to Malay. Dyen's lexicostatistical study shows Gayo as a link between the Batak subfamily and what Dyen calls the Sundic Hesion, a category essentially consisting of the rest of the Western Indonesian languages (Dyen 1965:26). However, both Acehnese and Gayo contain a number of loanwords from the Koa-Chner language family. The presence of these loanwords suggest either population movement or trade across the Straits of Belaka with Mon-Gmer speakers in (probably) the western Malay area. Moreover, some of the Kon-Khmer loanwords in Gayo are not found in Acehnese (Gerard Diffloth, personal communication). These loanwords that are unique to Gayo would suggest that Gayo speakers may have once lived on the north coast. There is a second Xalay-language text that contains what is most likely a reference to the Gayo. The Hikayat Aceh (Story of Aceh, ed. Iskandar 1958) vas almost certainly written during the reign of the Acehnese Sultan Iskandar Muda (1607-1636), and Includes an account of the kingdom as it stood in the late 16th century (Lombard 1967:157-159). The text describes a part of the kingdom which surrounds a lake with "fresh (tawar) sweet water" that is probably Lake Tawar. The descrip-

tion continues:

The most interesting contemporary treatment of this theme is in an historical novel called y.eurah Jokan written by the forner Governor of Aceh, Ali Hasjry; this and other Acehnese accounts support the Cayo view that the Merah Silu mentioned in the Hikayat Baja-FMja Pasai was la fact the same Kerah Silu who appears in myth as a son of the founder of Isak (HasjEy 1976; see also Djamil 1959).

-**--~

^^^JLuM^.fi^a^i^iMaiasa^^

t.-A.^^-^-.^..-,.., -,,.JM.i^-Mt.i.-r,ia...,v, j

ffl

49

When the wind picks up the waves billow and when it stops they cal down, as with the sea itself. There are snakes in the lake with heads like horses' heads and faces like horses' faces. And all the fish that are found in the sea are found there, too. And everything that is found in the sea is in this lake. And around it are many, many people, and they all acknowledge (the government in) Aceh Darussalam. The first printed description of Gayo society is in a short note written by Professor P.J. Veth in 1877, which refers to a description made by de Scheemaker, the Assistant Resident for the East Coast of Aceh. De Scheemaker's description was itself based on information conThe report

veyed by Gayo traders encountered on the coast near Idi.

mentions the trade from the highlands to the east coast in tobacco, gambir, and horses, and suggests that a good many of the horses shipped across the Straits of Melaka to Penang as "Batak" horses are in fact from Gayo' This article is followed by a fictitious account of Gayo geography written by Vallon (1878), also derived from east coast information, and then a characteristically detailed and probably quite accurate report of Gayo political structure written by K.F.H. van Langen,

* (Iskandar 1956: 165, my translation) The perplexing feature of this passage is that the name "Gayo" is not used in the Hikayat, while the nana "fcatak," referring to the people south of the Gayo on the west coast, aypears at least twice (ibid: 91-92 and 146-147). One might understand this omission as a politically unifying textual style. If, by this time, the Gayo had become Muslims and were considered to be one of Aceh's many composite peoples, then the use of an ethnic label for thee (or for other Aceh-area Muslias) would have contradicted the idea of Aceh as a universalistic, non-ethnically specific "abode of peace" (Dar us-salam, the name of the kingdom). Thus, every group that was part of the Muslim community in the kingdoe was simply referred to as one of cany who acknowledged the suzerainty of Aceh. Tee unconverted fcatak, some of whom worked as slaves in Aceh, were not part of this community. * This suggestion is quite likely, since horses are to this day traded froa Gayo Lues to Medan.

TTHUI iriintnriiniiiiriiiiriirrr

-r

'

- - . . - ^ ^ . - . - _*.-

50
the Assistant Resident for the West Coast of Aceh (1881). At the same time. Christian Snouck Hurgronje, who had been assigned to Aceh to design an appropriate political strategy for winning the Aceh-Dutch war, had begun to interview a young Gayo man from lsak, whom he refers to as "Syaq Putih."* Snouck Hurgronje began to learn the Gayo language from this man, and sent out questionaires to the Dutch military administrators in Aceh, asking for information concerning the identity of certain Gayo leaders. Relying on the results of these

enquiries (contained in Snouck Hurgronje 1901-02), his interviews with Gayo men in Aceh (and later in Batavia), and the accounts of several early military expeditions, in 1903 Snouck Hurgronje wrote a detailed and accurate account of Gayo culture, Bet Cajoland en Zijne Bewoners.

Not surprisingly, given Snouck's mission in Aceh, the book places special emphasis on the roads into and across the Gayo region, the location of all villages and hamlets, and the identity and real authority of each Gayo leader. But the book also provides compendious information about

the culture, listing the names for all manner of objects, relaying brief descriptions of practices, and summarizing stories. Ga jol and, In reading Het

one is reminded of Westermark on Morocco, or Snouck Hurgronje

himself on Aceh, except that the Gayo description is second-hand, and thus gives less of a sense of everyday life than do these other works. Despite numerous ar.d widespread Gayo stories to the contrary, Snouck

This form of reference gives the rough sense of "'01 Whitey;" it is rather disrespectful. In Isak this man is remembered as Tengku Putih (Tengku conveys the sense of religious learning) and with some ambivalence. On the one hand, he did achieve success and learning; on the other, he aided Snouck Hurgronje in his efforts to destroy Aceh. See the following note.

-J

51

Hurgronje never entered the Gayo region. Shortly after writing Set Gajolard he was transferred to Batavia, where he spent the rest of his

Dutch East Indies days.*

Pre-Colonial Political

Organization

The early accounts, written between 1877 to 1903, lay particular stress, for reasons of the times, on detailed descriptions of Gayo political structures: not only "who is the chief?" but also, "what kinds ot chiefs are there?" Van Langen's account of 1881 describes a four-level political system in terms of titles and ranks. Snouck Hurgronje's work of 1903 both expands on this description and adds a more detailed picture of ongoing political relations. The former description, taken more or le'.s directly from Gayo informants, stands as an interestingly native text. Snouck Hurgronje's analysis, crafted more self-consciously with

an eye to politico-military ends, is an attempt to find the real powerrelations below the formal account. Taken together, they provide a consistent picture of the complex and multi-level Gayo political framework in the period before the Dutch occupation. Van Langen presents us with a system of titles, represented by bis Gayo informant in terms of their historical origins. There are four

.........j.
' With remarkable consistency, Gayo throughout the region have told me of the nefarious activities of Snouck Hurgronje, also known as the Habib Putih (the "white descendant of the Prophet") who came to Gayo to distract people from anti-colonial resistance by encouraging them to spend all their time and money on mystical religious activity. A recent article in an Indonesian magazine claims that he was only found out when, one day, he was espied blasphemously urinating in the direction of Mekka. He was thus revealed as an imposter and driven out of Gayo (Dunia Wanita, 15 May 1976).

52

levels of titles within this system, with further internal differentiation. On the first level are the rulers of "three great kingdoms:" Bukit, Linge and Petiamang.1* Each of these three rulers bears the title of kejurun. A fourth ruler, Syiah Utama, is placed under the de facto

suzerainty of Linge in Van Langen's account, but is said to be a ruler of the same rank as the other three. Linge', then Syiah Utaoa, and finally Bukit were awarded their titles by the Sultan of Aceh. Each ruler was given a ceremonial dagger with a gold-alloy handle and a long, thin, "Majapahit-style" blade (keris suasa mata majapahit). The Kejurun

Petiamang was appointed later than the others, and was awarded a dagger with a silver handle. Rulers of the second rank all received daggers with copper handles from the Sultan, and each stood under one of the three kejurun Utama's domain being limited to one village, Nosar). rulers held the title of r'j, (Syiah

Four of these

and originally were brothers of the

Kejurun Bukit. Each founded a lineage under his overall authority (my informants told me that the Kejurun Bukit was the youngest and the other rulers were bis elder brothers). Seven other rulers of this "copper(lit. "rich man")." Each

handle" rank were given the title orang kaya,

* I have used a standard spelling for Gayo titles and place names based on current pronour.ciation and the conventions described at the beginning of the thesis. Older spellings varied greatly from one writer to the next, and reflected the greater use of /a/ for what 1 have written as /e/, and the frequent use of /nd/ and /mb/ where today one hears (and hence writes) /n/ and /'/. " This title was used in the ports of Aceh and Minangkabau to designate powerful "kingmakers" who ran local affairs. They were, as their title aptly describes, closer to big men than to hereditary chiefs

53

of the seven rulers was the headman of a village and stood under one or the other of the Kejurun. Tbe third rank of rulers was not distinguished by a particular object as sign of their rank; indeed, each received a different object from the Sultan of Aceh. These r'j, as they also were called, were

appointed by the Sultan and were spoken of by Van Langen as "cutting further into the authority of the three kejurun" (1881:36). The seven previously installed

rulers were said to be descendants of the four rj

in Bukit territory (the four younger brothers of copper-handle rank). Sy informants ascribed different or unclear origins to them. One of the

seven, Bj Peparit, was awarded a copper-headed dagger, which made hi the symbolic equal of the second-level rulers. He is mentioned in Veth's mote (1877) as one of the "four great rulers" and in Van Langen as "independent" of his kejurun, Finally, eight penguju Petiamang (1881:40).

are presented as appointees of "Gayo themas the source of the

selves" (older Isak people specified the kejurun

appointments). The eight titles appear in Gayo stories told today as well as in Van Langen's account. In both sources the titles are

accounted for by reference to the roles played by eight individuals at a specific event. The event is either the funeral of a Kejurun Linge (as in Van Langen or in Snouck Hurgronje 1903a:100-103), or the journey of the Ifhite Elephant from Gayo to Aceh.*1

(see Seid 1975; Dobbin 1983:71). ** The titles, and their explanatory meanings, are (Pengulu): Senderan (leaning-place, support); Penosan (gift); Bedak (flour, powder); iertih (ritually important puffed rice); Peparit (grave, dug for the Kejurun Linge,), Mungkur (ritually powerful cleansing fruit); Payong

^niiirPMiiiir"-"'

'

54
The ranks as portrayed in the 19th-century formal account can be arrayed as follows:

Table

2: Gayo Rank in the Late Nineteenth

Century

fitle Kejurun + Syiah Utama Raja + Orang Kaya Raja Panghulu

Dumber 3+1 4+7 7 8

Source

of

appointment

Sultan of Aceh idem ide" Kejurun

Source: Van Langen 1881.

Common to the pre-1905 accounts of Gayo polity is the description of the top rank as three real domains or kingdoms (rijkdom) plus a

fourth domain, that of Syiah Utama, which was created in order to make up an "even four" consistent with Acehnese four-way political categories (e.g., Snouck Hurgronje 1903a:92-93). Three "natural" Gayo domains were made to match an Aceh-wide system by the creation of a nominal fourth district consisting of only one village which therefore was not a threat to the other three domains. An alternative Gayo conceptualization of the polity appears both in Snouck Hurgronje's writings (1903a:100-104) and in contemporary Gayo accounts of the traditional polity, in the form of the dt si opat mukawal; the four guard over; maxim:

(umbrella); Waq (mdecine; or Wab, bathing).

55

si pitu muduni; si eirpatbelas muresam.

the seven possess a domain; the fourteen shape conduct.

In this maxim, three levels of the polity are differentiated but the identity of the rulers on each level is left unspecified." The three levels encode three types of legitimate authority in the latenineteenth century polity: authority over a domain; the control of a circumscribed group of villages; and the regulation of everyday conduct within the village. The role played by the four is to watch or guard over the domain, standing as the ultimate aothority within its boundaries but not regulating day to day affairs. "The four" also refers to the first rank of the formal model discussed above, i.e., the three kejurun Utama. The pre-colonial role of the kejurun plus Syiah

was largely limited to

three functions: settling quarrels between lower-level rulers, granting recognition to a new lineage or village and its ruler (usually following lineage fission), and dealing with external powersthe Acehnese and then the Dutch. While each f the four held an ultimate right to recognize or not recognize the legitimate rulers within their domain, the effective control of a settled area vas beid by "the seven." I find it more helpful to think of this number as encoding a type of political authority rather

" This maxim is typical of the phrases by which Gayo interpret and regulate conduct: two or three lines, caierically coded when possible, accompanied by an exegesis and exaapies of past application. Gayo conflict resolution consisted, and, within a more restricted sphere, still consists, of measured debate and decision based on these phrases.

LZr***w

56

than referring to a group of seven initial rulers or villages; indeed, the set of seven orang kaya listed by Van Langen in the second rank of the political model does not correspond to the set of rulers who appear to have held effective territorial control within the domains well into the past. As Van Langen noted, of the rulers listed in the formal political model, "only a few exercise authority today (1881:37)." In later accounts the seven are known as the r'j ciq (lit. elder

rulers") or ciq of a territory. The assignment of ciq status was a matter for contention among village heads. In Chapter 4 I discuss the conflict in Isak between two contenders to the "ciqship." Some ciqships had the status of freehold (uks) vis-a-vis the kejurun. A freehold

domain was not subject to interference by the kejurun

except in such

cases where his mediation was requested by the parties involved. This principle was maintained into the colonial period and was the basis for sharp conflicts between the colonially-supported kejurun and the tra-

ditionally self-governing ciqships (see Snouck Hurgronje 1903a:259 and Chapter 4 below). Several ciqships are described in the early literature as being particularly powerful. In the Lake district, the Rj Ciq Bbsn is

represented by Van Langen as under the suzerainty of the Bukit ruler (1881:40; see also Van Delden and Schemen 1881:143). Snouck Hurgronje

asserts that this subordination is "theory", and that in fact the Bbsn ruler exerted complete control over his domain (1903a:98-99). According to Gayo traditions, the Ciq domain was formed when "27 Batak" invaded the area settled by the Kejurun Bukit, near Bbsn, and expelled the ruler and his followers. The Bukit group then resettled in

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57

Kebayakan, vhere they were living at the time of the first colonial expeditions. Subsequezt wars between the two groups aintaia*d a sense of opposition between them bet left an approximate balance of power in the district. Elsewhere, powerful ciqships existed as freeholds under an acknowledged kejurun. Isak was the oost prominent of these independent sub-

districts in the Ling? domain. In Gayo Lues such rulers made tbe Kejurun Petiamang relatively powerless over nost of his domain. The

Kejurun held effective sway over only a few villages near his own village of Penampa'an, and Snouct Hurgronje reported that he ras "overshadowed" by several other rulers in the domain (1903a:100). Two such rulers, with the titles Kemaa and Peparit, were said to be "nore or less independent" of tbe Kejurun (ibid; and Van Langen 1861:40) and the western section of the Tripe river valley was under tbe control of Rj' Padang. Below the ciqsfcip lies "the fourteen," corresponding to tbe village polity. Van Langen provides a list of 58 Gayo villages (some were actually village complexes) kith an estimated 28,900 inhabitants, grouped into the three kejurtm or rj, domains. Each was headed by a penghulu

any of who were also included in higher ranks on Tan Langen's or rj ciq are also headmen of their turn villages, within the village boundaries.

list. Tbe kejurun

and thus exercise the authority of a rj

This authority included the control of all cultivated land and residential area recognizedfa?the kejurun as the property of tbe village. In

particular, tbe right of alienation of wet riceland belonged to tbe sarak opat and not to the individual cultivator or to tbe ciqsbip. In

ill llFiiil

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56
Isak, the village headmen had little to do with the Kejurun Linge' before the intervention of the colonial government in the system daring tbe 1920's. The account of political relations between kejurun, sarak opat rj eiq, and

that appears in Snouck Kurgronje (1924, 1903a) does not dif-

fer substantially fron the material provided by Van Langen (1881), Vetb (1877) and Van Delden and Schomerus (1861), with one major exception. One of the major domains described in Snouck Hurgronje's writings, that of Serbojadi, does not even appear in tbe earlier accounts. This absence is probably not an oversight. The articles written by Van Delden and Schomerus and by Veth were both written in Idi, tbe main Dutch military post at that time on the east coast of Aceh. Serbojadi

district is located just inland from Idi, and traders reaching the east coast from the hinterland would certainly have passed through it. Moreover, Van Delden and Schomerus based their report on conversations held with the Kejuruns Petiamang and Bukit, and provide what is otherwise a concise but relatively accurate account of tbe Gayo region. Van Langen wrote from the west coast, but his account is remarkably complete and in substantial agreement with later reports on all matters but this one. Why is Serbojadi left out? Probably because it was as yet a

small, insignificant set of hamlets that as yet had no political status within the Gayo system. In Snouck Hurgronje (1924:15; 1903a:92-93> we

'* Veth (1877) mentions Serbojadi as a rest stop on the main path from the Gayo region to the east coast, but not as a settlement, and not as part of the Gayo domain.

H i

J,d

^ ^ " l | - | II llliriin Ifl Hifi l ^->-.----^^----^-^.^-^^^...^^^^^-^^^^^ M ^^ a ^^. J ^^^.^^*-^.v.-^^T-,,-, r ,,- ^^^fr^,,^-,^-^- r ,r -^ r. ^..-rrt,- n, mr -mr -HT T- -- T f r -, -

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59

read that Serbojadi began as a series of colonies from the Ling district, the ties to which were not maintained because of the great distance involved. Furthermore, Serbojadi was not part of the traditional set of political domains. Two pieces of evidence suggest that the office of Kejurun Aboq was established comparatively recently. The current mukim (sub-district official) of Tualang in Serbojadi has in his possession a stamp bearing the following inscription in Arabic-script Malay: "the sign of Kejurun Aboq Serbojadi 1280." The date 1280 Hijrah would correspond approximately to 1864 A.D. Moreover, I was told that at the time of the first Dutch expedition to Serbojadi, in 1902, the ruling Kejurun was only the third to have held that title. Snouck Eurgronje's informants placed this ruler, Aman Uyem. as the fifth Kejurun Aboq and the great-grandson, of the first ruler." These informants also claimed that the area had been settled for about one hundred years (1903a: 254-59). Taken together, these remarks suggest that the area began to be populated from the Ling district sometime during the 19th century, and that the first man to assume the title Kejurun did so sometime in the later part of the'century, perhaps in 1664. Furthermore, it seems likely that this title was either created locally, or bestowed by tbe

' The discrepancy between these accounts appears to be the result of a dispute over legitimacy. The names cited to me as those of the former Kejurun Aboq (Rj Betul and Ajtan Kemuning I are listed in Snouck Hurgronje's account as a junior line to the Kejurun. Aman Kemuning was presented to the Dutch expeditionary force in 1901 as the candidate of one faction over and against Aman Lyes; my informants told men that Aman Uyem had been taken on by Aman Kemuning as his assistant (see Chapter 10).

'""-run ir

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60

ruler of Ling without much importance being attached to it." This hypothesis would explain the absence of the district from accounts of the Gayo domains that were written in 1877 and 1881. Although the area was settled by that time, it had not yet been made part of the political system. The formal account of rank given in Van Langen contrasts with the relations of authority between rulers and subjects at the turn of the century. The authority held by the four rulers of the highest rank (Bukit, Ling, Syiah Utama, and Petiamang) was limited and challenged by powerful ciqships within their domains. The ranking of rulers on the three lower levels perhaps corresponded to an older balance of authority; it did not portray the relative spheres of authority held by these rulers. And, two de facto independent political domains, Bbcsn and

Serbojadi, were not recognized as such by the model based on rank. The early contacts between Gayo rulers and the Dutch can perhaps best be understood in light of these non-correspondances between rank and authority. At the beginning of the Aceh-Dutch war in 1873, the Gayo appear to have told envoys of the Sultan that they wished to remain neutral in the conflict (Seid 1969:153). There are reports of attacks by Gayo on pepper estates near Idi on the east coast in the 1870 s (Langhout 1924:32-33). While. Gayo did participate on the side of the Acehnese, their rulers initiated contacts with both the Dutch military command on the east coast and the Sultan of Aceh. In 1878 the Dutch

' Older men from Ling denied that the ruler could properly be called "Kejurun Aboq," saying that: "we call him Merah Aboq and nothing more" (Snouck Hurgronje 1903a:99). "Merah" is an honorific that carries no political rank.

61
perceived a willingness of Gayo leaders to begin negotiations with their military command through the intermediation of "a certain Tengku Haji (ibid). In 1881, the Kejurun Bukit and Petiamang visited the Dutch

command at Idi, in the case of Petiamang to "pay his respects" to the Dutch authorities and seek their assistance in a boundary dispute with the ruler of upper Temiang (Van Delden and Schomerus 1881:142-43). Six years later, as the war continued, the rulers of Bukit, Gunung (one of the four ciqships of Bukit), and Ling (and others in their entourage) sought and received letters of recognition (sarakata) from

the new Sultan, Muhammad Daud Syah, who had taken refuge in Pidie (Snouck Hurgronje 1903a:97-98). One such letter, presented to the Penghulu Lot (Takengon) by the Sultan, listed the rulers of Bukit, Gunung, and Ling among the rulers of Aceli (and did not mention Syiah Utama, Rj Ciq Bbsn, or Petiamang). The rulers that were mentioned

were those opposed to the Dutch upon their entry, seventeen years later, into the Gayo region.'* Despite the participation of individual Gayo in the war against the Dutch, Dutch troops had not had an occasion to attempt an entry into the Gayo region during the 19th century. In 1901, however, the Sultan

of Aceh, along with other leaders of Acehnese states, fled to Pamar, in the Gayo highlands near Lake Tawar (Troepen 1929:2). The Dutch followed. In 1901 Major C.C.E. Van Daalen led a small force from the north coast to explore the district, by which time the Sultan had returned to

" The date of the sarakata is obscured, but it was "written in the time of Muhammad Daud Syah." The letter consists of a scroll, written in Arabic script, in a combination of Malay and Acehnese, listing the history and rulers of the Aceh kingdom (Sarakata, n.d.)

^iin~ir<i r rttfT,,rt^.,.,,w.^

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62 the coast (where he submitted in January 1903). The expedition spent two months conducting a topographic survey, collecting weapons, and taking the first photographs of the area (some of which appear in Snouck Hurgronje 1903a). There were several shooting matches between the Dutch and "bandit" forces, after which 17 of the latter were left dead on the field (Troepen 1929:4-9). On the occasion of this and subsequent Dutch patrols into the Lake district, the rulers of Bukit, Gunung and Ling fled to the hills. R'j' Ciq Bbsn and Syiah ltama, however, initially left their residences, but then returned and began to help the Dutch (ibid). On a second expedition to Takengon in September 1902, the Bbsn ruler signed the Korte Verklaring, the "short declaration" of allegiance to the Dutch government used in Aceh after 1896." Syiah Utama signed the declaration seven months later in April 1903. While there is little information on the motives of the two rulers, it appears likely that they saw in the Dutch military force their main chance over and against the more powerful Bukit ruler: Bbsn to gain recognition as Bukit's equal (which he obtained), Syiah Ltama to expand the territory under his rule (which he did not). In 1902 there were four more military scouting expeditions. One entered Serbojadi from the east coast, two explored the area north of Lake Tawar, and one pushed past the lake to the Isak valley. The ruler

4
'* There were three forms of this declaration; form III, called the "Aceh-model", contained three clauses. The signatory acknowledged that he was under the dominion of the Dutch government, that 'the enecies of the Netherlands are my enemies and the friends of the Netherlands my friends," and that he would obey all orders of the Governor and Resident.

----- TiTiri

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63

of Serbojadi, the Kejurun Aboq, signed the declaration of allegience in October 1903, with the proaise that he would become a top-rank ruler in his own right (Landschap 1914). The Kejurun Petiaoang ruler had

approached the Dutch for help in regaining his authority, and signed the declaration ia November of the sane year (Staatkundige 1909). It

appeared to tie Dutch that the time was ripe for a final intervention.

JiuJ

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CHAPTER 3: COLONIAL HISTOHY AND RELIGIOUS MODERNISM

IKTESVEHTIOVS AND TERRITORIALIZATIOH

Their early studies had informed the Dutch strategists of the nature of Gayo political relations, and it was on the basis of this understanding that Dutch actions were formulated after 1903 (the year of Bet Cajolant/ en Zijne Bewoners}. The Dutch, it should be emphasized,

did not misunderstand the Gayo polity; they understood at least some of its features very well and sought to transform it. Their task was twofold: to obtain the allegiance of the four traditional kejurun plus the

rulers of Kbsn and Serbojadi, and to force all village beads to acknowledge the suzerainty of the kejurun as their direct ruler.

A retrospective account of what the Dutch saw as their political and ilitary task,at that tie was provided by the historian Kreemer in 1922. After describing the ease with which the Acehnese leaders, the uleebalang, had been ade into territorial chiefs in a system of indi-

rect rule. Kreeoier then described the particular difficulties faced in extending this systea to the Gayo region. He writes that:

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Authority was (and still partially is) divided over many leaders. Not the village, but the lineage, or a portion of a divided lineage, forced the unit of rule, with its own head called a r je or pengala.

Moreover, the rje were really brt the executors of the will of the members of the lineage (saudere). A incrity could withdraw from it at any tine siffoly by splitting off and living elsewhere. It goes without saying that such a separatist governmental syste was the least conducive possible to the proper establishment of oat influence in this region.

A centralized authority vas therefore needed. Our government found an expedient Beans towards this end in the already existing institution of tie kejurunsnip which, although it had been introduced from the outside and had little influence on the internal life of tie Gayo. nevertheless was recognized as legitimate and tine-horcred. In connection with this, the government considered the traditional Gayo domain to be a combination of six independent kingdoms, whose chiefs {kejurun) had then (1902-1905) to sign the Short Declaration (Kreemer 1922-23,11:166-167, my translation). 1 This interpretation of the traditional polity consisted of transforming four-"guardian" domains into six territorial chiefdoms, that together would exhaustively cover the Gayo region. Every village It was

was now to be subject to the direct rule of one of six kejurun. this relationship of kejurun

to village bead, and not the incorporation

of the former into the state structure, that was to present the greatest challenge to the colonial government. In an instruction issued in 1909

1 Kreemer overstates this point, as did other 20th century Dutch writers based largelv on observation cf Kebayakan, the main Bukit village complex, which was split into 14 lineages. Many of these lineages also had branches in other, nearby villages. However, it was the localized lineage in one village that f o m e d tie sarak opat. Elsewhere in Gayo, the division of a village into several lineages was encompassed by

a single sarak

opat.

* The "six independent kingdoms" were Bukit, Ciq and Syiah I'tama in the Lake area, Ling in Dert. Petiamaiig i * i Gayo Lues and Atoq in Serbojadi.

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to the Dutch local commands, the Aceh Resident reminded them to "strive so that the still nominal territorial head assumes more and more real authority . . . including complete authority over the lineage heads. Where needed, powerful interventions must be carried out to subordinate the lineage heads"'

Kilitary

Encounters.

By 1904, Rj Ciq Bbsn, Syiah Utama, and Kejurun Aboq had signed the Short Declaration and declared themselves willing to help the Dutch against the leaders who remained in opposition, namely Bukit and Ling. The Kejurun Petiamang, Bidin, had obtained his position against the will of a number of Gayo Lues village beads, and in 1903 felt compelled to flee the area and seek Dutch help (Kreemer 1922-23,11:243; Snouck Hurgronje 1903a:233-23S). Following a typically tempting colon-

izing strategy the Dutch command took Bidin's side, evidently believing him to be a potentially powerful ally. Van Daalen, who had obtained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, was given the mission-of finally bringing the Gayo region under complete Dutch control by obtaining Short Declarations from the rulers of Bukit and Ling and by "breaking resistance" in Gayo Lues and installing Bidin as ruler (Kempees 1905: 13-14). Bidin accospanied Van Daalen's expedi-

tion and served as negotiator with the Kejuruns in the Lake and Drt I districts before being installed in Gayo Lois.

' Instructie of 27 January 1909, quoted in Kreemer (1922-23,11:186-187).

67

Van Daalen's expedition proceeded peacefully on its way through the Lake district, and reached Isak on February 21, 1904. The expedition first came upon Kute Dah, "abandoned by its inhabitants" (Van Daalen 1905:18). They spent the first night there, but moved the next day to Kute Rayang, which they found "cleaner and more comfortable" (Kempees 1905:19). Isak residents today will date events by reference

to "the coming of Obost" Van Daalen.* Van Daalen's mission in the Drt area was to contact the Kejurun Ling and induce him to sign the Declaration. Isak rulers saw this as none of their affair, since they

did not consider theaselves to be "under" the Ling ruler and thus were perfectly content to accept a message for the Kejurun and to allow the patrol to stay in lsak unharmed. My oldest informant in Isak claims to have witnessed Van Daalen's entry into lsak. According to his account, the Van Daalen expedition was the fourth time that Dutch troops had coae to lsak. On each of the preceding occasions, the people had fled. This time, however: The Pengulu Mud (headman of Kute Rayang) called a meeting of everyone in lsak, and said that his son had contracted small* pox and therefore he could not flee this time. The people found a Minangkabau man who knew some Dutch. He wrote out a note wnich was posted near Kute Rayang along with a white flag. The note said that they would stay in lsak, and the flag signified surrender. Kempees, who accompanied the expedition, writes that the Rj Ling had "very little influence" in lsak, and that "one awaits a civil war between lsak and its Kejurun." While the Kejurun is an enemy, he continues, the lsak people showed themselves willing to come to the

* "Obost" = overste,

Dutch for lieutenant-colonel.

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encampment, barter, and answer all questions willingly (1905:19-20). A guide was provided for the Dutch to take them across the mountains to Gayo Lues. The normal route to Gayo Lues from lsak led down

the river valley to Waq, then over the Intim-Intim mountain pass to Rikit Gaib, close to the roadway followed today. This pass, however, was blocked and successfully held by Gayo Lues guerillas, so that Van Daalen's patrol had to try a little-used path directly south from lsak to Kra and Rerb in the western part of the Gayo Lues district. Either their guide misled them, or himself did not know the way, but the journey took nine rather than the expected 4-6 days, and left the patrol hungry, ill, and angry. The patrol then continued up the Tripe valley, where, in village after village, the inhabitants refused to allow the Dutch to enter. Losing patience, perhaps, the troops began to fire at close range into the villages. In three villages nearly the entire population was massa-

cred by the patrol, and several others experienced heavy losses. While Kempees' semi-official account of the mission claims that about 1500 persons died in the fighting from March to May, another account, also written from eyewitness reports, estimates that 988 adult males died, "about one-quarter of the adult male population" of Gayo Lues (Troepen 1929:28). On June 2, following this display of force, the Dutch assembled those rulers in the district who had not already fled to the hills. Bidin, who had remained with the patrol through the attacks, was formally presented to the assembly as the Kejurun Petiamang, through which all matters were to be brought to the attention of the Dutch military

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command.

Intriguingly, among the several measures promulgated at this to between 70 and 100

meeting was the limiting of bridewealth (unyuq) dollars (Kempees 1905:135).

High bridewealth levels appear to have been

a concern of the Dutch here and elsewhere. Bidin was to last six years before he was killed by some of those rulers, who considered him to be a traitor for his active assistance to the Dutch (Kreemer 1922-23,11:243).

Political

Reorganization
(as they were now defined by the Dutch) of a

As each of the six kejurun

signed the Short Declaration he became the ruler (zelfsbesiurder) territorial district (landschap)

answering to the local military commanto the Dutch

der. * Each district was defined as in "vassalage" (leen)

government, and all rights to land and revenues formerly held by local rulers now transferred to the government unless specified otherwise (in general, levies on products and trade were retained by the government, payments for marriages and other social matters were still collected by local rulers). By 1905, all but the Kejurun Ling had signed the decla-

ration (he later signed in 1929). A provisional administrative division of the highlands was made into three domains, each under the command of an army officer acting as civil administrator (civie]gezaghebber). Lake and Drt districts were grouped together under a commander at Takengon; Gayo Lues and Serbojadi formed a second domain centered on Blangkejeren, and the Alaslands (to the south of Gayo) were governed The

* For the administrative history that follows, I rely on Kreemer (1922-23,1:69-77), Piekaar (1949), and the relevant Memorie van Overgave listed in the bibliography.

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from Baabel. Fron 1906 to 1933 the Gayo districts were governed by military command (Gayo Lues to 1938) as part of the frequently altered military administration of Aceh. In 1933, a civil administration was established in Takengon, the main lines of which were retained by the Japanese during the occupation of 1942-45. Within the framework of the Netherlands Indies, Aceh stood as a Residency (governed by a Resident) under the Governor of Sumatra. The Residency was divided into a number of administrative units, each called an afdeling, units, each called an onderafdeling. and then further into sub-

This Dutch division was integrated

with the local "native" rule system throughout Aceh. In the Gayo region, the six kejurun more afdeling districts {landschap) were sorted into one or

and onderafdeling.

Th table below sets out the various

arrangement* of Dutch and Gayo units over both the Dutch aad Japanese periods. The shuffling around of districts did nothing to meet the primary objective of the Dutch occupation cf the Gayo lands, namely the creation of a powerful district ruler with the power to suppress rebellion and to extract labor from his subordinates. While the emphasis of administration changed over the 38 years of Dutch occupation (1904-1942) fro military security to economic gain, the problem of kejurun power contin-

ued as a major element in colonial administration up through the Japanese period (1942-1945), until the Social Bevolution of the late 1945-46 sharply changed the local balance of power.

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7aWe 3: Administrative

Divisions of the Gayo Region, 1906 to 1945

Period
1) 1906-1908

District
a)Bukit, Ciq, Ling and Syiah Utama b)Petiasang> Aboq a)Bukit, Ciq, Ling and Syiah Utama b)Aboq c)Petiamang a)Bukit, Ciq, Ling and Drt b)Aboq c)Petiaaang a)Bukit, Ciq, Ling and Syiah Utama b)Aboq c)Petiaaang a)Bukit, Ciq, Ling and Syiah Utama b)Petiamang c)Aboq a)Bukit, Ciq, Ling and Syiah Utama b)Petiamang c)Aboq

Onderafdel ing
Lake and Drt Gayo Lues and Serbojai Lake and Drt Langs Gayo Lues Lake and Drt Serbojadi Gayo Lues Takengon Serbojadi Gayo Lues Takengon Gayo Lub's Langs a Takengon

Afdeling
Gayo and Alaslands idea

2) 1908-1914

North Coast (Lhokseumave) East Coast Gayo Lues North Coast East Coast East Coast Gayo and Alaslands idea idea North Coast East Coast East Coast Middle Aceh (Naka-Acehbunshu) idea East Coast

3) 1914-1922

4) 1922-1933

5) 1933-1944

6) 1945

Gayo Lues Langsa

(Source: Kreemer 1922-23,1:69-77, Piekaar 1949:240)

COLONIAL POLITICAL ECOHOHT

From 1905 into the 1930's the Dutch and their allies faced continilitary challenges to their authority from guerilla forces fight-

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ing from the hills. The Dutch designation of these guerillas as "Musli bandits" was taken up by Gayo, who today refer proudly to muslimin

(rebel) relatives. During the first ten years of the occupation, village heads were frequently fined for suspected aid to these rebels. The attacks continued for several decades nonetheless. In the Governor s

report of 1928 a substantial concern is shown for the activities of a small group operating around the Samarkilang area (Mailrapport 1928:19-21). The ruler of Linge is remembered today as an active who "came down" in 1912, but did not sign the

anti-Dutch muslimin

Declaration until 1929 after he had moved from Linge to Isak and had begun to take over district administration. Even as the Muslimin activities were gradually brought under military control, the Dutch were building up the political and economic power of the new self-rule states in their own territories. 1 will outline two series of developments in this section. The first was the continual effort to construct a line of authority from district rulers, through village heads, to the people, all on a stable, territorial basis. The second was the economic strengthening of the district rulers

as intermediaries in a process of expanding Dutch exploitation of agricultural resources.

Order and

Authority

In its political mission, the Dutch command was faced with a paradox of transforming a polity while drawing on traditional allegiances. To the extent that the district ruler could be made independent either of the several lineages that composed his territory (as in Bukit and

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Ciq) or of the powerful ciqships (as in Ling and Petiamang), he then incurred the wrath and even the violence of these political subordinates who saw themselves as possessing certain legitimate claims on the raler. To the extent that the ruler preserved these ties with his subordinates, he was perceived by the Dutch as holding back an "historical phenomenon" taking place throughout the archipelago, namely the trend towards territorial, hierarchical government.' The two horns of the dilemma were exemplified for the Dutch by the Bukit and Ciq rulers. The report of Controleur Gnther in 1934 clearly sets out the contrast. The Kejurun Bukit quickly became a model for the Dutch of how a ruler ought to administer during this genealogy-toterritory transition. Vhereas the office of Kejurun bad once alternated between two branches of the Bukit lineage, Bukit Lah (center) and fctifcit Ewh (edge), it had now been "fixed" in the Lah branch by Dutch intervention. An appropriate young ruler had been taken to the provincial

capital for Dutch-language schooling before being installed in office, and now governed without requiring the consent of other lineage heads. The Controleur admired him for appointing new Rj Ciqs to office "on their fitness alone" (Gnther 1934:23). However, the increasing alienation of the Kejurun Bukit from others in his own and other Bukit lineages gave rise to considerable resentment, sufficient to lead to several killings within the Bukit clan, and the eventual assassination of the first Kejurun in the early 1930's by a disaffected member of the Bukit

' I take the phrase in quotes from the report of the first civilian Controleur of Takengon, who, in his Algemene memorie, (Gnther 1934:18), appears to be under pressure from the Governor, van Sluys, to ensure that this process proceeds undisturbed.

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Ewh line. This distance between the Kejurun Bukit and other leaders increased during the terms of his two successors, Rj liang and Rj Zainuddic, so that along with the Kejurun Ling, the third Dutch-rule Kejurun Sakit, Zainuddin, was nearly assassinated during the Social Revolution. The Rj Ciq Bbsn, on the other hand, retained a close relationship with other Bbsn lineage heads, such that his government was labeled a "genocratie" (implying genealogical hegemony) by Controleur Gnther (1934:19-20). When the Dutch adoinistration sought to transform this district into a more territorial system by creating new subdistrict offices, these offices were simply given to the same lineage heads, thus slowing down the territorialization process and giving the Bbsn "money-seeking ruler" an additional bureaucratic rent (ibid). The office of Zelfsbesturder was strengthened by the Dutch through political and financial means. Justice was administered primarily through dat courts, presided over in the last instance by the district ruler alongside of the military commander or, after 1933, the civilian Controleur. Appointments to subordinate offices were in most cases made either hy the ruler or at his suggestion. A district treasury, the landsctapskas, tine*, received money from three sources: the head tax, court

and concessionary payments.' The treasury was then used to pay

7 These payments included a 10*. tax on all forest products exported from the district (Zelf. 1926) and a tax of f1.50 for each buffalo, cow, or horse taken out of the district (Zelf. 1917). They were greatly expanded by the growth in damar exploitation described below.

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officials and finance roads and other local projects, but it also underwrote the large houses built by the last two Bukit rulers and the last Rj Ciq Bbsn near Takengon. Taxation and corvee enrollment were also carried out through the district rulers' offices. The creation of territorial rule thus brought about the close identification of the ruler with the colonial administration.

Expansion and

Exploitation.

Dutch attention centered increasingly on the two major Lake district rulers, Kejurun Bukit and Rj Ciq Ebsn, and Takengon appeared to the Dutch as a key field for economic extraction within Sumatra as a whole because of its large surplus of land, favorable climate and untapped natural resources. Three developments were of particular importance in this process: the completion of a good road from Takengon to the north coast in 1913; the creation of coffee and tea estates in 1908-1930; and the importing of Javanese contract workers to tap and process pine resin on a large scale beginning in 1927. The overall effect of these changes was both to construct a large export sector in a short period of time and to induce a large flow of labor into the area for this sector. Gayo appear to have largely followed in the wake Of this expansion, establishing smallholder plots next to estates and feeding crops into foreign-controlled marketing systems at low prices. A pattern of non-Gayo control of much Gayo trade appears to have pre-dated Dutch occupation. A report from 1908 asserted that smallscale trade from the Lake area was primarily in Acehnese hands, while the export of resins was handled by the Chinese. Tobacco, resin.

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horses, and buffalo were listed as export goods, and salt, cloth, opium, and pottery as the main imports (Verslag 1909). Chinese probably han-

dled the opium and pottery trade at this time. Gayo production of cash-crops clearly pre-dated colonial intrusion, and changed and expanded along with that intrusion. This expansion, however, was limited to crop production and local marketing, while export was controlled by non-Gayo traders, and the local processing of damar was controlled by the Dutch and then the Indonesian State. The Dutch began the construction of a road from Takengon to Birueun soon after Van Caalen's expedition of 1904. Labor was furnished by the early institution of a corvee and taxation system.* Prisoners, especially Muslimin, added to the work force. Chinese were also brought to the area to work on the road, and many of them remained to become shopkeepers, traders, and vegetable farmers. The tax and corvee undoubtedly increased popular resistance to the Dutch, and encouraged many young men to leave the area or to travel in order to avoid the tax. It also enabled the road to be completed by 1913. Before the road was opened, however, the Dutch had begun to create small estates for the production of cash crops, and to introduce new crops to Gayo smallholders. Potatoes and cabbage were introduced to Takengon in 1905, and by 1934 over f.30,000 worth of vegetables were exported annually to the north coast. .J. Forced labor, (beerendienst in Dutch, rodi locally) was demanded from all males under 50 and able to work. Civil servants and the families of rulers and religious leacers were exempt. A maximum of 22 days a year, 12 hours a day, could be exacted, with a maxiumum of 12 of the 22'days on road work. The corvee requirement was waived with the payment of a head tax of one dollar (ringgit) (Zelf. 1928). In 1908 an experimental planting

77 ! of 3500 coffee trees was undertaken to the north of the lake, and by 1933 Europeans had planted over 13,000 ha. in coffee (Milius 1933b). The outgoing military commandant called coffee "the product for the future" (ibid). Tobacco, a crop already grown by the Gayo, was increas-

ingly planted along the road to the north coast, where Chinese traders had begun to buy directly from growers and sell their wares to Medan (Kreemer 1922-23,1:118). Kev villages began to appear along the road as Gayo opened up new land for coffee growing. In Blang Gl, for example, north of Takengon,

the Dutch created a 100 ha. coffee estate in 1918 worked by Gayo wage laborers. By 1930, four new villages bad appeared peopled by Gayo These

smallholding coffee growers, with plots of 1-4 hectares each.

smallholders received about f.35 per quintal for their crops, about one-half of the value paid for the coffee grown on the Dutch-owned estates (both crops were Arabica export coffee). The difference appears

to have been due both to quality and to the poor prices received, sometimes on a store-credit basis, by the smallholders.* The incoming Controleur in his general report listed the imports and exports fro the area in 1934. The leading items by value for that year were as follows: The imports and exports listed here point to a dynamic indigenous sector as well as a thirsty foreign one. Ricefields were expanding

....

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' Philips (1932) notes the price discrepancy in his final report as Governor. Gnther, in his General fceport (1934:45), points to Chinese price-fixing, and Nazir f 1977j describes the credit mechanisms. See also Siegel (1969) for an analysis of the tobacco credit system operated today by Acehnese traders.

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Table 4: Leading Imports and Exports, Takengon, 1934

Leading

Imports

Value f 230,940 35,000 13,000 9,000

Leading

Exports

Value f.47,565 33,424 3,012

beer tin roofing rumbia-leaf roofing gasoline

rice vegetables tobacco

(Source: Gnther 1934)

continuously in area (Beets 1933:35), new cash crops were planted by Gayo and by immigrant estate workers, and the older cash crop, tobacco, continued to be exported in large quantities. " The large quantities of roofing materials attest to a town that was expanding rapidly (and the amount of rumbia leaf, to a large Gayo part in this expansion).

The town of Takengon had begun to grow quickly as it became the capital of the most populated onderafdeling and, in the periods covering the entire

1906-1908 and 1922-1933, of a separate afdeling

highlands region. Many of the new town residents were traders from Aceh, Vest Sumatra (Minangkabau) or Chinese. The latter soon had established themselves as the major exporters of Gayo products and importers of manufactured ones (as well as of opium, the amounts of which do not show up on the official import tallies).

" The amount exported had. however, dropped since 1910, for which year Van Kol reports an export of J.OOO kg worth f.6000. Coffee farming had evidently attracted a large number of Gayo away from tobacco production between these two years.

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In 1661 Van Langen reported only about 50C people in Takengon but about 8000 around the lake, oat of a total Gayo population of 23,900 (Van Langen 1881). This lake total had presumably risen substantially

before the military occupation began, since by 1914 Van Kol, who visited the area in 1910, can write that "about 8000 people live around Lake Tawar, with no more than 253 men capable of working, such was the toll of the war" and of a smallpox epidemic, said to have wiped out 2000 people (Var. Eol 1914:23). The 1904 population, by implication, was By 1917 the combined popula-

substantially higher than these figures.

tions of the Bukit and Ciq domains had reached about 12,000, and by 1930, 24,DOC, growing a bit faster than the Gayo population as a whole, from 35,000 to 55,500 (Kreeaer 1922-23,1:215; Volkstelling 1933). Separate figures for Takengon town are only available from the 1930 census, where 1,116 "natives" are listed as inhabiting the town proper, plus 232 Chinese, 31 Europeans, and 30 "other Asiatics", for a total of 1,411. But most of the Gayo who worked in the town continued

to live in the nearby villages, so that it was the Lake District as a whole that grew over this period. In the following table I have presented selected population figures from the earliest available estimates (1861) to the most recent census data (1960).

E:

TflWe S: Gayo Region Population Data, 1881 to 1980

Population District
A) Lake B) Drt C) Gayo Lues D) Serbojadi Total 1881 8,400 2,900 12,600 n.a. 23,900 1917 13,086 2,500 16,784 2,683 35,053 1930 26,162 2,391 23,2543,694 55,501 1971 101,882 3,706 36,007 4,547 1980 159,647 3,692 40,919 7,384

146,142 211,642

These figures indicate the tremendous growth of the Lake area." From 1881 to 1980, the Drt population has remained roughly constant, Serbojadi and Gayo Lues populations have tripled, but the Lake district has increased 20-fold. Takengon itself, the seat of the colonial administration, is within the Bukit domain, and the Bukit district has fur-

M Sources for the table and explanations of the figures are as follows: 1861: Van Langen 1881. The earliest figure available for Serbojadi is from the first expeditions in 1901-1903, which reported a population of 2,457 (Nota 1914:440). 1917: Kreemer 1922-23,1:215. Figures are by administrative district, aggregating Lake and Deret, so 1 have estimated the Drt population based on intercalation from other years. 1930: Volkstelling 1933. Totals are for "native" population \ only. An additional 503 Chinese and Westerners lived in the region. 3,868 of the natives in the Lake and Drt districts were non-Gayo; 5425 in the Gayo region as a whole. Gnther (1934) claims 9,028 non-Gayo natives, 155 Westerners, and 466 Chinese in Lake and Drt by 1934. 1971: Sensus Penduduk Indonesia, 1971. 1980: Sensus Penduduk Indonesia, 1980.

81
nished the bulk of the administrators in the territory. From 1934 to 1942, most day-to-day1 affairs of the district were carried out under Bukit supervision, and the Kejurun Bukit became the primus inter pares in Takengon. The Ciq (Bbsn) district, on the other hand, found that its control of the northwest part of the Takengon area provided it with a substantial source of rent, as the colonial administration undertook the cultivation of tea and coffee in smallholder estates, and then began a large-scale pine resin industry, all initially centered in Ciq territory. After an exploratory study in 1924, the Dutch decided to begin large-scale tapping of the local pine, Pinus Merkusii, from whose resin, damar, could be extracted both hars, a product used for processing of batik

soap and paper (and, not unimportantly, in the manufacture of cloth), and turpentine.

In 1926 and 1927 a contract was agreed on with

the P.j Ciq Bbsn, whereby 1600 ha. of pine stands on the Bireuen road (near Baliq) were set aside for tapping, and 9 small processors were set in operation (Gnther 1934). These stations proved to be profit-

able, and the area under exploitation was expanded to include Bukit territory at Lampahan. 101 of the profit from these operations was paid

into the district treasury. The profit accruing to the district rulers from the damar estates was evidently enough to obtain their active support in sealing off the forests to shifting cultivation by Gayo. All burning of undergrowth in the Lake and Drt districts was forbidden in 1924 (Zelf. 1924), and this prohibition appears to have been enforced largely by the kejurun

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(Gnther 1934:55). In Isak, where by the late 1930*s the majority of

tapping took place, this prohibition on burning has continued to the present, and has prevented residents from opening either dry-rice fields or coffee gardens in the largely pine areas close to the Isak villages. The expansion of the estate sector was thus at the expense of local cultivators' access to land. The damar production expanded rapidly, sending 518 tons of hars and turpentine to Bireuen in 1931, 2.143 tons in 1936, and 10,632 tons by 1941. By the end of the Dutch occupation, in 1942, about 40,000 ha. out of 70,000 ha. total pine area in the Ling, Bukit and Ciq districts were included in the industry concession; 35,000 ha. were being actively tapped (Piekaar 1949:27). Most of this area was in Ling, which meant

that there was a constant movement of trucks back and forth across the pass between Takengon and the Isak valley, carrying the resin to the factory north of Takengon. In 1942, there were already plans to incor-

porate the 30,000 ha. of pine in the Gayo Lues area into the processing area, and to combine tapping operations with logging and paper production (ibid). The damar operations required massive quantities of cheap and easily controlled labor, not available from the local population. Efforts began in the 1920*s to bring contract laborers from Java to Gayo. The first Javanese came in the late 1920's, and were settled downstream from Isak. The second, much larger wave came in the late 1930's, when large camps were built near Isak and near the factory at Lampahan north of Takengon.

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83 As is often the case with such systems, laborers signed short-ter contracts that employers sought to extend as long as possible, in order to spread transportation costs over a long period of cheap wage-work. GaiuMing fairs were held right after payday, and managers extended credit to all who needed it. Many laborers remained In the Gayo region after ending their ties to the processing company, and either began to farm in new, all-Javanese villages, or opened up stores in existing Gayo ones. Many of the Javanese managers used their access to cheap labor to build up extensive coffee gardens of their own, and the wealthiest residents of the north Takengon area include many ex-damar industry employees. The colonial penetration of the region shaped each district in line with larger political and economic concerns, in ways that have endured to the present day. One could even suggest that the economic

development of each Gayo district since 1942 has been in great measure the reproduction of the political economy of the 1930*s. In succeeding chapters we examine social change in northern Gayoland, before returning to historical developments in the southern and eastern districts. The state of northern Gayoland at the end of the Dutch occupation was as follows:

Lake {Bukit,

Ciq):

Over the Dutch period vast areas of land were opened

up for cultivation, both in rice and dry cash-crops (primarily coffee and tea). While some of this cultivation was in the form of medium-size

(100-200 ha.) Dutch-run estates, after Independence (1945) smallholders from the surrounding communities took over these lands as well. fast-growing trading sector developed in the town of Takengon and A

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84 involving Gayo, Minangkabau, Acehnese and Chinese traders.1* As we shall see in the next section, this inter-ethnic trade combined with an ideology of Islamic modernism and the introduction of schools to produce a powerful Islamic political and social movement in the town. At the same time that economic expansion provided substantial opportunities for increased revenues within the area, Dutch political policy enabled the two Kejuruns to use that revenue in creating an increasingly hierarchical political'system. If Snouck Hurgronje and

others could describe the office of Kejurun in 1903 as relatively powerless, by 1940 the two Takengon rulers, now addressed by the high honorific of "Ampun," held a high degree of control over both traditionally-independent village leaders and the new class of traders and cash-crop cultivators. The Dutch fixing of the political system around two lineages (those of the Kejurun Bukit and the Rj Ciq Bbsn) also served to polarize the entire Lake area into two camps, with the Kejurun Syiah L'tama and the several lineage that had resided in Takengon siding with Bukit as the more "town-oriented," of the two, and any the new coffee growers to the north affiliating themselves with Ciq. Dr't (Ling): We saw above that the population of the Ling district

stagnated through the colonial period (and has continued to do so to the present day). Wet rice-field area was limited to the narrow Jambo Ayer

** Each ethnic group developed a certain "sector identity" that has been preserved until now: Minangkabau selling cloth; Chinese, iepcrted manufactured goods; Acehnese, cooked food and services; Gayo, local products. The domination of the export carket passed from Chinese to Acehnese hands in the 1950's.

ili.i.*

85

river valley. Moreover, the Dutch (and Indonesian) prohibition on burning of the pine slopes eade an extensive, shifting cultivation alternative difficult to carry out. Every few years, from the 1930"s on, a group from Isak has attempted to begin a cash-crop colony in one of the permitted cultivation areas, a day's journey away from the Isak complex; these endeavors inevitably fail because of the distances involved and the poor quality of local roads. The combination of an export-oriented, state controlled tapping sector and a "native" sector that had less and less room to expand continues to characterize Isak valley economics today, with statecontrolled tapping replaced in the past few years by a state-approved logging project. Isak nas found itself in the middle of production

activity, and it has been, exposed to and changed by the transformations in production, education and religious orientation that took place is Takengon. However, those residents of Isak who became active participants in these changes generally left Isak in order to seek wider educational or economic opportunities, with the result that Isak today continues to define itself over and against the "modernizing" town.

The Japanese Period:

3942*1945

The transition from Dutch to Japanese rule in the Gayo region took place within the space cf several weeks. The first Japanese landing in

Aceh was on March 12, 1942, and by the end of the month, all Dutch troops in tbe Gayo highlands bad surrendered. The Kejurun takit was made the bead (guncho) of the Takengon onderafdeling. The bead of tbe

Gunung lineage in Kebayakan, Abdul Wahab, formerly one of tbe four Rj

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86

Ciq under the Kejurun Eukit, becane his assistant and the head of the Lake district (landschap). Takengon onderafdeling, The Japanese thus gave the control of the including Ling and Ciq, and, just before sur-

render in 1945, Petiacang, to tbe Bukit clan. The remaining district heads were kept in their positions through the period of Japanese rule, and well into Independence. Isak memories of the Japanese period are of humiliation and cruelty. Nearly all en were recruited for labor on the road to Official Japanese reports state that 7000 workers were

Blangkejeren.

used each day to work on the road between January ad July 1944, out of a total population cf about 50,000 in the Lake, Drt and Gayo Lues districts (Piekaar 1945: 229). In August 1945, when word came of Indonesian independence, the political structure set up by the Dutch and largely continued by the Japanese began to cresble, and allegiances which had been developing during tbe years of colonial rcle were drawn on to fore new associations, paramilitary groups, end a provisional government. The roots of

these rapid post-Independence developments lie in the debates over Islam and politics that began to take place in Takengon in the 1920's, and to which we will now turn.

87

REFORM ST ISLAH AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION

Changes in Gayo conceptions of religion and society developed out of nationwide discussions concerning Islamic modernism. These discussions began, in turn, as Indonesian scholars became aware of new religious currents in Egypt and Mekka. The source of modernism was not radical puritanism, unlike the earlier Padri movement in West Sumatra, but a concern with the place of Indonesians in a by then firmly established colonial state and a world in which concepts of progress and scientific rationality held great currency. In the 1880's and 1890's several Islamic scholars prominent in Cairo and Paris began to publish political, social and theological texts concerned with establishing the basis for an Islam that could adopt or incorporate Western knowledge (and, for some of these writers, rid itself of "Oriental" non-religious cultural attributes). Muhammad Abduh

and Jamaluddin al-Afghani are the most well-known names in this movement; in particular, Muhammad Abduh's writings from 1897 to his death in 1905 in the journal al-Manar (the Beacon) published in Cairo and the exchange between Jamaluddin al-Afghani and Ernest Kenan in 1883 on the possibility of a meeting of Islam and science were widely read, and snuggled into Indonesia." The most important direct link between the Cairo modernists and Indonesian scholars was, ironically, the Syafi'i imam (the spiritual

" See the articles in Gibb and Kramers 1953 entitled "Muhammad Abduh" and "Djamal al-Din al-Afghani."

88

leader upholding the Syafi'i school of law, one of the four traditional schools critiqued by the modernists) at the Masjid al-Haram in Mekka (the Mekka mosque). This imam, Syech Ahmad Chatib, was a Minangkabau man who cane to Mekka to study, and became, not only the Syafi'i imam, but also the main teacher for Indonesians who came to Mekka in the 1890's. His position is illustrative of the potential for reformism within traditionalist frameworks. Although he upheld the Syafi i traditionalist position, he did not forbid his students to study the writing of Muhammad Abduh and other modernists. Moreover, because of his by then strictly Islamic focus, he was an outspoken opponent of Minangkabau matrilineal inheritance law and the joint lineage control of property, as well as of the several mystic orders, tarekat, Minangkabau in this period (Noer 1973:30-73). Not only did the early proponents of modernizing reform in Minangkabau study under Ahmad Chatib, but so also did the founder of Muhammadiyah, the major reformist social and religious organization in Indonesia. Kiyai Haji Ahmad Dahlan, after his studies in Mekka in the 1890's, returned to Java where he founded, in 1912, the Muhammadiyah, which as it grew in numbers became an organization dedicated to reformist ideals. Somewhat before the founding of Muhammadiyah, the term "Kaum Muda ("Young Group", taken from the sobriquet "Young Turks") had already come into use to designate a group of Sumatran and Malayan teachers writing in Singapore, West Sumatra, Medan, and West Java, and all drawing on both the method and the content of the Middle Eastern writers. The position of the Kaum Muda can be summarized in the twin terms of ijtihad that were prominent in

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(individual interpretation) and bid'ah promoted and the second attacked. *

1

(innovation). The first is

The fundamental truths are said to have been set down in the Qur'an and Hadith (traditions concerning the words and deeds of the Prophet), and in every age these two sources must be applied anew to current conditions through ijtihad, or examining scriptures to determine

the legal prescriptions or moral teachings contained therein, and then using reason to apply them to a contemporary situation. Unquestioning obedience (taqlid) to any one set of established interpretations is

criticized, both as a process that leads to stagnation and because the interpretations of the four schools, one of which, the Syafi'i, is followed in Indonesia, is though to contain serious errors of heteropraxis. These errors in the main turn on the second key concept, bid ah,

or innovation. For the reformists, any change in a matter of worship, or ibadat, is not permitted, since God himself ordained such matters and

man cannot improve on them. Unless a practice can be justified by reference to clearly acceptable scriptures (and it is on the relative acceptability of various hadith that the argument often stands) it may not be carried out. On the other hand, continues the argument, one must strictly delimit matters of fixed ritual, the true domain of ibadat, from aspects of

worship or religion in which the purpose is highlighted over the form, worship as communication (these words are my own). Thus, the sermon and

** See Abdullah 1971:A5-5i for the Minangkabau version of the Kaum Muda critique, and Federspiel 1970:46-83 for the position taken by the Persatuan Islam, perhaps the most widely read source of arguments against tag I id.

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homilies delivered publically, or individual prayer to God ought to be in the vernacular (rather than in Arabic). The washing performed before

the ritual prayer is seen as a cleansing act (highlighting purpose) rather than as a ritual act (highlighting form) and thus can be replaced by a good shower (and, conversely, cannot be performed in shorthand fashion, by wetting three hairs of the head, as is often done by traditionalists). Modernist Islam first came to Takengon in the 1920's, when Minangkabau traders brought an attractive combination of trading skills, modern forms of education, and what seemed to some to be a more "rational" form of Islam. These Minangakabau traders sought protection

from a local ruler for their reformist-leaning mosque in order to avoid Dutch criticism as communist.'* The ruler approached was the Kejurun Bukit of the time, Rj Hang. The Bukit ruler lent his protection to the Muhammadiyah group, Reformist

and began to build up their institutional base in the town.

Islam was thus from the start supported by the most powerful traditional ruler, who had also become the most powerful ruler under the Dutch. This alliance later deflected post-Independence criticism of the old order by religious leaders away from the traditional rulers as a group.

l * The most influential modernist school in Sumatra, the Sumatra Thawalib near Bukittinggi, had indeed developed an "ilmu kominih" or science of communism (Abdullah 1971:41). Dutch concern over the possible spread of this communist-modernist association to Aceh filled a considerable amount of space in official reports. In 1925, a requirement was instituted whereby anyone teaching Islam outside his own family had to first obtain a letter of permission from his district ruler, and could be surpervised in his teaching by any European or local ruler (Zelf. 192S).

91
In 1934 a 5 year Muhammadiyah school (a H.I.S., teaching a broad range of subjects and some Dutch language instruction) was built, the first such school in Takengon, and the Bukit ruler lay the corner stone. The only alternative education in Takengon at that time was the 3 year Dutch volksschool (people's school) and recitation lessons in the small schools run by individual scholars, the pesantren. In 1938 a second

reformist-minded 5 year school was opened, called the Pendidikan Islam (Islamic education), which taught mathematics and geography as well as religious subjects. Until Independence in 1945 there were no traditionalist religious schools in Takengon. Children of traditionalist families either studied Qur'an recitation with a local teacher or left for the Acehnese coast for their religious education. Indeed, the traditionalist/reformist

debate was often about the mode of education itself, with the "old grocp" favoring an older-style training. In 1957, however, a branch of

the Medan-based al-Washliyah movement was opened, a moderate traditionalist movement that (as its Gayo spokesmen put it) sees itself as supporting traditional Syafi'i religious views without rejecting the possibility of alternative positions. From 1970 to 1975 this group operated a university, which produced 19 nationally-recognized B.A.'s and bad a total enrollment of 300 students. Arabic language learning and religieus subjects were emphasized.

Political

Organization

In the last decade of the colonial period there were two major organizations in Takengon. While the Muhammadiyah movement had its

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locus in schools and several of the mosques, the nationalist political party inspired by Sukarno (the PNI) carried on clandestine activities with the support of the Gunung ruler, Abdul Vahab. There was also sone

activity on behalf of the Communist Party (PKI), supported most notably by tie Kejurun Bukit who took office in the late 1930's. In contrast to

the coastal areas of Aceh, there was no general organizational opposition between religious leaders ('ulama) in tie Gayo region. and traditional rulers anywhere

Eather, at the moment of Independence the trte

dital rulers found themselves leaning in several different directions. At least two of the kejurun (Linge and Petianang) appeared to be

actively working for the return of the Dutch and the continuation of their own authority. Other rulers bad joined the pro-Japanese Letter

T" organization in 1942.

This organization was named after the Japanese

Major Fnjiwara who directed anti-Western fifth column activities in Malaya, Aceh, Thailand, and Burma in the years before the Japanese invasions (Iwaichi 1983). Many of the Gayo fifth columnists participated in

anti-utch military activities shortly before the Japanese entry (Piettar 1949:175; Sjasil 1944). These rulers continued to support the

Japanese in the transitional period between formal Japanese surrender and tie establishment cf an effective Republican government. These

rulers quickly allied themselves with the third group, the supporters of independence, of which the PNI leaders played a key role. The Indonesian flag was first raised in Takengon on September 17, 1943. under the same leadership that had been installed by the Japanese. In October, a meeting was held in Takengon with representatives fro Tatei^gon, Isak, Blangkejeren, and Kutacane. The Japanese district of

III-'.! I"

93
Middle-Aceh, the former afdeling Takengon, was renamed a luhak. Abdr.1

Vahab, the ruler of Gunung and the leader of the PNI, was named the Kepali Luhak (head of the luhak). each of three keuedhanaan, He then selected a uedhana to govern onderafdelingen was were in

coterminous with the former

of Takengon, Blangkejeren, and Kutacane. Each former landschap renamed a negeri, each with a Kepala Segeri; the former kejurmt

each case chosen to head these units. The Kepala Luhak was directly responsible to the Residen Aceh (T. Syaq Arief). who stood as one of three Residen under the governor of Aceh. Langkat and Karoland. This pest was filled by the leader of the Acehnese religious organization (POESA), Daud Beureueh. The initial governmental organization thus kept the traditional rulers in place, but under the leadership of a nationalist element, the PNI. Vithin the first months of independence, the number of organizations in Takengon began to proliferate. Each political or religious organization (Masyumi, PSI. PKI) had a separate youth group, and a fourth organization, the Mujahiddin (a paramilitary Islamic roup) grerapidly in strength. In Takengon, many supporters of all these groups

joined an umbrella organization, PESISDO (Persatuan Sosialis Indonesia, or Indonesian Socialist Federation), led by Abdul Vahab. In Isak the local branches of the two organizations acted as channels for the two competing political positions. The Mujahiddin functioned locally as a body for pro-Republican activists, under the leadership of a moderately reformist Islamic leader. Pesindo, on the other hand, supported the continuation of the Kejurun Ling's power. Pesindo, indeed, appears to have been perceived by several traditional

94
rulers as a guarantor of political conservatism during what they saw as a transitional period. In December 1945 the tensions in Aceh between the uleebalang the 'ulama' and

supported Republican army came to a head in Sigli, on the military group, the

north coast in the Pidie district. An uleebalang

Barisan Penjaga Keamanan (Security Guard), attempted to seize arms from Japanese forces stationed in the town. The Republican Army surrounded the group, and open fighting erupted. The uleebalang retreated to Laa

Meulo, where they were pursued and killed by the Republican forces. The battle, called the "Cumbok affair" after the name of the leader, sparked a wave of arrests and killing of uleebalang uleebalang throughout

Aceh (van Dijk 1981:276-280). The effect of this battle on developments in Gayoland was to heighten the tensions between local Republican Army commanders and the traditional rulers, many of whom were still in office. The sharpest tensions were felt in Blangkejeren, where the local commander (officially the head of Angkatan Pemuda Indonesia or Indonesian Youth Army) was Col. Muhammad Din, a man who had been both a Muhammadiyah and a Communist Party activitist during the colonial period, later a member of POESA, and elevated to local army commander by the Japanese. Muhammad Din ordered the death of two Blangkejeren officials, one of them the former Kejurun, for plotting to return the Dutch to power. These two cases appear to have been the only ones where former Gayo rulers were kil lea. known that the kejurun In Takengon, Abdul Vahab let it be

were to be left alone, even after the Cumbok

affair had taken place. Both the Kejurun Bukit and the Kejurun Ling were, however, removed from office in 1946 and brought to Banda Aceh.

95 where they were held for several years.1' By 1948 elections had been held in all villages for headmen. These officials were first called pengurus, and, after 1958, by the Acehnese term geucik, locally pro-

nounced kecik.

An administrative level of assistant wedhana was also

established to correspond to the former Kepala Negeri; the office was renamed Camat in 1958. Throughout the 1950's and early 1960's, PNI supporters from the Bukit domain dominated Takengon politics. Abdul Vahab himself was Kepala Luhak until 1950, and then Bupati of the Takengon kabupaten 1954 to 1964. from

In part this domination reflects the early strength of

PNI in the town; their leaders were able to link the Republican movement to a PNI local political base, and also to bring in members of other parties to the PNI-led umbrella organization of PESINDO. Of equal importance was the effect of the Islamic rebellion of the 1950's, which coincided with similar rebellions in several parts of Indonesia. The first rebellion under the name of Darul Islam was in Vest Java, where on August 7, 1949 the Indonesian Islamic State was proclaimed by Kartosuwirjo. Movements with similar objectives began over

the following five years, in South Sulawesi, South Kalimantan, Central Java, and Aceh. Each movement was responding to specific local sources of dissatisfaction with central government control of the provincial governments and, in particular, to the dismantleing of the provincial militias (van Dijk 1981:343-63).

" The Kejurun Ling returned to Takengon in 1952. and in the following year he joined the Darul Islam rebellion, finishing his days in the hills of Central Aceh. He died in the fighting in 1956. The Kejurun Bukit moved to Jakarta along with most of his close relatives.

9e
In Aceh, a governmental reorganization in April 1948 reduced the province to the status of a residency under the governor of Sorth Sumatra in Medan. This change was temporarily suspended when the Dutch invaded in December of that year, but was reenacted in 1951. During the same period, cany former leaders in the Aceh Division of the Republican Army were demobilized, and many non-Acehnese troops (including Bataks and former Dutch Army soldiers) were moved into Aceh (van Dijk 1981:296-99). In Takengon, many Gayo officers saw their ranks lowered,

supposedly because of their inferior educations, and the former soldiers in the Dutch army (KNIL) promoted. In Aceh the rebellion broke out on September 19, 1953 with the capture of a police station in Perlak, East Aceh and of several major towns on the north coast railway line. Republican troops managed to hold Langsa, the capital of East Aceh, and soon had regained control of most towns. Takengon was occupied for about two months, until November, when Republican forces made their way from Medan through Blangkejeren and Isak and recaptured the town. For the next ten years the rebellion was fought in the outskirts of the towns and villages, a series of skirmishes, raids, and reprisals between the two sides. Frost. 1953 to 1962, all settled areas near Takengon were occupied by Indonesian troops, but Darul Islam forces controlled most of the surrounding hills, and at times held de facto temporary control of some

villages, particularly those on the south shore of Lake Tawar and the eastern end of the Isak valley. Vhile rice cultivation was probably not terribly affected by the rebellion, trade became very difficult, as roads and bridges were in an almost constant state of disrepair, and

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both government and Darul Islas troops exacted a tax from all those who traveled the road to Bireuea. For the first few years of the rebellion, a curfew prevented villagers from engaging in normal social events, particularly those which icvclved more than one village, including the didong competitive chanting sessions and ritual exchanges. In Isak, perhaps one-third of the men between 20 and 50 joined the rebellion at one time or another. The village area was under the control of a Batak commander, whose actions towards the populace inspired continued resistance. At least one village (Jamat) was burned to the ground because it had harbored rebels, and the relatives of those who had fled to the hills were often interrogated in humiliating ways. water buffalo herds that had been the major store of wealth for any Isak valley-residents were deciaated during the rebellion, more often, I was told, by rebels than by government troops. In 1955. national elections were held in which Masyumi, the Islamic party, won a large najority (in Takengon and in Aceh generally), despite the control of most kabupaten by PS1 supporters (in Takengon, The

Abdul Vahab). This victory, along with the arrival of the more acceptable Javanese Diponegoro division, led Ilyas Leub, the Gayo Darul Islam commander, to permit his followers to begin to surrender if they so wished. Those who did so were treated well by the military command. In May 1959 an agreement was reached with Jakarta such that Aceh could become a Special Area, and would be given autonomy in matters of religion, education, and adat. Tne agreement was accepted by a

Revolutionary Council, and about two-thirds of the rebel forces surrendered by the end of the year. Daud Beureuh continued to resist until

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May 1962 when he, too, surrendered. As was the case for Aceh as a whole, the Social Revolution and the compromise soiuliwt Lo the rebellion created a political climate in which Islamic reformists could promote changes in Gayo religious and social practice. In fact, a set of dialogues about the religious propriety of social institutions had begun with the introduction of modernist teachings to Takengon in the 1920's. Three domains of Gayo society were subjected to a reformist critique: the proper forms of ritual worship (shala: or seeiyang), the holding of a series of feasts (.kenduri)

after a death, and the nature of marriage ritual and inheritance lav. The initial impact of reformism in Isak was in a controversy over the proper forms of the shalat . Around 1925, a group of reformers liv-

ing in Isak bega to criticize the older practice of holding an additional noontime prayer after the Friday prayer in the mosque. The reformists considered the second prayer to be unnecessary and thus an illegitimate innovation ibid'ah). This group then began to construct a

second mosque so that they could hold prayers in the new manner, but were forbidden to continue construction by the Kejurun Linge, who thought that creating a second mosque would increase the degree of religious disunity already felt in his territory. The reformers then left Isak as a group, and settled in an area north of Takengon that is today known as "Isak Simpang Tiga" (Isak at the three-way crossroads). Controversies over this and other issues regarding the form of worship have led to schisms in other villages as well, and, along with the rise in cash cropping, are partly responsible for the expansion of Gayo settlements to the north of Takengon.

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A second issue, that of the performance of feasts after a death, has also led to divisions within villages. As with the performance of the shalat, the issue turns at least partly on whether a practice is an

innovation or addition to what was prescribed and performed by Muhammad. In particular, the reading of the instructional text mentioned in the last chapter, the telkin (Arabic talgin), to the dead person while he

lies in the grave is thought by traditionalists to prepare him for a confrontation with the angels Mungkar and Sakir, while reformists consider the reading to be an illegitimate traffic with dead souls. Secondly, a set of feasts (kenduri) given on the first, third, seventh,

and forty-fourth nights after the death are intended to send merit (pahala) to the dead person, but are attacked by reformists as urniewf

sary burdens on the living and of no help to the dead, who are to be judged solely on their own merit. The interpretation of marriage exchange and inheritance rules will be discussed at length in Chapter Events following Independence,

however, established the context in which these interpretations took place. In the wake of their victory in the Social Revolution, Islamic

groups began to establish religious courts throughout Aceh in 1946 and 1947. These courts, called Mahkamah Syariah, assumed jurisdiction over matters of marriage, divorce, and inheritance. Their right to adjudicate in such matters was formally recognized by the Acehnese legisature in December 1947 (Lev 1972:80-82). Because the sphere of authority

claimed by these courts was significantly greater than in the rest of Indonesia, it was not until 1957, and under the pressure of the Darul Islam rebellion, that the central government recognized the courts. In

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1970 the religious courts in Aceh reached an agreement with the secular court, the Pengadilan Negeri, whereby the former would handle all matters pertaining to family law. The religious court has given institutional support to the interpretations by reformists of the proper relationship between Gayo adat and Islamic law. These interpretations and institutional changes have transformed Gayo understandings of kinship, marriage, and the value of labor and property.

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CHAPTER 4: MT... AND POLITICAL STRUCTURE

DYNASTIC HYTB

The Gayo origin myth tells of the founding of the kingdom of Ling, beginning with the arrival of the first ruler, Genali, and describing his marriage, children, and death. The myth has a dynastic character (Josselin de Jong 1975) in that it presents the circumstances surrounding the origins of several different ruling lines. Each politically important line in Gayo society has a different version of the myth, each of which produces a different political outcome. But the set of elements remain the saae across versions, so that we are dealing with a single mythic structure. In some versions, the myth of Linge' is separated from a second myth which describes the origins of the Bukit kingdom. In others, the

two stories are intertwined; elements from one story are inserted into the other. Moreover, the two stories provide a single encompassing set of representations. I therefore treat the two together, as a single myth of the origins of Gayo kingdoms. The myth sets out elements of the overall Gayo social structure, a particular configuration of which will then be analyzed for Isak.

101

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102

Version A
1 collected about forty versions of all or part of the myth. There are nineteen complete accounts of the founding of Ling* by different narrators, and eight versions of the Built story. The remaining versions are fragmentary references to the stories. Three versions were already in written form.' 1 have chosen a version written by a Kebayakan man in 1958-59 and reproduced in Jakarta in Vial (Daudy 19*2; as the text for an initial summary oi the myth, beta because it is relatively inclusive of elements in the yth and because it is a good example of a poetic style of Gayo narration. I will call tuis text Version A. The narrator, Abdurrahman Daudy, was the best knows composer of %ya'ir

(poetry) in the Takengon area daring the 192-0" and 40's, nast of which concerned religious matters. Eis text is ii tae form of a Jong poem (syai'ir>, with stanzas of fosr lines each aan an A-B-A-B rhyming

scheme. There are 649 stanzas in the two vo>jnes of Version. A, which I summarize here.

1 Djamil 1959 is an attempt to make cf the Bukit story a chronology, complete with dates for all the events ccctained in tie story, which explains the important cf the white elephant in Aceirese political life. Kempees, the chronicler of the 196 Van baaien expedition, recorded a version of the same story (1905: 91-92). The tiird written text is Version A here.

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103

History of the Area and People of Gayo There were two brothers in the kingdox of Rum. The younger brother became the King and had seven daughters. The elder brother remained a poor, ordinary person; he had seven sons. The sons asked their father to m . . . e fishhooks for the so that they might earn soxething for the fasiily. He began to do so, but one of the sons, Genali, took one of the hooks that had not yet been bent and ran off with it to the seashore. Ee tied a string around the middle of the hook, stood on a log that floated on the sea, and began to fish.

Just as a fish took the hook, a breeze came up and pulled him and the log into the middle of the sea. In those days BOSt of the earth was covered with water, and Genali traveled for days before coming to a spot where the water had receded enough so that a clump of grass was protrudir.g trove its surface. The log stuck there, and Genali got out. The place was Buntul Linge. The waters receded a bit more, and Genali stayed there. Several months later a ship from Rum sailed by the island, and the err. heard a voice cry out, but they cculd not see anyone on the island. By this time Genali had no clothes, and so had hidden himself in the sand, so that only his voice (linge) could be heard (whence the name Linge). Finally the men came ashore, and Genali gave thee a fish to take back to their ruler, requesting in return a "white, full-grown chicken, and four lengths of white cloth."

The King of Rum received the fish and split it open, and gold and diamonds spilled out from its belly. He called his wise men to decide what had been meant by the sender's request. They were all puzzled, but his aaughter, Puteri Terus "its, spoke up and said that the gift was meant to be in exchange for her hand ir. marriage. The King agreed to send her, and filled a ship with ducks, chickens, and coolir.g leaves ipetauaren). Tne ship arrived at Linge, carrying her, religious officials, and oidwives. She was married to Genali, and he was the first Rj Linge, and had a war chief (panglima) and followers (raqyat).

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Genali and his wife had three children. The first two children were boys, Joharsyah and Johansyah, followed by a daughter, Merah Aboq ("ber.gsu mutuah," blessed, graced youngest child). Now, a man had lost his ducks, and went off on a boat to look for them. He found them under a serul tree, on a small island near Linj,-, and there he remained. The spot was named Serul, and he was the first Rj Ciq Serul, and was one with Ling. Now. after some time Genali died, and as his body was being carried away, it vanished from inside the coffin. His wife succeeded to his position until such time as his sons could rule.

Genali's body had flown tc the tip of Aceh. where he married again and had a son, Alisyah. Shortly after Alisyah's birth, Genali returned to Ling, where he became King again. Alisyah grew up taunted by his playmates that he had no father, and begged his mother to tell him where his father was. She gave him a ring left by Genali, and he set off for Ling. Vhen be arrived there, he jumped into the well to swim. Johansyah saw him, and told him to get out. They began to fight, and each invoked the name of his father, Seltan Genali. for strength. Realizing they were brothers, they stopped fighting. Alisyah became the most-loved; Gecali's wife knew he nutuah (was blessed).

Genali's kingdom was growing, and he decided to build a seven-room house as a palace; no one else was allowed to build a house like it. He also decided it was time to circumcise his sons and to decide on a successor fror among thea. Be placed the hat of the kir.gdoo on each, to see which mutuah. The hat would not stay upright on the heads of Joharsyah or Johansyah, but it remained perfectly in place when he placed it on Alisyah. Genali naaed Alisyah his successor. Then Joharsyah and Alisyah were circumcised, but the knife would not cut Johansyah's skin. Then Genali died, and Alisyah became King of Ling. But after awhile he remembered his days spent tending water buffalo and the way a mother would let her own children drink her milk, but turn away all other children who came to her. His own sother was not in Ling, but In Aceh, so he turned the Ling throne over to Joharsyah and left, becoming tha Sultar. Aceh. Joharsyah had been given a bawar (short sword) by bis father; Alisyah kept the royal hat. Johansyah was ashamed (keesl) that he could not be circuaciscd and left the kingdom, settling in Batak country, at Karo Lingga.

w
105 The "Johor Eight" were the sagi pendari (officials under the King) of the kingdom; they were: Serul, Penarun, Lumut, Rema, Lane, Delung, Bukit-Blangkejeren, and Gl. Syiah Utama was the religious official of the kingdom. Genali's daughter Merah Aboq was married uxorilocally (angkap) but then went to Serbojadi to se.tie a new area. (The two verses about these events conclude the body of the text:) Si kerna wa arap Syiah Utama; ngok perin ulaa ni Rj Ling. Syiah Utama gr mujajahan; Baring kusihen tempatt seny. Beru Merah Aboq dengan ni Seltan; w iangkapen orum sara pemud. Ike gr salah orum Banta Ali; renyl ku Serbejadi munuk deniy. There is also Syiah Utama; the "ulama" of Rj Ling. Syiah Utama owns no domain; He can be anywhere at sunset.

Unmarried Merah Aboq, the Sultan's sister; a boy brought to marry her. I believe with Banta Ali; then right away to Serbojadi to settle new lands.

The next part of the myth begins during the reigns of Joharsyah in Ling and his younger brother Alisyah in Aceh.

The Origins of the Bukit Kingdoa The King of Johor had two sons, Meria and his younger brother Sengda. One day they were out tending their father's ducks, but they also played with a kite, and while they were intent on their play, the ducks swam out to sea. The boys went out in a boat after them. Others say that the brothers were carried off by the kite, and this might be true, too. They arrived at Serul, where the Rj Ciq, Muyang Kaya, took them in and made them his children.

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106

At Ling, the ruler (Joharsyah) saw a red glow in the sky in the direction of Serul, and went to investigate. Rj Ciq Serul said that he did not know what might have caused the glow, but then Rj Ling asked him if he had taken in anyone who mutuah, "who could become a kejurun." Rj Ciq then told him of Me.ia and Sengda, and Sj Ling began to fear they might replace his. He ordered Rj Ciq to kill Sengda, saying that he would take Meria with him and kill him. He took Meria to the Saaarkilang river and killed him there, burying him by the side of the river. The river is blood-colored to this day, and the tree bearing the Meriah type of sirih leaf grows from the grave.

Rj Ling then returned to Senile, and asked Rj Ciq if be had killed Sengda yet. Rj Ciq had hidden Sengda and buried a cat to foc Rj Ling. but Rj Ling demanded that they uncover the grave as proof. Rj Ciq then hid Sengda farther off, fearing for his safety, and killed a bear, hanging its carcass from a tree. Upon seeing the carcass, Rj Ling was satisfied.

Then it was time to bring the cap jsur, (tax) to the Sultan at Aceh, Alisyah. All the rulers went, and Rj Ciq Serul took Sengda with hie. While the rulers were in audience with the Sultan, Sengda made a model of an elephant out of pinang leaf. The Sultan saw the model, and asked the Rj Ling if there were an animal such as this one in Gayo. Rj Ling said there was not, but Sengda spoke up and said that there were many of them near Samarfcilang, and that they came to drink from the lake near Bintang. The Sultan then ordered each of the rulers to bring tin back an elephant. They all returned to Gayo, Rj Ling very irritated with the boy.

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Sengda then had a dream in which his older brother Meria appeared before him and told him to go to Bintang to catch an elephant. He left the next morning with Rje Ciq Senile and his followers, and found a white elephant at Bintang. They foraed a rope oat of buffalo skin and tied it to the docile .lephant, who tien led them off to Meria's grave at San.irkilang and sat down near it, refusing to budge. She only moved after being doused with the juice of the mungkur fruit, powder (bedak), by all the young men (bujang) who accompanied than, and after Sengda had performed a dance, the tar j gue], on top of the grave. From then on this dance has been danced by the newly married tan to show that he will be a proper husband. The titles for the Pengulu Mungkur, fengulu Bedak, and Pengulu Bujang derive from these events. The Penguin Meinem was the man who espied (meju'm) the elephant when it wandered away later or., and the Pengulu Timangan, the man who weighed itittang) water to determine the elephant's direction. 1

They reached Aceh and presented the elephant to the Sultan. Rj Linge also came, but empty-handed. The elephant went wild upon seeing Bj Linge and chased him away. When the Sultan asked Sengda why tue elephant was behaving in this way, Sengda tcld hie that the elephant was his older brother win. had been killed by Rj Linge. The Sultan decided that they should strip Rj Linge of his title, but Sengda suggested that they merely lower it. The Sultan then took the Ke-urun sword, the bauar, away from kej L m g and gave it to Sengda, naming him F.j Bukit, because he had gone over many hills (bukit) to find the elephant. He then named Sengda' followers as rulers (pecgulu) in Bukit territory with the titles they had earned (those mentioned above), and included Senile in the territory.

Sije Linge Johsrsyah no longer possessed an object of kingship. Datu Bera, his father's father's sister, went to see tie Sultan, imploring (llh) the Sultan to give him sometiing. The Sultan then took a stick of pine (daitar), shaped it to look like a swerd, and gave it to her to take to Rj L m g as his Damar Llh, a substitute for his sword. Datu Beru died on tie journey back, and is buried at Tunyang, between Takengon and Sirenen.

7 Water from a streaa is held in both hands, and the hands clapped together. The direction in which the water jumps from the hands indicates the direction to be traveled.

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tions of and penalties for infringements against authority and propriety.

Variations

on Version A

Version A is a fairly rationalistic narrative: when there are events which seem out of the ordinary, the narrator appeals to the power of God to perform airacles. It is also the version which is best known to Gayo and Acehnese, and the other ajor written version is consistent with it. Written by a modernist Muslitt from the Bukit domain. Version A represents Bukit (Sengda) in a favorable light, and concludes with the hope of writing a third volume on Cic history, tempered by the fear of being "showered with stones" were he to do so. Narrators occupying different social and political positions have produced different versions of the eyth. Version B was told to M by the senior wife of the last Kejurun Linge, Abdul Muthalib; she told Be that the myth shows "why our people are kuru rj (the kingly lineage)."

I summarize the major differences between this and the first version.

In Version B, the Rj Sum and his wife give birth to a baby who is still wrapped in its placenta, "bersarung gunur, lin' tang oruB bujur' (wrapped up in a spherical shape). Out of shame they wrap the baby in seven layers of cloth and float it out to sea on a boat. At Linge, the boat stops and the cloth opens out to make land, and the placenta opens up.

in

109

The Rj Sus then loses his ducks, and travels to find them. He cooes to Linge and asks the boy, who says that three of them are here and four are at Kebayakan Serul nearby. He asks the Kj to send a straight fishhook, which he does. The boy catches a fish and sends it to the Rj. The Rj's house glows from the fish, and people come to see. When it is opened, it is full of gold. The Rj sends a pet er i as a counter-gift (belesen), and they have four children, two boys and two girls. The eldest cannot be circumcised and so he flees to Karoland from shame, taking some earth from Linge with him. The second, a son, becomes Rj Linge. The two youngest children are both girls, Bintang Meria and Muyang Beru, and neither marries.

Genali then marries in Aceh, and his son there is Iskandar Muda, whose travel to Linge and then return to Aceh is as in Version A. A third marriage is in Serul. with Puteri Bur-n-Kra ("Princess Monkey Mountain"), by which he has two sons. The eldest is Sengda, who tells Rj Linge to kill Meria, and he will kill his own younger brother in Serul. Rj Linge kills Meria, but Sengda substitutes a cat for his brother. In Version B, it is a Bukit man who makes the elephant model in Aceh, and Datu Beru. who used to travel between Linge and Aceh to visit her two brothers, who asks the Sultan for an elephant. Tne Bukit man brings it back and is named Rj Melum for having done so; Sengda's ascendancy to rule in Bukit is not dealt with. Version C is from a member of the Rj Ciq Bbsn line, the traditional antagonists of Bukit in the Lake district. The text was written down by the narrator, who sees himself as a chronicler of history for the Bbsn clan. It is close to Version A, with some new elements. Genali, the son of Rj Rum, sets out to explore the country. He first arrives at Serul, then stops at Ling and fishes with his straight hook. He catches a fish and sends it to Rj Johor as a way of asking for his daughter's hand in marriage. They have four children, the three in Version A plus a second daughter named Caya Negeri. When time comes to build the seven-room house, a slave girl is to be sacrificed under the main house pillar (rj tiang). The slave girl bears an exact resemblance to Caya Negeri, and, in the end, it is Caya Negeri who is mistakenly killed. Other versions add that later Rj Ling were from the slave girl who remained alive.

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110

In this version, Genali walks to Aceh and remarries. The son by this marriage, Iskandar Muda, follows his father back to Ling, and is put on his right shoulder, signifying that he, rather than the eldest son, has been chosen to succeed his father. Eut Iskandar Muda returns to Aceh. Genali stipulates that when he dies, no successor is to be crowned at the burial (usually, the successor is seated beside the coffin wearing the regalia). This request is ignored, and the eldest is crowned, but when the coffin is picked up for burial, both the corpse and the crown disappear, reappearing in Aceh, where Genali crowns Iskandar Muda as his successor.

The second son, Johansyah, who fled to Karo Batak is the ancestor of the Bbsn Batak immigrants: this is why dt is substantially the same in Ciq and ukit. Sengda is described as a man who comes from Melaka to Serul. then moves to Kebayakan, where he tricks the people already living there, the Lot clan, out of the right to rule the area. So mention is made of the white elephant story. When the Lot people build new houses, they discard their old roofing leaves and use new ones. Sengda build himself a house with the old leaves, and with very old banana trees brought from Senile. He then told the Lot people that he was the oldest resident of the area, since his roof was of older leaf, and his trees were ancient; he thus obtained the kingship. Version D was obtained from the elder sister of the last Kejurun Bukit, Zainuddin. The Ling part of the narrative resembles Version B, but Sengda, founder of Bukit, replaces the Aceh son (Alisyah or Iskandar Muda) in the second half. Genali was born as a round object to the Rj Rum, and is sent adrift; the Kawe Tepat was the straight pin used to hold together the cloths m which he was wrapped. He is sent a peter i in return for the golden fish, and a bauar (sword) ia sent with her. This sword is the one later given to Sengda, and is now in Jakarta. > They have four children. The eldest. Joharsyah, succeeds his father. Caya Negeri, a daughter, is sacrificed under the house post: she. and not a slave girl, was intended for the sacrifice, demanded by the house post itself. Alisyah, the second son, could not be circumcised and leaves for Batak. The youngest is a daughter. Datu Beru. Genali dies and his corpse flies to Aceh, as in Version B, but his son becomes Dolat Aceh without returning to Ling.

fff
111

Genali dies in Aceh and his corpse flies a second time, to "Damsik near Mekka," where he marries and has two children. The eldest, a girl, is named Meria; her younger brother is Sengda. They fly to Serul, where Sengda and Joharsyah quarrel, because each has a ring from their father, Genali. The story continues as in Version B: Meria is killed, and Sengda brings the white elephant to Aceh, where he is given the bauar that had been held by Rj Ling. In this Version, kamarollah, however, the Sultan crowns Sengda with the bulang the "sacred hat" that he had received from Genali. Version E consists of the Ling myth alone. It derives from a descendant of the original Ling line, who claims that the last line of Rj Ling were descendants of a slave. In Version E, the man to arrive in Lingo is called Kaw Tepat, and is the younger brother of Rj Rum. He is fishing, and ends up at Ling, catches a fish and sends it to Rj Rum, who finds a girl (peteri) inside, raises he and sends her back to Kaw Tepat as his bride. They have one child, a son named Lwajadi, and it is he who flies after death to Aceh. Lwajadi has one son in Ling, named Seltan, and one in Aceh, named Genali.

Seltan's son succeeded him. He had many buffalo, and they were looked after by a batak slave named Nuri, to whom he gave a male buffalo named Bujang Rano. One day when Nuri was gone, Rj Ling killed and ate the buffalo, but when Nuri returned, he denied having done so, and swore that if he had, Nuri could take over the kingship for three generations. Nuri called out the buffalo's name, and its head answered him. He became the Rj, and his great-grandson was Thalib, the last to rule. A sixth text appears in Kempees (1905:90-92). The text is a summary of the Sengda story gathered in Lumut, at the eastern end of the Isak valley. In the Kempees text, three Malays from Tiku appear in Lumut and arc seen to be mutuah . The rulers of Lumut ask one of them to become ruler there; the other two go to Blangkejeren and Serul. As in the other versions, Rj Ling sees them as a threat to him and has the Lumut man killed; the other two are hidden. The rest of the story is consistent with Version A. In the end, one Malay is named Petiamang in blangkejeren, and the other Rj Bukit.

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112
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Politieel

Analysis of the Hytb

I have divided the myth into six topics in order to contrast the representations found in each of the versions discussed above. The separate versions of the myth can, on the one hand, be traced back to their conditions of production, i.e., the political position of the narrator. But, on the other hand, these versions taken together are

shaped by a global socio-political structure consisting of a set of relations and their implications.

Origin and Journey Tne origins of Genau (or Kaw Tepat) combine an indigenous status at Ling with royal descent. He is the son, brother, or nephew of the Rj Rum (all of which imply descent from the previous ruler in any case; or, in one version, of the Rj Johor. Kua, interpreted by Gayo as referring to Turkey, is equivalent to Johor in the sense that both were non-Sumatran sources of Islamic royal status. However, Genali travels to Ling before he emerges from the placenta, i.e., before birth (lahir). I interpret his travel by kite or in

a boat as alternative, rationalized versions of earlier accounts, because they tend to be given by town-oriented narrators, often influenced by reformist Islaa. In some accounts this interpretation is

strengthened by the story of his encounters with his future wife. He hides from her on her arrival, and only after she tricks him into ' revealing himself does be taken on visible form, (also lahir). One

version not summarized above represents Rj Ling as descending from a

113
cloud onto Ling, gradually materializing from within it, again,

"lahir."
I interpret these accounts as combining royal descent and indigenous origins in the person of Genali, encompassing an opposition between outsider and insider, and assuming the value attached to each: the royal status froc Rum and the status of origin point for other kingdoms. The

first association is found throughout western Indonesian historical myth in references to descent from Alexander the Great to the rulers of Srivijaya and Melaka (Bowen 1983). As point of origin, every other L/ng', originat-

kingdoa is referred to in these and other texts as asal ing from Ling.

In addition, the Lot clan, descended from Genali, ciaios a special relation to the earth and agriculture as a result of their status as the first to inhabit the area. with agricultural districts. I discuss this relation below in connection In Kebayakan, Isak, and Ling, descendants

in the Lot line have continued to be associated with the fertility of the earth in two ways. First, the rice ritual specialist, the Kejurun Secondly, there must

Blang, is chosen from a line within the Lot clan.

be Lot people cultivating the earth for it to bear fruit. A Kebayakan an told me that Lot once left Kebayakan, and the crops planted by the ruling clan. Bukit, failed, so Lot.was called back. This special rela-

tion stems from the position of Lot as the first inhabitants of the area, a position that is represented in the myth by the insider status of Genali. Sengda's origins are represented in one of two ways: either as a

son of Genali (Versions B and D) or as unrelated to Genali (Versions A

ht.

114

and C, and the Kempees text).

In Version B, told by the Ling ruler's

wife, Sengda's mother is given the rather untccplementary title of Peteri Bur-n-Kra, "Princess Msnkey Mountain," from Senile. He turns oo his half-sister, persuading Sj Ling to kill her on the assurance that he would kill his own brother (which he does not do). role in tie capturing of the elephant. In tine Bukit version (D), Meria and Sengda are also the sons of Genali, bt their mother is from a city near Mekka, giving them a highstatus religious origin on tieir maternal side. In this version, He is given no

Sengda is given the role that is assigned to Alisyah in all other versions (returning to Ling, sarreling with his elder brother) and eventually receives the royal crown that in other versions was retained by the Sultan of Aceh. In other words, the Bukit narrator depicts the clan

ancestor ja the most favorable light in Gayo cultural terms, while Ling represents aim in the least favorable terms. The position of Sengda in the sibling set does not change, but his actions are transformed. In tik* other versions, Sengda is from Johor or Melaka, and comes to Linge ty flying from a kite. I will comment further on travel

through be air in section 3 below; it is associated with power throughout Gayo culture. The kite travel is specifically associated with royal origins in Gayo myth: Genali, in one version, Sengda, and the early ruler of let Kebayakan are said to have arrived by kite.

Marriage Eclations Genali and his wife are represented as either (a) close kin, either coasin or sibling, or (b) royalty of different origins. I inter-

pret the placenta origins of Genali as making possible what otherwise

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would be presented as an incestuous relation. From the time of his discovery cc the island, Genali is not recognized by his father, the Rj Rum, nor is the kin connection between Genali and his wife, in those versions where there is one, ever mentioned.' The text proceded as if an earlier connection had been dissolved. The nessage of the relationship is teat co-descent from the Rum royal family implies the highest possible status. The status of the mother is invoked at other points in the myths in relation to the status of the children of the union. The contrast between the Bukit and Ling representations of Seungda's origins and status was mentioned above; it is the relative status of the mother which differentiates them. Several

versions cf the Ling myth state that the succession was broken in the second or tiird generation by the union of the ruler with a slave girl. This union takes two forms. In one case, the ruler marries the slave girl who siould have been killed at the construction of the seven-room house and for whom Caya Xegeri was mistakenly substituted. In some

versions, later Rj Ling are descended from this girl. The second way in which tie low status of the mother is represented is by the insertion of a different substitution story into the Ling myth. In this story,

the ruler's wife-to-be has a slave, named Tentung Kapur, who steals the girl's clothes and arranges herself to be married to the ruler, produc-

* In a version published by H.M. Zainuddin (1961), the source for which is mot given, the marriage between the son and daughter of Rj Rum is represented as between the corpse of the former, which has preserved an erection, and the latter, and consists entirely of physical union and birth of the first Ling ruler. The problem of the high status of both parerts is separated by death from the problem of the kin connection between husband and wife.

116

ing the successors to the throne. The successors are spoken of as anak gundik (children by a mistress). Together with the story of the buffalo herder, in Version E, these substitution stories are ways of presenting the most recent rulers of Ling as of low status, thereby explaining their cooperation with the Dutch and the Japanese. Such stories are told by Isak residents who resented the intrusion of the Kejurun Ling into their affairs under the Dutch redefinition of authority relations in the domain. The substitution stories accomplish this political end by drawing on the importance of the mother in determining the status of the ruler. The marriage of Genali to a sister or other close royal kin from Rum is one way of producing successors of high status. As was mentioned, in those versions in which the kin tie is represented in this way, the relationship between the couple is not itself pointed out. Rather, the narrative states, at different places, that Genali was a son or nephew of the King of Rom, and that his wife was also a daughter of the king. This permitted close marriage contrasts with the horror induced byincest in other Gayo stories. In the myth of Peteri Ijo (The Blue

Princess), for, example, a brother and sister from Kebayakan (the Lot clan) are separated as infants, meet many years later and are married. They discover their siblingship immediately after the wedding, and the girl throws herself into Lake Tawar from shame (kernel) 1902b). (Snouck Hurgronje

Other mentions are made frequently of the disastruous results

of a marriage within the boundaries of a clan, including the attribution of several deaths during the 1965 massacres of suspected communists (the

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events of GESTAPU) to carriages which had taken place within the lot clan. Moreover, in one version of the Linge' story, two of Genali s so as

children want to marry. They are told that they cannot it

Muslims, at which point they decide that they must marry, and leave to become the ancestors of the Chinese. The exceptional state of incest in the Linge' myth is thus associated with three elements: the contextual separation of statements conerning the origins of Genali fro those concerning the origins of his wife, so that their own kin connection is not highlighted; the origins of Genali from a placenta at Linge, which serve to break the tie with Rum without annulling his own high status; and the importance of royal origins for the couple.

Death and Remarriage In most versions of the myth, Genali directs his children not to put down his coffin when they carry him to the grave; tbey do so, and when they pick it up, the body has disappeared froa within it. The body reappears in Aceh, where Genali's new wife is a daughter of the ruler in Aceh (not yet called Sultan). In some versions he dies again in Aceh In others, including the

and reappears in Johor, Mekka, or elsewhere.

relatively rationalistic Version A, he walks back to Linge after bis son is born. The flying corpse is an element that appears in one other Gayo myth, and is part of a more general phenomenon, the association of royalty with flying (this connection in turn is part of a ore general relationship between spirituality and lightness). Syiab L'taaa, the ruler of the small domain on the southern shore of Lake Tawar disap-

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118 pears from his home without dying. He reappears in a village north of

the lake, near the present Pondok Baru, and establishes a clan there. Many years later, in precisely the same manner as Genali, he disappears from his coffin on the way to the grave. Genali, Sengda and the earliest ruler of Lot Kebajakan are all represented as flying through the air, either while living, after death, or both. The association of royalty with flying through the air ay be a general phenomenon-, it was noted by Hocart and explained by hi as a mythic survival of an older practice of carrying the king above the ground (1952:28-32). In Gayo, however, lightness and travel through the

air is generally associated with the attainment of a state of Vranai, a state of sacred power in which communication with spirits, the performance of magic, and the aforesaid method of travel is possible. Soaeone in quest of God eats only berth (puffed rice). In Isak several people

are said to have been able to disappear and reappear at will, often performing their Friday prayers both at Mekka and in Isak. These people are described as auJi ("friends of God", from Arabic wali). The last

person to have been so described was probably Ilyas Leub, tbe man who led the Gayo division of the Darul Islam army. Children and Succession Most versions of the story speak of two sons and one daughter in Linge, and one son born in Aceh. Some add a second Ling-born daughter.

While the versions summarized above vary substantially in their identification of the children, three relations appear as constants in tbe myth. They are: the opposition between elder and younger siblings; tbe opposition between full and patrilateral half-siblings; and the mdiat-

119

ing roles played by sisters. Succession to the kingship is, in the end, obtained by the eldest son, but this succession takes place after the greater abilities of the youngest have been recognized. The quality which differentiates them is the tuah that characterizes the youngest brother. Tush is the quality of blessedness that appears in people by grace of God, without any fixed relation to birth order or sex. Eowever, tuah does tend to appear ore often in the youngest child, whether son or daughter (as in the phrase "bengsu mutuah," blessed last-bcrn, that appears in the myth). The term

is used in the nytb to refer either to Merah Aboq, the youngest of the Ling-born children, or to Alisyah, the Aceh-born child, and youngest of Genali's children. The quality of tuah can be detected by examining a number of different signs. One is the fit of the royal bat mentioned in tbe Genali story. In Isak, the most frequently mentioned method was tbe random selection of a page fron the Qur'an and interpretation of the first passage on that page. Tnis method was used to determine tbe suitability of a person for the office of Kejurun Blang, tbe rice ritual specialist, and for the Ime of a Tillage. Tbe youngest of a sibling set generally appears in Gayo myth as mutuah, or berkelebihn, "having something extra." The ancester of

Isak, Merah Mg, was the youngest of seven brothers, and is more skillful, better at games, and in tt* end outwits tbe others. Alisyab is chosen as successor to his father because of his greater tuah. This choice appears in the myth against tbe background of

Joharsyah's position as elder crcther and thus the successor by default.

fct.

120 The spiritual or inner qualities of the youngest become apparent through the appearance of a sign. The presentation of these qualities then override the contingent claim of the first-born to succeed his father. The succession reverts to Joharsyah once Alisyah has renounced his claim and returned to Aceh. Succession to the office of Kejurun Ling in this century was to the eldest son by the first wife. The last Kejurun, Thalib, named his first-born Banta Mud, a designation for the next in line for the office. The office was abolished after the Social Revolution, but Banta

Mude remains the personal name of this son (who acts as an unofficial Camat's assistant in Isak). The same quality of tuah also differentiates Sengda from his older brother, Rj Ling, in those versions of the myth where the two are brothers. Sengda and Meria cause the sky to glow above Senile, a sign of their tuah.

Four daughters appear in Ling myth versions: Meria (in some versions). Merah Aboq, Cava Negeri, and Datu Beru. Their roles can be described as mediating between elements in the myth. Only one, Merah Aboq, marries; she then leaves Ling. The other three women die in carrying out their mediating function. Merah Aboq appears in several versions (including A and C) as the younger sister of the brothers born to Genali in Ling. are made about ber in any of the versions. uxorilocally (angkap) Few statements

In most versions she marries

and then leaves with her husband to found a newIn two texts, she leaves to become the ruler

settlement at Serbojadi.

of Serbojadi herself, without mention made of a marriage.

kw.

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121

Merah Aboq represents a link to the stories of the founding of Serbojadi that I collected in that domain. In all of them, Merah Aboq

is the first to settle Serbojadi, but she is represented as a man. In both the Genali story and the Serbojadi founding myths, Merah Aboq brings the objects identified with the beginnings of Ling, the pesaka (heirlooms) to Serbojadi: the string, pin, and knife used to circumcise Genali. One version of the Ling myth states that Alisyah, as the successor to Genali, should have received the pesaka, but that Genali s In another ver-

widow favored her own daughter and gave them to her.

sion. Merah Aboq refused to leave for Serbojadi unless she were given the pesaka. Descendants of Merah Aboq in Serbojadi today claim to have

these objects. A second daughter, Caya Negeri, appears in some versions of the myth only as a sacrifice to the house post of the seven-room house. The nature of this sacrifice was not explained by any of the sources of these versions, and tbere is no memory (or written mention) of it having been carried out. Following the general lines of Gayo ritual, one could surmise that her sacrifice was as a substitute for other deaths in the future, to satisfy or appease the spirit of the house. Seria appears in some versions of the myth as a boy; in others as a girl. S/he serves to communicate the real nature of Rj Ling to his younger brother, the Sultan Aceh, and to bring about the elevation of Sengda (who is in some versions a still younger brother) to the kingship of Bukit. (ibi) In one version of the story, she is the father's sister

of Sengda and carries him off to Aceh, where again he is made the

ruler of Bukit.

- "

s
122

Meria's role is analogous to that of Datu Beru ("the unmarried ancestor"), who travels back and forth between her two brothers in Ling and Aceh. She appears in the relationships of sister, father's sister, an father's father's sister to the rulers in different versions of the myth. In each case her role as mediator is the same. This portrayal

corresponds to that of the marriage go-between, generically referred to in everyday life as "an ibi."

I would interpret each of these roles as aspects of the general role of mediation. Merah Aboq mediates between political dosains (Ling

and Serbojadi), as does Datu Beru (whose death and burial half-way between Ling and Aceh symbolizes this function). I interpret the sacrif-

ice of Caya Negeri as mediating between the Ling community and the house-post, although this interpretation is tentative. Finally, Meria perforas a three-way function of communication between the rulers of Ling, Aceh, and Serul-Eukit (who, in some versions of the myth, are all her brothers). The sister's role of mediating between brothers is only required for patrilateral half-brothers. Brothers by the same mother (e.g., Seungda and Meria in some versions, Joharsyah and Johansyah) do not conflict. In fact, any potential conflict is obviated by the departure Brothers by

of one of them (Johansyah to Karo Batak; Meria by death).

different mothers in every case do conflict. Alisyah fights with Joharsyah; the fight is temporarily resolved by the recognition of their patrilateral siblingship, but Alisyah realizes that, because they have different mothers, they eventually will come into conflict again. Interestingly, he sees this as a natural process (the mother buffalo's

123
behavior) which can only be temporarily overcome by their patrilateral common tie to Genali. Different versions of the myth portray different patrilateral half-sibling relations, but in each case the half-siblings come into conflict with each other. In Versions A and D, Sengda's death is ord-

ered by his half-brother, Rj Ling. In Version B of the myth Sengda orders Rj Ling to kill the latter's sister (Sengda's half-sister). In both cases the outcome is the opposition of Rj Ling to his halfbrother, Sultan Aceh, and the transfer of the status of bawar holder from Ling to Bukit.

Politics and Kin Relations The history of each kingdom draws on these kin relations to represent the process of founding or usurping a right to rule. The first such representation in the myth is that of the relation of Ling to Serul. While Ling is the point of origin (asal), Serul was, in some "first met").

versions, the first place to be encountered (.awal demi,

Forsal speeches often begin with a series of phrases invoking Gayo history, one of which is "asal Ling, aval Serul", meaning, approximately,

"place of origin, Ling; first in time, Serul." The timber for the first seven-room house, in Ling, also came from Senile. The two vil* lages co-exist peacefully, and, although the ruler of Ling is superior in rank to the ruler of Serul, tbc two kingdoms are represented as coeval. This relation is transformed into one of two political domains dominated by Bukit through the calumny of Rj Ling against bis own half-siblings, Sengda and Meria. Serul-Bukit takes over the sword of

124

kingship. Other myths recount stories of subsequent attacks by Bukit against Ling. The younger brother, possessing greater tuah, usurps the

status of the elder brother as a result of the latter's disregard of the obligations of kinship. The separation of Ling and Aceh, and the transfer of the Sultanship froc the former to tb latter, is the result of the fear of such behavior. Different mothers differentiate the sibling set into two politically distinct lines, bcasse of the projected favoritism of a mother towards her own children. Here, too, it is the younger brother who assumes the higher title. Bukit affirms its superior rights to rule ris-a-vis Lot in Kebajakan by means of trickery, by representing itself (the younger line) as if it were the elder of the two. The subsequent differentiation of the Bukit line into separate lineages within Kebayakan is represented in teras of patrilateral half-sibli^gship. Sengda's four wives produce four lineages: Bukit Lab, Bukit Ewh, Bukit Baientara, and Gunung. Across the several competing versions of the myth, these relations of elder/younger, matrilateral differentiation, and brother/sister provide a consistent armature fcr the representation of political history and political structure. In toe following section we will consider the political relations on the levels below that of the kejurun. An analy-

sis of Isak political history in these same terms will then provide a framework for an examination of kinship and marriage.

125

/Si POLITICAL STRUCTURE

Isak

Economy isak is a coepiex of five villages (kaepung) in the kecamatan of

Ling, Kabupaten Aceh Tengah (kabupaten the kecamatan

of Central Aceh).

Isak is both between

headquarters and the major staging poixt for trips

Takengon, two hours north of Isak by bus, and tbe locg, meandering string of villages and hamlets stretching southward to Blangkejeren. about three days away by a combination of bus and foot travel (see Map 3). Most supplies come fro stores in Takengon, sad are sold in one of

the five to seven stores that were in business at various times during my stay in the area. The Isak river runs through the middle of tbe shop area, bringing clean water to Isak. The combination of a spars* peculation and high altitude makes tbe overall sanitary situation of tne community better than in coastal villages. The river also determines the area suitable for wet rice cultivation in Isak. The sharply sloping walls of the river valley make irrigation difficult for any but tie fields ear the valley floor. Irrigation technology is very simple, consisting of complicated and often ingenious arrangements of bamboo pipe, eartne ditches, and a good eye for the gentle slope. Fielss more than 100 meters off the valley floor depend on rainfall for mast of tneir water supply because of the scarcity of irrigation water daring tbe growing season.

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Map 3 : Isak and Surrounding Coissunities

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127

Agriculture in Isak is still undiversified.

Coffee cropping is

attempted from time to time by a handful of residents, but the prohibition against constructing gardens next to the village area, mentioned in Chapter 3, discourages gardening. Pain sugar provides a small bot

steady income for those who find themselves on the margin of subsistence. The major secondary activities in terms of income generation are

the raising and sale of water buffalo, the operation of two large rice mills, and trade within Isak and with Takengon. The relative ease of

travel to and from Takengon means that even the marginal palm tapper can market his sugar directly to stores in the town for a higher price. The complex is divided into five villages, each located on a hill overlooking the shops, and the rows of houses on either side of the river, next to the shops, called "Terminal" by residents. Everyone who

lives in Isak, including myself, is affiliated to one of the five villages. ple. Residence and domicile are in separate locations for many peo-

All those who reside in the terminal area have their domicile

elsewhere, and some who reside in one village are domiciled in another one. The following table shows the population of Isak as reported in the I960 national census by village, along with the number of households per village. I conducted a census in Kute Kramil in 1979 and found 237 persons living in 55 households, or 4.4 persons per household. by household size is shown below.* The distribution

* The discrepancy in totals between the two censuses is due to my counting of couples who were domiciled in Kramil but temporarily away

128

Table 6: Population

of Isak,

1980

Village

Population

Households

Kute Robel Kute h r u (Rerawak)

Kute kiyea

Kute Rayang Kute Kramil Isak total Kecamatan Linge total

188 168 273 191 228 1,048 4,047

39 35 57 40 48 219 736

Table 7: Distribution

of Households

by Size,

Kute Kraai 1,

1979

Household Size

Number of Households

Percent

1
2 3-4 5 or ore Total

1
11 22 21 55

2
20 40 38 1 0 0 \

Of the eleven two-person households in Kute Kramil, only three consist of a man and wife married within the past ten years, i.e., of newlyved status. The other eight households of this size consist of older couples, either childless or with children who have moved away, and, in one case, a widow with a child.

from Isak; they were in many cases not counted in the census.

^A.wtu.^M^W.,,.

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129

Records in the kecamatan

office showed that there are 1,083 hec-

tares of wet riceland in Kecamatan Ling, and that 991 ha. of that land were farmed in 1979. The remaining hectarage received insufficient water in that year to be farmed. These figures imply a mean 1.3 bectares per five-person household. The 1980 census showed 65 of all farming households as farming more thar. one-half hectare of land. 92*. of all households (676 of 736) farm some land, and 85*. of farming households (573 of 676) own some or all of the land they work. Local figures show a fairly prosperous production profile. An overall surplus of 1600 ton of milled rice is produced by the kecacatan,

with an average yield of 2.8 tons per hectare. The last figure is close to my own productivity estimates for Isak faros. Soybeans are produced in the eastern half of the kecamatan tor shipment to Takengon; yas are

produced for local consumption, and are an important supplement to daily meals. Little coffee or tobacco was grown in 1579. There were 341

horses, 3,873 water buffalo, 775 cows, 1,363 goats, 586 sheep, 30,000 chickens, and 7,000 ducks. All these figures have been stable over the last decade, with the notable exception of chickens, the number of which has risen rapidly from 6,000 in 1969. No data are available for the proceeds fros palm sugar production, but some member of every household in Kute Kramil has tapped at some time in their lives. Sugar production will bring in from Rp 400 to Rp 600 a day, to a maximum of Rp 1,000. Budgets free Kramil households

showed cash expenditures of Rp 400 to Rp 1,000 per day. Seven households in Kramil own buffalo; herd sizes range from two to about 90.

130

Kute Kramil households farm an average of just over 1 hectare. Land area is given in the volume of seed needed to plant a given plot, so that estimates of area are approximate. 34 of the 55 households own at least some wet riceland, and asather 9 have a free use right orer land (often as yet undivided estate land). Ten own or have fre* access to no land; they, along with five households who own some land, cfetain land through sbarecropping (cine households 1 or mortgage (six households). Five households do not farm, but four of these own sizea&le

amounts of land. No household owes more than two hectares, and oroly three own more than one. Land ownership in the other four villages in Isak resemble tie Kramil situation: a relatively eqsitable distribution of a small amount of land, and a small numbers of son-owning sharecroppers. There are disparities in wealth in Isak. but the store of wealth is is trade and buffalo herds. Two individuals own herds of close to one B'jndred head. and 10 to 15 others own herds of 5 to 20 head. An adult buffalo male or female, was sold at between *p 75,000 and Rp 150,000 in 1979; prices have risen sharply upwards since then.

The Agricultural

District

In each of the four plateau areas discussed above, wet rise cultivation is the primary economic activity. Rice is the staple, and considered to be the most nourishing food; all others are seen as peripheral condiments or snacks. In Gave tradition, rice was created through the sacrifice by Adam of his daughter, and the special nourishing power of rice is underwritten by its huaan origin, lo the northern

t-ity
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131

expanse of the Lake district, where the land is largely planted in coffee and yields from rice are low, most households have nonetheless devoted enough land to rice growing to cover their own consumption needs. This practice is explained by some as providing a guarantee of

rice, should all else fail, but the practice is more than "risk aversion." Many Gayo say that one's own rice brings a nourishing power, a berkat (trom Arabic barakah, "blessing") that is not obtainable through

purchase. Although dry cultivation is practiced in the Terangon area, most Gayo rice cultivation is on we,t plots, irrigated by simple, gravity-fed canals. Even in Terangon, the main rice rituals and collective work arrangements are focused on wet-rice cultivation, and not on the individually carried out shifting cultivation activities. In Isak, the valley is divided into separate, contiguous agricultural districts. Each such district has a number of sources of water (Isak has seven), and each is presided over by a Kejurun Blang (lit. Lord of the Field). All farmers who cultivate land within one agricul-

tural district are subject to the Kejurun Blang's prescriptions regarding the timing of cultivation activities, the performance of three district-wide rituals, and the maintenance and use of the irrigation canals. In Isak, and in most areas of Gayoland, irrigation is necessary but not sufficient for crop success. A crop which encounters a dry spell shortly after planting will result in drastically reduced yields, even on the best-irrigated lands. The Isak dry season is more severe than the Takengon season. In Takengon between 1973 and 1978, there were

IL

n 1
132

no months without rain, and only three months with fewer than S rainy days or with less than 15 mm. of rainfall. In Isak, even in what was said to be a relatively wet year, 1978, the dry season was quite pronounced, as shown below. In 1978, June through September were extremely

dry (averaging below 20 mm.); October and Noveaber extremely wet (over

Table 8: Rainfall

(mm. and days)

by Honth, Isak,

1978

Honth 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Total 1978

Rainfall 96 98 146 77 86 0 38 0 19 223 221 86 1090

(mm.)

Rain Days 7 6 12 9 4 0 5 0 5 13 17 8 86

200 mm.); December through May in between (fluctuating around 100 .). One task of the Kejurun Blang is to tine the beginning of the agricultural year such that planting takes place as the rains begin and harvesting falls in the dry season. In addition, he has to avoid a

coincidence of any period of heavy work (hoeing, planting, harvesting) and the fasting month, Ramadhan. Since the tie of the fasting month

recedes eleven days each solar year, he must move the beginning of the agricultural season back and forth to avoid such fatiguing juxtapositions.

"I !

133

In Isak, the Kejurun Biang relies on the following procedure. First, he consults the Taj ul-Huluk, an almanac containing, among other

things, the characteristics of each year in an eight-year cycle. If the year is likely to be dry, according to this source, he will move the cycle so as to catch any early rains that might fall; if it is likely to be very wet, he might delay the season so as to ensure that the fields will be dry for harvesting and threshing. Depending on when the new-

year (1 Muharram) falls, he may try to avoid a bad year altogether. Once the general period has been chosen, the Kejurun Blang then selects a month and day. Certain months bring luck to the crop (most often mentioned are Haji, Rabil Awal, Rabil Akhir, Reraya and Berapit). Muharam, the first month, is to be avoided. Most of the Kejurun Blang's ritual activity is directed towards requesting aid for the crops and warding off pests. He officiates at three district-wide rituals. The first ritual is the kenduri (ritual meal at the site of Datu Merah Mg). ku Datu

The Kejurun Blang assem-

bles the members of the district at the prayer site of the founding ancestor of the community. Merah Mg, located near Kramil village. The site looks like a grave, but it does not contain the body of the ancestor (his grave is unknown). He then makes a series of requests to the .

ancestor, including permission to begin the year, and assistance in keeping pests from destroying the crops. A separate request, accompanied by the offering of four colors of uncooked rice (oros opat) is made

to the four spirits who own the land and control its fertility. After the solitary offering by the Kejurun Blang, a meal is eaten by the assembled community, and instructions for when to soak the seeds before

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134
sowing them are given, along with the date of the first planting. Planting is initiated by the Kejurun Blang, who accompanies his planting of the first seven seeds with an invocation that they be fertilized by the rain ani the earth. The second community ritual is nayang, kenduri

a feast held after the first weeding. The ain event of the

ritual is the reading of a spell over numerous pots of "cooling leaves" (petauaren) by the Kejurun Blang. These leaves and the water in which

they stood are then placed at the headwaters of each farmer's plot, in order to counteract any damaging blights that might afflict the crops. Finally, two to three weeks after the kenduri nayang, a ritual is

held with the purpose of ridding the crops of the pests that have been eating their new grains. tumpit (Malay pipit} In Isak the two most damaging pests are the called the tulak

and the rat. The ritual itself,

bl' (repelling danger), consists essentially in offering food to a power that can, in return, order the pests away fro the crops. Bits of the already daaaged crops along with cooked food and live chickens are placed on a raft ansf let to drift away on the Isak river. Although the raft usually catches on a nearby branch and the chickens immediately fly away, the offering is said to float on beyond the bounds of the district laut) who has

and reach the Lord of the Center of the Sea (r'j puset

the power to command all pests to cease their destruction. At each of the last two rituals the Kejurun Blang may undertake to divine the reason for crop damage or failures, using either an egg or a special citrus fruit, the mungkur. At the tulak ble in 1979, the

Kejurun Blang used a mungkur divination to assess the conduct of each of the five village beads over the preceding year, conduct which ay have a

tttataaM

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135
direct effect on the well-being of the crops. While he did not make his findings public, word did leak out that two of the beads had been found wanting. I was told that, while these results were rarely made public,

at several occasions in the past the Kejurun Blang had confronted directly a village head whose conduct he held responsible for poor agricultural outcomes. 1c oost districts of which I have knowledge, the Kejurun Blang also serves as one of several community healers. The powers of the one task are thought to be similar to those required for the other: the ability to divine, to communicate with spirits, and to heal sickness (of plants or humans). Sot only are Kejurun Blang office-holders thought of

as competent healers, but from time to time a healer will try his hand at becoming a Kejurun Blang. In Isak, the ability to perform well in

the office is thought by most people to be associated with a single descent line in Kute Rayang village. I was told by any in Isak of an

instance in the past, when a rival agricultural district was set up by a member of another line (in Rerawak village), that led to widespread crop failure. The Kejurun Blang carries out his duties at the behest of a community defined with regard to a territory, independently of the political leadership. I know of no cases where the Kejurun Blang was of the same He provides leadership

lineage as the ruler of a district or headman.

that is defined vis-a-vis that of the political hierarchy, to which we now turn.

S5

' I j l

136

Village Space and Village

Structure

In Isak each of the five villages (named, in their short forms: Kampung, Kute, Kraxil, Rerawak (fcreerly Sah) and Robel) is represented as consisting of three lineages. In each case the three lineages are named as the kuru rj, kuru imm and kuru (pe)tu'', the lineages

(respectively) of the headman, religious leader and headman's assistant. Lineages are small; each contains between 10 and 30 households, the village, 50 to 75. In the days of longhouses (through the id-1950's) a lineage was localized in one or ore 5-9 family bouses; houses tended to segment along elder/younger lines, and were internally ordered by the kinship rank of the family bead. Today, small, single-family dwellings have been built on the land forserly occupied by the family's longhouse. The figure shows the plan of a veranda-style long house, the time ruang or "balanced rows" house, with a veranda on each side of a central row of sleeping rooms (umah rinung). This plan is identical to those

that appear in Snouck Hurgronje (1903a:131) and Kreeoer (1922-23,1:357). 1 reconstructed plans of older longhouses in Isak; these plans were identical to the above diagram in their organization. The number of sleeping rooms varied from four to nine. In 1978, the only longhouses

still standing were in the southern district, Gayo Lues. These houses, mostly near Terangon, were of the single-sided variety, with a serami banan containing the hearths, a row of sleeping-rooms, but no serami rawan. Such houses are called umah belah bubung, "one side of the roof-

beaa houses."

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Figure 1 : Plan cf a Cayo Longhouse

ujung 5 serasi banan

6

anyung

rali.

lepo serai ai rawi

insa

Numbers 1-5 are ucah rinung or b i l i k

In the locghouse. cooking is done in the women's side {.serami banan), while the en's side (serami rauan) is used either for larger

gatherings, or for the day to day home activities of women, such as mat-weaving or basket-making. The house is the domain of women and girls; they mpun rumah, "own the house," and they move everywhere within it freely. The anyung was a general kitchen, used for gatherings; the remaining' southern houses do not have these areas. The lepo was the place where girls gathered and did handiwork, chatted, and espied passers-by out the front windows. The lepo was the site and sign of girls' activities. Even today, in songs written by Gayo long in Jakarta, the phrase "the end of the lepo" is used to bring back images

of girls happily busying themselves with light housework, not yet subject to the trials of the outside world.

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138

Unmarried men, on the other hand, would be echarassed even today to spend time in the house. prayer-house (oersah) called serami bebujang Instead, they did and do gather in the

or, in some areas, a special simple platform house ("the boy's veranda") to sleep and tell stories,

or to rendezvous for forays into other villages to steal chickens and talk to girlfriends. The mersah also serves as the village meetinghouse for feasts, discussions, ritual events and prayer. In Isak, the history of each village can be read in terms of an expansion outward from an initial house. The division of each village into three lineages was not initially a division into three houses. The lineage is thus primary to the house in Gayo (and, perhaps, in Sumatra generally), whereas the house appears as the primary category in Eastern Indonesia.* In Kraoil village there have been four periods of house layout. Initially there was one longhouse, the classic "seven-room house" (umah pitu ruang) with its numerological attraction (see below). Following

the general rule of longhouse occupation, the elder branch occupied the trunk end (raliq) of the row of rooms, the middle in the middle compartIn this first house, those

ments, and the youngest at the end (ujung).

branches were, in descending order of seniority, those of the headman, his assistant, and the religious official.

* Barraud writes of Tanebar-Evav in the southeast of the archipelago that: "La maison est comprise comme une personne morale, comme un tre social, et le lignage lui-mme n'est conu qu'an tant que cot droit ou gauche de telle ou telle maison (1979:93)." See also Fox 1980a

ZSs*

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139

Figure

2: Longhouse Locations,

Uracil

c.1930

ur.ah bur (gardens) (gardens) ucah papan

ur.ah Ianting

umah Iah

ur.ah ujung

umah pitu ruang 'pecahan" cersah Glossary: 10 meters pitu ruang: Iah : pecahan : ujung : papan : bur : ' seven rooms middle split-off (fros pitu ruang) end lanting: separated board mtrsah : prayer househill remained

At the first expansion, the headman's lineage (kuru rj;

in the first house, and a new longhouse was built for each of other two lineages. This split took place "well before" the Dutch entry to IsaV

in 1904. Early in their occupation three more longhouses were built: two for the religious official's lineage (kuru ieem) assistant's (kuru petu). and one for the

Small, low, single-family dwellings also

began to be built at this time, mostly occupied by members of the kuru

- "

tawawutaMMu

'

'

mt

liO

rfjW. Early in Independence (1950's) these longhouses were pulled down; the last fell in 1958. Their inhabitants say they were harassed {kernel) at living in old-style houses when people were building mo=*rr.The transition happened very quickly and

style low houses it Isak.

almost uniformly all over the Gayo area. Since the right to house land endured after the longhouses ere pulled down, the location of present houses tends to reproduce the past relations between households in the longhouses. In soa* cases several

low houses have been built together, with one rocf-bea=. resulting, ir. effect, in a low longhouse but corresponding to contemporary aesthetic norms of house- building.

Figure 3: Flan of Joined Lou Booses, Isak

ujung j

rali

bic
-J-

a : dapur (kitchen) b : kamar nac" (sleeping area) c : arap (front)

The symbolics of space which were formerly encoded in th* caghouse layout have been reproduced in its single-family successor. .A

\w

J>

jialinfr.nYM!^^^.^,!-^

M W H M M M t i

141

house consists of three functionally distinguished spaces. The male space, to the front of the house, is used for casus! visits and as seating space for men in large meals. In low houses, this area has become a parlor-like area, with rattan chairs, a simple table, photos on the wall, and perhaps even a radio. The rear of the house is the female space, used for cooking and receiving relatives and friends. In modern low bosses, it consists of a cooking area in one corner and a raised platform covering most of the remaining space. The family eats, and many of then sleep, on this platform, which reproduces the raised platform of tbe longhouse itself. Tbe phrase "let's go up" ("entah, ke atas") is used today as an invitation

to sit up on the platform, in greater comfort and informality, just as it was used in tbe longhouse days as an invitation to climb the ladder into the house. A visit will usually begin in the front of the bouse, but be followed by an invitation to "come to the rear." This invitation is a sign of friendliness and hospitality, and the shorter te interval between entering and being invited to the rear, the stronger the feeling of closeness that bas been communicated. The hearth, whether it is the current dapur or the older serami banan, is the cer.ter of hospitality.

The sleeping area is often a closed space is which tbe father and mother of the house sleep until age 40 or SO. After that age, a man might sleep with friends in the sleeping room while his wife remains in the kitchen with the children. For the initial period after marriage, a daughter and her husband will occupy this room, and the parents share the rear platform with the newlyved's younger siblings.

142

This three-vay division of living space is used as an image for the three-way division of society as veil. Confined space is tripar-

tite, with the addition of a fourth category outside the house to make op tie total set of village spatial categories. The prayer-house (er-

sai). as I noted above, is the primary public space, where the headman sits, or community rituals take place. Adding a fourth category to

three thus opens up society to its political dimension. In the representations of village internal order, relations bet* vees lineages are represented by combining the two kinship relations vhici underlie the dynastic myth. If the village is represented in

terms of the relation of elder to younger brothers, then the message is one of equality among tee segments, with the possibility of greater spiritual powers accruing to the younger brother. If, however, the

relation is shown as one of brother and sister (plus in-marrying husband), the relation becomes asymmetrical, with the sister's line appearing as outsiders, and sometimes as mediators. Two village histories illustrate the possible combinations of the two kin relations. The origin story of Kramil draws on the relation of

three (or four) brothers, while in the case of the former village Kute Dab (whose inhabitants now live in kobel and Kute Baru), the asymmetry of B-Z(H) is also employed. In the case of Kramil, the birth order of the three brothers provides the order for current inter-lineage kin rank. The following is one of the shorter versions of the Kramil story:

-M*.**mi^iz*a*~i~**^^*^s.-<t^.

^L..- J .-^,.^.

. . . . . . . . . . . ..^-.

'--^--YmTrt,itirriiLuiU]LX-ii_,r.

143 Originally a man came from I don't know where to Rusip-Samarkilang (a distant Gayo area), and married a woman there. But there was not enough to eat in that district, so they came here and opened up riceland near where the mosque is now. This man had four sons, each of which received one share; no, one was a daughter with a husband who married in. They had no children and their share reverted to the eldest line. The three male lines became the three lineages: rj, then imm, then petu. Now, older petu men use 'elB* to imm men, who in turn use 'elB' to rj men. While the relation between brothers gives rise to the village and its descendants, the sister and her angkap husband have no children and thus are irrelevant to the subsequent history of the village. A kinship basis is provided for the division of labor among the three offices, and the ranking along elder/younger lines presents this relationship as one among equals. By contrast, in the case of Dah (which later split to become the present villages of Rerawak and Kobel), the relation of brother and sister is represented as a productive one. The first Dah man has two sons and a younger daughter. As is the case with all sisters in founding sibling sets, the daughter marries a man from outside the district, who affiliates to the lineage. This line becomes the "assistant lineage" for the village, kuru petu. The two brother lines become associ-

ated with two other offices; the elder brother becomes the headman of the village, while the younger brother founds, not the lineage of the religious leader (imm), but rather a line of men with greater spiritual and moreover become the "healers to the This office has passed to the

powers who act as healers {guru)

four (other villages)" (guru si opat).

eldest son in each subsequent generation. Informants in the two lines give differing accounts of how this division of office came about. Those in the healer line say that their

bAa^i^aL..aA-^,.&>,v^^ J ^ J _..,,...^^.^^,-

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i rimnniiiDiiniifrtiMif^'i

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14.
ancestor, the one with the greater spiritual powers, became the headman of the village and the healer as well, but then handed over the former duties to his elder brother. Those in the headman line claim that the

division existed from the beginning, between leading and healing, because of the different talents of the two brothers. To fill in the

administrative structure of the village, an ir.-marrying line was later designated as responsible for the duties of the religious leader of the village, but this designation was clearly not part of the founding structure (and the precise genealogical tie was not remembered). Together, the two histories display the same structural properties. The progressive representation of lines in the unfolding of the

narrative is depicted below.

Figure 4: Tuo-level

elder[younger

Representation

elder

younger

narrative sequence

I K
lder

younger

145

The representation of the founding sibling set is best analyzed into two overlapping pairs: the youngest sibling vis-a-vis the elder two, and then the eldest vis-a-vis the remaining, middle brother. The youngest sibling, here as in other Gayo myth, is either a youngest brother, with the special properties of the youngest (greater cleverness, inner powers, but despised by his elder brothers), or a sister, whose uxorilocal marriage to a foreign man eventually separates her from her brothers. The third position is thus used to encode particular historical features of the village. In the two instances here, the third position becomes the founder of the petu lineage, which is in ritual precedence ranked

below the two other lineages. In the case of Dah, this line later split off to form a new village (kobel); its current representation as a line of sister's sons may be a genealogical representation of this historical instability, since the in-marrying man is generally expected to attempt to leave the lineage, even if so doing would violate the terms of his marriage. The youngest (third of three siblings) as sister is, as we shall see, a frequent representation of this instability. The remaining two brothers stand as el/yo, and this relation encodes an opposition between formal precedence or authority and inner, spiritual pre-eminence. In founding myths this relation gives rise to

an organic solidarity between headman and religious or spiritual leader, often spoken of as "outer" versus "inner" roles. In the Dah case an

Isak-wide "inner" category was produced by displacing the lineage of the imern to a later position but preserving the el/yo code at the founding level of the myth.

146 In this case the inner power of the healer's line has been mythically and ritually elaborated upon. His power is said to stem from the

line's origin in Mekka, as descendants of .Muhammad, thus as a "Habib" (a term which is taken locally to mean a descendant of the Prophet). These

powers were transmitted to the younger of the two brothers, while the elder was said to be "neither better nor worse than other people". The first healer's grave is still visited by families in Robel for help in curing sickness, as are the graves of each of the healers who succeeded him. Each successor is thought to be of relatively less power than his Interestingly, once the original el/yo relation had dif-

predecessor.

ferentiated the two lines into two types (elder and ruling vs. younger and spiritually powerful), the successors in both headman's and healers' lines were the eldest sons. I interpret this as a "routinization" of

succession, where the warrant for the healer's office is no longer his spiritual gifts versus those of his brother, but rather succession t , o an official position within a line whose special qualities as descendants of the younger brother have already been established at its point of origin. Thus the rule of succession by the elder brother supercedes the

spiritual predominance of the younger brother.

From Village to

District

The same kin relations serve as the code for the representation of ties between villages in Isak as well. These cross-village relations

are represented as an historical expansion of a village structure, thus a real transformation across levels of social organization. Initially,

according to local histories. Isak consisted of a single settlement near

>

fa

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mttmmm

147 the present site of the village Kute Rayang (which is therefore usually referred to as "Kaxpung", the settlement par excellence). There were three brothers is Kampung, whose descendants consider themselves to be the original (asli) Isak residents. In these accounts, history (as

differentiation) began when the youngest of the three brothers attended the court of the Sultan of Acei and demonstrated his cleverness, earning for himself the title of the "Chief of Cleverness" (Kepala Akal).

For years the Gayo had not paid their obligatory annual tribute to the Saltan in Acei.. Enraged by this negligence of duty, the Sultan sent an order to the district that they must bring an encraous tribute in gold to sake vp for all the years missed. Tue youngest of the three brothers in Kampung hit upon an idea; instead of bringing the bushel of gold demanded, he scattered gold on top cf a bushel of rice and had the group offer this tribute to the Saltan. Only after he had accepted the tribute did the Sultan discover tie deception, and, admiring of his cleverness, he awarded the youngest brottier the title Kepala Akal and the right to be the officiai presenter of rank to new headmen and district rulers. The Sultan also gave hi a coconut shell with seven eyes as a tok; of his status, the shell "whose bolder is never at a loss for words, who never loses his cleverness {akal)." The next day the Sultan pit on a feast for the Ling oen. The Sultan had a beautiful daughter, on whom no can was allowed to gaze on pain of death. Tee Kepala Akal devised a plan so that he would be able to see i.er. He ordered a long stalk to be served to hi, uncut, as a vegetable. To eat it he had to raise his tick way back, far enough to be able to see up .to her window. She laughed when she saw him, impressed with his cleverness. The others in his own party, jealocs at his success and newly-obtained rank, killed him oa the way hose. The Kepala Akal's son tnea took over his title and established himself at a new settlement about 1/2 nile upstream from Kampung and on high ground to defend itself against attacks by other- districts. The settlement was called Kute Byern or Kute (fort) for short. All other villages have cames of the for "Kute X". while Kute Ryem is to this day

i;Li.i,^mzM^^^^.^.:^..,,^..a......^

^,...^..^

M ,..... J i ..,,..,,.,. ; .. r .,,. j ) 1 | | f l | m i.^

148

referred to as simply Kute.' By their names, then, Kampung and Kute are acknowledged as the first settlements in Isak. The Kepala Akal in Kute was acknowledged by Kampung as the ruler (.r'J or pengulu) the cleverest, the most innerly powerful of the three. The departure of the Kepala Akal from Kampung left the two elder brothers. The younger of these two became the religious leader for all Descendants in this line have of Isak as

of Isak, the "elder issem" (Imem Ciq).

held considerable influence over Isak affairs, and the Kejurun Blang was later chosen from this line. The elder brother was appointed by the Kepala Akal as his assistant to represent him in an area of settlement just uphill from the present village of Kranil called "uphill Kramil (Kranil Bur). This settlement was originally part of Kute, but in the 1950's merged with Kramil. The representative, and later his descent line, was thus known as the "elder representative" (Vakil Ciq). Thus the same breakdown into two sets of two that we saw in the case of village structure (Kramil and Dab) serves as the explanatory matrix for the structure of Isak (as in the above figure). The inner power of the younger brother twice leads to his political role in the district. These "inner", younger brother lines were, as we shall see below, later supplanted by those of married-in men, but this, too, corresponds to the model of myth.

' The work "Kute" appears in Gayoland only as part of a village name, and not as a descriptive term. I have only found it used in parts of the Isak valley and the area around Biangkejeren in the south. The word "kuta" is used in Karo to designate the village (see Singarimbun 1975:13).

149
The three-way structure (rj-ima-petu) by reference to which

the village is internally differentiated into lineages is. through this account, replicated for the subdistrict as well. These three villages

(Kampung, Kute, Kramil Bur) appear in the Isak-level schema as officeholding patrilines. Their interrelations are doubly coded by the text. First, the members of the trunk lineages in each of the three villages use kin terms that are consistent with the elder/younger relation established by the historical account. The line of the Kepala Akal in Kute is 'ySib' to otherwise unrelated members of the Imeo Ciq lineage is Kampung, as are both lines vis-a-vis that of the Vakil Ciq. The close kinship ties between these lines have been preserved up to the present day. Meebers of the Imem Ciq line can, for example, stand in for memin a marriage

bers of the Kepala Akal line as the "source line" (raliq)

or formal exchange. Only in the last 20 years, I was told, has marriage been possible between members of these three core lines. Secondly, the sibling order and the actions portrayed in the text depict the brother and their offices as twice distinguished by the relatively "inner" quality of the younger brother. The youngest of three, the Kepala Akal, establishes his superior cleverness and suffers for it, but his descendants are thereby given the right to rule. Of the remaining two brothers, the younger is once again judged to be the "innermost" and becomes the religious leader for the sub-district (his descendants also became renowned for their talismans and invulnerability charms). In this way a socio-political encoding took place on both the Isak-wide (sub-district) and village levels. The Imem Ciq lineage in Kampung became the trunk lineage for the village as a whole (analogous

150

Figure

5: Dual Role of Hey Isak

Lineages

Isak (elder) Wakil Cis_ laa Ciq (younger) Kepala Akal

Kraxil Bur

Kute Rayang (Kampung)

Kute Ryec

to the distinction of trunk/branch within the lineage) by preserving a patriline that united vertically the initial Imem Ciq and the present descendants. Headman and assistant lines were later brought into the

village, both as '.'people who came" (i.e., through uxorilocal marriages). The corresponding process took place within Kute, as religious official and assistant lines were added to that of the Kepala Akal, serving both as headman to the village and ruler of the district. In both these

villages one highlighted trunk line carries a further functional load at the Isak-wide level, while two in-marrying branch lines are rather murkily incorporated. These incorporations are spoken of as having been of bulct

in-marrying men whose status in the village was nonetheless made (round, complete) and the details of the incorporation forgotten.

151

These two villages, together with Kramil Bur (later merged into Kramil). were each a separate sarak opat and thus internally differenti-

ated into three lineages. They were also elements in a larger structure (for which the trunk lineage is highlighted). The representation of two lineages as in-marrying thus provides a kinship depiction of a political subordination, and places these two villages at the asymmetry end of a representational continuum (with Kramil at the other end). figure depicts this two-level representation. In terms of inter-lineage representations Isak appears as a related triad (Kampung, Kute and Kramil Bur) plus two unrelated villages, one the descendants of brothers (Kramil), the other a line of healers plus in-married subordinate lines (Dah). As we shall see below. The above

marriage ties and colonial intervention established unifying political forms in the sub-district, but Isak remained, from the kinship point of view, disunited.

Political

Levels

The key text inscribed into ritually-keyed performances of sung narrative ididong), employed in formal speech (melnkan), and referred sara-

to as a touchstone in explanations of Gayo political order is the kata

(lit. "one word"), a juxtaposition of phrases referring to the Gayo

origin myth, certain cultural heirloots that link the society to the cosmic order, and the structure of the Gayo-wide political hierarchy. I will only consider the last element of this text here, both for the viewit presents of the kingdoms, and for the role it plays as a sign of cultural unity across Gayoland.

rtfinnimftirn. im^tiaMt^^^r^

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152 In two parallel phrases, the text reads: Ingt si opat, atur si pitu. resale si empat be las. Si opat mukaval. si pitu Buduni, si eapatbelas muresaa. Principles from the Four, Rules from the Seven, Conduct from the Fourteen. The Four guard over, the Seven control territory, the Fourteen regulate conduct.

As discussed in Chapter 2, the hierarchy of 4-7-li refers to the three levels of political organization. The first level was constituted by the association of four leaders under Rj Ling's leadership. The four were, as the fornulaic statements tells us: Ling as the ruler of all, Bakit as the warlord, Syiah Utama as the religious leader, and Petiassng as the assistant. In a day of unity before expansion out of opat

Ling took place, these four constituted the ideal polity, a sarak ( four elements") personified in the four leaders in a harmonious organic solidarity.

In more specific stories about these kingdoms, we learn of their separate origins and the often conflict-ridden relations among their leaders. In these myths, Syiah I ' t a r o a was a religious missionary who came from the coast and was given land by the ruler of Bukit. Bukit established its kingdom status by challenging Ling, and at least once mounted a major campaign against it (where, Isak residents say, their own ancestors intervened on the side of Ling and saved the day). The unity of the 4 is, however, as a category of the highest rulers rather than a reference to a domain. It is the very abstractness

of this level of the hierarchy that allows it to be the sign of Gayo unity. Four represents ideas of unity, closure, and stability in the Gayo political numerology. The highest Gayo political level is that of

153 the four Kejurun, although above them are the four great states (usually given as China, Kedah in Malaya, Pagaruyong (Minangkabau) and India, which nicely summarizes the earliest influences on Aceh). On the lowest

political level, that of the village, four is again the number of closure: the four elements that comprise the polity (headman, assistant, religious leader, COcm people) are juxtaposed in parallelism with the four sides of the village: sarak four-sided fate*). opat, dcual opat sagi (four elements,

In between the concrete unity of the village and the overarching categories of the Kejursc lie the level of sevens, the level of history, expansion, control of territory and the instability of the odd number. In local origin stories which harken back to the story of Joseph and his brothers (and raise interesting issues of the incorporation of scriptural elements into an Austronesian cultural base), the last of seven children is the favored one who establishes a realm, while the elder brothers or sisters leave, return to their origin, or are incorporated as subordinate elements is a mythic structure. The primary force;a for political sevens is: iatas ituyuh kal pitu lintang tujuh,

mata (above, the 7 stars (of the Pleiades), below, the

coconut shell with the * eyes).' The Pleiades serve as a sign of impending change of seasons. In the parallel formula these stars are brought into relation with the coconut shell (kal) which has seven eyes. The

Sultan of Aceh gave this coconut shell to the Kepala Akal in Isak as a sign of his authority oc the level of the seven. He who holds the shell

Gayo say that the Pleiades were once seven stars, but one has since faded away, leaving six.

ter-Wllll.iift-illmril,1t,ll.vi ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ - . . ^ ^ a ^ ^ . ^ , . , ^ . . , - . ^ .

154 (akal)."

"never is at a loss for words, never loses his cleverness

At the risk of over-schematization it seems clear that fours, at both top and bottom of the political hierarchy, provide the stable, enclosing element in the Gayo political mix: the four Kejurun as an article of ideological trust that Gayo in all domains can cite as proof of their unity, as part of the sarakata; the four that comprise the village as a source of that same stability on the particular level. Shifting alliances and political reorganizations may rearrange these fours, but their internal structure, as well as the overarching political framework do not change. Sevens, however, as the level subject to

these fluctuations and disputes, are the number of history and the element of instability.

Domain, District

and Village

When we move from the (numerically underpinned) ideology of political levels to the organization of each we find a great deal of interdomain differences. While Gayo everywhere know the formulae that signifiy their political unity, they rarely know much of the histories of other districts. The Kejurun in the Ling and Gayo Lues districts appear to have exercised very minimal control over their districts as a whole; their effective sphere of interference in legal or political affairs was limited to the circumscribed domain of their own sub-district area. Isak,

the largest population grouping in Ling, was traditionally free from Kejurun control, having been declared wks by the Aceh Sultan after the

events involving the Kepala Akal that I narrated above. The Kejurun

L
155 ruled only over his own territory around the village of Ling itself; elsewhere, the control of settled territory, "muduni", was in the hands

of the second-level rulers, the 7, usually known as Rj Ciq, or "elder rulers ' . The same appears to have been t m e of the district of Petiamang to the south, where villages were organized into feuding groups called, variously, "the 5", "the 7, "the 9", etc., generally without any authority exercised by the Kejurun. These groups, real political entities, are different from "tie 7" as meant by the sarakata and its companion texts. These formal "7s" consisted of patrilines in different villages accorded the rank of Bj Ciq, and paired in asymmetric authority relations with Mude, "younger'*, lines in other villages. The two remaining Kejuruns, Bukit md Syiah Utama, stood in very different relations to their subordinate rulers. Syiah Utaaa's domain consists of a very small territory awarded to him by Rj Bukit as the spiritual leader for the area around Lake Tawar (Takengon). His domain consists of several villages, each with several lineages of separate origin that may intermarry, and no "7" level whatsoever. Bukit, on the other hand, consisted of several large clams (Bukit, Gunung, tot, Meluem) spread over several villages, and each with its Bj Ciq. Bukit control was far and away the most centralized of the four Kejurun domains; a power that was further reinforced by the Dutch administration. Two other domains claimed the title of Kejurun without for that being included in "the 4". The Kejurun Aboq in Lukup was the husband who married the daughter of Rj Ling, and thus is sister's sons to the descendants of Rj Ling. Ciq, in Takengon, was the name given to the

"

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156
descendants of Islamicised Batak invaders who pushed Bukit out of its former residence to its present center. The Ciq group was clearly outside the hierarchy of 4-7-14, and claimed equality at the highest level. Through their administrative structure the Dutch gave de facto recognition to this claim, giving the Rj Ciq Bbsn equal authority with the Kejurun Bukit, even though the latter held substantially greater power within the Takengon area. If we examine the sayings, myths, genealogies and historical records concerning the organization of each of the four (expanded to six) domains, the diversity of the political forms is striking. On one end of a continuum of centralized authority stand the Bukit and Ciq polities. Both domains were organized as an association of domain-wide lineages around genealogically defined ancestral cores (Sengda of the Bukit myth, and the Ciq invasion leader Leb Kader). Bukit villages had

greater political autonomy, and included a wider range of genealogically unrelated lineages (Lot, Meluem and others), while Ciq villages remained under central control and were largely homogeneous. Syiah Utama, as I mentioned, was a small association of villages each of whose lineages was relatively autonomous from the other; Ling, including Isak, a larger version of the same decentralized polity, with the Kejurun Ling isolated from the larger population center* of the domain. The domain of Petiamang appears to have been only nominally nader bis control, and to be organized on the level of the village groupings mentioned above. The formal 4-7-14 structure, however, represents the entire Gayo political territory as essentially homogeneous. Control of cultivated land and settled areas was assigned to key leaders, the Rj Ciq,

fel

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157

grouped fcrmulaically into ?"s, each under the direct authority of the Kejurun. While the Kejurun would formulate general principles for conduct, called ioget, the rules (tur) for each sub-district were to be by the

devised by the Rj Ciq, and carried out in practice (resae)

headman of each village, referred to here as "the 14". Thus the phrase:

inget si opat ) , rar si pita (7), resam si empatbelas

This

{14).

three-level ideal model implies a top-down system of gover-

nance, wsere principles, formulated at the top, are applied at the bottom (and conflicts over which may be appealed back up to the top). This model seems to be fairly close to the reality of the situation for Bukit, ach less so for Ling and Petiamang. In these two domains the

interplay of political rule-making and judicial activity was primarily between the Rj Ciq and village headmen, although appeals were, rarely, made to the Kejurun.

Isak: District

Politics

soi the linea f

Fear villages in Isak expanded to five with the breakaway of the petu faction from Dah to form Robel. Wakil Ciq in Kramil Bur was part opat) of Kute Ryem, residentially separate, and distin-

of the (sarak

guished as elder/younger brother, but politically of the same unit- At the beginning of the colonial period (circa 1910) the political villages and the title of their headmen were:

Kampung (Kute Rayang) Kute (Rye) Kraail

Penguin MwJe Kepala Akal Seti Hud

i -i'

1S8
Dah Robel Rj Ciq Dah Pengulu Gading

As we have seen, the first two villages in this list were related by kinship ties, as tre the last two, while Kramil was composed of a separate set of lineages. The two contenders for the title of Rj Ciq in the district were the rulers of Kute and Dah. The Kepala Akal claimed to have been installed as head of Isak by the Sultan of Aceh, while the Rj Ciq Dala claimed to have obtained the title of Ciq from the Kejurun Linge. This title was obtained by offering sarat doa (token

of approval) to the Kejurun, usually in the form of money. According to Snouck Hurgronje's informants (principally a Kute Ryem man) the authority over the district was divided between the two lines, with Kramil siding with Dah and JTramil Bur with Kute. But the situation appears to

have been a fluid one, with allegiances and political weight in the district changing. Both lines claied that history was on their side by claiming descent from the founder of Isak, Muyang Hersah, and, more to the point, his son Merah Mg. In a tale precisely like that of Joseph and his brothers, this story tells of Merah Mg and his six older brothers. As the youngest. Merah eg was cleverer than the others, and eventually thrown in a pit by them. Merah Mg eventually escaped from the pit, and all the other brothers scattered, founding kingdoms in different parts of Aceh. A set of seven begins historical expansion. Merah Mg remained in Isak and, according to Kute and Kampung accounts, settled in Kute, or, according to Dah accounts, first settled in Kute but then moved to Dah. Each of the two contending lines thus claims a lineage

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'l'

159
tie to the Isak founding ancestor. While Snouck Hurgronje's account, intended to reflect the political situation in the district around 1900, speaks of two balanced factions, I was told that the ascendancy of the Rj Ciq Dah began only well after the Dutch had gained control of the area. Before this, the order of political supremacy could be seen clearly by the order of precedence in bathing on Hari Raya, the day after the end of the fasting onth. Everyone in the village really bathed very early in the morning, around 4 A.M., and then, at sunrise, made ready for the formal bathing (consisting of some sprinkling of water that bas been made spiritually cleansing). The Kepala Akal would be allowed to lead bis followers first to the river, with the Rj Ciq Dah second; the others followed without a fixed order. Dah was at that time "ciq" in the sense of

"representative of" to the Kepala Akal, and not yet Rj Ciq, i.e., sub-district ruler. Not that this precedence went unchallenged. The last case of a

legitimate retribution killing in Isak took place on account of an attempt by Dah to usurp the bathing precedence. A Kute man took offence at this and killed a man from Dah. He allowed himself to be strangled jointly by members of the two villages as the retribution penalty (hukum bla) rather than have bis kinsmen pay a fine for him, the alternative .

penalty, hukum diyt

In the early thirties the situation changed in two ways, occasioned by the marriage of the Kejurun Linge to the sister's daughter of tb2 Rj Ciq Dah. The sister had been married uxorilocally to a man from the south (Blangkejeren), so that the Kejurun became sister's son,

16C

ana* juelen,

and thus ritually subordinate to the Dah line. The first

consequence was that the Kejuna established a house in Isak, and, backed up by the Dutch (who had their own ideas of territorial rule), began to exert more of a direct influence on Isak affairs. Several village headmen were directly changed by the Kejurun, backed up by the Dutch presence, an action that would not have been possible at the turn of the century. The Kejurun's power in Isak grew steadily up to the time of the social revolution of the late 1940's, when it was sharply broken. Secondly, the Dutch, at the Kejurun's request, instructed Isak residents to take the Rj Ciq Dah as their district ruler rather than the Kepala Akal. Certain informants with close ties to the Dah line state that the real reason for the switch was an unbecoming act of the Kepala Akal's committed just before that time; he had been caught brandishing a sword to ward off a Dah party that came to Kute to claim an eloping girl, and was thrown in jail by the Dutch for this action. In this view, the Dah leader was not called "Rj Ciq" before this; rather, the title was used by the Kepala Akal. The change is thus presented, not as a conflict between two leaders, but as the replacement, with good reason, of one leader by another. My view is that the t> leaders were seen as drawing their authority from different sources, a differentiation that persists today. The Kepala Akal was the possessor of inner power, recognized by the Sultan of Aceh, and signified by the seven-sided coconut shell that linked territorial rule with an ordered upperworld (the seven stars). Even

today, in the rituals held to ward off pests from the rice crops, it is

, I l i r Ulf JlftftM.mmIflTmVlifflTrt rt'WmW^illHiHrfr1'lfTlf liriiUllIlmtlrM

161

the Kepala Akal, as the representative of the community, who in formal speech asks the rice specialist (from his sibling line in Kampung) to give them spells and save the crops. Both the Kepala Akal and the

Kejurun Blang are of the earliest line of descendants, the Lot descent category, and thus stand for the indigenous community vis-a-vis external powers. The Rj Ciq Dah, on the other hand, draws his powers and renown from foreign sources. His line (from which came the healers of the

community) is variably traced to the Prophet (as a Habib line) or more often to Minangkabau, where the legendary boy who trained a water buffalo to subdue a fiercer-looking Javanese buffalo in combat then came to Isak and became the ancestor of Dah. In all accounts, the Dah ruling

line stands as foreign vis-a-vis that of the Kepala Akal. The same foreign/indigenous relation occurs elsewhere in Gayo. was discussed earlier in this chapter, the Kejurun Blang (rice ritual specialist) in Bukit had to be of the Lot lineage (thus of the same descent category as those of Isak), because that line is the oldest to reside in the territory. Bukit having come later on after losing to the Bataks in their ow-n territory. In this case as well, the Bukit politiAs

cal dominance came from the recognition by an outside source, not by a kinship-based claim to office or superiority.' This dominance is still viewed as the result of trickery. The single story I have heard most often in Gayo in the most different guises, changing names and places to

* The nature of the outsider or "stranger-king," along with the representation of legitimacy as usurpation, is explored in Sahlins 1981a.

JayaMBi^gaMB^^

, ,.,,.,. , --^.-.,..-na(il|lllll

' y"

162

suit tbe details of the places discussed, concerns tbe displaceaent of older linkages by newer ones via tie letter's pretence to priority: will give the version applied to Eckit here: 1

Only Lot used to live here, in Keiayakan (near present Takengon), until Bukit pecle moved here after being driven cmz. by tbe Bataks. EuV.it originalZy came fro Seru-e (where Sengda had landed with his kite 2nd sister). They pulled a trick on the rather dia-witted Let people so that they could become the rulers there. First they went out and found fullgrown banana trees and plante thtar in their yards. Then they fosnd very old roofing (aie from the senile leaf) and placed it on their rooftops. And then they went to Sercl and brought soos of the earth there back with then to Kebayakas.

Then, they call! the Stltan cf Aceh and said: Look, we are tbe oldest residents here, so we should be tbe rtlers." The Lot people protested at this, saying that Bukit people were newcomers. But the Bukit necpi* responded by pointing to tiieir old rooftops and old trees as evidence. And, finally, the leader of Bukit sat down on the ground, on a spot where he has previously placed soae cf the Serul earth, and said: "if this is not my original earth let ne die right here and now." Of course, it was, so nothing hsiened. And so, the Sultan of Aceh made the Bukit people the rtlers of Kebayakaa. Stories of this type, cod the relation of Dai to Kepala Akal, are examples of the representation at the group level of the power of tbe i neon ing group. Newcomers take over because they have more power or Bukit themselves were bates

ore trickery than the indigenous people.

by the iatak because of the clever ruses perpetrated by the latter so that they would seea to be Multitudes when in fact they were only 27 is number. Sengda woo oat over tbe Eje Linge because of his greater

inner powers. From tbe political perspective, tbe special position of the younger brother Appears only as one example of s larger category. that of the conqueror from afar.

J.,.,^

^..^..^..,...^^.^..,:. J

^ ^ - J . . ...^J ...

163

On the level of the individual this tension appears as the rise to power of an in-marryir.g line within a lineage. 1 noted above that tbe in-marrying oar. was in seme respects equated with the younger brother; both appear as more gifned than their elder brother (in-law), and wis out over hi despite others' predispositions towards him. From that perspective (kinship) the relation appeared as one of mediated power, with the sister as tbe mediating element. We saw there that tbe position of the in-marrying nan was depicted as transient, as not leading to the creation of a new line within the lineage. Politically, the problem becomes tbe tension between the full membership of the in-marrying man, and especially bis children, in tbe belah of his wife, and recognition of his (and their) different ori-

gins. The tension between tbe two cones out in the discussions often heard about particular Tillage officials, often claiming that someone is not sufficiently kevel, which here means "aware of correct conduct",

because be is not of a lineage patrilme. The oral poetry of the didong has an appropriate standard line for this sentiment:

Ulu tawar kin pengis'r. ala tajuk J kodok.

(A cool bead for tbe turner, a stuck-in head in is the rear). This maxim, as with all lines from tbe didong, demands some explication.

"Cool head" refers to the water buffalo who is experienced in the ways of turning over fields. Be will be placed in tbe line of work as tbe buffalo are driven around and around in tbe fields to loosen up tbe ground for planting. The "ulu tawar" will not n o off. as tbe others are more likely to do. "tlu tajuk" is by way of the expression "tajuk

r
164

bunga", flowers stuck into the hair and which bear the sense of artificial ornament by contrast to tbe renggali flower, the best one to

wear in your hair. "L'lu tajuk" thus refers to new buffalo, stuck in to the herd, and which should be kept at the rear because they are likely to do just about anything. This didong phrase reminds listners of tbe common maxim: KUTU jam gre' ngok kin ulu tawar.

(A guest lineage cannot become a cool head). which refers directly to the inappropriateness of the in-marrying man as tbe leader of a lineage. In Takengon, the first phrase is frequently used by a Bukit didong team to mock the ancestry of their Cia opponents (descendants of Bataks, outsiders). In ordinary discourse, the second maxin will surface as a

criticism of the elevation of an in-marrying man or bis son as a leader in a village. The downgrading of tbe incoming group is also an element in the relation between the core Isak lines and those in-marrying lines that were given the functional assigmects of becoming tbe headman, assistant or imem. The Imem Ciq line in Kampung, as that village's core line, is considered to be tbe source of tbe true leaders of the village. The Pengulu Mude line, who were brought in to become the headmen of Kampung, are nonetheless seen as newcomers, and conflicts within the village often occur between those two lines, citing the different historical status of tbe lines as a basis. The newcomer/indigenous tension thus runs through every level of tbe political hierarchy, as tbe features of the lineage are viewed politically.

...............

... . . ^ . . T f y r . n i - 1f( |f -....

... ...a.. f y.^iMgfcgiiai^m

165

Lineage

and Sarak

Opat

In Isak the village is both a lineage-based unit composed of tbi*e kuru, and the fundamental political unit, the sarak opat. This dual and

nature of the village is sometimes expressed through the terms belah kuru.

The headman of Kramil answered my questions about these terms on

one occasion as follows:

Belah and kuru have different meanings, but are often confused. Belah are the three divisions of the village around the three office-holders. If I enter the village from somewhere else, I will become a member of one of those three belah, but I will not be of their kuru because I will not be related to them (if I just enter). But the two tend to get run together. In this statement, the kinship aspect and the political aspect of tbe village are distinguished through the use of the two terms. But on a different occasion the same informant told me that: The term "belah" is never used in Isak; we do not have belah beause we are all related. You have belah in the Laut (Takengon) areas because there groups have come in from elsewhere and been brought in to the village, and therefore stand apart as different belah. But here we are all related, and so do not have belah. In this second statement, the speaker is emphasizing tbe different sense that is contained in the two terms: opposition, in tbe case of belah, and relatedness, in the case of kuru. In discourse, if the

speaker begins by thinking in terms of the political aspect of the village, he may read across the distinction between four sarak kuru, and three

catching himself as he does so. The following piece of discourse

occured in approximately the same way several times:

I>

**'r.i .riiwiMiiinmrtiMliiii^Mitmiin^

\!W

166

Each village has four lineages: the headman's, the assistant's, the religious leader's, and . . . oh, there are three lineages really. Three different perspectives, in fact, appear regarding the village. In ritual speech the village is characterized vis-a-vis another unit. In a second perspective, the village is seen-

village, as one dt

as composed of three politically or functionally distinct units, the perspective which appears in the above bit of discourse and earlier in the use of the term belah. The third perspective starts, not from the

three officers and their lineages, but upwards from present members of the lineage, through kinship ties, to ancestors, i.e tbe perspective expressed in the term kuru above. The difference between three (as the number of lineages) and four (as the number of elements in the sarak opat) was drawn on in a marriage came

which took place in Terangon during my stay there. Sixteen belah to the marriage to make formal exchanges or mah atur.

Each of the 16

groups came during the afternoon of the wedding and exchanged formal speech with the host lineage. Later that night each group was received a second time; the difference was that the first exchange took place outside the house, involving the hosting relatives, while the second exchange took place inside the house, with the village headman present and officially receiving the guests. In both the outside and inside exchanges of offerings, the visiting lineage presents raw materials, and receives cooked materials from the bride's lineage. The former include money, raw rice, sugar and coconut; these are handed over during the exchange. The return gifts are laid out in a row between the two parties during the exchange. At

' l ' '

167

the initial, "outside" exchange, these gifts consist of three plates filled with sweets. The plates are covered over with cloths, and only after the exchange has been made are the cloths lifted azd the sweets ay be eaten. These goods are the immediate objects of the ritual, and the overt purpose of the reciting of long, formulaic texts is their exchange* At the next stage, the three plates have become four, laid out in the same way in the house, spoken of as "up" (iatas) all the houses involved are low to the ground. even when, as here,

In their speeches, the

speakers invoke the four sides of the village and its headman as the recipient of the visit. As this difference was explained to me, the' three plates represent the "three rooms" used for preparing the feast, and (as I pressed for more), the three social categories that have (or are characterized by) enclosed space, that tturuang.

It took me awhile to understand what I bad been told, but later on an older man explained the catgoriel shift to ne. For three of the four categories that make up the village (the religious official, the common people, and the elders who assist the headman) each group has its own place, has a "room" at the wedding feast. The common people are outside cocking, the elders are at the threshold, officiating the entries into the main room, and the religious official inside presides over the marriage itself. The first exchange between the guests and their hosts had taken place in the open, outside the bouse and hence outside the village as a political entity. The formal speech used there

* See Chapter 8 for an extended analysis of these exchanges and the formal speech genre in which they are carried out.

"

.-iiniwT.W-;.-..'.- -'

<- -

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.-..

..^

168 contained the phrase:

i deret ni dewa} opat sagt

(outside of the fence four sides). The reception later on was of a totally different character. A fourth category had been added, that of the headman, who "does not have a room because he owns the whole village, he goes wherever be pleases." This sentence was a concent both on the events of the weddiag (the headman walks around and makes sure that everything is alright) and on the political place of the headman in the village. The village as a political unit is then represented by its four-way structure. This association of the political level with the four-way functional division of the village and the lineage with its three-way division suggests that the four-three distinction may be read in two ways. In the first reading, the distinction lies between the four political categories (the headman, etc.) and the three lineages that compose the village. In the second, the distinction is between three of the four

political categories (minus the headman), which are seen as the internal composition of the village, and those three categories piss the headman, which makes of the village a unit vis-a-vis other similar units, and brings into play a mechanical solidarity of villages. The political domain, defined in terms of the four-way division, is in any case distinguished from the relations among lineage. This distinction allows variation to occur in the lineage composition of villages without thereby altering its political legitimacy or cohesion. A village, as sarak opat, may consist of one, two. or conceivably any

number of lineages; it remains a political unit. This distinction may

''

^''>"-*^^^^'^-^-'"''^"^~-^-"-^^-^--^-

.^i^.^-..^^.^ . . . . -

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169
be, then, one of the keys to understanding the capacity of Gayo social structure to undergo a great degree of variation in the arrangement of lineages and villages without altering the nature of the sarak opat.

JIKU.

CHAPTER S: KINSHIP, KIS TERMS, AND KA.MES

KIK TES RELATIONS

Gayo view all meaningful social interaction among themselves as based on a kin term relation (tutur) Gayo word tutur between the parties involved. The

refers to both the kin terms used for relationships and

the norms regarding proper conduct and attitudes. The kin term relation that is selected for a relationship serves to shape modes of speaking, bodily stances, cooperation, ritual obligations, marriage possibilities, and other domains of social life. Finding the proper tutur tracing a relation along a path, a den tutur involves The path

(kin term path).

may be traced through sibling or parent-child relations, or an appropriate kin term may be arrived at by weighing the nature of past or future conduct between the two parties. The tutur thus form a system of both nomenclatures and attitudes.

As a system, they are relatively "portable" away from the Gayo homeland area, and, even for second-generation Jakarta dwellers who have lost the active command of the Gayo language, a set of tutur are maintained as a

guide to the proper ways of communicating with other members of the Gayo community. The system of tutur last stand. are seen by Jakarta Gayo as a cultural

170

171
In particular, the set of kin term relations serves to channel a sense of propriety, the quality of knowing how to conduct oneself called mukeml. While the word kernel means a feeling of shame or embarassment,

the verbal form, with the prefix /mu-/, means, roughly, "having a sense of shame; knowing how to act." As one cultural leader of the Jakarta community explained to me.

The "motor" of Gayo people is in mukeml, behaving in a certain way because to dc otherwise would make you kernel, embarassed or ashamed. The tutur are perceived as the basic social skeleton, for which In the following diagrams, I

the sense of shame is the active force.

have presented the terms used in Isak by older informants to make the maximum number of distinctions between individuals. These terms are used to specify the kin term relation of someone to a speaker, in a phrase such as "Y is my your tutur ," or in answer to the question "what is

to Y." These terms show an lroqouis structure (distinction However, there

of cross and parallel cousins, separate affinal terms).

are numerous variations and conditions in the use of these terms that will be described below.

172

ICV Or"
LJ LJ Q0
II-

-o-o-

<=i

rO*

<W
On
!

Ui
r<y

E
l

-o
C?) r-o* -I->Uj,

173

The first figure shows ascending and collateral relatives for a male or female Ego. The letters refer to the list of kin terms in the accompanying table; the numbers indicate birth order among the relatives on the first ascending generation. This form of representation is very much like the diagrams that Isak Gayo sometimes constructed for me to illustrate kin relations. In these diagrams, usually constructed from

matchsticks, the correct term for a relative was determined by moving up from both positions to a point where a relation could be established. While this diagram does not delimit a closed semantic domain for Gayo, it does correspond to one mode of meaningfulness for these terms. This set of terms is valid under the condition that the marriage of Ego's parents was not uxorilocal, i.e., that it was either immediately an exchange marriage, or that the eventual domicile of the couple was not established by the marriage. The second and third figures depict the use of affinal taras.

up- ^ . - . . - . - . ^ ^ . ^ ^ ^ - ^ . x . i . . . ; ^ - , . ^ ^ - ^ ^ ' - " - - - ' * : " - - ' - - . '

174

Figure 7: Affinal

Relatives,

Kale Ego

* 1

khAA

n A k. 6 AA cj A i ik

ECO

A
A=
ECO

SI
it

bb r i _ _ l c

AT
bb b's

ir-niwriii-ii n-r-jiniin

iii'iiiii-tiiiW'fn

'

iira-tmnimn '

10

175

figure 7, continued:

t?"

ii

1:

ECO

4.

o*

iifiiaiMirniMitiiMrtrmiiiiria^

176

Figure

8: Affinal

Terms, Female Ego

.
A A I bb M
ECO

<sia
bb

bb

r-T-4

i bb bb

cj> A
D

J bb bb I I*

Aft
ECO

= A

bb bb I . I

II
bb bb

m ml
bb b b

bbbb

X-X.

mmmm

177

The folioving tvo tables list the set of kin terns used by Isak residents. Some substitution of terns takes place in the Gayo Lues district, but, vith the exception of cousin terms, the system depicted in the figure is constant across Gayo districts. The first table lists Table 9: Gayo Kin Teras, Hale or renale Speaker

Code

Kin Tera entah nuyang data awan, npu anan, mpu awan (aliq), mpu anan (aliq), mpu aaa in v ibi kil ngah encu pun in pun abang aka ngi anak until kumpu piyut

Note: The terns: nuyang, datu, v, ngah, encu, ume nay be nodified by the terns "ravan" (male) or "banan" (female). terns that are used for relatives by birth or marriage. The next table presents those terms that can only be used for affines.

\
178

Table 10: Gayo Affinal

Terms

Code

Kin Tera r lakon tenud pribn kav enduv penen kil eapurah toen

aa
bb cc dd ee ff

n
hh ii

Jj kk

Each of these terms may be modified by the use of an enclitic pronoun (although some of then rarely are used vith pronouns). There

Table 11: Cod ft Je Pronouns

Person: Tint
Second Third

Singular -ku
-au

Plural
-nt (inclusive)

-n -

are five such pronouns, as shown in the next tabic. The total set of kin tern relations may be broken into two groups; those traced through Ego's parents, and those resulting from tbe marriages of Ego and his or her siblings. Marriage often involves a significant degree of change in previously-established tutur. Tbe analysis

of terns traced through Ego's parents begins vith sibling relations. In

''liiTIIHfiWiy natlr 1 "-"'"'" * * ~ '-nmir-'-tir"-'

"

"~

- t- - tm.m^gt.+^dhiSiEmmmmaiaah-. ^

179

each generation, it is the relations between siblings which establish the relaxions betveen descendants.

Siblings
Toanger siblings of either gender are referred to by expressions vith the kin term agi. Elder siblings are distinguished by gender; Anyone referred to by by the same tera; a

elder brother is abang and elder sister, aks.

either of the elder sibling terms is also addressed

younger sibling, hovever, is addressed either vith a term meaning "boy" (win) or "girl" (ipak), or by a name or teknccyn. Sames, vithout the

use of a kin tern, are never used from a younger to an older category, but aay be used fron an older to a younger category. Selations between siblings are characterized by the strict attention paid to the ordering from elder to younger siblings regardless of gender. There is no tern which neans "sibling" vithout specifying either relative age or gender.' An elder sister is obeyed by a younger brother in nuch the sane vay as is an elder brother. The eldest son and daughter are referred to as the substitutes for the father and Bother, respectively (ganti n'ama, ganti ij'j'o), aai either nay becone the head The eldest

of the household as the parents grov old and becone infim.

son vill take charge of dividing the parental estate after their death, and vill then be the eldest t/ali (guardian in Islamic lav). Tbe nane of

the eldest child, vhether a son or 8 daughter, is incorporated into the

* The Malay and Indonesian vord saudara (which is used in those languages to nean "sibling") is used by Gayo vith the pronunciation sudere to nean the aenbers of a sarak opat.

180
the parents' teknonym. The youngest child, on the other hand, is considered likely to have special powers or to be "blessed" (mutuab, Chapter 4 ) . There is a special term for the eldest sibling (sulubr) the youngest (bengsu), and for see

but there are no terms, names or other signs for

order of birth of other siblings (they may be referred to together as lab, middle). The characters of the eldest and youngest children are

said to differ considerably from each other. First-borns are spoken of as more outgoing, sometimes stubborn, while last-boms are seen as quiet, often graced by God, easy-going. Marriages between an eldest

child and a youngest are said to be likely to be particularly successful, while a marriage between two eldest or two youngest children is thought of as less propitious. The term dengan (cross-sex sibling) is used to refer to elder or

younger cross-sex siblings, but is never used as an address form. Tbe term suspends relative age, and thus is often used to refer to a class of cross-sex siblings, or to highlight the obligations of protection, loyalty, and propriety that accrue to the sibling relation regardless of relative age. The term dengan marriageability. is also used to indicate non*

A same-generation opposite-sex person is marriageable dengan.

in just those cases where he/she is not one's The terms abang,

aka, ngi define a set of attitudes and norms of

conduct that are appropriate for a wide range of interpersonal relations, and Gayo use the terms to create a relationship characterized by warmth, closeness, respect, and mutual obligation in cases where no kin tie is traced. Gayo use the phrase tutur (ni) den ("kin term relation

Tnii iiiiiYin1r'nwrrtrffii-',--'-*-:~'*'"''*'

i irmiiiinnr u n r

181

of the path") to refer to a tutur

which has been arrived at by

considering the age and status of a person about whom little else is known, along with the kind of interaction intended. The sibling relation terns are frequently used for interaction with persons of approxiaately the same generation whom one encounters outside of a context of government or business transaction, and such usages are, in these conditions, considered appropriate and respectful. Other terms are also used as tutur ni den and vill be indicated below.

Parents and Children

On the first ascending and descending generations, relatives are distinguished as cross and parallel. All mother's sisters and father's brothers may be referred to and addressed as in and ana, The reciprocal term in both instances is anak (child). Birth is considered to establish a relation between a child and his "real father" (ama pedih) and "real mother" (in pedih), but these respectively.

relations must be ritually mediated in order to becone culturally complete, and are also subject to ritual modification. Parenthood is thus a relation that must be culturally constituted through a series of rituals. There are several conditions under which the parent-child relation aust be ritually shifted onto another person. One condition is a lingering illness which begins at birth. A child is born accompanied by good and bad spirits as veil as good and bad fortune. There are a number of signs of these "burdens" (penemah) carried by the child, sone of

vhich require that specific neasures be taken.

asi

182
One such sign is an overly close resemblance between the child and one of his/her parents. Physical identity between parents and children is not a positive element of Gayo kinship. To the contrary, the proper separation between generations demands that there be a proper physical difference between theo. If a child resembles one or the other of his parents too closely, this separation has not taken place. The birth has not been sufficiently complete in distinguishing the parent and child, and it is thought that one of the two will die early if steps are not taken to properly mediate their relationship. This mediation is usually accomplished by giving the child to someone else and then receiving him back again. In many cases, a child is born accompanied by a condition that may cause him illness if it is not transferred to another object. This condition, called a dineren, can be detected in several signs, the most may be trans-

common of which is a mark on the umbilicus. The dinieren

ferred from the child onto an object or animal, usually a thin gold wire or a chicken; the specific object is requested by the soul (semangat) the child. A healer (guru) carries out this transfer (sedu). The of

wire, chicken, or other object onto which the condition has been transferred is kept for the child; interestingly, the chicken is not expected to become ill; the dimrn only caused illness so long as it adhered to the child. In the case that the mother is perceived as the source of the illness or bad fortune that is harming the child, her relation to the child may be transferred to someone else, thereby deflecting the illness. A new mother may be ritually substituted for the one who just

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183

gave birth, thus substituting a new set of fortunes and health for the old. This transfer is called pinai in'n, literally "changing the The transfers are often carried out between sisThe

mother-of relation."

ters, but sometimes the child's healer is made the new mother.

transfer is directed at those elements of the mother-child tie that might be causing illness, either bad fortune (sil, palis) or evil spir-

its sent to cause any child of the oman to fall ill.

The mother is

then redefined as the guardian of lie child, and not his/her mother, thereby breaking the spiritual tie fcetween thea. A young mother living close zo me had given birth to a daughter who died a few days later. The following year she gave birth again,

and, in order to ensure that the cht Id would live, the mother relation was transferred to her sister.

At the turun mani fbathing seren days after birth) the child was transferred to the mother's sister. I was told that since the mother's first child had cied shortly after birth she night be unlccky sil). The mother gave the child to her sister along with uncooked rice, a mat, a plate, a glass, and Rp 1,000, saying "now you are Beer mother." The sister then immediately gave Eer back to the mother, saying "you care for my baby," and gave her back the oat for the baby to lie on, the plate and glass for her feed, and the Rp 1,000 to buy her ilk, since she would cot nurse from her new mother, the mother's sister (she would, in fact, nurse from her mother; this payment made the transfer explicit;. Should the child ever require medicine or healing, her new mother will be called on to administer it; the cure will be more effective from her. The child will grow up using the term mother (in) for both her

mother and her new Bother, rather than the otherwise expected term of escu (mother's youngest sister). The primary determinants of a child's character are to be found either in the manipulatie social realm of names, intentions and parental

^mm*Mmm,Y-m*.~*~-,

, ^ , , . , . . , . . ,

^ f ^ . ...,.,-........ . .....,,._,

i\M

184 conduct, or in the distant realm of God, but rarely are biologically-transnitted characteristics referred to (an exception is the physical mark of patrilineal descent from the founder of Isak, Merah Mege). Adopted children are shaped and marked by these social events

just as are natural children (although the latter may be particularly affected by conduct and spells recited on the night of their conception). Since full adult status is only obtained with the birth of a child and the taking of a teknonym (even if the child dies shortly thereafter), after several years of childlessness a couple may ask a close relative for a child to take as their own. Most often a close lineage sibling of the spix.se to whose lineage the couple is affiliated will give them a child. It is an interesting comment on the extendability of

kinship in Gayo society that adoption-like relations are so common that a real adoption is never lexically designated as such. An adoption is

generally described, if at all, as "X was given to me as my child". Real adoption implies the total enjoyment of parental care, material benefits, and eventual full inheritance. I lived next door to a couple

who, childless for several years after marriage, had been given a son by the husband's FBD. Two years later the wife gave birth to a daughter. It was only after I had lived there a year that I was told that the boy was the natural child of the cousin; no difference in parental attitude had been apparent, and the boy himself did not know this fact. His mother told me that he would be told when he was older. A close friend of mine who was in his late 30's had been given to a close patrilateral relative when he was a child, in order that a ling-

185
ering illness might better be cured. His mother had already taken his name as the basis for her tcknonym, and she retained the teknonym even after the adoption. Ke grew up in his mother's household, but was frequently cared for by the adopting mother. In his affections, his atten-

tion during important rituals, and his general behavior he treated his adopting mother in more of a mother-like way, as the Gayo see it, than tbe mother who was named after him. In general, transfers of the pinab itin variety to deflect a birth illness are likely to be between sisters or close matrilateral kin of the child. On the other hand, what I will call real adoptions, Gayo OSS& (to give), in which the child is raised as the child of the adopting parents, may be to patri lateral or matrilateral kin. In the case that such a transfer is to a close relative of the father, the transfer may be aade without a public acknowledgement or ritual, since the child is being given to a wall (agnatic kinsman). If the transfer is made

msiri laterally, then the lineage publically acknowledges the transfer, but does not acknowledge the transfer of inheritance rights as a result of the adoption. Other, adoption-like relations are referred to either by the label anak angkat ("taken-up son", also the Indonesian legal term for adop-

tion), or by a phrase of the sort "I took him up to become my child." This quai-adoptions occur when a child is given over to someone not necessarily closely related to him for purposes of his education or to help with farm labor. In these cases, even though the child is raised

entirely or partly by the quasi-adopting parent, he or she will receive inheritance from the parents' estate. In these cases the child is

186 always referred to as the anak angkat "child". Finally there are cases of ritual adoption, where a child is officially given over to a third party to be his/her child, and then immediately returned to the real parents. Such adoption is for one of three reasons. The first reason is that the child has been ill and is to undergo a long series of cures from a healer (guru). It is very impor-

of the third party, never as his

tant that the tie between the child and the healer be as close as possible since there is a good deal of spiritual risk to the healer in his battle with whatever spirits may be afflicting the child. Giving the child over to the healer to be his child helps to create such a close tie. These ties usually remain in force for the life of tbe healer, so that he may continue to heal the child should the spirits that caused the illness return. In the second case, a child who overly resembles

one or tbe other of his parents is given away ritually to another parent. As I noted above, such close resemblance is thought to be dangerous to either the child or the parent because the parent-child separation has not been sufficiently complete. A ritual adoption then serves to effect a greater separation, and makes tbe mediated return of the child to the natural parent possible. A third case is the combination of childlessness by a close relative and one or the other of the above reasons for ritual adoption. Here, a childless couple is ritually given a child by someone who has a reason to do so (because of illness, too-close resemblance, or merely in order to establish a closer tie with the second couple). The childless couple, now officially the parents of the child, then may take the child's name as the basis of a teknonya.

187

The relations of parents to children are described primarily in terms of ties between mothers and daughters, on the one hand, and fathers and sons, on the other. The relations between mothers and

daughters ore characterized by the close emotional ties built up through shared domestic tasks. Daughters are ore reliable in old age as protectors and providers, and the contrast is frequently drawn between the conduct of daughters and that of daughters-in-law towards parents. The former is depicted as faithful, caring, and trustworthy, while a daughter-in-law is seen as likely to cause trouble and to come between her husband and his parents. Sons-in-law are rarely depicted as in

close contact with their parents-in-law, and thereby are rarely in direct conflict. A daughter-in-law is expected to work with her mother-in-law on domestic tasks, while it is rare to see a son-in-law working together with his wife's father. Relations between fathers and sons are comparatively distant, and likely to be characterized by discipline and demands of work and obedience. Fathers see as one of their main tasks the instilling of proper in their child. This tern is central to the Gayo

feelings of kernel

vocabularly of emotions and conduct, and is best glossed as a combination of "shame", "embarassment" and "social sense". A child is thought to be born without this sense, and hence to act in ways that bring on embarssment to others but not to himself. taught to Tukenl, He or she must therefore be

having a sense of shame, knowing the proper ways of at improper behavior.

behaving and feeling shame or embarassment (kernel)

This task is thought to be particularly onerous in the case of a son, because of a natural proclivity of boys to cause mischief. It is the

krii^iiiftfiiiifi^^

188

father's task to properly discipline him.

In fact, Gayo fathers are

often lenient with their children, but a peaceful father-son relationship will depend on the son's strict avoidance of direct contact with his father or with other elders. In Isak, even today, fathers will, in the presence of the their sons, say to their wives: "tell him to study hard" or "the buffalo ought to be taken out tomorrow," avoiding direct communication. The mother-daughter relationship, on the other hand, is characterized by close cooperation and greater freedom of expression. Mothers speak freely with their daughters and sons, acting as the mediators between the father and the children. Even in Takengon, I rarely saw a request made from a child to his or her father. Mothers, grandparents, or parent's siblings were more likely recipients of requests. Certain talents and proclivities are transmitted from parents to children. First of all, some tendencies are thought to travel in a

patriline, emerging in the men or women of the line at different points in history. Most notably, certain patrilines are characterized as poss-

essing sorcerer's powers. These powers are thought to be easily obtainable by a descendant in a patriline, although not necessarily possessed by him/her. Although women may possess such characteristics, they do

not transmit them to their descendants. Secondly, spiritual transmission takes place in an overt manner from fathers to sons in certain special cases. These transmissions are a problematic act at each generation. The role of healer for the community of Isak (guru si opat), for example, is passed down from father to

(usually eldest) son in a certain patriline in Kobel village.

189

Informants emphasized, however, that receiving these talents in the next generation was never a sure thing, and that which son received them depended on h-1-. personal aptitudes. If one son was worthy, then the

departed spirit of the deceased father would appear to him in dreams and pass on his spells, recipes and diagnostic techniques. In a few cases

of other healing patrilines the healer's gifts were passed oa to a uxorilocally-married son-in-law. In these few (and much commented-on)

instances the status of the man "like a son" was interpreted by the father (in-law) to include eligibility to receive healing secrets after the father's death.

Kinds of fathers

and Bothers

While all father's brothers may be referred to as ana, and all mother's sisters spoken of as /n', other terms are usually used for these relatives. In fact, there are several altercate sets of terms

available for this purpose. A set of three terms distinguishes among the parallel siblings of Ego's mother and father by their relative ages. The term w' refers to the eldest in each of the two sets, while the tera encu youngest (Gayo Lues, iyu). relets to the

Remaining father's brothers and mother s whether they are older or

sisters are referred to with the term ngab, younger than Ego's father or mother.

It is the positions of eldest or

youngest in each of the two sets of parallel siblings that are marked by special terms, while the relative age of the other parents* siblings vis-a-vis Ego's parent is not made explicit in the terminology for the ascending generation.

A!

>l & ,,,,.. ; ,.w.. J ,^,.^....,.... T|||i[r

|||f|T||f)|)| m m

lMftUSllijli]L_1_____J_L___^_

tmm^

190 Although the same set of birth-order terms (we, ngah , encu) may be

used for tie 'same-sex siblings of both mother and father, some Isak speakers use this set of modifiers only for the mother's side. In this

alternative sub-system, while mother's sisters are each lexically distinguished from mother, father's brothers are labeled as kinds of fathers. A different set of markers, terms that otherwise refer to the size of objects, are employed in constructions with ana as presented in Table 12: Alternate Sets of Teres for Father's Brothers.

Sibling position eldest: niddle: youngest: tote: kul*"larg?"-,

(FB only) ana kul ana lab ana ucak lah="middle";

(FB or HZ) w ngah coco ucak*"small".

the tabic. Included among those vino used the alternate set of terms were older residents of' Isak who claimed that they had been used for many years and were not new terms. This set introduces an asymmetry into the parallel siblings of Ego's parents. While mother's sisters remain marked as different from mother, father's brothers are represented in the altercate set as kinds of fathers (larger, middle, or smaller ones). This representation is consistent with the lineage structure given virilocal marriages, in that, all father's brothers are members of Ego's lineage wiile each mother's sister marries out into a different lineage.

Is^^^i&at

jmmmmittllra^mWmrfm^mm^m.^

,.,,....^^J.,^.

191 In Isak, sisters do not marry men from the same lineage (kuru).

The relations between father's lineage siblings are subject to a further set of distinctions which indicate the relative distance of each from Ego and also encode attitudes of respect and closeness to the relatives. The lexical distinctions are as follows: (1) One's own father, or ama pedih, the Malay/Indonesian term bapak.

is referred to and addressed with

The "own father" category may include

more than one person if the child has been adopted in one or more of the ways described above. (2) A father's brother, and sometimes a FFBS, will usually be referred to as ana * modifier, as in the above table; (3) Fathers who are related more distantly to Ego are referred to using the set of three terms, wc/ngah/encu.

The first tier of father-types is one's own father, ama often designated by the Malay and Indonesian term bapak.

pedih,

Some infor-

mants, generally below age 40, did not understand the intended reference when I used ama to refer to their father, although the same informants did use the term to refer to more distant fathers. The most frequent explanation given to me of both this non-recognition and the lexical shift to the Malay term bapak vas by reference to the overly direct and rude feeling that accompanied the use of the Gayo term. The Malay term was described as more circumspect. Once, while bathing with friends, 1 used the phrase amamu (your father) in asking how someone's father was. A companion, the local veterinarian, winced and explained my error to me. He used the analogy

^At.^-a^,.,,,-,.,,,.,,^,.^,

a..,.,,...^^.....,

- |]||||--B>H| " .H__.|__LL_t_||lX____l__I_-_J_.

192 of his own job title, mantri mantri hewan, to explain correct usage. The word

is an official term meaning "officer" and most often used for is an abstract tern which is similar in feeling

health officials. Sevan

to the English "fauna", and is used to designate the animals for which he has responsibility. He said: "Think how rude it would be if someone binatang"). It is the same

referred to me as the "animal doctor" (.dokter with ana."

This reticence towards using the Gayo terms for father and mother is part of a general sensitivity towards directly referring to someone, lexically pointing to another person, and particularly to one's own parents. A common insult ten years ago was of the form: "Your (mother. father), (his,her) name is N" thrown as a taunt and inevitably leading to a fight. A shorter insult of similar motivation is now to yell simply: "your (mother, father) " ("amamu", "inmu"). The relation to

one's parents was the source of the highest degree of personal shame or embarassment (kernel) and merely highlighting that relation by the use of

these expressions is to challenge one's social self. Even an innocent use of ama or in may be too sensitive. Once, upon coming across a herd of water buffalo led by a young boy, I asked a friend who was accompanying me: "are these his father's buffalo?" (Jkoro ni, koro n''amal) My friend immediately reproached me for the form into Even though I was an "elder brother" to

which I had put my question.

the boy, and so was relatively free to address him as I wished, the juxtaposition of water buffalo and his father in a sentence was felt to be at least mildly rude.

bM.iiVniffi^ntiBaat

--

,.

^ , _

....,,^

_ Iff

193

All the above statements apply equally to the use of ine', "mother", for which the Malay equivalent mamak is often substituted. Finally, the terms ayah (father) and ibu (mother) are felt to be more Indonesian than Malay, and are used by many Gayo who live in Takengon or in a city, as well es by some who live in Isak. A few parents who idee* tify strongly with Islam and the use of Arabic have taught their children to use the Arabic word for father, abu. corresponding term for mother is ose. The use of equivalent terms in Malay/Indonesian in place of Gayo terms which are thought to be sensitive or "coarse" (kasar) is a general I have not hear a

phenomenon. These terminological alternatives constitute a system of signs indicating degrees of distance and shame. The following table
Table 13: Oayo/HaJay Pairs

tlalay

Gayo

perempuan laki ibu, mamak bapak isteri suami

banan rawan in ama, banan rawan

lists the terms most often replaced by Malay teras. Each term in this list refers to the relations involved in mar* riage and parenthood. "rough" (kasar). animals; one speaks In each case, the Gayo term is often said to be

The Gayo terms listed here are also applicable to of male and female animals, and to fathers and mothbanan, ine', ama.

ers among water buffalo or dogs, using the terms rawan,

i.

194

in the same way as these terms would be used to refer to humans. Indeed, Gayo often explain their reluctance to use the Gayo terms by referring to the use of the same terms for animals. Malay equivalents are preferred because they are not also used to refer to animals. The M?lay terms are relatively cultural, while the Gayo terms refer to both the cultural and the natural domains. There is one exception to this general phenomenon; the Gayo word for marriage, kerj, may be used for sexual union between animals as well as for the

series of rituals that comprise a wedding. The term is not replaced by a Malay/Indonesian term in any context, although the Gayo equivalent, iluahen speech. One bit of formal speech which was recorded in Terangon illustrates the use of these Malay refined terms. Terangon is perhaps tbe most isolated part of Gayoland, and the presence of these terms is additional evidence that they are not the result of "culture change."1 Tbe following phrases were from a marriage speech, and describe marriage as one of the obligations assumed by parents towards their children. (let go, married off) is often used, particularly in formal

1 There is also a sense of being modern by using Indonesian words (which are often themselves Javanese in origin) in Takengon and the cities. Thus, one frequently hears the terms pak cik, pak d (FyoB, FelB) and others in Takengon. The corresponding Gayo terms are not. in this case, imbued with a sense of shame, and the change is for a different reason. There is a genuine convergence here.

kl

195 Sint tangung ni ibu-bapak. Ik si perempuan, umur lapan-belas; ik si laki, sur dua-puluh satu. Marriage, burden of their parents. If a girl, at the age of 18; if a boy, at the age of 21. Father's brothers are not subject to these strictures concerning tbe use of the word ama. Along with some FFBS, they are generally

referred to with the construction ama + (modifier) as described above. These relatives are described as very close to Ego, and as being almost equivalent to one's real father in matters of conduct. A father's brother will be in the same lineage as one's father, and should tbe latter die, may marry his brother's widow. The group of brothers and patriparallel cousins are obliged to provide a substitute for their deceased brother upon his death. The substitute may be one of their camber, or it may be someone else. If the deceased has an elder brother who is himself unmarried (whether widowed, divorced, or never married), he is likely to marry the widow. In any case, the elder brothers will

assume the financial responsibility for the widow and their brother's children until marriage is completed. More distant fathers are often referred to by one of the terms in the set w'/ngab/encu. I will first explain the way in which genealogi*

cal distance is calculated and represented. Tbe Gayo figure degrees of genealogical relatedness between two persons (X and Y) in tents of tbe vertical distance to the nearest shared ancestor, i.e., by reference to siblingship. Both a FelBS and a MelBS are equally referred to as "ay elder brother one grandparent." The Gayo phrase (abangku sara datu)

specifies the distance of tbe shared ancestor but not the sex of the

l H t . , -t, A ^ ^ - - . ^ . ^ ^ - , - , . ,-.,.. ,

,....^,.,^,

196 linking relatives. Relative age at the point of sibling linkage (in this case, between the parents of X and Y) and not the relative age of X and Y thesselves is indicated by the choice of kin term. If X and Y are not related as siblings, then tbe relationship is labeled by reference to the nearest relation of siblingship. For example, a relation to FPPelSibCS is described as "he and my father are elB/yoB one great-grandfather". Again, the kin term used in this case, in the absence of any closer, cross-cutting ties, is determined by the relative age of the linking siblings. Degrees of relatedness are therefore expressed in terms of the nearest shared ancestor. expressions are: sar'ine' sara datu In decreasing degree of closeness, these (one mother), sara mpu (one grandparent), and I have not heard the phrase sara

(one great-grandparent).

muyang (one great-great grandparent) used, although when I used it in discussions of specific relationships it was understood. Relationships of this or greater distance within the lineage are referred to as being "one lineage" (sara kuru). The degree of closeness of relationships

which cross lineage boundaries is rarely expressed. Tbe three expressions sar'ine', sara mpu, sara datu are also used

to indicate the nature of interactions and attitudes as well as the degree of kin relatedness. In one example, the degree of relatedness

between tbe kinsmen was interpreted in terms of the nature of their interaction, rather than the other way around.

fei

MaMtftfttNMH

miUtmm

u main*

197 1 visited a longhouse it Jsbo near Terangon, one of a few that remain standing in Gayoland. The youngest brother in the kuru rj there told me that the people in the Icr.ghouse were all sara tipu. When I askec abost particular relations between the heads of households it became clear that the closest genealogical tie between their was as sara datu. I asked the youngest brother about this. He said that it was true, but that he had not thought about it iefore, that they were so close (retcpak) and always acted together asd in harmony with each other that they never thought abrat wist the precise degree of relatedness was. People on lie outside thought of then) all as sar'ioe because they ere so close. In this example, the three degrees of relatedness were each-used to describe the relations between household heads. The man with whom I spoke described specific kit ties between household heads as "one great-grandparent" (sara datu). Sis use of the phrase "one grandparent"

(sara mpu) for the bouse as a whole was, I believe, both an expression of the closeness of its members and a representation of the boose as being composed of the descendants of brothers. To the outside, the household beads appeared to act as a very closely-knit unit, best expressed as "one mother" (sar'Joe). closely resembles the expres-

An additional expression, serinert, sion sar'jo,

and is sometimes defined by Gayo as referring to same-sex

siblings and parallel cousins. I have only beard it used in such a way in a few instances; more canmonly it is used to refer to people who are very close friends, in otiatr words, who act towards each other as siblings, but who are not related closely by kinship. The relation of elder/youxger father's brother is drawn on in Isak to highlight respect and Humor vis-a-vis members of the ascending generations. In Isak, the following criteria appear to distinguish between set. Hgah is the relatively

each of the terms in the nm/ogab/encu

unmarked term in this set both in its strict genealogical definition

W W

198
(any middle same-sex sibling, either elder or younger than Ego's father) and in its associated role-relations. In each lineage of Kramil vil-

lage, men and women use ngah for most of their distant G+l male relatives. As a "kin term of the path," used for someone with whom there is no established kin term relation, ngah is similarly unmarked, indicating a relatively easy but highly respectful relationship on the part of Ego. V and encu are used to indicate relations that are marked with respect to ngah. V implies a respectful, "heavy" relationship while

encu indicates a light, joking tenor to interactions. The bases for using these terms, when recaptured genealogically by the speaker, can cite an elder or younger sibling position at one of several genealogical levels. However, the basis for the original choice may be a desired role-relation. An instance from Kramil will illustrate the ways in which these terms may be used. Referring to the individuals depicted above, C refers to (and addresses) B as his v, because B is a first-born (in fact, an only child). D also uses uc vis-a-vis A, because A is the son of a first-born. Finally, D uses the "elder brother" term, abang, loi C, recognizing the eider position of C's line. The birth order terms for relatives in ascending generations are selected in such a way as to highlight the respect that is associated with the rank of eldest sibling, the position indicated by the use of w. In this example, the birth order terms are applied to B by C with

respect to B's own order of birth, but by P to A with respect to the birth order of linking relatives, i.e., branch rank. This pattern is a general one in Isak; the relation of elder/younger is drawn on in several ways to underline respect and deference to "fathers."

mmmi

W**^-,...*, ^

...w... . . ..^..^..L,

._,..^_ - .

199

Figure

9: Ku}tip]e

According

of Elder

Rank

elder

younger

-*r-."ve"

"w"

-<

fc>~:

b-i A l

On the same generation, however, kin term relations of elder/ younger sibling are unambiguously derived from the rank order of the branches concerned. In the diagram, C and D are related as elder/

younger by reference to the relative age of their linking siblings. This order is not reversible. The ranking of lines within the lineage is thus communicated by the use of the terminology even after the precise links between the lines have been forgotten. This system also transforms the relation of an in-marrying line to the rest of the lineage into the status of a branch, as is discussed in Chapter 6. These lexical distinctions are employed to distinguish among relations which are otherwise referred to by the same term. Gayo frequently use a construction such as oya bapak, ye (with stress on and low.

200 emphatic tone for re), meaning "that is his father, don't you know". The use of the Malay "bapak" makes it clear that the person referred to is considered to be his aea pedih. By contrast, a marginal "father of" atta or ikir ama,

relation is indicated with a phrase such as termasuk

meaning: "he counts as his father, you could think of him as his father". In such a case, while the person referred to is considered to be a father of some sort, the implications for conduct are deemphasized. When I asked Gayo to provide names for relations, they inevitably labeled the relation of a child to a father or mother with the terms aea and in, and also used these terms to describe relations to more distant

relatives in the two categories, even though they would probably not use these terms to refer to their own mother ami father. The critical difference between the several kinds of fathers, and the implications of the several terminological sets cannot be captured by an analysis that sought to break down a primary set of kin terms into their component features, where those terms were elicited from informants rather than recorded in situations of their use. This case has shown us how the structure of alternate terms reveals ("indexes") the structure of social relations, even where an elicited set would not (see Schneider and Roberts 1956; Tyler 1969).

and ancestors
While all children's children are referred to as kuepu, parents parents'

ate distinguished both by gender and by parents' gender. The The term may be modified to specify

basic term for grandparent is mpu.

a i t t m M

*'*'"'""

J-.,,...-^-.-.,...-

r m 1 r l l L J] 1 I 2__

201 gender, hence apu rawan and mpc banan. In Terangon these forms have

produced the contractions pavas, panan (or, with the alternate form of the /a/ sound, pnn). In Isak and Takengon, the last two syllables of

each phrase have become the grandparental kin terms, thus awan, anan (sometimes nen). While father's parents art referred to only by one of these pairs of terms, the mother's parents may be referred to as awan aliq, aliq, where aliq is a shortened for of raliq, "source," the aai anan mother's

natal line. These forms are only used where the marriage was virilocal, i.e., where a relation of raliq!jo'ln was created by the marriage.

In Isak the terms awan. anan are most commonly used. They may also be used as sel f-reciprocal teres of address between a grandparent and his/her same-sex grandchild. Gayo describe this usage as limited to those grandparents with whom tbey feel most at ease, and only is situations where their parents are not present. Relations with both maternal and paternal grandparents are very close and easy in general. Seven generations other than Ego's are distinguished in the kin term system. The child of a kctrpu is a piyut erations above the mpu ate (CCC), while the t*o genAn additional level

labeled datu and muyang.

at either end is sometimes labeled entah.

However,, this word also means

"I don't know," and it is usually offered along with the statement that you never remember relatives this distant from you, and yoo certainly never meet them. It functions as a boundary marker betweex. those relaand those who are

tives who can be categorized with this system of tutur

too far from us for their precise links to us to be remembered.

j.

202 The two terms muyang and datu muysng are used to refer to ancestors. A

is usually the first ancestor to settle an area. Muyang Linge

(Genali) was the first to arrive in Gayoland; Muyang Sengda is the ancestor of the Bukit clan; Muyang Mersah was the first settler of Isak; and so on. None of the muyang named here is identified with a grave site. Each either left the area before death, flew away after death as

a flying corpse, or died in an unknown place and manner. The next generation of ancestors, those identified as datu, have

become powerful center places for territories. The son of Muyang Mersah was Datu Merah Meg, whose grave site in lsak is the place where agricultural rites are carried out and requests for assistance are addressed to "the Datu". His site is not a real grave, but a prayer spot designed Each territory along the Isak river is narked by a

to resemble one.

spot associated with a particular Datu. The vertical relation of muyang to datu is thus drawn on as part

of the political and spiritual history of each territory.

Mother's Brothers and Father's

Sister*

Whereas one's parents' parallel siblings may be referred to by one of several kin terms, each of their opposite-sex siblings is referred to by a single term. Moreover, even in Takengon, where the distinctions

among kin terms have in many cases been blurred or Indonesian t e n substituted for Gayo ones, the distinction between the categories of other's brother, father's sister, and parents' parallel siblings has not been lost.

202 The two terms muyang and datu muyang are used to refer to ancestors. A

is usually the first ancestor to settle an area. Muyang Ling

(Genali) was the first to arrive in Gayoland; Muyang Sengda is the ancestor of the Bukit clan; Muyang Mersah was the first settler of Isak; and so on. None of the muyang named here is identified with a grave site. Each either left the area before death, flew away after death as

a flying corpse, or died in an unknown place and manner. The next generation of ancestors, those identified as datu, have

become powerful center places for territories. The son of Muyang Mersah was Datu Merah Mg, whose grave site in lsak is the place where agricultural rites are carried out and requests for assistance are addressed to "the Datu". His site is not a real grave, but a prayer spot designed Each territory along the Isak river is marked by a

to resemble one.

spot associated with a particular Datu. The vertical relation of muyang to datu is thus drawn on as part

of the political and spiritual history of each territory.

other's

Brothers and Father's

Sister*

Whereas one's parents' parallel siblings may be referred to by one of several kin terms, each of their opposite-sex siblings is referred to by a single term. Moreover, even in Takengon, where the distinctions

among kin terms have in many cases been blurred or Indonesian terms substituted for Gayo ones, the distinction between the categories of mother's brother, father's sister, and parents' parallel siblings has not been lost.

203

Mother's Brother as Source All mother's brothers are referred to and addressed with the term pun, until, anak. and their wives with in pun. Their sister's children are their

but often will be assimilated to the general category of child, However, a pun is never referred to as a "father". The pun and in pun stand in a relationship of ambiguous or multi-

valent power towards their sister's children. On the one hand, as the closest representatives of the source line, these relatives are in a category which receives the greatest degree of formal ritual attention. They are spoken of as the "heaviest" relatives at a ritual. The pun must be seated in the most honored spot in a house (against the inner wall of the outer room), must not be walked in front of, must be served first, be the first to be summoned to any important occasion and the first to be visited after one's own parents on the feast day Idul Fitri that follows the month-long fast. A failure to observe these norms of respect may result in a fine or even in the cancellation of the event. Any change in the status of a sister's child demands a small payment to the mother's brothers. If a child is adopted (in the sense of

real adoption described above), the source of the child must also be changed, minah raliq (change the source line). Any change in the

child's name must also be confirmed by notifying and delivering a small payment to the pun. However, while formally (ritually) the pun is the "heaviest" of relatives, in terms of everyday interaction he is less so than one's parents or spouse's parents and elder siblings. If the mother's brother

204
is a healer (and many Gayo know at least some healing spells and potions), he will be particularly effective for his sister's children. My neighbor, for example, was a leading curer in Isak, bat went to his pun if he was sick. The man in fact had the reputation of being only a middling curer, but, as his mother's brother, his spells were particularly effective for my neighbor. The special role of the mother's brother and his wife begins shortly after birth, when he blows into the baby's ear the words of tbe confession of faith, the syahadah (Gayo s'd't). These words will help

protect the child and guide him through life. Seven days later, when the baby is brought out of the house for the first tiae (see below), it is the in pun or'someone else acting in the name of the source line who protects the child from evil spirits be carrying a burning rag in front of him, held by a steel betel-nut cutter. The steel cutter stands for tbe hardness of the child's soul (semangat) against spirits.

The mother and father would not be able to fill the roles of protector and healer which are assumed by the pun and in pun. Tbe proxim-

ity which is demanded in each case would be spiritually dangerous. While the relation of parent to child is a lineal one which must be . separated through ritual, that of mother's brother to sister's child has already been separated by the prior marriage of tbe sister into tbe child's line. The relationship is thus already a mediated one. I have

not beard this relationship spoken of in terms of ties of substance, but rather in terms of exchange, and tbe special relation of tbe pun to his sister. As one man put it:

im.

iiiiiniiiriiiniiwy.iiiinr^

205 The mother has the most important role in bringing up children, because she is home most often. Her side therefore has more of an effect on the children. Perhaps that is why the blessing of the pun is the most important one for the child's health. The indissoluble kin relation of mother's brother and sister's child is often beset with difficulties in which the obligations of tbe exchange relation between the two lines are not met. If the mother's

brother is not properly honored, or if a dispute erupts between the two lines over a matter of inheritance, marriage obligations, or ritual propriety, the tie between the pun and his sister's children nonetheless remains. As the frequently heard couplet states, "Toror ng uupol ok, tali ger'iln netus."

(The bridge has broken, but the rope has not snapped).

Tbe asymmetry of the marriage exchange defines a corresponding asycsetry of power between these two categories. The sister's child, as the child of the married-out sister (anak juln), stands in a subordi-

nate position towards his mother's brother. Early in his life a child is taught to behave in a respectful manner towards his pun and in pun.

While a mother's brother may freely visit his sister's children, the latter may not freely do the same. A sister's child "would be kernel (embarassed, shy) to just go there, because his mother was ijuln his mother's brother's line." The emotional ambiguity of the term juln lies in its dual sense of married out and sold. The affinal tie from

is emphatically asymmetric, and tbe power of the pun is his to use as he sees fit.

^ 1

206
This power is potentially dangerous as well as beneficial. I bave never heard of cases of mother's brothers bewitching their sister's children, but, as is so often the case, this structurally determined fear surfaces often in myths. The mother's brother's wife, the ioS pun,

figures in affective relations that are similar to those of the stepmother to the child, a stingy, cruel, witch-like figure. In the jural

reals the mother's brother and his wife are often seen by their sister's children as having distributed wealth unfairly, or as having failed to distribute the estate, preferring instead to enjoy the use-right access to the whole estate. pun kul, In particular, the eldest Bother's brother, the

holds the position of ultimate authority in the estate divi-

sion, and is frequently in conflict with his sister's children in contesporary Isak.

Father's Sister All father's sisters are ibi Lues, kail. and their husbands kil or, in Gayo

This pair is often counterposed to the mother's brother and

bis wife in Gayo discussions of role-relations and in myth. The father's sister who has married virilocally is in the category of to Ego's lineage, and is thus ritually subordinate to that lineage. Just as the mother's brother stands for the source line, the father's sister and her husband are the most salient representatives of the juln line. The latter are expected to come and work at those feasts juln

to which the mother's brother is invited as the honored guest. The arried-out line is designated as "the fast feet" while the source line is "the eating guests," which nicely summarizes the most salient relationship of each to the other.

Ifcii! riiriMnirfiiin Mm lilft iiilMiHililituni uli innin m i

tliailmmijmlgt^^^

207 In the early stages of preparing for a feast, the hosts, (sukut)

call their arried-out relatives and ask them to help in preparing for the meals, giving them a small part of the supplies which will be needed: "here are ten coconuts and five kilograms of sugar; make a

feast from then." The associated couplet reads: "Jantar bob lemak, krar.il ent i belah."

(Make coconut ilk, but do not split open the coconut).

The ibi

traditionally plays the role of mediator between relatives

who must not comrunicate directly about a sensitive matter. One is respectful towards an ibi, but either a man or a woman may discuss

almost any topic with her. A man's relationship with one or more ibi are very important to him as a line of communication to other, "heavier" relatives. Is particular, ibi play the role of go-between in assigna-

tions and marriage negotiations. Conversely, any older wuman who acts as a protector or friend is likely to be considered and referred to as an ibi. near me, for example, A woman who lived

had been housed and protected during the Darul

Islam rebellion of the 1950's by an older woman who henceforth became her ibi. Even after the woman married a man who already had a set tutur

for the older tie of ibi

woman, she continued to use the set of terms based on a

to ber, so that now she and her husband each use different lineage.

kin term sets for the members of the ibi's The kil

(father's sister husband) is the "lightest" of all the G+l

relatives. One may freely work and joke with someone in this category, and the term kil is frequently used creatively to establish a free, '

208 joking relationship with an older man, as ibi woman (both by speakers of either sex). ibi and kil will used for an older

Along with the sibling terms,

are frequently used as "kin terns of the path." In this and ibi may be used reciprocally, in all three

usage, the terms kil

combinations (kil/kil,

ibi/ibi,

ibi/kil),

in a bantering, joking inter-

action. So age difference is implied in this use of these terms; the feature of ease of interaction has been highlighted in the terms. In myth, too, the father's sister husband appears as a rather ineffectual figure, only the companion of the father's sister and without any real powers.

Cousin*
In the kin term diagram with which this chapter began, a distinction is shown between impel, cross-cousins, and parallel cousins, who

are referred to by sibling terms. As was discussed earlier, the correct sibling term for a parallel cousin of degrees remove is determined by the sibling order in the n- th ascending generation, at the point where the lines converge. However, it is with regard to cousin terms that Gayo kin terms vary the most across districts. Different districts at different periods have represented the kinds of cousins in different ways. First, in Terangon today a initial lexical distinction is made between cross and parallel cousins. The class of impel is distinguished

from parallel cousins, who are assimilated to the class of siblings. A further distinction is made between the TOC (anak ni pun) and the FZC (anak n' ibi). The latter is characterized as more like a sibling, while

il

209 the former is seen as a more distant, separated relative with whom one may joke more freely. For a male ego, the MBD is marriageable while the FZD, because she is like a sister, is undesireable as a marriage partner. From the point of view of parents, a mother's brother is able to

initiate marriage discussions concerning his daughter with his sister's husband, while the reverse (the sister's husband bringing up the matter concerning his daughter) would be difficult. In Isak in the 1930's, according to older informants, crosscousins on both sides were distinguished as impel from parallel cousins.

There was also a clear distinction in the attitudes and permissable conduct toward the two classes of relatives. Cross-cousins could be joked with, poked in the sides and fought with easily. There was neither the formality of relations with siblings nor the danger in the distance to other relatives, with whom such provocative play might start a fight. A distant impel was a proper marriage partner, but a first cousin was not. So distinction was made between matrilateral and patrilateral cousins. The term impel dropped from use during the 1940's and SO's, and many Isak residents today do not even recognize the term. All cousins are now referied to by sibling terms. In ritual situations, the cousin

who stands in the relation of "source" or "married-out" line to Ego is distinguished from other,tuations but these distinctions do not inform the sense of relationship in everyday life, as do the corresponding distinctions at the G+l level. In those places where the term impel continues to be used, the

relation is not transmitted to the following generations. The children

:..-^.,-1. . , , ^ .

_._:

^ ,

...

210

of irp7 in Terangon, or in Isak in 193D, stand in a sibling relation to each other. In other words, second cousins (and third, etc.) are all

referred to by sibling terms.

affinal

Relations
The relationship between husband and wife is subject to the great-

est number of circumlocutions of any relation in Gayo society. While the terms banan (woman; when modified by a possessive, wife) and rauan

(man; husband) are often used to refer to someone else's spouse in their absence, a reference to one's own spouse or to that of an interlocutor is generally carried out by the use either of a tekaonym or of one of a number of alternative phrases. One of the alternatives that is considered to be the most polite to refer to a wife is mpun umab, "owner of

the house." There is no equivalent phrase for a husband; the preferred expressions involve a reference to the children of the couple, i.e., teknonyas or quasi-teknonyms (see below). The relation of husband and wife gives rise to a set of affinal relations, both on the same and across generations. The accompanying figure represents four of the key relations between same-sex affines of the same generation. The four relations are ordered by two contrasts: sex and symmetry. Much of the emotional and practical effects of marriage exchange are represented in terns of these sets of relations. I shall consider each of the four relations in turn. Together they nicely map out the dynamics of the exchange system in terms of expectations of conduct and attitudes. The male, asymmetric relation is the only one of the four that cannot be designated by a self-reciprocal

^^7

Figure 10: Four Affinal

Relation,

Sace Generation

asvagerric

svcetric

cale

I
temud

ro

r O-A
laVun

fe=ale

O
kaw

-Q

0 -Z.
taisu

A='

tere; the relation is irreducibly asvametnc.

In a seose this tie is to

the ato of the systeo of earriage exchange. The reUtioc of temde

lakur. is defined by the exchange of a wocar. between tvo nen. each representing one lineage. The attitudes that characterize the relation between other's brother and sister's soo are reproduced on this generation in an appropriate way. Tne conibination of respect, power and care that characterizes the cross-generational relation are here transformed into a tension between avoidance and solidarity. Two net. related as wife's brother and sister's husband will work together, ride a otorbike

I II 1 Min liW'-TKWMlIlitlilMnflM t s j j a t t o m m m M m m a a m m a i ^ m M

i l lin W i n

212
together, and freely visit, but lust refrain from joking or meeting each other s gaze. This combination of physical proximity and close age, on the one band, and relatively respectful and shy behavior on the other renders this relationship virtually unique. The men who stand in this relation interact in a cuaber of different social activities. The sister's husband is the "fast feet" pantas) and the "mouthpiece" in ritual (perauab) (hiding

for the wife's brother.

Me and his wife are provided with materials for the feast and are then expected to do a major share of the work in preparing food, organizing the activities and attending to guests. This couple, of course, has its own "fast feet" elsewhere who do the same. This particular rolerelation is highlighted at all feasts, when the principle julo, sisters the

families, play the most salient role in seating guests and

"speaking" back and forth between guests and hosts regarding the needs of each. This sister thus becomes the mediator both of the rolerelation itself (between the wife's brother and sister's busband) and in discourse during the feast. Furthermore, disputes over the proper distribution of an estate are most likely to involve a sister's husband and a wife's brother. The details of inheritance are treated in Chapter 7, and several cases mentioned in that chapter involved disputes over inheritance shares between a teemde' and a lakvn. la many cases the sister's husband enjoyed a

close relationship with his wife's parents, and had been given use rights over a share of the estate, rights which were then challenged after the death of the parents.

min ii rim tHtmJmm^&mm&mmu^m^m^m

213
The asymmetry of the relation is marked by the asymmetry of the terminology, and is reinforced by the further usages of the two tera temud and lakun. In all other uses, the term temud distinguishes

between an elder and a younger affine. The term thus contains a semantic component of elder vis-a-vis lakun, unmarked with respect to relative age. The term lakun also serves as a self-reciprocal term for affine* are the a term which is otherwise

of two or more degrees of affinal remove. Referred to as lakun SibSpSib, SpSibSpSib, and so forth.

SpSibSp, on the other hand, is a

marked set of relations, and includes the special terms examined here. Lakun of either sex and of any degree of remove are people with whom one can speak and joke freely, and the term is often used to create a joking relation between unrelated persons of close age. Respect is added by combining lakun freedom with elder sibling respect in the self"elSib + lakun", where the elder sibling tera In the use studied here, its

reciprocal construction: (abang, aka)

functions as an honorific.

sole appearance at this close degree of relationship, the term Jakun indicates a relaxing of respect and formality on the part of the wife's elder brother towards the younger sister's husband. The terminological pair temud/lakun thus picks this relation out as the locus of a partic-

ular degree of asymmetry. Kote here that the role played by sister's husband is not specified by the designating kin term (lakun) since the

term also designates other, very different role-relations, but can only be picked out by referring to the exchange that produced it. The corresponding asymmetric relation between women (BW/HZ) is designated by a self-reciprocal term, kau. Unlike the relation

2H
temudIlakun, that of kav does not mark a formal node in the exchange

structure, the husband's sister will or has married out of the lineage, if the marriages are all virilocal, and her interactions with her brother's wife are only temporary and transitory in nature. The relation is thus minimally connected with other relations in the exchange structure, and the term itself has no resonances with other terms in the system. The relation itself is described by Gayo as "one married in, one found" (sara iango, sara idpti), meaning that one woman marries in to find

the other already there. In those cases where the women who stand in this relation do live near each other (if the husband's sister has not married, dissolves her marriage, marries uxorilocally or merely comes to help out) they end up in a state of conflict with each other. Gayo put this as "we share a man and so we fight." I witnessed many such histories of jealousy and competition, often with the sentiments of the parents as the object. Gayo will inevitably contrast kau hostilities with the cooperative tone of symmetrical relations, either between two women who have married brothers, or two men who have married sisters. The former is designated by the term inn duu ("wives' twosome", HBW), where the symmetry of the relation is both indicated by the kin term itself and becomes the basis for trust between the two women. The relation is described as "both married in" (orum-orum phrase describing kau, iango), thus, as with the

presupposing two virilocal marriages. pribn

The corresponding relations between men are designated as (WZH).

Two men related in this way are thought of as equivalent through

the siblingship of their wives. This equivalence is the basis for a

215

"pragmatic metaphor" constructed as an alternative meaning of the term, where the term pribn is interpreted as designating two men who have the

same name. Names may have a direct influence on a person's conduct, and they are usually chosen with respect to the circumstances and persons connected to the birth (see below). Given virilocal marriage, pribn

will be members of different lineages, but each will serve as home base for the other should he visit the source lineage. These relations are sometimes made the basis for trade and travel ties if the two live far apart. An appeal by a friend of mine for help from a wife's relative highlighted the felt difference between the symmetric and asymmetric ties discussed above.

My friend had asked his WF, who lived in another district, to send his WelZ and her H to come live with and help them in Isak. As his wife's sister, she would have worked well with them. But instead the VyoB and his wife came, and the arrangement did not work out well at all, my friend reported. He is willing to work but she is not; she gets up late, after the cooking has been done, and just mopes around the house. But they eat a lot. Perhaps the problem is because she is a kau rather than a sister. These four relations are continued in contrasting fashion after the first generation. Children of the two asymmetric relations are cross-cousins in both cases, but while one set (the children of ZH/WB, temud/lakun) (HZ/BW, kau) establish an affinal pair, the children of the other only do so by virtue of the marriage of the HZ into a

third lineage, which establishes a second pair of the first type, ZH/WB. Ic other words, the first relation contains within it the continuity of the affinal relation, while the second is only a momentary irritation, with no structural implications.

o
i fiiir)l-Ui i ui niiini m ari n' ^,hi il r -^ini.i-,rti r.ii.n >T1|-rt mai m Tli i M M M t i ^ | a t B a ^ i ^ ^ g > e ^ ^ t t M i l V ' j l '

216 The two symmetric relations have similarly contrasting implications in their continuity. The children of the reciprocal HBW' pair are

lineage siblings, and so dissolve into the internal structure of the lineage. Children of the WZH pair stand in an affinal relation called "both children of married-out wonen" (sar'anak jaJo). Now, is a

different social system (such as that of the Etoro explored in Kelly 1977), this matrilateral sibling relation would become the basis for a cross-cutting social relation. Here, however, it is the exchange tie that contributes to the structure, and so it is the asyaoetric, rather than the symtrie, affinal relation that perdures (ritually, socially, t e rminologically). The terms used by a husband or wife for his spouse's parents, and those used between the parents of a couple, do not exhibit the asymmetry that was discussed above. The term empurah is often used to refer to a third party's spouse's parents, but is never used to refer to, or address, one's own spouse's parents. Older Isak people say that the term tun vas used in the past by a woman to address her husband's father. In Isak and Terangon today one's parents-in-law are referred to

and addressed by the same terms which one uses for one's own parents. The same conditions which affect the choice of terms for one's parents apply equally to the selection of terms for parents-in-law. The term used between the parents of spouses, use (CSpP) is selfreciprocal, and there are no forms which modify this term to indicate an opposition between the parents of the husband and the wife. The kin term relation, including both the linguistic form of the term and the set of attitudes and behavior between the relatives, is a symmetrical

^.it^a. u . ^ , 1 1 ^ ^ ^ - ^ . ^ ^

imwimi^mimmmtiimmitml

217 People who stand as une to each other speak, eat, and exchange

one.

betel-nut as equals, even though in formal situations their respective lines may face each other as raliq and jujn.

Changing Categories

of

Relatedness

While we have mentioned specific ideas about the nature of kis relations in the analysis of specific tutur, there are also several

overall categories of relatedness in Gayo culture. Some of these categories are based on ideas of the transmission of substance, or at least employ substance idioms, while others do not. There is a formal system of substance transmission which I found in all Gayo districts. The system is called the pusaka enaebeJas (the

16 inherited elements) and is found elsewhere in Malaysia and Sumatra. In this schema, God, the Prophet, father and mother each contribute four elements to a person's physical and spiritual makeup aad to his fortune. Blood is given as a contribution of the mother, while bone and brains come from the father.' This schema is not, however, drawn on as a basis for statements about kin relations. The idiom which is frequently used in discussiccs about kinship is that of agnates as "one blood" (.sara rayoh). This association is cot

part of a total substance-based theory of the person, but rather a metaphor for the privileging of one kind of relation (agnatic) over others, a privileging which is based not on the ontology of the individual but

* The other elements differ across verions I have collected in Gayoland, but these three elements are always assigned as specified.

218

in the ethnosociology of kinship and.marriage.* The term keturunan (from turun, descend) refers to downward-

looking patrilineal descent. A construction of the form "X is the descendant of Y" refers to the tracing of a tie from Y, through males, to X. The phrase "keturunan Y" is also used to refer collectively to all

those individuals for whom such tracing could be performed. Generally such a category is used to refer to those members of this class whose male ancestors have retained their affiliation with the lineage in which this patriline is found, i.e., who married virilocally on each generation. Several key descent lines are found in each district, and those people who consider themselves to be the true descendants from the original founders of the area often claim a special status for their runan within the lineage (kuru). ketu-

The political significance of these

distinctions was discussed in the Chapter 4. The expression sar'asal (one origin) is used to refer to an

agnatic tie where a past uxorilocal marriage has meant that the tie now cross-cuts the lineage. While "patrilineal descent" (keturunan) repre-

sents agnatic relations in terms of vertical descent, "one origin (sar'asal) represents them in terms of lateral, cross-lineage ascent to

a linking ancestor. This term is used to represent a basis for cooperation, ritual alignment, or the assertion of property rights over and

* In his ethnography of the Karo Batak, the immediate southern neighbors of the Gayo, Masri Singarimbun writes that children share blooc with both aether and father, but "the concept of shared blood is most often mentioned when speaking of obligations between close agnatic kin" f 1975:46). That the non-Islamic Karo share this assymetric use of the blood idiom with the Gayo suggests that it is a pre-Islamic feature of the cultures of the area.

minati ir imiiiitrttii>fifift^

219

against lineage claims. While the term sar'asal refers to a past state of affair (the (one guar-

co-affiliation of X and Y to a lineage), the term sara wali

dian) couches these same relations in an Islamic legal idiom. The Arabic term wali has the root meaning of "close". In Islam, words

formed from this root may refer to several specific kinds of closeness, including the guardianship of a man over his daughter or sister, the authority of a political leader, or the spiritual proximity of a sain-. to God.* In Gayo usage the term is used primarily for the first of these meanings (the cognate awliya meaning). is used for the last-mentioned spiritual designates the right and

As a label for a role-relation, wali

obligation of a close agnate to give away a woman in marriage and to receive her bridewealth. As a status label the term refers to the In the latter sense the phrase sara and, as

agnatic relatedness of two men. wali

designates the same range of relations as does sar'asal,

with the other term, the phrase is used to refer to such relations when they cross lineage lines. Sometimes the phrase "one blood" is associated with the legal relation of wali.

I'terine connections are referred to either by creating new constructions using the above terms or by using an expression which refers to the marriage exchange that produced the relation. One connection of substance is sometimes drawn on in explanations of marriage prohibi-

* See Levy (1965:109-111) for the legal sense of the term, and Crapanzano (1973) for an extended illustration of wali as saint. Gibb and Kramers (1953:629-631) present a concise exposition of the range of the word's meaning and some historical background.

\mtmi^imimmmaamuuimaaa^m-r-mntrm-nilinrurriitmn

r mm i i

lttfm

,, ,,, t^tmatiUtmmaimiaa

220

tions. The children of sisters may be referred to as sara susu (one milk or one breast; because they may have nursed from the same breast. Sisters do nurse each other's children. This connection is not one which follows from the birth of the children, but is linked to the way in which the children would have been raised. The substance tie does not extend to children of these matriparallel cousins, and for that reason I interpret it as a tie of shared nourishment rather than a uterine connection. In support of this view, Gayo have told me that chil-

dren of two unrelated women who had shared nursing duties could not marry.' While the unmodified term wali refers to agnatic ties, an opposiand wali karung

tion may be created between wali bak (root, main wali) (sack, womb wali).

The first expression refers to agnatic ties; the I have only heard the second expression used

second, to uterine ties.

in the context of discussions about the special nature of the agnatic ties designated by the first term, thus as a diacritical. I have never

heard the second term used by itself to refer to a uterine relation for a particular purpose, and, although I have been told that a uterine relative could act as a bride's guardian in the absence of agnatic relatives, I have never heard of such a substitution occuring. The phrase wali karung does not appear in Hazeu's 1907 dictionary, I suggest that the term was intro-

which is generally very complete.

duced in order to render discussions of kinship in the legal idiom com-

' In Kedah Malay the same relationship is referred to by a term meaning "milk blood" (darah susuan), clearly treating the nursing connection as equivalent to the blood tie. Malay kinship is bilateral, and this symmetry is thus expected (Banks 1983:67).

"irl-rilliri i r r i i i l l l Hill l<MM>alMl^a>^riMJ^M^iMl^iMtoia-r 'n iiilillipiiimiiilill imiHiinr i

in- iirumliiiwiim n rwnraiiiiraHilMMBSitlEi^

221 plete, as a pair of relation types, agnatic and uterine, each with an Arabic name. The tern was probably introduced as part of the general shift that took place in Isak from the 1930's on, from a discourse about lineage affiliation alone to one in which Islamic legal ideas also played a role. This shift is discussed in greater detail in Chapter 7. The idiom of guardianship is used today as an alternative way of defining the limits of exogamy to the lineage definition. tion, agnates (vali karung) In this dfini* (wali

bak) may not marry, while uterine relatives

may do so if their relation is sufficiently distant. Uterine ties receive specific, positive designations ms the out-

comes of marriage exchanges. Children of two sisters who both married out of the lineage are referred to as sar'anak married-out women). ju'lo (both children of

Their relationship is represented in this expresIf both sisters marry uxo-

sion as a function of the marriage history.

rilocally the children of the marriage will be lineage siblings. In this case there is no designation for the uterine connection. The kin relation is represented as if it were agnatic (see Chapter 6 ) . Asymmetric situations, where one sister married out and one remained in the lineage after marriage are described in terms of the relation between the taliq line and its juln counterpart. As with the ease of two

uxori local marriages,

in this third case the uxorilocal marriage is

assimilated to a virllocal, patrilineal model. Relations between two lines are thus asymmetrical, and they are designated as such, as source/marrled-out lines. Relations which are mediated by a third line are symmetrical and are also referred to by a symmetrical expression (both children of married-out women). This fea-

N.

222

ture of these expressions has been found to be true of the kin term relation system generally. Both the disccurse of relatedness and the linguistic representation of genealogical connections are ordered in terns of a model of exchange among patrilines in which each patriline has preserved its internal agnatic character by the consistent transaction of virilocal marriages. Types of genealogical relations are reworked as types of relations of exchange and descent in such a way that the set of relation types fits onto the set of ideologically salient and terminologically produced relations. Finally, Gayo sometimes use the term pamili to refer to anyone to

who a kin tie could be traced. The word itself is probably from Dutch faailie. The concept is one of a connection which cannot be specified In a sentence such as "Yes, there is a pamili tie

by any other term.

with that person" the implication is that the person is either too distantly related to be more precisely designated or not so close that the speaker has any real responsibilities towards bin. The word does not appear in the 190? dictionary, and was probably adopted as part of a general process whereby lineage-based law and obligations were given a decreasing role i r i social and political life faced with the admixture of lineages in the town and villages, the rise in Islaaic law, and the Dutch efforts at creating a political system based on territorial rule and a contract idea of law.

223

KABES ASD TEESmrUS

Every Gayo receives a personal nan* shortly after birth. is replaced by a teknonym after the birth of the first child.

The name But the

name remains closely identified with tie individual throughout his life and afterwards, infclsexistence as a spirit. It is precisely this

closeness to the self associated with the personal name that hedges its use with restrictions and feelings of kernel. Addressing someone by

his/her personal name in later life (after a teknonym has been given) is embarassing; the name is a direct, personal, and strongly felt deictic. The character of the name derives from the circumstances of its bestowal as well as the letters which comprise it.

The Form of Harnes The close relatives of the child draw on several sources of letters when they compose bister name. In contemporary Isak society,

letters from the mother's and father's names are included in the name. Sometimes the names of the four grandpsrents are also used. The name should also contain the first letter of the day of the week on which the child was born.' TSae first letter of tfea day-name is often used as the first letter of tie child's name. One or more letters from the name of

' Gayo versiotis of the Arabic nanes of days are used in Isak, as well as in Indonesia generally. The series begins with Monday as the first day: Senin, Selasa, S-abu. Kamis. Jemat, Sabtu. Alahad. Tne Arabic Alahad is used for Sunday rather than the nationally-used word Minggu.

ii^.,.....s...w...^^,^.^^^

'-^-''-^"'-'-'--^-liiiiriiiail-fMiwi'-iirtiiliill'r - - f ^ i

224

the month of birth are often included in the name. All three sources of letters for the name are usually used in Isak. To illustrate, Asil and Siti had a daughter during my stay there. She was born on a Rabu, during the month of Pasa, and given the name Rosnadiana. The letters s,a, and i were taken from the parents' and grandparents' names. The initial letter of the day of the week became the initial letter of the name, and the letters a and s came from the month-name Pasa. Kaming practices in Isak have changed over the last thirty years. Before Independence, names were more closely tied to the names of days, and similarities between the names of parents and children were avoided. A number of men and women in their thirties and forties have names that closely resemble days of the week; thus Lahat (born on Alahad), Senang, Selamah, Siti (Senin), Rabun, Sabil, Rabu (Rabu), etc. This practice is followed less often today. The initial letter of the parents' names could never be the initial letter in any of the childrens' names; to have such a resemblance would bring en sickness. Other close resemblances were also avoided. This avoidance of name resemblance coincides with the avoidance of physical resemblance mentioned above; both are indications of an insufficient degree of distinction between the parents and their children. In Isak there are few Arabic names, probably fewer than 5*. of all personal names. Many of these cases are combination names: an Arabic name (most commonly Muhammad, Ahmad, or Abdul) followed by a Gayo name (which may look Arabic, e.g., Selamah, Lahat, because of its derivation from the Arabic names for days and months). Arabic names appear more

,.-^,..v

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--rriTiiiiirnatj:r_L

225

frequently in Takengon, and are associated with advocates of Islamic modernism. With the exception of a few combination nanes, Isak Gayo have only one personal name. Gayo who have left their home district (including

those who have moved to Takengon) generally add a second name, either to make identification easier, or to conform with a civil servant name style of a first and last name. Often an Arabic name is added in front of the personal name given at birth. Alternatively, either the father's name is taken as a last name (in Arabic naming style, but without the preposition "bin/binti") or the name of the village or area of birth is so used. The first Gayo to become a leader in Jakarta post-Independence

circles was a man named Kasan, who, by bis uniqueness, could name himself Hasan Gayo. Today in Jakarta it is more ccmaon to see a village name so used: Zainuddin Linge, Bakar Bintang, Turnus Melalatoa (all In other cases new last

Arabic names combined with Gayo place names).

names will be composed from several words, such as Nosari (a reversal of "ari Nosar", from Nosar), or Lsin S.K. (an Arabic name followed by S for Sahi, his father's name, and K for Kramil, his natal village). All these men live outside the Gayo region; such forms are rare in men who have remained within the region. An interesting example of the possibilities of combining several forms of names comes from the names given by the Camat (district officer) of Terangon to his children. The Cacat case from Terangon, his wife from another part of Gayo Lues, but they spent four years in school in Banda Aceh, where tbeir first child was born. He was named Muhammad Daudsyah Putra Aritoa. Muhammad is a common initial name. Daudsyah is

rib
rarely seen among Gayo, but is common among Acehnese; several Sultazs, including the last, were named Daudsyah. Aritoa has a double meaning. First, it is a Gayo word meaning "from downstream", used because Terangon is downstream from Blangkejeren, and in the context of the Gayo Lues community in Banda Aceh this indicated his origins. Secondly, it is an acronym made up of significant letters: "a" from the child's mother's father, Abdullah; "ri" from the father's name Rabiniab; "t" from the mother's birthplace, Tungel; "o" from the father's birthplace, Jabo; "a" from the father's father's name, Ada. Each of the three children were given Aritoa as their last name, combining place, direction, parents, and Islamic identifications, and orienting the children towards Islamic, Acehnese, and Gayo communities. Women living outside Gayoland usually take their husband's first name upon marriage; more rarely, they adopt the same composite or toponymie last name used by their husband. In any case, the issne only

arises for women who become civil servants, since the use of teknonyms has retained its prominence even in the non-Gayo cities and towns.

Haming Ritual
The name is given as part of a ritual which combines the introduction of the child to the world outside his house of birth with tb* Islamic ritual of akikah. In Isak, the ritual as a whole is called the

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227

turun

mani (bringing down to be bathed.' The turun mani is carried out seven days after the birth of the

child, unless this day coincides with an unlucky day, either the highly unlucky final Wednesday of the month (Rabu nas), or the "birthday of people" (eer.ggu ni jema, see Chapter 2). In these cases, the ritual is

postponed to the fourteenth day after birth. Three sets of events occur at or around the ritual: the turun mani proper, the name-giving, and, when necessary, further measures to prevent illness. Together, these events establish the relations between the child and other elements in his/her world that are most critical for survival and health. The child is taken through the steps of the turun mani by a female relative on his maternal side. This may be his mother's brother s wife (and was in two cases I observed), but may be another maternal relative. This relative carries the child, and acts as its guardian (pengasoh). healer (guru) A

performs the ritual; she may be a relative or someone who

has previously acted as healer to the family. The mother is present, but has surrendered the child to the guardian for the length of the ritual. The child is carried outside by the guardian, who carries a bit of burning rag gripped in a betelnut cutter (often used as a sign of strength). The child wears a crown of urip-urip leaves: the unredupli-

Tne word mani (similar to Malay mandi) is used in Gayo for only two acts of bathing: the newborn child's first encounter with the world ' outside of his house, and the washing of a corpse before burial. All other washings or batiiings are referred to by the term oiri. The common element in the two ritual bathing events called mani is that the person is bathed because he is incapable of bathing himself.

Il

226

cated form means "life", and reduplication creates the meaning of "life-giving" or "life-like". The plant is said to have been the first to grow or the earth. The child is carried to the bank of the nearest stream and set down. A leaf is set out with four colors of unmilled rice in four separate piles, the oros opat. The four colors of the rice (white, black,

yellow, red) stand for the four elements that make up all things, the nasir opat of air, water, fire, and earth. The leaf is rotated

counter-clockwise over the baby's head, counting from one to seven. This action transfers (nyedui) the sickness and bad fortune (palis)

that arrives with the child at birth onto the four rice piles; the analogic relation of the four colors to the four elements makes this transfer possible. The leaf is then held over the water, and the counting reversed, from seven back to one. The leaf is then let go, and it floats downstream. The backwards counting (which was not always done in the cases I saw) transfers the illness of bad fortune back out onto the four elements in the outer world, and floated off down the river. The process is spoken of by some as giving both the illness and a sign of the newborn's arrival on earth to new prophets of the external world: Kabiollab Tati (of the river) and Nabiollah Yakub (of the rocks and sand). Others speak of the rice and leaf going to the Lord at the Center of the Sea (rje puset laut).

This washing away of elements of illness is assisted by a bathing of the child with water into which a bit of juice from the mungkur fruit has been squeezed, the fruit which serves man as a spiritual cleanser. Several kinds of washing may be carried out. A coconut is often split

229
over the head of the child and its water allowed to drip onto its head, "so he will not be afraid of the thunder or the lightening." A mirror is held up so that the child my see itself, and its hair is combed for the first time. The child sees itself for the first time, and so do the elements in the world around it. The mirror is said to reflect the four colors in the child, the same colors that were embodied in the four piles of rice. Just as the rice acted as a sign to the spirits of water and rocks of the child's arrival, so does the light that is reflected from the child serve as a sigs. to the external world in general. The child is thus separated from the undesireable elements which accompanied it at birth, is shown its own image as a separate entity, and is introduced to the external world. The guardian has taken the child through these steps; the mother now must redeem the child back from the guardian. She does so by giving rice and a bit of money to the

guardian in order to break the tie that otherwise would exist between her and the child. Following the bathing ritual is the name giving (nos gerai). name giving is accompanied by a kikah (Arabic akikah), The

the killing of an

animal, preferably a sheep, to be eaten while the name is chosen. The part of the kikah which involves cutting a bit of hair from the child's

head is followed elsewhere in the Islamic world as well as in Gayo. Its interpretation here, however, is part of the entire series of Gayo rituals. The child is spoken of as still "pawned (tergad) be redeemed (tebus) to God" and must

by the sacrifice of the sheep. The animal is

sacrificed so as to be availa&le to the child the day of judgement as a vehicle to carry him to Mekka. He will also receive animals sacrificed

230
in his name by his children on the feast day Idul Adha (Reraya Moreover, one may gel kikah Kurbe'n).

for a child on other occasions than the

naming ritual, for the purpose of adding to the animals awaiting the child at the end of the world. The pan-Islamic ritual has thus become part of a Gayo set of rituals concerned with the separation of the child from God and the provisioning of the child for the future. Three possible names are usually put forth at the ritual, and each is discussed by the elder men present for its suitability. Each is

written on a slip of paper, and one is chosen by the mother of the child. In theory this choice is made without looking at the slip of

paper, but in most cases that I witnessed, the name chosen was that which had been favored by the parents beforehand. The child has thus received its name as part of a ritual in which it has perceived itself, and has been recognized by the rest of the world. The name is tied by the ritual to the health and character of the child, who has thereby become a member of the community. A child who dies before the name-giving ceremony has not become a complete person. A simple burial is held, without the usual series of meals. The exception to this treatment comes in the case where the child who dies early was the first child to be born to the parents, and hence the one who was to have provided them with a teknonym. One such case occured during my stay. The baby was buried, but a name was chosen for her afterwards, and the couple was known by the teknonym formed from this name until a second child was born to them. After a second child

was born and named, the couple changed teknonyms to one using the name of the new child.

231

Names, Character,

and Conduct

The personal name, care ally chosen to include the time of birth and the names of the parents, is linked to tie conduct, character, and health of the individual. While Gayo sometiires make general statements about the effect of a name on character, the effect of names becomes important principally with regard to health and marriage. While Gayo do not link particular names to particular states of health in general terms, a child's lingering illness or his continued improper conduct (perang) changed. may be a sign that his name ought to be

Changing the name may have one of two effects on the child.

First, if his/her illness is caused by a spirit, and particularly when the spirit is sent by a sorcerer, changing Cbt child'd name will confound the spirit, since it will no longer kxKjv whom it is supposed to cause to be ill. Just as God only recognizes the personal name, so an evil spirit (jinny will only proceed to its target when the correct name

is used. For this reason, when a child's name is changed, the new name is not made public. My next door neighbors kad a three-year old daughters whose name bad been changed for this reason. She was referred to and addressed aerely as ipak (little girl). Secondly, a naae say not be

in accord with the fortune given to the child by God. There is no formula for the relationship of names and fortune, but continuing illness or misconduct by a child may be a sign of an inappropriate naae. However, it is principally with regard to the likelihood of a successful marriage that the science of names and character is used. This science or body of knowledge is called either perbintangan ("star

232 science") or Hm Pa'al pa'al ("science of character").

can be roughly translated as "character," and is seen as a which affect a person's conduct (perang).

set of features (sipet) However, pa'al

is strongly determined by the original dispensation of

good and bad fortune by God, and is not predictable. Although certain categories of people (e.g., youngest sons) have a disproportionate share of good fortune (tuah), in general, anyone in particular may have good

or bad features. The time and conditions of birth, the personal name, and other, less well understood elements nay influence his character. In the end, however, all these particular character-affecting conjunctures are determined by God. The correspondance between names and character called perjn is

formulated as a list of animals, plants, or eleeents each of which corresponds to one of the Arabic letters. While in Isak it is the first letter of the name that is used for this analysis, in Terangon it was always the first letter of the last syllable. Terangon practitioners of the art said that they had discovered that the last syllable worked out better than the first. I obtained several complete lists of the correspondences from Isak and Terangon. While there is a fair degree of variation between the several perjn lists, over half the entries were the same between any two

lists. There were as any items retained in an Isak-Terangon comparison as between lists in one site. Some letters which appear frequently in names are identified with the same eleaent in all lists: the letter ra with fire, for example, and the letter Jim with the cow.

233 The term perbintangan or the bintang, of a couple has the literal

aeaning of "star", but with the sense of luck or fortune that the word often has for us as well. The phrase "above, the seven stars; below, the coconut with seven eyes" is often referred to in partial explanation of this name: an order between the stars and the earth is preserved by the correct reading of the order contained in names, among other cultural signs. Stars are never observed or directly referred to in this science, however. Before a proposed marriage can take place, the parents of both candidates will examine the combined names. The characteristics associated with the first letters of each of the two names (or, in Terangon, of their last syllables) may be considered compatible, incompatible, or the basis for ah interesting commentary on how the marriage may work out. The first letter of each of the two names is assigned a number according to its order in the Arabic alphabet', aliph 1; ba, 2; ta, is given the value

3; etc. The two numbers are added, and the total is suc-

cessively divided by S, U, aad 3. The remainder fro these divisions is interpreted by reading fro each of three corresponding list of features . The division by five leaves a remainder which comment* on the future relationship between the couple when they marry. The phrases associated with the five numbers are in a mixture of Minangkabau, Acehnese, and Gayo pronounciation (the admixture of each varies by district). One common set is the following:

(1) bulan pernahtia

(full aoon): good, complete, pretty as the Boon is

on the 14th of the month.

234 (2) telg bera bukit (a veil on a hill): cool, full of water,

bringing fortune. (3) abu-abu atas tungul (ashes on a tree-stump): wealth will disappear

as ashes are blown away; nothing long-lasting. (<) rumai gadang ketirisan tween the couple. (5) ana* rj kepanasen (hot-headed prince): "hot" relations between rampak (house with a leaking roof): quarrels be-

thea; the husband will begin quarrels with the wife; or ketapang

(a shade tree): will provide shade, comfort for the family, but not as plentiful as is the "cool veil" (number two). Is Isak, the procedure fcllowed is not a simple division to produce a reaainder, but a placing of matchsticks in a five-point diagram. Once the number of matchsticks equal to the sua of the two letters has been counted around the diagraa, the remainder is interpreted against the above list of five qualities, then the last aatchstick pile to have been added to is reaoved, and the remaining sticks are divided among the five points once again, ending with a different reaainder. The first remainder is taken to indicate the nature of the couple's relationship before the first child; the second reaainder, their relationship after the first child, and so an. The divisions by four and three are not carried out repetitively as with the five-way division. Rather, the number is counted out by repeating a succession of four, and then of three, teras. The four are:
langkah, rezeki, petemun, maut (roughly: steps/actions, fortune, har-

aony, death). The outcome of langkah

nay be interpreted in a positive

or a negative way; the others are self-explanatory. The three teras

235
are: uaih, atu, ikn (water, stone, fish). There is a great deal of

leeway for interpretation of these three terms. The first is taken to mean "smooth relations" but could also be lack of stability. Stone is a

neutral, unchanging element, but it could be interpreted either as stubborness or as constancy. Fish is "active" and can point to quarrels

between the couple or to their willingness to work hard. There are other ways of counting, but the above are those used by oost Gayo. The five-way repetitive count with matchsticks is by far the most common. If the outcome of the procedure is negative, the marriage is not necessarily called off. First of all, the procedure is less one designed to yield a yes/no answer than as a device for interpreting the couple's likely future by a skilled and knowledgeable neighbor. If the

procedure shows that the toupie will lead a "hot" life, such a finding can be interpreted to the parent as a "lively domestic life" or as the likelihood of frequent quarrels.* Secondly, a combination which produces unfavorable results may be altered either by a name change, or by the use of the short form of one or the other of the names to produce a new result. Both methods are

used in Isak. A woman named Aminah was told to use Min once she was aarried, so that the unfavorable combination of her husband's name with the initial letter aliph could be replaced by the auspicious outcome

The procedure, in which my next-door neighbor was a master, is akin to that followed in interpeting Tarot cards. During my month in Rerb, I was called on to perform the procedure for the village head, whose son was about to marry and who knew that Isak was a center for such skills. My reading, 1 am happy to say, was a positive one.

236 which resulted from her use of the letter isim. names are changed in this way. A name change may also accompany the resolution of a dispute between a husband and wife. I witnessed one such case, in which a man had Both men's and women's

been beating his wife and could not be persuaded to conduct himself better. Divorce is rare among Gayo, and in this case there were two

children from the marriage. My neighbor was called to change the fortune of the couple; he did so by recommending that a second marriage ceremony be held for them and that the husband's name be changed.

Teknonym*
Once a marriage has taken place, the husband and wife take on what we might call a placeholding teknonym, a teknonym awaiting a name to fill it. A newly married man is referred to and addressed with the for Aman Hayak, from Ama (father) plus a contraction of the particle ni plus

a Gayo pronounciation of the Acehnese word manyak meaning "little," hence, "father of (a small one)." The wife's form is Inen Hayak.

These placehplding teknonyms are used until the couple become parents, through birth or adoption. At that time, they take on a true teknonym of the form Aman (Same of child) and Inen (Name of child). The

polite way of referring to or addressing either of the parents from that moment on is with the teknonym. The personal name is increasing felt to be embarassing, as well as not in accord with the new status of parenthood. Upon the birth of the first grandchild (the child of either a son

or a daughter, and not necessarily of the first-born child) a second teknonym will be used, with the term Mpun (from mpu, grandparent) plus

i linif m n

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237 the child's name used for both husband and w i f e . " After the assumption of a teknonym, the most polite form of address becomes that which uses the teknonym (and once again after the assusption of the second teknonym). In particular, the names of one's

parents should never be used by their children during the parents' lifetimes. were. A few Isak residents today do not know what their parents' names Since a sacrifice to God in someone's name must use the personal

name, a sacrificer who wishes to send merit to the soul of his or her parents sometimes has to ask older people in the community for the names. Such an occurence happened once during my stay, at the sacrifice

of a goat on Idul Adha, the "sacrifice feast-day" (Reraya Kurbn). Although the personal name should drop out of use after the assumption of a teknonym, in most instances the couple's close friends will continue to use their names for years thereafter. I believe that Some

the behavior of the couple affects the way they are referred to.

Isak couples with a newborn child will quickly be referred to by their teknonyms, while others, who perhaps strike people as less mature, continue to be addressed and referred to with their personal names. In a few cases (all of them men), a pseudo-teknonya is formed from a word indicating a feature of the man being referred to. One example comes from Snouck Hurgronje's book (1903a). One of the two main infor-

mants on which the book is based was a man known as Aman Ratus (who

" While theoretically this practice could result in both sets of grandparents adopting the saae Mpun teknonym, Gayo tell me this would never happen, because an eldest child would never marry another eldest child (the condition for the duplication of the mpun teknonym to take place) for the reasons given earlier.

238

later becase the Kejurun Petiaoang). Ratus means "hundred" in Gayo as well as Malay, and this man was so named because he had paid the extravagent aoo=st of 100 ringgit for his wife. Because teknonyms indicate a status of cocple with child, placebolder tekacnyms are often used in everyday discourse, of the fora Aaian/Inen Vin ("father/mother of a boy") or Anaa/Inen I pak ("father/mother of a girl"). These forms are sed either because the speaker does not know the teknonym of the pers.cc addressed or referred to, or as a particularly refined (hales) way cf speaking. A teknonym is

a more polite way of referring than a name, because it indicates the status of having children and also avoid usin the personal name. Similarly, a placeholder teknonym is more refined than a real teknonym, because it leaves out the nase altogether. liis preference for the less pointing cr less direct way of referring appears to be a general feature of Gayo culture. Kinds of Teksonymic Expressions There are a number of different teknonysic forms in common ose. Teknonyss proper were discussed above, and are called perasan perinea aai

far the father's and mother's forms, respectively. There are

also what we might call quasi-tekneoyms. These appear in one of two forms, either "mother/father of X" (e.g., ice a/ Bohaamad) or the kin term plus the third person enclitic pronom iiai, ana). Equivalent

expressions are possible with the grandparent terms at/an, nan, mpu, and the Indonesian terms bapak, mamak, nenk, kakk.

The following examples will illustrate tie meaning conveyed by each of these forms.

J!

Hm^iv

iilMamadJammamata

i W l f H lili

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239
(1) In ni kekanak ni (mother of these children), an expression used by a husband to refer to his wife. The expression is sometimes shortened to in', (his/her/their mother), and in this form it may be used by a third party, as long as the speaker stands in a higher tutur to the hearer (otherwise a kin term would necessarily be used). The corresponding forms for "father of" are less common, but sometimes used. This expression is a frequently used way to refer to a wife (and, somewhat less frequently, to a husband). It is not necessary for a

child of the marriage to be present for the expression to be used. I have even heard it used by a third party to refer to the wife of a newly-married man who did not yet have children. (2) Aman/Inen Vin/Ipak. (mother/father of a boy/girl). This form was mentioned above, and is judged as more refined than the specific teknonym.11 Since no kin term is used in this form, it may only be used by someone who has a higher tutur than the bearer or the referent. For the

reference to be clear, there must be some other feature that indicates which, e.g.. Aman Vin is meant. his/her spouse is present. (3) Kin Term plus Nam, e.g., KiJ-n-Jati, (my 'FZH', father of Jati). This expression combines a kin term with a teknonym, and thus may be used by speakers of a lower tutur than the referent or hearer. When the speaker has a kin term relation of 'father' to the person referred to, the Malay/Indonesian term bapak will be used, so that a distinction may be made between Bapak Jati (Father, father of Jati), which combines a kin term and a teknonym, and Aman Jati (Father of Jati), a simple teknonym. In most cases the person referred to or

" Boon (1977:137) has suggested that the expression "generation* nym" be used for these forms, which are also found as an option for high-caste Balinese.

240

Titles Several titles are used in Isak in combination with names or teknonyms. The oost common is the honorific tengku, a title given to men

who are thought as learned in Islam. Sen who have made the pilgrimage to Mekka are usually addressed with this title, even if they are not thought of as particularly learned. The title is used as a term of address, somewhat less often as a term of reference. There were only two or three men in Isak who were invariably referred to with the title tengku. In one case, that of a reformist Islamic leader, the title was kali

combined with the man's name, in a second, with his office of (hence. Tengku Kali), and in a third, with the teknonym. the title is almost always used with a personal name. The title baji mage, the baj.

In Takengon

is used for men and women who have made the pilgri-

The title is rarely used by itself; more commonly it is

used as a further way of discriminating among persons without using a name. For example, the children living next to me had two sets of grandparents. One grandmother was referred to as nnk baji (grand-

mother haji, using the Indonesian kin term), while the other was referred to as nnk serap (grandmother across the river), because her house

was in the store area across the river. In the colonial period, the title ampun was used to address and to refer to the Kejuruns. Today, the Kejuruns who once ruled in lsak and Takengon are referred to as Ampun Name. The term manur vas used for the foremen of the damar processing plants, and these office titles were used to refer to these individuals long after they stopped working.

" '"' 'f

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241 There is one person referred to as Manur Name in Isak today. Finally, the title of guru (teacher) is often used to refer to the schoolteachers

who live in Isak, in the form Guru Name. In each of these cases, the title permits the use of the personal name to refer to older, respected men (and could be for a woman teacher). The title thus supercedes the restrictions on name use by

elevating the status of the person referred to above the level granted by the use of the teknonym. It may be that the use of the name for

civil servants by Dutch, Japanese, and Indonesian authorities has encouraged its use in everyday reference, since presumably the titles could have been used together with teknonyms rather than names.

Kodes of

Haterring

Several sets of terms are available for reference and address in Isak: names, teknonyms, kin terms, titles, and other expressions. These sets may be listed as four categories of referring expressions. They are listed here in decreasing order of refinement: (A) Triadic kin referring expressions, i.e., expressions which, la addition to the relation between speaker and referent, also make explicit a relation which includes the hearer. (B) Teknonyms (either proper or quasi teknonyms). (C) Egocentric kin term expressions of the form "my (Kin Term)." (D) Proper Names. The first category (A) consists of expressions where a kin term is combined with a relative pronoun and a second kin relation is also indexed by the expression. The reference is mediated via the second

r i ' l i i n r Urin

mm*

242 kin relation. The following examples illustrate this category. (A.l) "ra-ku ho" (my yoBW over there). The expression is spoken to a yoB, and refers to his wife. In referring to the yoBW, the speaker also makes explicit the tie between the speaker and hearer as elder/younger brother. If the speaker in this case had been speaking to an unrelated hearer, he would have been unlikely to use the kin term era, have used the teknonym, or perhaps the kin term ngi-ku sibling). but would

(my younger

(A.2) "ngi n' abang" (younger sibling of (you) elder brother). This expression refers to the speaker's wife, indexing the sibling tie between the speaker and hearer. (A.3) "abang-mu" (your elder brother), spoken by an elder brother's wife to a younger brother. The expression refers to the speaker's husband, and indexes the elder/younger brother relation between the hearer and the referent. In these expressions, the specific relation between the referent and either the speaker or the hearer is referred to. In the following example, the speaker uses a general kin term that properly characterizes the relation of the referent to both speaker and hearer. (A.4) "amaua" (father (just spoken of) over there), referring to a man to whom both the speaker and hearer stand in a relation of 'father', and thus indexing the sibling relation between speaker and hearer. Each of these expressions could be replaced with referentlally equivalent expressions which in each case would be judged to be less refined. The alternative expressions would not make explicit the tie between speaker and hearer. Teknonyms (category B) highlights the tie between the referent and a child, but not the speaker-hearer tie. Kin term expressions of the form "my X" (category C) make explicit the rela-

*Kmii*ttt<riSihl*m

kttm,***

v^^^..^

-,^w

.,..... . . . . . , ) ^ . . - ^ , . ^ , _ ^

..,^,^_^,.^_Jdt^;

243 tion between speaker and referent. A kin term and a teknonyo in combination include the two relations of referent to a child and speaker to referent. In each of these three cases (B, C, and B+C) the tie between speaker and hearer is not made explicit in the expression. A speaker who is judged as refined will generally choose an expression in category A over one of these three. For example, instead of the expression ngi n abang (example A.2) a speaker could use one of several other ways of referring to his wife, e.g., pake umah ni (this one-of-the-bouse) or isteri-ku (Indonesian for "my wife"). The effect would be to distance ni

the speaker from the hearer. The use of a quasi-teknonya such as in kekanank ni (mother of these children) would also fail to explicitly

include the hearer in the network of tutur,

and thus would be perceived

as creating a relatively distant relationship between the speaker and the hearer. The embarassment which is attached to many uses of the proper name has already been discussed. I find it useful to represent these differences in the sense attached to different expressions in terms of two general features. The first is the inclusion of a kin term in the expression itself. Categories A (triadic expressions) and C (direct kin terms) both do so. Although teknonyms (B) refer to a kinship relation, they are not themselves tutur. Names do include letters from relatives' cames and times

of birth, but these sources are not retained as communicated features of the name, and thus are not meaningful to hearers of naming expressions. The second feature may be termed "displaced relatedness," i.e., the inclusion of a non-egocentric relation in the meaning of the expres-

^^Iriifttfl-iimniiiTiiiMiiiii

iiiiiftiiias^iTiiiiriiiiifii^^^

244 sion. This features distinguishes between those expressions which imply a kin relation to a third party (other than speaker and referent) and direct kin term uses of the form "my Kin Term." It also distinguishes

between teknonyms, which include both a cross-generational relation (parens to child) and a sign of generation status (parent-of), and the class of proper names. We could also include the siaple use of titles with proper names in regard to this feature. Figure 11: Categories of Referring Expressions

Includes

Kin Term

( * )
displaced (+) Relatedness M Cyour AT")

(O
B ("/> of M")

(-)

C ("my KT")

D (V)

The multiplicity of ways of referring to one's spouse was alluded to earlier in this chapter. The following table shows some of these

possible expressions, together with a brief translation and comments on the use of the expressions. The list is in ascending order of what Gayo judg* to be the relative refinement of the expression [halus quality).

In the next table I have drawn on features of the expressions to descrihe this hierarchy. The first feature, "culture only," is a gen-

eral feature of Gayo attitudes towards kin terms which was discussed earlier in regard to the use of Malay/Indonesian terms. The term banan

^ u

i 11,

uaaaattairiaM

..irnriii

ty 'il

245

Table IC: Referring

Expressions

for

Vife

and Busband

Expression la. "rawanku" b. "bananku" 2a. "innku" b. "amanku" 3. "pake imah ni 4. "abang ni" 5a. "ine "in ni kekanak ni" b. KT -mu KT KT

Translation ry man (E) ay woman (V) my oother-of (W) my father-of (H) this house-one (W) this elder brother (H) their mother (W) mother of these children (If) their father (H) your (KT) (H,W)

Comments Expressions 1-3 may also be used with the enclitics -mu and -

Closest in feeling as an equivalent to No.3 Fixed foras Also possible with grandparent terms

Examples in (A) above, e.g., "ngi n'abang", "abangmu"

partakes of both the animal and the human worlds, and is thus seen as slightly tainted in its use for humans. The other features have already been discussed. In the table only the wife terms are listed for conve-

nience; the terms for husband pattern in the same way. Gayo judgements about the relative refinement of expressions may now be understood in tents of a set of ordered features of the expressions. Three of the four features in the table may be taken as specific forms of what Brown and Levinson have called "point-of-view distancing" operations. These operations include the displacement of the point of reference for a relative term from the speaker, or froa the present time or place of speaking (1978:209-211). In Gayo culture a positive value

dfeMMmtmmWaMiii

i.,,-i.i

, . .

246

Table IS: Feature

Hierarchy

for Wife

Teres

Expression Culture Only

Feature Displaced Relatedness Triadic Mediation Hearer Included

1) "banantai" 2) "innku" 3) "pake umah" 4) "in" 5) KT + -mu/KT

0 0

0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0

is placed on coabicicg such displacements with the preservation of mediation in a referring expression. In the most refined category of

expressions, reference is carried out indirectly, and the tie between the speaker and the bearer is made explicit in the form of the expression. These mediating, indirect forms are the signs used to define a social universe. Ti* relationships between individuals are negotiated, reinforced, or sisr.Iy made clear through the use of these expressions. The system of tutor expressions. Two relationships between the system of kin term relations and the marriage system hare been mentioned in this chapter. First, the analyitself is thus highlighted through the use of these

sis of kin terms has presumed that all marriages are virilocal (or at least not definitively uxorilocal). In fact, alternative marriage forms

247
are signified through alternative kin term sets. Secondly, the system of tutur is shaped by the ideology of marriage exchange. We have already

discussed the asymmmetry of patrilateral and matrilateral G+l terms, the difference in the ideology of kinship for these relatives, and the problem of the marriageability of cousins. Ve now turn to a more complete examination of the relationship between marriage forms, kinship, and lineage structure.

CHAPTER 6: MARRIAGE AND LISTAGE

Many of the names for categories of marriage are constant across Gayo districts. However, the interpretation of these categories and their social significance has changed in different ways in each district. In this and the next two chapters we consider the relationships

among marriage categories, lineage structure, rules of domicile, and transfers of property in Isak and Takengon.

HARRI ACE CATEGORIES AND LINEAGE STRUCTURE

Gayo usually characterize marriage as consisting of two alternative rules or types, jucjcn or virilocal marriage, and angkap or uxori-

local marriage. Each of these two rules has implications for representations of kinship and lineage, restrictions on domicile, and control of property.

Virilocal

Marriage
appears to be of recent date. Snouck Hurgronje,

The term Juln

in his 1903 ethnography, mentioned two apparently equivalent labels for virilocal marriage: kerj' bnn berunjuq (to marry with bridewealth) and ango appears in

(to take or get a wife) (1903a:272). The word juln

the ethnography as a label for a woman who has been married virilocally 24$

^ft,V,hlfftM^.W*^^

but not as a label for the type of marriage. The term is translated as "sold" (ibid). In Isak today the words juln or (less frequently) ango

are used to characterize marriages. The label issue is of some importance, since it is the connection between the sense of the word as a marriage label and its sense as "sold" which has been given as a reason for changing the form of marriage exchanges. The features of juln marriage in general are agreed on by Isak

residents, but the distinctiveness of each of these features is a matter of disagreement. One view is that the distinctive feature of juln

marriage is the transfer of the bride's domicile from her village to that of her husband. Before Independence (1945) this transfer as brought about by a payment called the dt or unyuq, the amount of which

was determined on the basis of the office held by the bride's father irje, imm, petu, or simply common rakyat). This payment made the

inter-village, not just inter-lineage, transfer of affiliation legitimate, and thus was in the sphere of political as well as lineage affairs. Since Independence, a single word, teniron (thai asked for) is

used to refer both to the affiliation-transfer payment and to other payments which are requested by the bride's parents. Before Independence, virilocal marriages which involved a spouse from outside Isak were distinguished by a procession in which the bride was escorted to the groom's village (tnsn), accompanied by bride

goods consisting of kitchen utensils, clothes, and often a buffalo.' In

1 I use the "bride goods" to refer to objects given to the bride by her parents at her marriage over which her natal lineage retains rights. The meaning of these goods is discussed in Chapter 7.

250
Isak today its place has been taken by a visually very similar procession, also from the bride's to the groom's residence (but without bride goods) in which the marriage is formally recognized by the the groom's village, and a series of formal prestations are made. This procession, called mah atur Chapter B.* In Isak, even a juln marriage will usually entail residence of In pre-Independence Isak, (bringing the rules), will be analyzed in

one year or more with the wife's parents.

most marriages were uxorilocal for at least one planting season, and often for one year, before the dt payment was made and the marriage

converted to a virilocal one. The amount of time that elapses between the marriage and the shift in residence depends on the distances between the two villages, and on the number and age of the bride's siblings remaining at home. Two interpretations are placed on the definition of juln mar-

riages. One view is that all marriages which end up with virilocal domicile are thereby juln. The second view is that only those marare in this because the overt

riages which include the ritual escorting, the tnsn, category. In this view, few marriages now are juln,

marker of the type is no longer present. Those Gayo who interpret juln to imply the buying and selling of

women are particularly likely to adopt the second view. By starting from a marketplace interpretation of the marriage ritual, the exchange of material goods as part of the marriage process is interpreted as an

1 The tnsn ritual is still carried out in the Takengon area, as well as in Gayo Lues

251
immoral traffic in persons. This issue has sparked a lively debate among Gayo on the history of the word juln. Some partisans of the

traditional marriage form, with all its exchanges, now argue that the word was originally juln, (to escort), and that the tns'n ritual

contained the essence of the marriage. The same ritual is interpreted by opponents of the marriage type as the final step in a sales transaction, the handing over of the bought goods to the purchaser. These people see their argument as proven by the carriage label itself, which is seen as having the primary aeaning of "sal." A marriage exchange creates an affinal relation between two categories, the raliq the juln (source, base, the line from which the wife case) and The term raliq could be rendered as

(the married-out woman).

"wife-givers" since it refers to the natal lineage of the bride. Juln, however, refers to the woman who has married out of the lineage (children of the married-out

and to her descendants, the anak juln

woman). The term thus does not refer primarily to the husband's lineage, although they are members of this category juln, refers to the wife and her children. The Gayo term raliq ("source, beginning, base, root") can be used but rather

to refer to the trunk of a tree, the stem of a fruit, or the beginning steps in any endeavor. When a house is built, a single, long tree is taken to serve as the roofbeaa. This beaa is the last piece of the house to be set in place, an activity that brings relatives and neighbors together to eat, consecrate the house, and set up the beam. Those building the house are very careful to notice which end of the beam is its base-end, its raliq. The tree is carried back from the woods tip

252 forward, both because this is the correct direction for it to face, and because it enables the workers to reaember which end is which. If they raliq

forget they weigh the trunk and the heavier end is the base. The

of the beam points eastward in the coepleted house, and the two ends of the house are known as the raliq chamber closest to the raliq lineage. and the ujung (end). The sleeping

is occupied by a favored member of the tutur

In many Isak houses, the man with the highest level of

occupied this chamber (see Chapter 4).

In some cases, however, the

occupant was selected by a method which was designed to point to the aan with greatest degree of spiritual quality {tuah). Vith all the future

occupants of the house standing in a circle, a wedge was driven into a log. Whoever was hit by the flying chip lived in the raliq new bouse. The mother's brother is the raliq of a child and of his mother in this usage has room in the

because it is from there that the Bother came. Raliq

the meaning of the beginning point of a movement, and thus "source", rather than the root-end of a substance. juln, Its correlative term, {anak')

refers to the movement out from this source, whether this move-

ment is interpreted in terms of the escorting or the sale of the bride.' The relation between mother's brother and sister's child is also repre-

' The use of a lexical item of the form pu or hu with the meanings of "source, origin, trunk, wife-givers" is found in Eastern Indonesia (Austronesian puhun, in Denpwolff 1938). In Kedang, the word puen has the sense of the trunk of a tree as well as the source or origin of something, and is in the construction epu puen, mother's brother (Barnes 1974:229-233). The suffix hu has this sense in Roti, and the Ema word pun means "wife-givers" (Fox 1971, 1980a). Barnes also writes that the original orientation of a tree must be preserved as in Gayo (ibid). Gayo pun (MB) is cognate with these words, but the sense of the word raliq fits precisely with Kedang puen.

253 sented in terms of their greater differentiation compared to the relation of parent and child (see Chapter 5 ) . The affinal categories raliq/juln divide one's social universe

in multiple ways. One can have a number of different affinal relations and thus many distinct raliq. Any lineage may be stand as "source" to

one's own by virtue of a past marriage, either by one's close relatives or by another member of one's lineage,fflistantties tend to be counteracted by closer ones. Moreover, each of several conflicting alignments aay be ritually represented at different moments. A person may stand as source to another at one time, by virtue of one affinal tie, and at another time be represented in the married-out category. Kin relations, as we saw in the last chapter, are thought of as representations concretized in kin terms, and thus subject lo frequent realignment, rather than as immutable relations. These affinal not stand as raliq ties are not transitive: the raliq of my raliq does

to ae, unless by \'irtue of some other relationship.

Only at certain ritual ooaents and in certain arenas for the representation of social relations is the world, for that moaent and vis-a-vis one aarriage, Cist into the three categories of source line, married-out line, and everyone else (biak, The relation of raliq friends and associates). thus constructs the social world

to juln

in cross-cutting ways. So village-wide relations are constructed on its teras, as is the case for Toba society to the south (Vergouwen 1964:105-136). Political organization, as described above, derives from a different set of representations, and not from the raising of a primal affinal tie to a higher degree of salience. In this, the Gayo appear to

riMHiri n

^ ^ M U L W ^ , . ^ ^ ^

254
resemble closely the Karo Batak, where relations between wife-givers and wife-takers cut across village political relations.* The relation of source lines to married-out lines is represented in everyday contexts (address forms, seating protocol at feasts, priority in invitations) and at the rituals which accompany the death of the married-out sister. At her death, the close raliq relatives are called

to the village into which she married, along with the headman of their village. The source line is the presented with the objects which had been brought with her as bride goods at the time of the marriage. The source line then has the right to reclaim this wealth, and to redeem the children of the marriage by the payment of a set amount. Such a payment would break the affinal tie and re-affiliate the children to their mother's lineage. Such a payment is never in fact made. The goods are returned to the husband's lineage to be given to the children. But the primacy of the affinal tie has been represented. Only by reaffirming the tie are the children finally incorporated into the husband's lineage. The source line may decide to find a new wife for the widower, in effect, to find a replacement for their sister and thus to keep alive the affinal tie. If a replacement is found, the bride goods are re-

bestowed on her, sometimes along with new goods. One such marriage took place in Isak during my stay. The original source line acted as the raliq for the new wife, although a patrilateral relative acted as her

The Karo are grouped with the Batak family, but differ from the Toba. See Kipp 1963 for an analysis of marriage and political organization in that society.

254 resemble closely the Karo Batak, where relations between wife-givers and wife-takers cut across village political relations.* The relation of source lines to married-out lines is represented in everyday contexts (address forms, seating protocol at feasts, priority in invitations) and at the rituals which accompany the death of the married-out sister. At her death, the close raliq relatives are called

to the village into which she married, along with the headman of their village. The source line is the presented with the objects which had been brought with her as bride goods at the time of the marriage. The source line then has the right to reclaim this wealth, and to redeem the children of the marriage by the payment of a set amount. Such a payment would break the affinal tie and re-affiliate the children to their mother's lineage. Such a payment is never in fact made. The goods are returned to the husband's lineage to be given to the children. But the primacy of

the affinal tie has been represented. Only by reaffirming the tie are the children finally incorporated into the husband's lineage. The source line may decide to find a new wife for the widower, in effect, to find a replacement for their sister and thus to keep alive the affinal tie. If a replacement is found, the bride goods are rebestowed on her, sometimes along with new goods. One such marriage took place in Isak during my stay. The original source line acted as the raliq for the new wife, although a patrilateral relative acted as ber

The Karo are grouped with the Batak family, but differ from the Toba. See Kipp 1963 for an analysis of marriage and political organization in that society.

"

"

"

"

"

"

"

"

'

235 vali to marry her to the husband. The affinal tie is thus highlighted

relative to the two lineages. This relative primacy of the affinal tie corresponds to the choice of terms for the relation itself, as the source of the woman vis-a-vis the married-out woman and her children (rather thai: wife-giving and wife-taking lineages).

Oxorilocal

Barriage

A distinction is made in all Gayo districts among three kinds of oxorilocal marriages. I shall call these three kinds the definitive, life-estate, and temporary forms. Definitive oxorilocal marriage is called angkp nasap. The Gayo term nasap derives from the Arabic root

Dsb, which has the general meaning of "relationship" and includes the particular senses of "relationship by marriage" and "to be admitted into a community" (Wehr and Cowan 1976:959-960). The Gayo term indicates that the marriage involves the creation of a definitive incorporation of the man and children froe the marriage into the lineage. In a definitive oxorilocal marriage, the couple is permanently domiciled in the wife's parents' village, and any children from the marriage are automatically affiliated to the wife's lineage. The husband may decide to break his tie with the village, but be may not take bis wife or his children with him should he do so. The man rarely makes a payment in order to enter into this type of marriage, and even the nominal ambar payment is often given to the man by his wife's father before the marriage. In return, the husband's labor is appropriated by the wife's parents, and he is not entitled to compensation if the marriage were dissolved.

256 Many men who have married angkap nasap into villages in Isak or elsewhere have not been Gayo. Most of these in the past have been Acehnese, such that angkap nasap is often referred to by the term "Aceh." Older Isak men who were born in Aceh and married into Isak in the 1930's have a perfect command of Gayo, and they appear to have been completely incorporated into Gayo culture. While angkap nasap is associated with foreign men, the "life estate" uxorilocal marriage is associated today with either Gayo or foreign men. This type is lexically unmarked, and is usually referred to simply as angkap. After the marriage, the couple is domiciled in the

wife's parents' village, and children born during the domicile are automatically affiliated to their lineage. The obligation of the couple towards the parents entailed in this type of marriage is expressed in the phrase: penurip mat, peaake jarum patah murip, penanom

(sustaining the living, burying the dead, using

a "broken needle", i.e., the estate). The obligation of the couple is thus to use the estate during the life of the parents. The couple may change their domicile after the death of the parents, usually to the husband's natal village. Changing the affiliation of the children requires paying a fine, j tebus sion is redeemed"). The two preceding types of uxorilocal marriage are what we might call "angkap proper," since the intent of the marriage is to bring about a long-term period of uxorilocal residence and matrilateral affiliation of the children. Temporary oxorilocal marriages, angkap sementara, uaris ("the succes-

involve a short period of oxorilocal domicile, after which the couple

257

will be expected to change their domicile, usually to the husband's village. The period of the delay may either be a fixed number of years (sometimes in order to allow a younger sibling to reach maturity) or be subject to subsequent negotiation. In Isak, most marriages of any type

begin with a year or more of uxorilocal domicile, and thus in a sense are of this type. These three sub-categories together define a range of possible movements by the couple between the husband's and wife's lineages. In the discussions that follow, the term "uxorilocal marriage" without any further specification will refer to marriages of the first two subtypes.

Oxorilocal Harriage and the Lineage

The lineage (kurv) is seen as a number of patri lines descended

from a founding ancestor through those men and women whose children were affiliated to the lineage. A batang (trunk) line is one in which all

these links are through men, while a cabang (branch) line is one in which a uxorilocal marriage was the basis for the affiliation. Genealogical memory is shallow in lsak, and no one remembers marriages which were made more than four generations earlier. It is thus the

status of a line as trunk or branch rather than the marriage history which is remembered. The accompanying figure depicts the way in which these lines are represented. The relationship of trunk to branch provides an idiom for the representation of the relative centrality of certain lines. Branch

25b

Figure

12: Trunk and Branch lines

in a

Lineage

I
A
Trunk Branch

Marriages i n f e r r e d from c u r r e n t t r u n k ' b r a n c h status

- A
Remembered carriages

Branch

lines are those which have beer: brought into the lineage through uxorilocal marriages. gh) Members of branch lines are "people who case" (jema by contrast to the

or those who were "made legitimate" (isahan)

"original" (asli)

or trunk lines. The idiom of "trunk, stem" can thus

refer either to the source vis-a-vis that which has moved away from it (as in the pair raiiqljuln) or to the central trunk vis-a-vis its

peripheral branches (as here). The relationship of a branch line to the trunk is mediated by the marriage of a man to a sister, and in this sense resembles the affinal relation between a source and a married-out line. But the oxorilocal

marriage does not create affinal relations, and the marriage is represented less as a marriage thar. as a taking-up of a man. The word angkap

itself means "lake up'', and ways of speaking about uxorilocal marriages

259

involve motions of men coming into the lineage. An idiom of adoption is often used. Two frequently heard phrases are "the son-in-law and the daughter change places" or "the son-in-law is adopted as a real son." The cxorilocal marriage is thus re-depicted as the relation of filiation between a father and son, and thus as a patrilaterally-related line. The mse of a special set of kin terms reinforces this ideological transformation.

Uxorilocal Xin Terms Lineage continuity is seen over the span of three generations; uxorilocal marriage is represented as an interruption in this passage. Kis terms are one way of representing this continuity, and property transfers are another (see Chapter 7 ) . The kin terms used by the angkap husband for members of the wife's

liuftge are either the terms which she uses (a usage which corresponds to the idiom of inverting the son and daughter noted above) or a general affinal term. The wife's elder brother, who in a virilocal marriage wooald be referred to as temud, iatsng) is in the relation of elder brother

to the oxorilocally married man. Similarly, the wife's sister's is referred to by the term lakun, along with

husband, otherwise pribn,

11 other same generation affines of affines. The wife will not ose ian duw for her husband's brother's wife (as she would had the marriages been virilocal) but the appropriate sibling term. In general,

d a , terms which imply an affinal tie are replaced by terms which do not. On the following generation, those terms which are used by children of virilocal marriages are also used by the children of the uxri-

local carriage, as if their parents' marriage had also been virilocal. The tera ibi (otherwise father's sister) is used for the mother's sis-

ter, and the other's brother is called ngah or ana rather than pun. Indeed, children of the uxorilocal marriage have no pun. figure Figure depicts the terms used according to this model. The following

13: OxcrilocaJ

Kin Terms, Second

Generation

ine

ngl>

ibi

loei

A sarries gigfcap. thus repeating the reversal of term. B tarries *oln.

EGO

Gayo describe these terms as a transformation from the virilocal set (the teres presented in Chapter 5). The use of the term ngah for

the mother"* brother was explained to me as fellows. "So-and-so would have been y pun except for the fact that y other married angkap. be is y ngah." so

The teres associated with uxcrilocal marriage are thus

seen as marked relative to the other set of terms.

TT

s
261

J " i ? SOCIOLOGY Of KARRI AGE

Vaile the categories of marriage have been relatively stable across time and place in Gayo society, the perceptions of marriage vary and change, as have the relationships between marriage rules and political status, access to productive resources, and religious ideology. These changes have perhaps been more apparent in Isak than elsewhere; I begin to account for these changes here, and then continue in the succeeding chapter.

Exogamy and Domicile

in

Isak

Around 1900. so far as we can tell from Snouck Hurgronje's research from that period, most marriages contracted by Isak residents

were with men or women from outside the village. He does not provide detailed information on the lineage composition of each village; the village is frequently spoken of as if it were composed entirely of one internally undifferentiated lineage. However, he does suggest that marriage between members of three villages (Kute Ryem, then called Kute Krng, Kute Rayang, and Kramil Bur) were prohibited because of the common patrilineal descent of the founding lineages of each. The village of Kute Dan appears to have been able to marry with several others, and Kramil Paluh could marry with Dah, Kramil Bur, and, although only recently, Kute Ryem (1903a:194-200). He also gives an impression of an

impendicg widening of the range of permissible marriages within Isak:

262

The inhabitants of Isak have become too numerous not to find the prohibition on marriage between the lineage members burdensome, and they have been thinking for a long while about finding a way for marriage to take place between, for example the lineage of the Kepala Akal and that of the Pengulu Ciq Dah (p- 199). Marriage restrictions between lineages are lifted, then as now, by the proclamation of a penrata (leveling) between them. A meal is

attended by the two lineages at which a buffalo is eaten and marriage pronounced permissible between them. The penrata. was usually occa-

sioned by an impending marriage which had been prohibited under the old rules. The few such rituals which took place in living memory in Isak had been carried out in order to permit a marriage between two residents of the same village, although of different lineages. These penrata

within villages did not make future marriages within the village possible, but were limited to the particular marriage at hand. In these

cases, the girl was already pregnant, and the marriage therefore had to be allowed. Secondly, the penrata ritual was not a ritual of lineage fission.

In the cases where a lineage split off fro the rest of the village, or a lineage segment from the remainder of the lineage, the fission was a political matter, and did not in itself create relations of marriageability between the two units. For example, in 1900 Robel had recently been formed by a lineage branch from Kute Dah, but the two lineages could not intermarry. A penrata which had the effect of permitting all

future marriages between Robel and Dah took place sometime early on in the colonial period. Gayo informants say that the first penrata was during the colonial

period, and came as an order from the Kej-jrun Linge to permit marriage

263

among all the villages. Before this order was carried out, no marriages took place within Isak. The Gayo picture of change in exogasy is thus a more instant one. In the current Isak view, before the Dutch, Isak was all one keturunan, and thus villages could not intermarry; intermarriage

only came about under Dutch rule.* Informants say thatroostmarriages in the 1920's continued to be with spouses from outside Isak. Uxorilocal marriage was referred to as marrying an "Acehnese," even in the case where the boy was Gayo. The respective Gayo and Acehnese names for the sirih leaf became names for the virilocal and uxorilocal marriage forms, so strong was this identification. The sirih leaf is a necessary part of any exchanges or formal communications in Gayo, and thus its identity could act as a synecdoche for the entire marriage. Virilocal marriages during this period usually included the formal escorting of the bride and the payment of bride goods. By the late 1920's and 1930's, Isak villages apparently began to marry among themselves more frequently, although there is available no quantitative data on this change. A distinction arose between marriages which involved two Isak people, and those which involved one spouse from the outside. While the latter marriages were structured as before, the former class of marriages began to take on a general pattern of initial uxorilocal domicile for all marriages, followed, for some, by eventual

* More generally, Gayo sometimes say that the very idea of division among themselves, including the concept of the belah, is the result of a Dutch divide-and-rule political strategy. Dutch reports of the 1930's, however, display alarm at the continually fissioning lineages in Kebayakan (Takengon), and led to a colonial prohibition on future lineage divisions.

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264

conversion to virilocality. For at least some of the villages in Isak, intermarriage was a relatively recent phenomenon. Several of the villages (those mentioned above) still saw themselves as related through their trunk lines, and even between the villages of Dah and Robel, on the one hand, and Kute Rayang, Kramil and Kute Ryes, on the other, intermarriage appears to have been limited before the colonial period. Marriage had largely been with outsiders; marriage within the sub-district took oc a different character. As one older aan said:

During the Dutch period you could begin to marry within Isak, but it still felt like one village rere. Even after a marriage a couple was free to move from, one village to another, and the relationship between villages felt very close, so there was no escorting (tns'n). Jat women were escorted to villages outside Isak, and escorte in to marry here. Two changes in the social environment affected the nature of marriage and domicile. One was the changed political situation. Before the arrival of the Dutch, the relationship between several of the villages in lsak were strongly colored by rivalry and feuding. Boys from two villages frequently engaged in disputes, sometimes leading to battles, and in a number of cases to deaths. Given an increase in the possibilities for intermarriage in Isak, this tone of opposition between villages might have led to a stronger sease of opposition in the marriage exchange as well. The term berlvn has the senses of both

"oppose in battle" and "marry." This combination of frequent intermarriage and opposition in a restricted area did (and to a lesser degree still does) characterize, among other areas, the large Tillage of Bbsn and villages in the Terangon sab-district, both of which will be

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265 described below. However, in Isak the increase in the possibility of intermarriage was accompanied by two factors which counteracted the relations of opposition between villages. One was the assumption of political control of the sub-district by the Dutch, acting through the Reje Ciq Dah, and later through the Kejurun Ling. Increasingly, dispute settlement was

taken out of the hands of the village heads and given to the local police force or the sub-district authorities. Politically, then, Isak began to look like one large sarak opat, a development which decreased

the sense of social opposition between its composite villages.' The second development was the growth of the common residence area lying along the Isak river. This "store area", as it vas called, included a number of shops, government offices and houses, and the homes of many villagers who preferred to live close to the water and to the recently-built road. The store area was neutral with respect to domicile; one could live in the area and remain a member of any of the five villages. This option was, and still is, particularly attractive to men who married angkap within Isak and wished to maintain tfceir political, economic, and social ties with their natal villages. Establishing residence in the store area enabled them to fulfill obligations to parents on both sides. These two developments during the colonial period did, I suggest, contribute to the particular shape of the marriages which took place

* It is likely that the development of the Isak-vide rice district also dates from the early Dutch period, and brought together the five villages in joint ritual activity.

266

within Isak during this period.

Gfce informant estimated that, in the

1930*s, all marriages in Isak were about equally divided among three categories: those which were ar.gkap and remained so for at least the lifetime of the parents, those which were initially uxorilocal but eventually viri local, and those which were virilocal with the provision of bride goods and the formal escorting of the bride. With the growth of the store area, however, the distincties between the first two categories became less visibly marked in the community. In Isak today, marriage may taxe place between members of any two villages, but not within a village. Host marriages are between two Isak residents, and result in residence in sak after the marriage. From March. 1976 to January 1980 there were 3c marriages in Isak. 12 of the

16 were between natives of Isak. three were between an Isak native and another Gayo from elsewhere, and one was between a Gayo girl and a Javanese man. The last-mentioned marriage was, incidentally, the only angkap nasap marriage which occurred faring this period. In all but one

of these marriages the couple was resident in Isak at the time of my departure in early 1980. Twenty additional marriages took place from early 1980 through the end of 1962. At the time of my return visit to Isai in February 1963, five of these twenty couples were living outside Isak. Of these five, three were cases of uxorilocal marriage involving a boy from Isak. Two couples had remained domiciled in Isak, but had left their village temporarily to work on coffee gardens north of Takengon. The choice of a marriage partner for a child is based on considerations of tutur, the existence of ties of keturunan, and the character

L.

i' r

267

of the boy or girl. Marriage into one's father's lineage, in those cases where it is not the also one's own lineage, is sumang, (immoral, disrespectful) and

would lead to ill health or death. A marriage may also not take place within one political unit (in Isak, one village), but this proscription is because a marriage oust be between two political entities, must belenen or oppose one headman to another. Since this proscription is a

political one it may be circumvented by changing the affiliation of one or the other of the marrying parties. Generally, if the father of either the girl or the boy had married in from another village, then this village will "buy back" the child, tebus waris. If the mother is

still alive this change will also involve paying bridewealth and changing her affiliation as well (but not those of her other children). The proscription on marrying into the father's lineage, however, is because the two are of the same keturunan, and cannot be circumvented

in an analogous way. This proscription is "explained" by Gayo by reference to Islam; a father's lineage mate will be one vali hence not marriageable. with a boy, and

I refrained from pointing out the irony of this

position in the context of Middle Eastern patriparallel marriage literature. The mother's village is not only not proscribed as a source of a spouse, but is culturally favored. The direction of a marriage is spoken of in term's of the boy's parents' choice; usually the maxim is cited:

ulung ni kayu eu t uh ku perdue.

(The leaves of a tree fall close to its trunk). Such marriages are called ulak ku raliq ("return to the source"), and

^ &

268

are said to be particularly harmonious. A first-cousin marriage, however, is considered dangerous, even though it might be relatively harmonious, because the couple would already be close as kinsmen. Should a dispute develop between them, their parents (siblings) would be quick to take sides, and this would wrench apart the brother and sister. For this reason, I am told, marriage of first cousins is not permitted, although second cousins may marry. D U t do so infrequently. In Isak

informants do not differentiate between a cross-cousin and a matriparallel cousir in this regard (although a patriparallel cousin is singled out as being in a relation of uali), but such discriminations were made

vis-a-vis marriage in Terangon, and will be presented in Chapter 9. Vhile some Isak informants said that marriage between a boy and a girl related as sara datu (second cousins) would be permitted, others

said that, while such marriages may take place, it is better to marry only if the closest kin tie is seven generations or more away. Others expressed opinions that lay somewhere in between. While marriages are still sometimes arranged between a bride and groom who have not known each other well beforehand, most marriage choice in Isak today is a compromise between the already compromising behavior of children and the mutual evaluations by parents of their prospective children-in-law. Most marriages of which I had direct knowledge in Isak involved a couple that had already carried on a more-orless intimate relationship (berbiak). In fact, arranged marriages seem

to account for a higher proportion of total marriages today in the cities than in the villages, largely due to the diminished extent of face-to-face contact in the former, the desire of parents for Gayo

269
children-in-law, and the relatively greater concern with the likely future earning power of a boy. In Isak, the assets and earnings of

either party's parents plays a minor role in the search for a spouse. Parents stress religiously proper conduct and willingness to work as the key criteria. These criteria did seem to be the bases on which parents evaluated potential spouses for their children in the discussions of which I had knowledge. A second marriage, after the death of one spouse or divorce, frequently involves the same lineages as the first marriage. There are three forms of remarriage for which the initial affinal relations are retained: a leviratic marriage, the repetition of a uxorilocal marriage, or the replacement of a deceased wife by her raliq with another bride.

The third form has already been mentioned; I will discuss the other two her. At the death of a man who has married virilocally, the surviving brothers or patriparallel cousins are obliged either to marry the widow or to secure a husband for her. A leviratic marriage is called ku era (move over to the brother's wife). ngalh

It is both an obligation and

a right; only after the full brothers of the deceased have declined to marry her does the right pass to the cousins, and so on outwards. A widow will usually prefer such a marriage, since it gives her continued access to the land and other wealth which she has been using in the village. A remarriage within the lineage will also mean that her own domicile will continue to be the same as that of her children. She is allowed to continue to work lineage land and to remain a full member of the lineage without remarrying if she has children there, or if one

270 of the husband's parents are still alive. In either case she has a tnJn (place of refuge) in the lineage. Otherwise, it is difficult

for her to remain without remarrying, although 1 have never heard of a woman who was ordered to leave in such a situation. If the widow stands in a lower tutur to her second husband, e.g.,

if she stands as a younger sister, then the reoarriage does not entail a change in terms. If the widow marries a man with a younger tutur, e.g.,

a younger brother, then he must pay a fine called pemalu in order to change the tutur between then.'

The death of a uxorilocally-oarried man's wife is not treated in the corresponding way. There is no obligation for the sisters of the ' p o n his wife's death, his own rights deceased woman to marry the man. I to use property end. However, if the couple bad children, he may continue to use that property for their benefit. If he remarries, the second wife must be from the same village (not necessarily the same lineage), and the second marriage must also be angkap. Men frequently

do remarry in the village in order to retain the use rights to property. fcesarriages between people with older children are usually conducted quietly, often semi-secretly, out of a sense of kernel that the parents would still be interested in marriage. Remarriage is encouraged, and a widow or widower will usually be found a wife or husband by his relatives within a short time of the dissolution of the preceding marriage. In case that an initial marriage lasted only a short time and

The word malu is used to refer to women as a class in formal phrases, usually with some of the sense of the Malay word malu (shame, equivalent to Gayo kernel).

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271

did not produce children, the second marriage is put on in a public, festive manner nearly identical to that followed for first marriages. witnessed one such marriage during *y stay in Isak. There is some I

slight stigma attached to marrying a previously married boy or girl, but it may be outweighed by any one of a number of other factors, e.g., the good character or education of the person. Few Gayo men take second wives, and I have never heard of a Gayo mac with three wives. Recent Indonesian legislation makes it difficult

for civil servants to take second wives, and any such marriage is supposed to be with the consent of the first wife. No Kramil men had two

wives daring my stay, although there were two men in Isak with second wives. In both cases, the first wife was from Isak and continued to

reside there, while the second wife was from Takengon and lived in the town. Second marriages are seen as difficult to manage and generally

unfair to the first wife.

The Status of Uxorilocatl Barriage

In Isak, a uxorilocal marriage is perceived as structurally unstable by the wife's broter and the sister's husband. Each views the

other with a certain amount of suspicion, and each is a bit uncertain about the other's motives and intentions. This structural uncertainty

may, however, coexist with a great deal of close feeling, cooperation, and mutual assistance. The wife's brotfcer considers bis sister's husband to be only contingently tied to his new lineage. The in-married an has no keturunan The sub-

in the lineage, and nay be tempted back to his natal lineage.

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272

stitute for the ties to the lineage is wealth, but wealth is uncertain, and, in any case, the wife's family in Isak is unlikely to control a sizeable amount of land or ether property (see below). The following

illustrates these concerns from the point of view of the wife s brother.

Aman I had joined the ar*y and been stationed on the coast in the 1950's, and had originally planned to stay there. However, in the mid-195G's he quit and returned to Kute Kraai 1 (his natal village) because his mother's mother was living there alone, with no one to care for her but his sister. The sister had recently married, and the husband had been angkap into the village fros Rerawak, just across the river in Isak. "With such marriages you never know whether the couple will stav or;: you cannot depend on it," he said. So, he moved back to Kute Kramil to take care of his grandmother and to ensure th3t his sister and her husband would remain there. He gave thex the use of the family house so that they would not leave the village. If he has work to do or a feast to pot on in the village, he will provide what is needed and then step back to let them do the work. "They will be out in front and I can stay in the rear." They are his k id ing pantas (quickmoving legs) ar.d his peravah (talkers) at the feast. The sister's husband is cast as unstable, likely to leave the village if not provided for, but nonetheless a useful worker for his wife's brother. good workers. In fact, these two men got on very well, and both were

The sister acted as an active intermediary between them;

as an excellent organizer and provider, she was the one who prepared food and mobilized resources for feasts in the village. The wife's

brother did act as a stabilizing presence by providing a house (and some land) for the couple, but the sister carried on the negotiations between them over control of land, bouse, and the rest of the estate. The sister's husband, on the other hand, perceives his wife's brother as potentially threatening. During the lifetime of the wife s

parents, the access of the sister and her husband to land and other

terumum -.iTiMif..n

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273

resources is ensured. After death a struggle often ensues, with the wife's brother attempting to seize part or all of these resources. This occurrence is common in Isak, as will be shown in the next chapter, and it is often cited as a reason for the preference of sisters for virilocal marriage. A virilocal marriage secures rights over an estate, while rights obtained in a uxorilocal one are sure to be challenged by her brother. The tension and instability which results from a uxorilocal marriage is resolved in the following generation. The marriage may then be perceived in terms of patrifiliative continuity over three generations, in which the presence of the in-marrying husband was only a temporary phenomenon. This dialogue of tension and resolution is presented in the "Story of the White Pig," which is summarized below. The King of Ling has a son who succeeds him and a daughter who marries uxorilocally to a very poor man. The son inherits all the wealth of his father, and has seven daughters. The daughter receives nothing, and has a pig for a son. The pig is really a man with a pig's exterior, which he can remove at will. He is much cleverer than everyone else. He clears, plants, and harvests a garden for his parents by calling on elephants, rats, and birds to do his work for him. He also outwits all the suitors of the seven girls in several trials, but without revealing his true identity.

Each of the seven daughters is given her choice of a husband, and the youngest chooses her cousin, the pig. While the king is aghast at her choice, because he is a pig, he has no choice but to accede to her wishes, and they marry. Because he has no sons, the king decides to adopt one of the husbands as his son. The pig tricks them all. and it is he who is adopted. He becomes the "real son" (ana* kontan) of the king, and eventually suceedes him as king. The myth vividly brings together the components of marriage and descent. The daughter who marries the pig is the youngest of seven, and

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therefore has a particular claim to spiritual power.' The sister appears as spiritually superior to her brother, a relation found also in political myths. The two uxorilocal marriages represent contrasting qualities. The first is characterized by tension, denial of access to wealth, the unwillingness of the mother's brother to recognize the legitimacy of the sister's son, dissimulation, and the incompletely cultural status of the marriage and the birth. The sister's son is born with a pig's exterior, and performs cultural work, gardening, in a natural manner, using animals rather than tools. His own interior superiority is masked by the animal exterior, and this exterior is only discarded permanently with the second, resolving marriage. While the first marriage remains ambivalent (incomplete assimilation into the lineage, incomplete cultural status of the sister's son), the second resolves each of these tensions by adopting the son-in-law as a son of the mother's brother. The second marriage is doubly incestuous in Isak terms: first, because it is to a relative who is too close to be married (the MBD); secondly, because the sister's son is affiliated to his mother's lineage as a result of the first marriage. The myth is thus doubly scandalous, in that the sister's child is treated so shabbily, and the marriage which resolves the tension is with a close line-

* Several Gayo myths, some of which are also found elsewhere in Sumatra, feature the youngest of seven sisters as the mediator between two classes or two worlds. The story of Peteri Bengsu concerns a daughter of the ruler of the sky who marries a gifted man of the earth, Malis; Dewa. Some versions of the origin of rice also pick out the youngest of seven sisters as the human who becomes rice, mediating between consumers and consumed.

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age sister. These scandals, however, are overlaid by an ideology of descent and continuity. The transformation is as depicted in the accompanying figure. Figure 16: ttarriige and Descent in The White Pig

1
Unite

I
(seven D)T

4-

* 0
?ig

White Pig

Marriages transacted

Descent representation after adoption of White Pig

At the end of the myth, the succession of the royal patri J in* has been preserved, and the youngest son of seven children has succeeded his father. The final picture is thus equivalent to the succession {ootid in the Isak origin syth, where the youngest son of seven proves his spiritual superiority after being shamed by his brother and succeeds to the position of ruler.

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276

Marriage and Resources in Kute Kramil L'xorilocal marriages account for about one-third of the marriages of household heads in Isak today. The following table shows the marriage of current household heads in Kute Kramil by the origin of husband and wife. Of the 55 households in the village, S3 are headed by a mat-

Table 16: Current ferriages of Sousebold Heads by Origin, Kramil

umber of ferriages with Other Spouse from Spouse born in Kramil Within Isak N
Husband Vife Neither

Outside Isak N 9 8 1 18

Total N
34 18 1 100 100 100

lu:
56 0 66

''
26 44 100 34

25 10 0 35

Total

53

100

ried couple. Two consist of a widow and one or more grandchildren.* The table shows that about two-thirds of the marriage of Kramil household heads (34 of 53) were virilocal. In most of these cases there

had been an initial period of residence with the wife's parents. The

In addition to the married couples who head households, there are also six coupies who are domiciled in the household of their parents. In five cases the couple is domiciled with the wife's parents. In the sixth case, the couple is ooaiciled with the husband's father, a widower.

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277

virilocal marriages were more likely to have been between two residents of Isak (74*.) than were uxorilocal marriages (56'.). In other words, an in-marrying husband is more likely to cone from outside Isak than is a wife who marries virilocally. Conversely, marriages within Isak are

more likely to be virilocal (25 cases) than uxorilocal (10 cases). Because the sample is only of household heads, few of the uxorilocallydotticiled couples are likely to convert their domicile, although several of the couples who are living in their households, not counted here, are likely to do so. In addition to the 18 uxorilocal couples shown in the table, there are two men who were born in Kramil, married out of the village and remain domiciled in their wife's village, but who hare returned to Kramil for reasons which override the rules of marriage and domicile. 1 discuss these cases below. There are, then, 20 male heads of household in the village who married uxorilocally and continue to be domiciled in their wives' villages, and 32 men who married virilotally (34 minus the two mentioned above). What are the distinguishing characteristics, if any, of the twenty uxorilocal couples? First, there is some difference in the amount of The following table shows the amount of

land owned by each category.

land area owned by uxorilocal and virilocal categories. Two tern (one tern equals 1/5 hectare) are a minimum area to provide rice for a family of four or five persons; households with less land than this amount have obtained access to additional amounts through use rights, sharecropping, or mortgage arrangements, or engage in wage labor in order to purchase additional rice.

UH

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278

Table 17: Riceland

Owned by Uxorilocal

and Virilocal

Couples,

Kramil

Land Owned
(tern)

Number of Households

by Domicile Total

uxorilocal

Virilocal

N
0 1-2 3-4 5-6 7+ Total 8 7 4 1 0

%
40*. 35 20 5 0

N
8 7 11 4 2

*
2S 22 34 13 6

K
16
14 15 5 2 52

\
31
27 29 10 4 100

20

100

32

100

The table shows that couples whose marriage was virilocal tend to own somewhat larger areas of riceland than those whose marriage was uxorilocal. We can infer from this relationship that Kramil men who own larger areas of land are more likely to have converted their domicile to a virilocal one. However, the table also shows that any virilocally married men own little or no riceland; almost one-half own two tea or less. Furthermore, many uxorilocally married men have access to land which they may own in the future. Of the twenty angkap couples in Kramil, ten of them worked land which had been obtained from the wife's parents as either inheritance or use right. Five couples farmed land which had been obtained from the husband's parents, thus across village boundaries. One couple worked both (double-counted here), and one worked wife's parents' land and land which they had purchased them-

279

selves.

Only four couples of the twenty did not have ownership or use

rights to riceland; all four obtained access to land through mortgage or sharecropping arrangements. One-quarter of the men who had married uxorilocally did nonetheless retain access to land in their natal villages. The use rights which cross village boundaries cannot easily be converted to inheritance rights, however. Thus, continuing uxorilocal domicile ultimately depends on obtaining land either from the wife's lineage or through opening up new land to cultivation.

Political Status While the status of a man in his wife's village is that of a "person who came", subordinate to his wife's brother and parents, a

uxorilocally married man may nonetheless attain political office outside of that village. The twenty uxorilocally-married men in Kute Kramil include three whose past or present status in the community is high. The head of the Isak primary school married into his wife's village in the Pegasing area between Isak and Takengon, but subsequently requested and received an assignment to teach in Isak. One of his reasons for so

doing was to be able to work his parents' land, for which, as the eldest son, be acts as the trustee until the estate is divided. A second man who married into Kramil nonetheless occupied a nusber of offices during the Dutch, Japanese, and early Independence periods. He served as headman in his natal village, and sub-district head (mukim)

in the 1940*s and early 1950's, and still is addressed with the title Ri in recognition of these offices (one of only two men in Isak to be

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s
280 so addressed;.1* He continues to control land in his natal village. Finally, the current headman of Kute Kramil is a man who carried into his wife's village, remains domiciled there, but was chosen to be headman of his natal village without changing domicile, a combination which is possible in Isak, given residence in the neutral store area and the physical proximity of the five villages to each other. Indeed, in

1980 four of the five villages in Isak were headed by men who were uxorilocally domiciled in another village. Their selection was in each case described as an effort by his patrilateral relatives to "borrow hi back," to "not lose hi." Each of the four headman chose to retain his uxorilocal domicile. In some cases there remained an obligation to support a surviving parent, one that could not be abandoned without threatening the harmony of domestic life. In addition, by remaining members of the wife's line-

age, the headmen retained use rights to land of that lineage, and were also free to use land in their natal lineages. Two different kinds of ties were thus combined to provide access to additional material and political resources. These cross-overs entail a separation of marriage obligations and political roles. Each of the headmen serves as the ritual spokesman for in exchanges or formal speeches between viland fitrah) in the village

the village, as the dt lages.

He pays his Islamic taxes (the zakat

where he is headman.

Frequently, however, a headman finds himself

" The second is the son of a man who had married into Kute Rayang, who also became headman of that village and mukim. These two cases are mentioned in Chapters 4 and 7.

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281
caught in a conflict between two sets of ties, the locus of which is often the relationship between wife's brother and sister's husband.

In one case, one man decided to conduct t . . e marriage of his daughter from the village in which he was currently headcan. His wife's village strongly objected on the grounds that the daughter was affiliated to her mother's village, and that holding the carriage from his own natal village would be an act of disrespect to his wife. To complicate matters further, his wife was the sister of the headman of her village, who bad himself married into a third village and been borrowed back to take office in his natal village.

The girl's father found himself in a dilemma. Marrying off the girl fros- his wife's village would be correct in terms of her own affiliation, but it would be embarassing to him, as the headman of his own village. But to marry from that village would encure the wrath of his wife, her lineage, and her brother and village headman. The two heads did not speak to each other for weeks, but the issue was temporarily resolved when the two villages conducted the marriage jointly. The girl's mother was caught between competing demands, as the wife of one headman and the sister of the other. After the aarriage, it became even more difficult to harmonize the relation. The wife's village had co-sponsored the marriage because of the girl's affiliation there. If the couple were to have then changed domicile to the husband's village, the wife's village (and, in particular, her brother the headaan) would have lost their reason for the co-sponsorship and ''would only be followers, and thus kernel" said a younger brother of the headman. The uxorilocally married man in Isak thus finds himself likely to own less land than his virilocal counterpart, but to have access to land in either his wife's or his own natal village. He is able to draw on resources and ties in both villages, and, particularly if be lives in the store area, to avoid the subordinate role of the in-marrying man to a great degree. He is no less likely to achieve a political status in the community as a result of his uxor i local aarriage.

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It appears that several features of marriage in Isak have combined to produce a relatively underplayed opposition between uxorilocal and virilocal marriage. Marriage had traditionally been primarily outside the sub-district, and marriage exchange relations between Isak villages were not associated with the formal escorting of the bride. The growth of a neutral residence area and the nature of colonial political rule meant that oppositions which might have developed between villages once prohibitions on marriage were lifted did not do so, because the sense of Isak as "one village," as one informant put it, was retained. Uxorilocal marriage within Isak therefore did not create a subordinate class of men, even though the relationship between such en and their wives' brothers within the village were characterized by asymmetric power over resources, A contrast is provided by the large village of Bbsn near Takengon. Bbsn is the "mother village" for the Ciq clan, the opposition of which to Bukit was described in Chapter 2. It consists of seven

localized lineages which are clearly separated by residence and interaarry. The lineages trace their descent from a group of Batak (the 27 Batak") who drove the Bukit clan out of their village and settled there. As an enclave of immigrants which has a distinct origin and ethnic label (as former Bataks), these lineages seldom have married with members of the Bukit clan. Relations of marriage exchange have thus been primarily between lineages in the village, rather than to lineages outside the village (as in Isak). A strong sense of inter-lineage differentation

has thus been reinforced through the construction of numerous raliq/ju'Jo relations between thea.

"

283

Accounts of carriage in the colonial period in Bbsn present uxorilocal marriage as a aarkedly low status alternative marriage form. In the 1930's, a close relative of the Rj Ciq Bbsn married a woman whose parents would not allow her to be married out of their lineage. She was the youngest daughter, the last remaining in the household, and had to be aarried angkap. But to adait to a uxorilocal marriage would

have been humiliating for his patriline, and thus the marriage was "sogkap rahasia" (secretly uxorilocal). The phrase which marks a mar-

riage as uxorilocal, penurip mvrip, penanom mat, pemak jarum patah,

was cot pronouncedThe political status of the husband was not lowered

by the aarriage. however, and after Independence he became the first Caaat of the Bbsn district. Today, Bbsn aen say that they are less embarassed to be married uxorilocally. Even a rich aan may have one of his sons marry uxorilocally to another rich aan, I was told, so that the latter will have to bear the cost of his schooling or his capitalization in an enterprise. "Many doctorandus (a degree just below an M.A.) were married out by

their fathers to avoid paying the cost of the degree. Bbsn aen who had aarried angkap depicted their marriage as a contract: If someone is offered a wife on condition that the marriage be angkap, he will say that be is willing to marry if the wife's parents are willing to provide, for example, 2 tem of riceland, a one-hectare coffee garden, and a room in a house, not for ae but for our descendant." Tne man then is given the land and house-space, with a certificate. If he dies or leaves, the property goes to his children. The wife's brother cannot demand it, although sometimes he does.

284
Such land is not alienable from the village, but the angkap man has obtained a clear right to compensation if the marriage dissolves without children. The response of the court system to this new defini-

tion of marriage rights is discussed further in the next chapter. Nonetheless, the proportion of uxorilocal to virilocal marriages in Bbsn is much lower than in Isak. The following table shows the

Table 18: Current Carriages of Household Heads, Sbs

Number of Karriages with Other Spouse from

Spouse born in Bbsn Husband Wife Total Within Bbsn PegasingTakengon Other (Gayo and non-Gayo) K To tal N

K 170 5 175

t.
97',

S 84 15 99

85 15 100

23 11

68 32

277 31

90 10

3 100

34 100

308 100'

data for Bbsn. The great majority (90%) of marriages of Bbsn household heads are virilocal. Moreover, virtually all marriages which involved two

Bbsn spouses (97*.) are virilocal. Most uxorilocal marriage involve men from outside the village. The uxorilocal marriage is still marked as a marriage by an outsider, although (as the above example illustrate) this status need not lead to low political status in a man's natal village. Virilocal marriage in Bbsn continues to be accompanied by the formal escorting of the bride and the payment of bride goods. The seven

aaiteiaaMaMaM>*iiirri niai maulmtiaiiS i imm mmmmimimmmmmmt m r -m n -

285

localized lineages in Bbsn retain their distinctiveness in their geographical boundaries as well as in the relations of which are established by marriages between the. raJJq/ju'ln

It thus appears that a

different local situation, in this case, a long history of intra-village narriage, ay lead to a consistently different permutation within the same system of marriage. Ve now turn to a closer analysis of the role played in the definition of marriage by transfers of property within and across lineage lines, as well as the effect of larger-scale institutional changes on the ideology of marriage, kinship, and descent.

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CHAPTER 7: TRANSFERS OF PROPERTY: INHERITANCE AND MARRIAGE PATffiCTS

This chapter concerns itself with the changing relations between persons and property in Gayo society. The focus of analysis will be on

two kinds of transfers of property and their chasging roles sad interpretations. I will use the term "vertical transfers" to refer to

transfers of rights to wealth across generations in the form of gifts. inheritance, and use rights. "Horizontal transfers" cross lineage boundaries, and are primarily those exchanges associated with marriage. These payments define the shape of social units and act as tbc material signs of descent and marriage categories in Gajro society. Developments in religions ideology, legal institutions, and economic opportunity in this century have led to changes in the nature and meaning of these transfers. Isak, as I found it in the lat I970's, was

a society in a process of socio-cultural change, and was cross-cot by conflicting ideas about the correct interpretation of social practices. Isak in 1900 would have also appeared as a society in change, although the issues would have been different (1 discuss some of these differences below). Indeed, it is impossible to speak of any single "tra-

ditional" society for the Gayo, both because the institutions of the society have been in a process of change at least from the period of our first knowledge of them, and because different Gayo districts have developed in different directions. I have chosen here to study the

specific changes that have occured in Isak as part of the development of

286

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287
Gayo culture.

LAND, IHEESIT MCE, /HD TSE LWEACB

My informants in Isak very often began answers to my questions by reciting a Biaxin, a general formulation (often with a mythical referent) from which a specific issue could properly be addressed. Questions

about the transmission of property across generations were answered by describing the historical conditions of ownership. The control of land is represented as deriving fro the development of the political structure: from the first ancestor in Linge to the four district malers, and then to the ruler of sub-districts, called "the seven" and usually listed as groups of seven villages. Rulers at the level of "the seven" were acknowledged as holding political authority over matters securing within their domain. Village headmen in turn received their right to rule from the sub-district ruler of their territory. The right of the village as a corporate body to control and to alienate the Imd within the village boundaries derives from the political relation between the village and the sub-district ruler.

If a lineage wanted to become a recognized village with a proper headman, they purchased their right to a territory with a certain sum of money by which they obtained the blessings of the ruier (.syarat doa. or the "token of the blessing"). The fceadmar. received the right to rule over a strictly bounded territory, the sarak opat dual opat sagi (the four sides and four elements of the village).

288

Vithin the village there was no ownership in the modern sense {hak milik) but only the right of villagers to use wealth in the village, a use right {hak pake) ani landed wealth could never leave the village. Buying and selling had to be within the village, unless for some specific reason the villagers as a body (the sudr) decided otherwise in a specific case. Sudr had a joint right to property, although within the village you controlled your own wealth. Here is the basis of the traditional rule of inheritance: if a man or woman remains in the village, then they inherit from their parents, but if they leave then they get nothing. The corporate village (the sarak opat) thus retains the exclusive

right to alienate land within its boundaries, while a member of the village holds the right to work and receive the full fruits fro bis or her land. Villagers may acquire these rights by purchasing or inheriting land fro other members of the village, and may also acquire use rights to land outside the village. However, full ownership of land is limited to men or women who are affiliated with the village that claims the residual right (by which I mean the ultimate right of alienation) over the land. The village, however, may decide to permit the alienation of its lands to members of another village. Such villageauthorized alienations have made it possible to invite newcomers to constitute a new village with its own wet-rice fields in an area where the opening up of new fields was virtually impossible. Kate Eramil in Isak was founded through such purchases. Even today, inherited land is expected to remain within the village, and land sales across village boundaries rarely take place. In the Kute Kramil, for example, only 3 of the 55 households work land which they had purchased- One of these three had moved into the village from outside Isak and had bought a parcel of village land, while the other two had bought land from families living in small, downstream

'
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289
villages who had moved into the town. T h u s , none of these land

transfers involved the alienation of land by one of the five Isak villages . Most families who have moved out of Isak have retained title to their lands and allowed lineage relatives to faro them on a sharecropping basis. A villager in need of cash will generally mortgage some of

his land to someone in or out of the village (but within Isak) who is able to supply money, rice, or a water buffalo in return. A mortgaged

piece of land is sometimes redeemed by or sharecropped out to a third party, so that a series of farmers may gain control over the land without a sale ever having been made. Since the amount of the mortgage is

usually well below the sale price of the land this tendency to mortgage rather than to sell does not work to the immediate advantage of the owner unless he is able to redeem the land himself. The value of this arrangement (mortgage rather than sale) in the Gayo view is that it allows the children or grandchildren of the owner to redeem the land when they are able to do s o , and thus to retain their material ties to the village. In fact, outstanding mortgages supposedly revert to the owner of the land after seven years, without compensation, but in the 20-odd years since this law was passed I know of only one case of its having been used in Isak, and in that case by a man generally considered to be beyond the pale of ordinary social norms. Although almost all Isak residents either operate or rent out ricefields, many villagers do not own their own land. Almost all of

these villagers obtain access to land through one of several possible tenure arrangements. Tenure contracts are renewed annually, often shift

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290

among different owners and fanners, and only rarely become the basis for long-term patron-client relations. The table below shows the frequency with which Kramil villagers have entered into tenurial contracts to

Table

19: Frequency

of Tenure Arrangements,

Kraal]

1979

Tenure

Type

Own Some fticcland Tes

Total

no

Use right Hortgage Sharecropping Kental Several of above None of above

1 3 1 0 0 29 34

s
2 6 1 2 2 21

5 7 1 2 31 55

Total

obtain access to wet ricelands. The table shows that farmers who own land rarely take in additional parcels through tenure arrangements, and that villagers who do not own land generally do enter into tenure agreements with landownersThe most common arrangements are sharecropping (with either one-half or one-third of the yield paid to the owner, depending on the kin tie and the productivity of the land) and use rights. Included in the category

of use right are cases where a parental estate has not yet been divided among the heirs, one or more of whom in the meantime far the land. In other cases, the owner of a parcel has left Isak and turned w e r control

"I

'

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'

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291

of the land to a sibling, cousin, or nephew in the village.

This second

case is, in effect, an informal sharecropping arrangement, where the share given to the owner is not fixed, and is less than would be the case in a formal sharecropping contract. The next table shows the size of the ricefields that are planted by Kramil farmers who own all, some, or none of the land they farm. In

other words, it shows the distribution of access to land in the village

Table 20: Ownership and Area of Riceland,

Kramil

1979

Area of Wet Riceland Ownership of Land Farmed Owns all Owns some Owns none Total Farmers Under 1/2 1/2 to 1

Farmed

(.hectares) Total

1 or more

13

11

2 1 3 6

26

1 2
16

3
14 28

5
19 SO

between owners and non-owners of riceland. The table shows that 50 of the 55 households in the village planted ricefields in 1979. Of those 50 households, 19 owned none of that land, but all but 2 of those 19 households planted areas of onehalf hectare of more. Of the 26 households who only planted fields These figures

which they owned, 13 planted less than one-half hectare.

suggest that households increased their productive resources by sharecropping or mortgaging land, and not by accumulating land through purchase. Only 6 of the 55 households in the village owned or had use

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292

rights to one hectare or more of riceland in 1979. The household with the largest total area held just over two hectares. use rights to less than one-half hectare. The rights of a married couple to land and other wealth as well as those of their children depend on their post-marital domicile. However, 30 had ownership or

as we saw in the previous chapter, the categories of uxorilocal and virilocal marriage are not symmetrical: virilocal marriage is represented as an initial exchange between patrilines, which thereby place themselves in an enduring relation of "source" line (raliq) "children of the sold one" (anak juln). to the

A harmonic relation is thus

produced (and reproduced on the next generation, if this marriage type is repeated) between the ideologically salient patriline and the local group. Uxorilocal marriage, on the other hand, is depicted as the of a boy, with no reference to his natal lineage,

"taking up" (angkap)

in fact on the presumption that none exists (he is referred to as "Acehnese"). The transfer of property across generations is a consequence of these features of the marriage system. Traditional inheritance practice may be defined in terms of three features: equal shares to virilocallymarrying sons; an extra share to a son who remains with and cares for the parents; aai a smaller share to the children of a uxorilocallymarried daughter (rather than to the daughter herself, except as a use right).' Thus, inheritance is limited to those children who are domi-

* In Gayo ideology (as expressed in oyth, maxims, and generalizations) the youngest son is the one who reaains behind in the family house, who gives the most care to the parents, and therefore receives the extra share. The eldest, however, ha* a claim to succeed his father

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293

ciled after marriage in the lineage unit (whether in or out of the village, in cases where the two are not coterminous), favors sons over daughters, and those who reside in the parental household (often the youngest) over those who reside elsewhere in the village. Most Gayo traditions (dt, as in Malay adat) are expressed either

in maxims (such as the one quoted above) or in specific regulations and lists of fines or obligatory payments. Such lists appear to pre-date the colonial process of "regularizing" traditions. Intrigscingly, there are very few axims, and virtually no expressed rules concerning inheritance, even though my informants would state principles sich were very similar to those found in accounts fro early in the centaury. I interpret this silence as an indication of the difference between political natters, which invite the explicit formulation of rules, conditions, and penalties, and those social matters which, being internal to the lineage, could be left asp to the good sense of the lineage numbers concerned. The correct payments of bridewealth. for example, being an inter-village totter', necessarily involved the sarak opat as the politi-

cal representative of the village to the outside; intra-lneage transfers of property did not. This identification of edit wiui the

political level of ike society is, I believe, indicated fcy the use of the term edet to refer to the headman of the sarak lot opat ix those con-

texts when he is acting as the spokesman

the village in. an inter-

to an office if one is at stake, and to control the distribution of the inheritance. Following Moore (1976(1969):163-170). we can think of overlapping and conflicting "contingent claies" to portants of the inheritance. These claims are subject to negotiation by reference to factors other than position in the sibling set (for ex.anc.Ie, the educational or economic opportunity given to one of the children).

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village exchange. Tne area of most unclarity, about which the traditional formulations have maintained an almost total silence, is the atter of transfers of property to uxori locally-married daughters. This silence in fact reveals a tension in the syste, between patrilineal transmission and succession on the one hand, and the access of all lineage members (including uxorilocally domiciled couples) to property on the other. A woman who remains in the village after arriage is usually given a sizeable amount of her parents' land from which to support her parents until their death. This gift creates the expectation of continued access to at least some of this land after the parents' death, an expectation which conflicts with the authority of the brothers as the guardians (wall) of the sisters and of the land. It is at this point of struc-

tural weakness in the syste that social change has been greatest, as we shall see below. The three following cases illustrate different aspects of this development. All three are fro Kute Kramil. The first instance is a typical case of the relative distribution of property between sons and daughters, but also points to the effect that distribution on one generation has for the choice of domicile and lineage affiliation on the next:

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Aman Jirem was born in Kute Rayang. his mother s natal village on the east end of Isak. His father had married into the village from farther downstream, and had received no property in his own natal village. Aman Jirem's mother had two sister's, one of whom married out and so received no property in Kute Rayang. The other sister remained in the village, bring ing a man in from Robel, a third Isak village, and her son later moved back to Robel in order to claim a share of his father's land in that village. His mother also had a brother, and that brother's son, Reje Hasyim. is the wall (guardian) of the others because he is the brother's son. As uali, Reje Hasyim has the right to distribute the land or not do so as he sees fit. As it turned out, he married out of his village, into Kute Kramil, yet became headman of his natal village and ruled at a distance. He retained his authority over the land even after marrying out, worked it all himself, and delayed dividing it. Aman Jirem decided to marry out of the village would have access to land since, as the son of ple, he held no claim to the undivided estate. received 2 tern of wet-rice land (an indigenous lent to a little less than 1/2 ha.), which was share that Reje Hasyim gave himself. so that he an angkap couEventually he measure equivaone-half the angkap from alive and 2 no

Aman Jirem's wife, Inen Jirem, wa also the child of an couple. Her mother received 10 buffalo and 2 tem^of land which to support the parents (as penurip murip, "keeping the living"). Her mother's brother was given 50 buffalo tern; another sister who remained in the lineage received property at all.

This case shows clearly the asymmetry of power over property between the descendants of the brother, the vali, the sister. and the descendants of men and their

In addition, several relations between angkap

natal lineages are mentioned here; in all but one, marriage out of the lineage has effectively cut them off from access to natal lineage land. The one exception (Reje Hasyim) shows the strength of wali status, and

also of the power of holding political office to maintain lineage ties even after a marriage out of the lineage. In one other case (the MZS of

Aman Jirem), although the father's marriage out of his own lineage had excluded him from using natal land, his son was able to move back into

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296
his father's lineage and thereby claim a share of that land. This appears to be a long-standing process in Isak, and not the result of recent changes (in this case the marriage took place in the 1930's). Together, these instances extend the discussion of the ambivalent position held by the uxorilocally-married man from the previous chapter. While the relation of a woman to her natal lineage are fundamentally altered and formally converted to an exchange relation by the fact of marriage, the same is not the case for a man who marries out; his patrilineal ties to his descent line (Jreturunan), and his patrilateral ties as wali are preserved and ritually highlighted. Ties to property rein-

force these relations, as we would expect. This example illustrates the fundamental difference, obscured by the term "uxorilocal marriage", between a marriage involving a local an, who is able to preserve and strengthen his ties to his natal lineage, and a marriage involving a man from a distant region, whether Acehnese or Gayo. In the above case, the marriage of Inen Jirem's

other that brought her a sizeable, though reduced, share of the estate was with a an from Blangkejeren, a distant southern district. His status in Kramil became that of penurip patah murip, penanom aat, pemak jarum

(keeping alive the living, burying the dead, and using the broken

needle, the estate). The counterpart of his use of the family wealth is his immobility, and his complete assimilation into his wife's lineage. Uxorilocality thus admits of well-defined distinctions according to the expectations of material support and domicile. The uxorilocal marriages discussed next were between neighboring villages, and the subsequent property claims were quite strong. Two domiciles were estab-

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297

lished and maintained by the husband in this example. Aman Samu married twice: his first marriage was with full bridewealth, and he returned to his natal lineage (in Kute Kramil) where he now lives. He never paid bridewealth for his second marriage, however, and his status vis-a-vis this wife is still in her village. This village (Kramil Bur) was located just uphill from his own, and after Independence was merged into a third village, Kute Ryem. His first wife died several years ago and Aman Samu now lives with his second wife in Kramil. He is presently using property obtained through of both marriages. Because he paid bridewealth f'rf'f) for his first wife, Aman Samu received a share of his parents' estate. He had an elder brother, Aman era, who, because he was older, was given a bit more of the wealth. They were each given 3 tern of wet riceland, but Aman Samu's share is on a high slope, receives little irrigation water, and has eroded down to about 2 1/2 tern by now. Aman Mera received the house, and Aman Samu built his own; Aman Mora was given two buffalo. Asan Samu, one, but he built that one up to IB, until they were all stolen by the ^ Darul Islam guerillas in the mid-195j's, a group led by Teungku Leb ("and if they ever find him I'll eat his liver ) . Aman Mera was given the rights to use ome durian (fruit) trees nearby, but as a substitute Aman Samu was given a large iron pan that he uses for cooking down palm sugar. He has been cooking sugar longer than anyone here... (he continued in this way for awhile). Since he had married uxorilocally into his second wife' lineage, he was able to obtain the use of 1.2 tern of riceland from her brother. Her father had died three years before, but since the estate has not yet been divided up, he had to provide a mortgage of 25 tern paddy to her brother in order to use the land. In this case Aman Samu was able to establish claims to inheritance through two marriages. Retaining his statu* in his natal lineage, however, depended on his second marriage not being a "penurip murip one, i.e., not obliging him to remain in her lineage and support the parent*. The next example is of the "penurip murip" kind, and illustrates both the place of such marriage* in a strategy of survival, and the informal nature of the corresponding transfers of property:

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Inen Dar has one brother; they both remained in the lineage after marriage. She and her angkap husband worked 1.5 tem of ricelar.d to support themselves and her parents (and sought outside sources of income as well). This arrangement continued until the parents died-- both fairly your.g, as the MM was still alive, and acted as the distributor of the family property. "This was not really inheritance luaris) because it was just done among us." The land was given to the brother and the house to the sister, both as a bequest (hibah). The grandmother also gave a water buffalo to the sister, but this was as a gift (pevosah) because you can not bequeath living things. The house was fairly large, so the sister gave it to her brother because he had many children (eight), while she and her husband occupied a house belonging to her father's sister. The brother ther. gave her the land, and she gave him the buffalo in exchange. It is expected that she will eventually return the lane to the brother, and at that time she will get back the buffalo. She and her husband can get by if they work this land and sharecrop on an additional 2 tern of riceland. When their daughter gets older they will "find her an Acehnese", bringing in a son-in-law to stay and take care of thee in old age. That is what everyone in their lineage did, to "broaden the narrow and ease your trouble" (kati impit

lues, myattya lemasi.

In this third case the accent is on the continuity of material support provided through a chain of uxorilocal, "penurip murip marriages. Such continuity is a major concern in this system, since married son* are separated from the parents Ujawn) shortly after marriage,

with only minimal, or, ore precisely, back-up obligations to support them. I heard similar discussions of uxorilocal continuity on several

occasions in Kute Kramil, sometimes linked by the speaker to the history of the village itself. In this everyday, casual version of the village history, three, or sometimes four brothers are said to have settled the village, and to then have sought to bring in husbands for their daughters and wives for their sons to form a sizeable village population "so the tigers won't cos* in." But this view conflicts with the official, patrilineal view of the village as descended from the brothers, through

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299

sons, to the present village members. Angkap marriages are represented as irrelevant to this historical process of village formation, as in the following version of the origin story of the village: A man came from 1 don't know where and found his way to Samarkilang (three days' walk away) where he married a Gayo wocac there.. But there was not enough to eat in that district, so he came to Isak and cleared land where the mosque is now. This line was the original (asli) wet riceland for Kute Kraiti. They had four sons, each of whom was given one share of the landno, ore was a daughter with an angkap husband, who had no children (mat mate) and their share reverted back to the eldest line. These three lines then became the three lineages in Kramil. Withir. the narration of this story (which was in fact the preface to an explanation of the lineage structure) the speaker has "slipped" from a four-way to a three-way division by reading the angkap pair out

of the village history. As was explained in Chapter 4, this slippage is from a political quadripartite structure (the sarak opat) to a tripar-

tite lineage structure. Of interest to the present discussion is the representation of the uxorilocal alternative as a non-reproductive one, where the share of property allotted to the uxorilocally-marri! daughter eventually reverted to the brothers' lines. Anotter mythic form of representation of the angkap marriage as

unstable occurs in the origin myths for several districts, where a daughter is married angkap and given the heirlooms to hold. She and her

husband eventually steal away to his natal area, taking these possessions wit! them. These myths are both about expansion of Gayo society and the rxstable nature of the uxorilocal marriage. Note that uxorilocal marriages are represented as internally non-reproductive, because they do cot give rise to lineages, but externally significant, in

300

accounting for expansion and the founding of lineages in other districts. Two tensions within the discourse of vertical transfers thus present themselves. One is between the morilocally-grounded continuity of material support (a strategic discourse and practice) and an ideology of lineage continuity through patrifillation (a relatively official discourse, tied to political rhetoric and often referred to by the maxim: "a buffalo fro the outside cannot lead the others"). The second tension is a different aspect of the first, yet cross-cuts it. This tension lies between the rule of transfer of property within the lineage and the value given to patrilateral ties by en who marry out. The second tension has both a property dimension ad a political dimension to it. The political dimension was discussed in Chapter 6; men who have married out of their lineage are often borrowed back to become headman, without changing domicile. The above instance illustrates how these political ties may reinforce and be reinforced by inheritance rights and guardian status. In the following sections we shall consider the nature of the marriage payments'by which access to vertical transfers is obtained, and the distinctions within these payments between gifts, becuests, and an official division of the estate. These distinctions, it turns out, provide another point of social and ideological tension into which the reformist-inspired court system has intruded.

301

HARRIAGE PAYBEKTS

Included in the category of horizontal transfers of property are the exchanges between the bride's and groom's sides persuant to a marriage. I use the term "bridewealth" to cover all goods given from the groom's side to the bride's. I make a further distinction between fixed bridwealtb, called dt or unyuq, and variable bridewealth. Fixed

bridewealth consists of a payment or payments which legitimize the transfer of the bride's domicile from her natal village or village subdivision to that of her husband. Variable bridewealth is a set of payments the nature and amount of which are determined by implicit or explicit bargaining between the two sides. There are a number of other payments that have been made pursuant to a marriage, some of which are still made in lsak. which are not critical to the issues discussed here. Finally, 1 will employ the term "bride goods" to refer to the Gayo category of tempah, goods which accompany the bride to her new village, but

remain under the control of ber natal lineage.

Bridevealtb
In Isak today the category of variable bridewealth consists of two categories: teniron ("that which is requested") and mahar (Arabic for

bridewealth). 7eniroc consists of objects and money asked for by the bride's parents or the bride. During the period of my stay in Isak part of this payment wis in the form of money (from 50,000 to 200,000 rupiah.

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ly

302
hereafter written Rp 200,000).2 Household goods were also often requested (in descending order of frequency: a metal four-post bed, a sewing machine (Butterfly brand), and a wooden wardrobe-chest). Kater buffalo, usually 2-4 years old, are sometimes included in the larger payments. The amount of the payments is the outcome of bargaining between the two sides. The girl's side begins with an amount that depends on their true feelings towards the match and their estimate of the groom's side's ability and willingness to pay. Often the bargaining session is used as an indirect way of refusing a proposal without being seen as "too choosy". Either party can then retreat to an account of the session that imputes exclusively monetary motivations to the positions taken by the two sides, e.g., "tbey did not refuse us, only asked too much." Sometimes, however, the boy's parents accept an unreasonably high offer, surprising the bride's side, but thereby showing their good intentionsin and of itself, this willingness softens the heart of the girl's father towards the marriage. The goods that make up the teoiroo

are carried to the girl's village by members of the boy's lineage, and at the ceremony that ensues the date of the wedding is set. The second variable bridewealth payment, the mahar, is requested

by the girl herself, and is given to her at the moment of the wedding. This payment is interpreted as making the marriage legitimate in terms of Islamic law; it only began to be paid in the 19S0's. In lsak the mahar is usually in gold, 10-20 grams, but reformist Gayo in town will

* The rupiah was traded by banks at about Kp 450 to 1 US dollar during my stay; the rate is currently at over kp 900 to the dollar).

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303

often request a Qur'an or, following the example of Muhammad, the repetition of one of the shorter verses from the Qur'an for a specified number of timet. Fixed bridewealth was paid in Isak up to the mid-1950's and was based on the office held by the girl's father. The V f ' t or unyuq was set at Rp 120 for the daughter of a commoner, Rp 130 for the daughter of a headman's assistant {petu) or religious leader (iaec), Rp 150 if her

father was the village headman, and Rp 400 in the case of a ruler or religious official at the district or sub-district level.* This payment was made only at the time that the couple decided to change their lineage affiliation to that of the husband. In some cases this change took

place several days after the wedding, in which case the payment was mad before the wedding. In Isak, however, the couple generally resided for and leaving

the first year with the bride's parents, only paying dt after that period.

In some cases this payment was made 5-10 years

thereafter, and the children born to the couple before such a payment had been made either remained in the wife's village or else a payment was made to redeem them {tebus uaris). Additional payments were mad to

the members of the bride's and the groom's villages. These payments, called penesoh ("leaving") and penesah ("legitimating"), were used to

buy small bits of gambir, a substance chewed with betel and sirib, which

* These set amounts were noted in rupiah, which were equivalent to Dutch florins or guilders in the colonial period. In the 1950's, these bridewealth amounts were noted at the old rates, but the actual payments were multiplied several times, or the old coins were used (which had become quite valuable after Independence). In the 1930's a rupiah or florin would purchase 1 tern of unmilled rice (a local measure equivalent to 10 modern bambu). The same quantity of rice cost Rp 3,700 in 1983.

'l"

304

were distributed, one to each villager, as a sign that the couple had left or entered the village as full members.

Escorting and Bride Goods

While the payment of bridewealth establishes the right of the couple to establish their domicile in the husband's village, it is the bride goods that redefine the relation between the wife and her natal lineage in terms of an exchange relation between the two lines. These goods accompany the girl as she is escorted to the boy's residence, and are collectively termed tempah. The goods function as the material sign (from the verb n ' o ' s or oanas, "to

of the escorting itself, the tnsn

escort, pass on to a destination".) These goods continue to be held by the wife after the marriage, and are not subject to claims by her husband or his lineage. Her natal lineage retains the right to claim these goods upon her death and re-bestow them upon her children. The objects that make up the bride goods come from two sources. First, some of tbe bridewealth is converted into bride goods. If more than one buffalo was included in the bridewealth, one of the is generally returned as part of the tempah. Today, the teoiroo usually

includes several kinds of household goods which may also become bride goods. Secondly, the wife's parents add new goods to tbe tempah. These

goods may be tokens of their role in escorting the girl to the husband's village, rather than sizeable additions to her household wealth. The nature of these payments has changed very little, as is illustrated by the following two case*.

305

(1) In 1936, Aman Wali of Kute Kramil married a girl from Robel. He paid Rp 100, 10 grams of gold, 2 buffalo and a set of clothes. One of the buffalo was then given to the girl aS f her tempah, along with Rp 15. called the "head of the payment (uJwn-unyuq), or the returned portion. Her father added to these goods 1 t e r n of rice and "everything needed for outf.cting the Kitchen": a dozen plates, cups and spoons, a rice ladle, salt, etc. (2) A marriage from a village downstream from Isak to Rerawak, one of the five Isak villages, took place in 1970 and involved tempah. Tne total bridewealth was Rp 75,000 and a set of 1/2 dozen kitchen items. For the tempah the girl's father returned the kitchen goods to her, and added 3 1/2 dozen more. A third case illustrates the role played by levels of bridewealth in the arriage negotiations. The amounts mentioned in the bargaining process serve to shape attitudes towards the other party as well as to set a level of exchange. Aaan Cddin of Uning (towards the town from Isak) was approached by a man from another village witha proposal for marriage between the man's son and Aman Uddin s daughter. Aman tddin tnought that the man had toe much more wealth than he did for them to become in-laws, and that he would be far ere comfortable with someone who was about of the same wealth as he. So Aman Uddin at first put the man off. The man came a second tiiae, however, and Aman tddin proposed a very high level of bridewealth as an indirect was of refusing the match. Far from backing off, the man accepted the level, and added an extra dozen kitchen items to show how much he wanted the girl as his daughter-in-law (kuJ n-atu). Aman Cddin then had no choice but to accept the man's proposal, but he asked around afterwards and found out that his future in-law was a good man after all, and so he did not feel bad about it (ues n-ate). The bridewealth consisted of Rp 200,000, 30 grams of gold, a bed and a cozen kitchen items, to which the groom s added another dozen. As bride goods Aman tddin gave the bed and utensils that he had received from the groom s father, and then visited his neighbors and relatives in the village to ask for contributions. He get quite a few glasses in this way, one from each family, and sent a rice pot and some mats as well. He h a ' d clearly "planted goodwill" (nyuuen budi) in the past and so did well; some people get nothing.

306

In Isak today marriages are rarely followed by tnsn

and bride

goods are rarely given. At those escorting ceremonies which I attended in other districts as many as 100 men and women of all ages accompanied the bride to her new residence; the escorting itself is referred to as:

"Ike banan, tenmng ni pumu; ike rawan, jenujung ni ulu (Women are carrying something with their hands; men are carrying something on their heads). The escorting is clearly a meaningful event, but there is considerable disagreement over what its meaning is. One view, which I take to be the older one, is that the escorting and bride goods are a material sign of the relation of the parents to their daughter and thereby serve to preserve that relation. The other view, which 1 take to be a postreformist reinterpretation of the ritual, is that these events break the parent-daughter tie, cutting the daughter off from her rights to parental property. While older Gayo will point to the sorrow that accompanies the separation of a girl from her parents (a sorrow that is evident in the ritual weeping that is presented in Chapter 8 ) , they do not draw fro this emotional and subjective crisis a moral and legal dissolution of the parent-daughter tie. The newer View does so. In the first view, the bride goods which accompany the daughter function as the sign of a formal tie between the girl's natal lineage, her "source" (raJiq), ju'Ji'n). and herself and (especially) her children (anak

As one informant put it:

307
Tempah is given to create a bond from the juln to her source, and for her descendants as well, so that in the future they can return to their raliq village, so that they can walk in their natal house. The goods consist of one each of what you need for cooking: 1 ladle, 1 plate, 1 iron pan, 1 cup, etc., but no money. It is a small thing but it has important consequences. It makes it possible to bring the juln descendants back as if they were a normal branch of the source line ("lagu tangk biasa") so that the tie does not snap, the bridge doesn't break (tali gr metus, totor gr mupolok) We should note the "symbolic" form in which this man presented the tempah, as consisting of one of each good--in fact, as we have seen, the

composition of the prestation is much more "practical" (6 glasses, 1 ladle, etc.), but this enumeration is part of a discourse about leaning rather than a discourse about the usefulness of the objects, and thus the goods are given a minimally practical, and thus maximally significant number. In this account, the meaningfulness of the goods stems from their role as representing the tie between the mother's natal line and the sister's children. This tie stands against the countervailing exclusive claim of the husband's line to the children, and is ritually made most salient at the time of the mother's death. At that time, the claim by the mother's "source" line on the bride goods is activated, and is represented as a continuing tie between the source line and their sister's children. The explanation that was quoted above continues with an account of the rebestowing of the bride goods after the wife's death.

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Now, when alive you are escorted, when dead the goods are brought oat" (ike nvrip betns, ike mat bebds). This showing of the goods (bds) is the bride goods once again, but after the juln woman has died. The source line is called to come to the village as a political unit, i.e., with their headman. At that time, the items which had originally bees brought as tempah (or their replacements if they have worn out) and her children by the marriage are formally surrendered to the headman by the husband's lineage, saying: here is the bds, if you want to take it back, do so. The ritual should take place 44 days after the woman's death (after the final death ritual). Often the goods are not actually brought ont, especially if the source lineage is far away.* If the source lineage wants to take back the goods, they can do so. Such action would mean that they have broken the tie between the two lines as raliq and juln: "the tie has snapped, the bridge has broken, no more is there a measure of rice and a needle between us."' If this break takes place in tens of the goods, then they also "buy back" the children (tebus waris) by paying Rp 25,000 to the guardian of each child and bringing the child to the source lineage. The juln lineage cannot prevent them from so doing, since "what is pawned we redeem, what is laid down we snatch up" (ike garal kite tebas, ike pari kite Mten).

Usually, however, the representatives of the source line return tie objects immediately after being given the. There then continues to be a tie between the two lineages, and the goods are passed on to the children. The tie may be reaffirmed by formal prestations (mah atur) at marriages, between the descendants of the two lines. According to older informants in Isak, up to the 1930's the rebestoval of tie bride goods was accompanied by the killing of the buffalo that had made np part of the tempah and its joint consumption by the two sides. The juln side would speak of the woman who had just died,

* A token of the bride goods, e.g., a cloth, may be given to the source line in any case. * These objects were carried to the source lineage, when the arried-out woman gave birth, as a sign of the birth.

309
reciting in fixed speech forms the steps of her marriage up to her death, and then saying that the buffalo out to be eaten is the very same buffalo that had been given alccg with ber, that it had had no offspring, and is now to be killed aid eaten. In most cases, of course, the tempah

buffalo was long dead and had jtany offspring, but in this way the is represented as having been returned in fell.

Moreover, up to five

people could perform this ritual together, each intending the same buffalo for his own deceased wife or mother, often many years after their death and after tie presenting of the goods had actually taken place.' On the day after the feast, large stones were carried to the grave(s) to be placed next to the smaller headstones that had already been set in place at the seven-day mortuary ritual. The ritual as a whole is called, even now, dirin informants (meaning atu, "setting up the stone". Younger

those in tte f r 50's) remember the buffalo sacrifice

but not the setting up of the larger stones. Tbey explain what thus appears to be a strange name for a buffalo feast by saying that the feast accomplished the same thing as the serentb-day stone placement (which is still carried out in Isak), that is, the cooling off of the deceased.

' Vote that the water buffalo is killed by the sister's husband's lineag and eaten by both parties together. Moreover, the buffalo may stand for several bride goods "sseffalo in ticse cases where the ritual is performed for several wooer, at once. It is thus not the return of the buffalo which is emphasized in the ritual, but rather its removal from the category of L-ide goods and thus the ending of the claim by the source line on tie sister's children. In this interpretation, it is the killing and eating of the buffalo rather tn*n its return that is communicated by the ritual. It is aotewortby that, whereas other goods must be presented or substituted for in the nuncers originally given, one buffalo may stand for many others.

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In this view of the prestations, then, the teepah

is part of a

cycle of reciprocity, and is a sign of the continuing relation between the two lines. It is also the sign of the reproduction of that relation in the following generation, since by receiving and then rebestowing the bride goods on the children of the marriage, the raliq represents itself

as source line to them as well. Definitive affiliation of the children to the lineage of their father depends on the completion of these exchanges. Only after the source lise has acknowledged this affiliation by the rebestowal nay the children legitimately receive inheritance.' This view, espoused by older informants, is in contrast to the opinion that tnsn and teepah in fact cut off a girl from her parents.

Statements similar to the following were often heard from informants in their 40's and SO's. The objection to the escorting and payment of bride goods is frequently based on the prior determination of rights in Islamic lav. Tnsn means that the bridge is broken, that the bride has beer, "sold" (ijuln) and has already been given her share of the parents' wealth, and cannot demand a further share when it is divided up after their death. This situation is in coo* flict with Islamic rules of inheritance, and shortly after Independence -cases were brought to court, where the descendants of such wonen asked for their share, and they got it. So. people began to be wary of giving wealth in teepah, since they could be "hit" again for sere wealth later on. Bds is also in conflict with Islam, because by surrendering the teepah to the raliq and r i . t r - receiving it once again, the claim to an additional share cf the wealth is given up for the children of the marriage as well. Bridewealth itself, however, is not a problem, it mar.es the marriage happen, but tnsn makes it seem as if the woman were sold.

' Barnes 1980 describes the widespread presence of this rule in Eastern Indonesia; see also Valeri 1980.

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311 This reinterpretation of the meaning of marriage payments in terms of Islam will be discussed further in the final section of the chapter. First, however, we will turn to the current interpretations of these payments in Isak.

A SLIDING SCALE OF UXORILOCALITY

The nature and amount of bridewealth payments are signs of the set of rights and obligations that are expected to accompany the marriage. In particular, these payments indicate the expected eventual domicile of the couple and the degree of support which they will give to each set of parents. Labels of angkap and juelen are used and modified in order to

express particular combinations of these obligations. The payments often serve as signs in the absence of other, visible indications of the precise status of the marriage. In Isak today, many

couples live in the shop area located between the villages, and therefore do not indicate domicile by virtue of their physical residence. Moreover, a temporary domicile in one village may be either the first step leading eventually to a virilocal marriage (if a higher bridewealth is later paid to the wife's parents), or a commitment by the couple to continue to support the wife's parents for the remainder of their lives. In Isak, at least from the 1930's up until now, a couple did indeed remain with the wife's parents for the first year following the marriage. In some of these cases the original intent was clearly to change lineage affiliation at the end of this period; in others the decision was taken later, and the marriage at first labeled angkap.

312 The following table lists the bridewealth payments for each first marriage which occured during my stay, as well as a short form of the Table 21: Bridwealth Payeents and Carriage Label

No.

Teniron

Kahar (gold) 15 grams

Carriage juln

Label

1) Rp 90.000, Rp 200,000 in goods. 2) Rp 200,000, 1 buffalo 3) Rp 100,000, Rp 50,000 in goods ; 1 buffalo 4) Rp 225,000 in goods 5 Rp 80,000, 50,000 in goods, 1 buffalo

5 grams 15 grams 20 grams (?) 10 grams 10 grams

juln juln, no tempah (or) angkap, no restrictions juln, support for VP angkap temporarily, later juln angkap, no fixed domicile

6) Rp 75.000, Rp 100,000 in goods 7) Rp 60,000, Rp 50.0Q0 in goods 8) Rp 80,000, (possibly with goods) 9) Rp 50,000 10) (debt of) Rp 80,000, Rp 40,000 in goods 11) (no payments)

(no label) angkap, no fixed domicile

20 grams

10 grams 15 grams (n.a.)

angkap, fixed domicile idem

ide

label and conditions attributed to the marriage by informants. When the eleven marriages ar<- ranked in terms of the approximate total value of the teniron, the marriage types form a continuum, from to those that are clearly angkap,

the marriages that are clearly juln

with a number of modified and ambiguous cases lying in between. The-

313 variable bridewealth payment thus appears to have taken on the function of encoding and representing the implications of the marriage. These implications include temporary and eventual domicile, material support, and the affiliation of the children. These features are now indicated by the nature and amount of the bridewealth payments. The cases at either end of the above table are relatively unambiguous; in both the clearly angkap and the clearly juln cases, there

was a clear formulation of the obligations attached to the marriage that was agreed on by both sides. Very often, maxims about these obligations are recited at the wedding as part of the formal exchange of words between the two sides. In the case of a virilocal marriage the husband's side may announce: "if they leave we will search for them, if they die we will claim revenge" (ike bloh iperahi, ike eat ituntut). This

statement expresses both the complete responsibility of the lineage for the couple and the obligation of the couple to remain with the lineage. In the case of an unambiguously uxorilocal marriage (such as marriages 10 and 11 above), a phrase such as "support while (they) live, burying (them) when (they) die" (penurip eurip, penanom eat) underlines the

obligation of the couple to remain in the lineage for the lifetime of the parents, and also indicates that children from the marriage will be affiliated to the wife's lineage. However, marriages which were perceived as in between these two poles were subject to differing interpretations and labels. Two features of these marriages contributed to their ambiguous status. First, the absence of the tnsn escorting ritual in lsak means that there is marriage; some say that this absence

no clear positive sign of a juln

314
means that all marriages are now in some sense angkap. Secondly, most

of these intermediate marriages do not require that the couple be definitively domiciled in the wife's village and that their children be affiliated to that lineage. A couple which begins married life with uxorilocal domicile may change their domicile after several years even if they continue to provide material support to the wife's parents. Or, they nay continue to be uxorilocally domiciled (which would also imply the matrilateral affiliation of their children) but these relations are not explicit conditions of the intermediate marriages. Marriage 3 was interpreted in contrasting ways, as relatives of the bride and groom drew on different features of the marriage to characterize it. In the passage quoted below the marriage is contrasted with another marriage which had occured shortly beforehand, in which Ridvan was the groom (Marriage 10). In describing Marriage 3, a close relative of the bride told e that the couple "is neither angkap nor juln because tbejr can go anywhere they like (1 si senang)." But then she added: "Really, all marriages are angkap nowadays but Sidwan's marriage is more so than this one, because the bridewealth (teniron) is less, so they must remain with her parests, while in this case tbey are freer to leave whenever the? want to do so." A different interpretation was provided by tbe boy's father, who expected the couple to stay with the girl's parents for the first year. Be said that they should do so "so that their hearts will not be sad, since she has been their daughter 'fron small to grown, short to tall', and so there will be no resentment later on over it." He labeled the marriage as juln, because the couple will then cost* to live with him, axA the children from the marriage will be in his lineage. But there will be no bride goods, because be did want to create a tie in that way with the wife's parents, nor to have the obligation to give back the goods after the wife's death.

315
Each party drew on the several available signs of marriage to draw a different conclusion about the marriage type. The bride's relatives focused on the absence of bride goods to show that all marriages are now really angkap, aai thus highlighted the enduring relations and obliga-

tions of the couple towards the wife's parents (even while remarking that the marriage entailed no long-lasting obligations of uxorilocal domicile). The groom's father, on the other band, pointed to the eventual affiliation of children as the defining feature of the marriage as julo {even while remarking that no bride goods were to be given). The

father explained the incongruity of not giving bride goods in a marriage labeled as jula by claiming that he did want the tie with the wife's

family; in fact, no recent marriages within Isak have involved the giving of bride goods. The groom's father provided an explanation for this absente as if it were a matter of individual decision rather than a general change in marriage practice. In the cases of marriages 5 and 6, the marriage was labeled as angkap, but the term was interpreted as implying that more material

support would be given to the wife's parents than to the husband's, even tbougfa the couple might move oat of the wife's natal village. The support conditions were thus highlighted at the expense of the domicile conditions of an angkap marriage. Marriage 7 was represented as the middle case. At the wedding there were explicit statements that the marriage was to be considered "neither angkap nor juln . - . divide what you get equally between your parents here and your parents there

316

Marriage 9, although generally referred to as angkap,

gave rise to

an interesting dialogue concerning the possibility of labeling the marriage at all. The bridewealth (teniron) paid in the marriage was Rp

80,000, "just so that there would be a tie between the families" (said a friend of mine who was relatively neutral in the marriage). She went on

to say that the boy bad been angkap to the girl's village. I then asked two women from the boy's village about that, which led to the following exchange:

(A:) Yes, he will be angkap by the marriage. (B.her daughter:) Really, the two of them can go where they want to, no one will stop them . . . (A:) Yes, so it is not really angkap or jucln. (E:) Well, the bridewealth was not very much even though you cannot say it is angkap or ju'Jn, so I would say . . . The implication of the final speaker is that the marriage is angkap in virtue of the bridewealth being low, although the usually implied feature of such a marriage, fixed domicile, does not apply. This situation of category ambivalence gives rise to these exchanges, in which the suitability of the two labels is discussed, but the issue is not resolved. But although there is disagreement over the label applicable

to a marriage, there is general agreement over how "angkap-like or "juln-like" the marriage is. It is clear from the above cases that bridewealth amounts are currently perceived by villagers as signs of the category to which a particular marriage ought to be assigned. I find

that the following ordering of these features is useful in understanding their relationships in Isak. The first feature is that which indicates a "most jucln marriage" while the last is that whose absence indicates

a "most angkap marriage." The features therefore form an ordered set.

fejTnath'-firiiT'WiiiMatnftiiiiri^

317

with the presence of one feature implying the presence of all those below it. Figure IS: Hierarchy of tlarriage Features in Isak

1) Formal raliq/juln relation established. 2) Fixed affiliation to husband's line. 3) No support obligations to wife's parents. 4) No "penurip murip" obligations to wife's parents. 5) No permanent domicile clause with wife's lineage.

This ordering of marriage features and their signification by the amount of variable bridewealth represents a significant change from the situation found in Isak earlier in the century. We must now turn to the nature of these changes and the new interpretations of marriage, inheritance, and value that informed them.

CHANGING TRANSFERS: HISTORY, STRUCTURE, AND LAV

Marriage Payments from 1900 to

1978

The earliest period in Gayo history for which we have interesting first-hand accounts is the 1920's and 1930's. It was during this period that the first Dutch administrators wrote accounts of the situation during their term of office, the ftemorie van Overgave. It is also the

earliest period remembered by older Gayo who are living today. For the

318 period before 1920 our virtually sole source is the set of the interviews conducted in 1900-01 by the Dutch advisor for Islamic affairs, C. Snouck Hurgronje, whose work was discussed earlier. As I explained there, most of Snouck's information, and certainly all of its ' depth, came from the answers and texts provided by two men, Aman Ratus from Blangkejeren and Teungku (Nyaq) Putih from Kute Ryem in Isak. Hence, the ethnography that resulted from these interviews as well as the companion dictionary produced three years later by G.A.J. Hazeu (1907) undoubtedly best reflect the social situation in those two districts at the time of writing. I have never found the text to be

clearly "wrong" with regard to Isak matters, only interestingly divergent from present accounts; moreover, Teungku Putih is still held in great esteem by Isak residents as a man who understood local tradition well. Entries in the 1907 dictionary which refer to the inheritance and marriage exchanges contain little reference to the formal categories of Islamic law. Inheritance is variably referred to by the following three terms or sets of terms: 1) tenar ing ("that left behind"), the verb taring with an infixed (-en-). The word is commonly used today in Isak, e.g., tenaring n'amangku ("that left behind by my (deceased) father"). 2) bagi, perbagn, (respectively "share; already divided"), as in the common phrase tanoh perbagn, ("land divided up among heirs"). 3) man ah, pesaka, harta: all words that may be glossed s "wealth of the inheritable sort".

319 The meanings and examples provided in Hazeu's dictionary for these terms are virtually identical to those of today. Several other words which are used widely today do not appear in the dictionary. One such term is waris. This loan-word from Arabic is generally used today to to refer to some-

mean "successors" or "heirs", and, in the form warisan

thing inherited from or given by one's parents. Oddly, the word appears in the index to the dictionary but not in the text, nor in the ethnography of the period (Snouck Hurgronje 1903a). It probably only began to

be used as part of the generally greater reference to Islamic law that began in the 1920's. In a second case, a Gayo term appears to have undergone a semantic shift between 1900 and today. The word hukum (Arabic: law) appears in the dictionary with the general sense of "law, rule". Sometimes it is used in reference to Islamic law; in other examples it refers to a rule of Gayo traditional law. In no cases does it refer to inheritance.

This word currently has the meaning of "Islamic law vis-a-vis traditional rules", usually counterposed to the word dt ("traditions,

traditional rules, authority"). When specific reference to the laws of inheritance is intended, this word is usually coupled with the term pera'il (Arabic fara'id: "distributive shares in an estate") to mean

"the body of law dealing with inheritance shares." In the 1907 dictionary, however, the word pera'II is given the gloss of "to rule over terpra'il aku ( " I couldn't terhukum

someone", as in the exemplary phrase: gr

make him do anything") which would today be phrased as: gr aku.

A semantic change has evidently taken place that suggests the

centrality of inheritance law to the general discourse about lav and

--

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aiia-MiMtiM

320

rules.

Vhile in 1900 pera'j]

meant rule or command in general, and the

term hukum

referred to specific positive law or regulation, today the refers to a specific kind of

relation is reversed, and the term pera'il

hukum.
Two key words that today refer to marriage exchange do not appear in the 1907 dictionary. The first is mahar, which designates a direct The intro-

payment to the bride rather than to members of her lineage.

duction of this term appears to have been part of a general shift in tbe meaning of marriage payments which we shall document below. term is tnsn or its verbal forms nettes. The second

In Snouck Kurgronje's depic-

tion of the events of marriage (which otherwise seems complete when viewed from contemporary accounts of earlier practice), the escorting of the bride to her husband's house in a virilocal marriage is not a significant event in itself. Certainly this account contrasts with the car-

rent status of the escorting as establishing the exchange relation between luv line. It *> be that it was only with the emergence of a marriage that a special term vas

possible "loosely-doasiciled" yet ju'Jn

required to indicate cases where domicile was definitely fixed by the act of escorting.* From the late 1920*s into the mid-1950's, marriage payments remained stable in form. Fixed bridewealth, or dt, was fixed by tbe

rank of the girl's father (see above), while variable payments made to the girl's parents consisted of buffalo, money, clothes and jewelry.

It is also possible that the term may have sicply escaped inclusion in the dictionary, but, given the assiduousness of tbe compiler, this explanation of tbe lacuna is not very likely.

,^^.^,,ir.^i^:>^w...^:^....^.,,,,.^^

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321

In a marriage held in the 1930's that was typical of the period, the groom's family gave to the bride's the following objects: lCi rupiah (in the form of Dutch florins), 1 water buffalo, a silver belt decorated with Spanish silver dollars, and 5 chains, similarly decorated, worn around the wrist. The grooa was angkap by this marriage; the above objects were all, in our teres, thus classed as "variable bridewealth". Eleven years later the husband paid an additional 20 rupiah, which brought the total sum paid up to 120 rupiah, the correct amount of fixed bridewealth for a commoner's daughter. He was said to have paid fixed bridewealth (br dt) by the payment of the Rp 20. lie then brought his wife back to his natal village, Eute Krasil. Beginning in the late 1920's, the entire system of horizontal and vertical transfers began to be criticized by Gayo advocates of reform in Islam. Tbe larger context of tbe reformist critique of social institu-

tions and religious practice was provided in Chapter 3. Two aspects of marriage exchange came under the reformist fire. The first was tbe practice of tnsn, which, said some, had the effect

of cutting off a woman from those who were, from an Islamic perspective, her primary kinsmen. dians (wali) This escorting made her relationship to her guarThese authorities saw the payment of fixed

broken <r.as).

bridewealth as the counterpart of that social rupture, as a child-price given to the parents so that they would consent to the taking away of their child. Furthermore, this "breaking tbe bridge" bad the further

consequence that the daughter could not receive what was, in this view, her rightly share of the estate. These leaders thus urged that tbe

payment of fixed bridewealth and the practice of escorting be eliminated. Variable bridewealth, however, was conceived of as a request for

money to help pay for tbe costs of the feast and was thus considered to be acceptable.

322 Xarriage itself was reinterpreted by reformists as primarily a

contract between the husband and wife, rather than a transfer of rights betweer lineages. Based on this interpretation of marriage as contract betweer individuals, one reformist demand was that a payment be made directly to the bride. This payment, the mahar, was interpreted as the material sign of legitimation of the marriage. It was given by the

groom to the bride, and thus signified the direct relationship between the two parties to the marriage. The marriage formula which had been used in the 1930's and 1940's had in fact included the term mahar in the phrase " . . . atas mahar setail sepa" ("with a mahar of 1 1/2 rupiah"). However, this formula was merely spoken, and no material payment was made.' One interpretation of the former situation was offered to me by the local district religious official, a man who combines a relatively traditional orientation with a "scriptural ist" religious training. His version of the difference between chen and now was that: "mahar and dt pronocaced and dt were one then; mahar was

was paid." However, in the first part of the cen-

tury the term appears not to have been in use (judging from its absence from the 1907 dictionary), and its verbal inclusion in the marriage ceremcay was not thought by reformists to have been equivalent to "being one" with the payment of dt. I would conclude that before

* The notional unit of a tail appears to have served as a sort of floating signifier in Gayo legal discourse. Vhen used in a contract or in the formulae pertaining to a payment or obligation it allowed the evenm.1 sum paid to be determined later on in terms of a consensus as to wLst was an appropriate amount given the matter at hand and the ability f each party to pay. The same disjunction between a fixed notional amouiii and a variable and adjusted real payment also appears in the setting of the dt payment (see above).

^^,,.>....^.^......^^^

Indepedence, mahar was a word that had found its way into the formula of marriage, but did not yet constitute a category in the system of transfers. I interpret the religious official's version of this history as a reinterpretation of the former exchange structure in post-Independence terms. After Independence, the Dutch administrative office of Zelfbestuurder (occupied by the Kejumn) was replaced by a district officer, selected by the head of the negeri (see Chapter 3). The dis-

trict officer, eventually known as Casat, held a greater degree of real power during the 19S0's, a period of civil unrest and political uncertainty, than he does today. The first district officer for Isak was an influential local man who had spent several years in reformist-leaning religious schools. He used his new post to insist that marriage customs which were at odds with Islam be discontinued. Specifically, be

directed that the formal escorting of the bride be discontinued, and that mahar be paid. The outcome of these changes was to preserve the overall amount of the marriage payments while complying with the new directives. Tbe amount of money which had heretofore been paid as fixed bridewealth (dt) was reinterpreted as mahar, and became required in all marriages,

whether virilocal (which formerly had required fixed bridewealth payments) or uxorilocal (which had not). In case of uxorilocal marriages

that occured in the mid-1950's, the bride's father paid the mabar to his daughter, although this direct transfer was accomplished by way of the groom in the marriage ceremony so as to conform with the new interpretation of these payments. Even today, the much smaller mahar payments are

324 often paid in this way in uxorilocal marriages. The introduction of the category of mabar, then, did not so much add to the marriage payments as bring about a change in their significance. This new payment was conceived of as a transfer once and for all to the bride that was not contingent on tbe outcome of the marriage, but remained her inalienable property. In the late 1950's the form of these mabar payments began to change from money to gold. This change may have come about as tbe result of a general perception of gold as a more stable store of value (as it is presently seen by Gayo). At the same time, the variable

bridewealth payments were increasingly made in the form of 2 or 3 significant household objects as veil aa a sum of money, as described In the last chaster. However, while in the 1930's these cash payments were interpreted as a substitute for the loss incurred by tbe bride's parents, today tbe money part of the variable bridewealth is seen as a compensation for the costs to be incurred by the bride's family in putting on tbe wedding feast. In fact, the costs born by the groom's side

are almost as great as those born by the bride's side. Moreover, the size of tbe wedding feast does not vary with the amount of the bridewealth. Eat tbe money given as bridewealth is nonetheless expected to be used in putting on the wedding. The household objects included in the bridevealtb are intended for the use of the bride and groom, and will be converted to bride goods if the marriage is virilocal (despite the absence of tbe formal escorting ceremony) or remain with the couple in the wife's residence if the marriage remains uxorilocal.

I J

Ti
325

The symbolic function of the buffalo in these payments has, however, changed since the 1930's. given as a penurip, In the earlier period, the buffalo was

a "means of support" for the girl's parents. A

buffalo was requested by the wife' side if the grooo's facily was thought to be able to afford it. The marriage could become a virilocal one even without including a buffalo in the bridewealth. Today, the buffalo is also often referred to as a penurip, but, for those marriages

which are not clearly virilocal or uxorilocal, its inclusion in the bridewealth serves as a sign that the couple bave been freed of the obligation to support the wife's parents. In any of these marriages, a

buffalo is not included in the bridewealtb, and the couple is obliged to support the wife's parents, with the proviso that if the couple were to leave the wife's parents and not contisce their material support, a payment would be made of 1 or 2 buffalo. The buffalo portion of the marriage payment has taken on one meaning of the former 'd't, that of

sanctioning the transfer of domicile out of the village and ending the material obligations towards the wife's parents. I have indicated above some of tae changes in the meaning of marriage payments over the period under ttody. It is also possible that the relative amount of these payments has c&anged, and that the changes in meaning are related to changes in the exchange value of the bridewealtb goods. Comparisons of bridewealth levels are difficult, for several

reasons: (a) the marriage categories have changed; (b) the relative weighting of objects (primarily buffalo and money) in the payments bas altered, and fc) the choice of a standard of comparison may significantly affect the outcome of the comparison. With these difficulties in

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326 mind, let me first present a time-series of prices for four commodities over the period 1938-1978. Ve will then be able to use this series to make some statement about changes in bridewealth levels over tbese years. The table below presents prices in rupiah for four commodities in eight years. I selected rice as the first commodity to be examined. On the one hand, rice is the basic foodstuff, and some baying and selling of rice has always taken place. Rice may be the most accurate standard by which to measure the value of money. Buffalo were chosen as a significant element In the marriage payment (and the single most important store of surplus wealth in land-poor Isak), and cloth and sugar as two additional frequently purchased commodities over the period in question (other commodities which are important now, such as kerosene, were not purchased in substantial quantities in the 1930's). Tbe standards used were: 1) Rice: the price of a standard tern measure of milled, uncooked rice, equivalent to 10 modern bambu berm. 2) Cloth: the price of an average quality wrap-around man's or woman's sarung cloth. 3) Buffalo: a standard "koro sara ngi", a buffalo with one younger sibling, meaning 2-4 years old, the usual size given in a marriage payment. 4) Sugar: 1 kg. of white sugar, the preferred sweetener for coffee despite the availability of cheaper palm sugar. I asked several informants for their recollections of prices for each of the above four commodities during each of tbe periods listed in

i.j

lfcA

the table." The years listed indicate rough periods, not precise 12-month periods: "1938" in the table is a sussoation of tbe phrase used to ask for information: "the period several years before the Japanese

invasion (which occured in 1942); "1944" is "the year before Independence (1945)", and so on. Data for 1978 and 1983 are based on my

Table 22: Isak Prices

of Four Commodities,

1938 to

1983

____^
Year Rice 1936 1944 1948 19SS 1962 1970 1974 1978 1983 I

Prices by Commodity Buffalo (rupiah) Cloth Sugar

15 20 20

2
100
n.a.

.1

2
2.5
20

.15
.2
n.a. n.a.

200
5,000 20,000 25,000 60,000 120,000

25 25

250 375
1,000 3,000 3,700

500
1,000 2.000 2,500

200 250 300 400

own observations. The table shows a slow price inflation from the 1930's into the period immediately following Independence, with a constant rate of

" No official price data are available for Isak daring the early periods, but the figures used here are consistent with, although not identical to, available figures for Takengoc and Aceh from the colonial period.

....K^......^^..^.^...^,-,.;.^^

326 exchange between rice, buffalo and sugar, and a rapid rise and fall in the price of cloth. In fact, the Japanese embargo of Indonesia during World War II made cloth, which had been almost entirely imported, virtually unavailable. Isak residents told me of wearing clothes made froa gunny or even from tree bark during this period. During the next period, characterized by the clashes between rebels and government troop (1953-62), buffalos became increasingly scarce, a fact generally attributed to stealing by troops on both sides of the conflict (but particularly by the rebels). Given the importance of buffalo as a store of value in Isak, it is of some interest to examine the relation of buffalo prices to rice prices. Figure 16: Buffalo Prices as Kultiple of Sice Prices, 193B-1S7B, Isak

lViS '44 'gB

T5 Tear

*6T'70

*75

*78 * "

The figure charts the change in slope of the buffalo price curve rela-

329

tive to the rice curve for this period; a steady rise in the two goods (meaning a steady price ratio of about 1:10) would yield a straight line running at 45 degrees. What the figure shows is that buffalo prices rose very fast relative to rice prices in the 1950's and early 1960's, and then rose more slowly than did rice thereafter. The leveling off of the

curve in the 1970's is attributable to the rapid rise in rice prices in Indonesia beginning at that time. By the 1970's, then, water buffalo

had become very expensive items for bridewealth. It is not surprising that the presence or absence of a buffalo in a payment has been directly tied to obligations of material support. While comparison of the value of marriage payments between 1938 and 1978 is somewhat problematic (for the reasons given above), it nonetheless gives us some idea of their relative weight in the local economy in the two periods. The following table is based on what appear to be typical bridewealth payments in money, gold, buffalo, and other objects for virilocal marriages in 1938 and in 1978. 1978 is repreI have

sented by Marriage 1 from the earlier list of Isak marriages.

first listed the items given as bridewealth, and then calculated tbe total value of the bridewealth in buffalo units, and then in rice units. Whether it is calculated in terms of buffalo or rice, the value of bridewealth payments appears to have decreased somewhat over the last 50 years. This finding is of interest in light of Gayo concern over what I

has been perceived to be "bridewealth inflation" in the region.

interpret this concern to be the result of the increasing use of cash for bridewealth together with the rapid inflation in the nominal value of this cash.

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330

Tai/e 2J: Value of Brideuealth

in Rice and Buffalo.

1938 and 1978

Value of 1938 (1) Items iocluded: a. cash b. buffalo c. other d. gold Rp 130 1 bead 0 0

Payments 1978 Rp 90,000 0 Rp 200,000 Rp 50,000

(2) Value in

Buffalo:
Rp 12 12 bead Rp 60,000 6 bead Rp 3.000 113 tea

a. Price of aediuasize buffalo b. Value of (1) is buffalo

(3) Value in Sice:

a. Price of 1 tea rice b. Value of (1) in rice Sp 1 142 tea

The relative stability in the total value of bridewealth payment supports ay earlier conclusion that changes in the form and meaning of horizontal transfers have been accomplished by reinterpreting the meaning of aarriage payments, while the total value of the payments has changed relatively little.

Lav, Inheritance,

and the Re interprtt

ion of

Tradition

The development, of Islamic reformist perspectives on transfers of property has led to corresponding changes in the interpretation and allocation of inheritance. Whereas inheritance was formerly conceived of primarily as a transfer of property within the lineage (as the holder of residual rights over the property), the 1950's saw the rise of a new

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331

conception, based on Islasic law, of inheritance as a division of property among persons, without regard for their lineage affiliation. The response of those Gayo who saw the traditional law, 'd't, as a conticuingly viable alternative to Islamic law was to accept the grounds of debate provided by the reformist challengers. Rather than insisting on the lineage structure as a legitimate basis for the distribution of estate property, these traditional authoritiesand the courts which sought to apply traditional law reinterpreted tradition as a relatively equal distribution of goods among descendants. Thus the issue between the two parties became, not one of the traditional systea of descent and carriage versus a individual-centered legal code, but ratber the definition of rights within such a legal code. The Islamic perspective on inheritance focuses on the fixed share ifarida) fara'id). and the laws relating to their just distribution (hukum These rules occupy a aajor part in Islamic jurisprudence, in

keeping with Muhammad's proclamation that "the laws of inheritance are one-half of useful knowledge." These fixed shares are 12 in number, and do not include the sons of the deceased among the named beneficiaries, since the introduction of these shares was in the context of a preexisiting systea of exclusively agnatic inheritance. In Indonesia

(including Cayo) these rules of distribution are popularly interpreted as "2 to l", a half share to daughters and a full share to sons. The other shares (e.g., 1/6 to a widow who has a child, 1/6 to the deceased's father) are oaetiaes awarded by a religious court, but rarely made part of the more frequent distributions by aeabers of the family themselves.

.UJ

332
As we have seen, most distributions of shares in an estate in Isak have not been along Islamic lines; sons and daughters who remained in the lineage received shares of varying amounts, while (with some exceptions) sons and daughters who married out of the lineage received nothing. However, some claims have been made by descendants of a brother or

sister who had aarried out of the lineage and had thus foregone their traditional claims to inheritance. These claims were made possible by

the establishment of an Islamic court, the Mahkamah Syariah, in Takengon. As was mentioned in Chapter 3, Islamic courts were estab-

lished in each regency capital in Aceh in 1946 as part of the resurgence of Islamic power, but these courts were not given governmental sanction until 1937. In any case the rebellion of the 1950's made the assertion of inheritance claims an item of low priority among villagers. Until 197C the Islamic courts in Aceh operated in partial overlap with the secular state court, the Pengadilan Negeri. The latter drew on a combination of traditional law and the legal legacy of the Dutch period to aake decisions. It often happened that a party would follow an

unsuccessful appeal to one of the two courts with an appeal to the other, where the issue would be decided on different grounds. Since

1970 a province-wide agreement between the two courts has given jurisdiction over aatters of family law to the Islamic court system, except insofar as questions of the actual ownership of property arise in a case, which must be referred to the secular court for judgement. The chief justice on the Islamic court in Takengon told me that aost cases that come before them involve claims to part of an estate. The judges may only apply Islamic law, not traditional law, if the case

333

comes to a formal decision and their efforts to have the couple decide the matter between themselves (musyawarah) have not succeeded. I asked

the judge what happened if one party wished to invoke traditional rather than Islamic law in his case: the answer was that they used to then refer them to the state secular court, but now they must decide all inheritance cases themselves. I had the impression that the judges were

happier under the old system, that in fact they would rather see some cases handled according to traditional law. But, when they must make a formal decision, tradition has nothing to say in the face of Islamic law. In fact, as cases began to be heard by of the two courts in the 1950's, a shift in the nature of discourse about inheritance began to occur. The issue as interpreted by both secular and Islamic courts was of the nature of a just distribution of goods between two or core parties. For the Islamic court, "just" referred to Islamic legal princiFor the secular court,

ples for distribution among all heirs.

traditional law began to be interpeted along parallel lines, as primarily oriented towards achieving a just distribution to all descendants of a person. In the late 1950's several cases arose from town residents demanding a redistribution of an estate, claiming that the mother or, in some cases, graudoother of the claimant had married out of the lineage but nonetheless should have received a share of the estate. The secular court relied on two conflicting interpetations of tradition in order to decide these cases.

**ixto~*~*m****Jrfc***~*t^

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334

The first interpetation was that Gayo tradition entailed a relatively equal distribution of property among the children of the deceased. At first, the court in Takengon was reticent to make the

division itself, but began in the 1960's to order equal divisions of property among sons and daughters. The following case appears to have been a key case in this process:

In case 64/Perdt./1959 before the Pengadilan Negeri Takengon the facts were as follows: Nyaq Matang and Inen Mude Sedang were sisters with no other siblings. NM married out of the lineage while IMS had a husband brought in for her. IMS thus retained control of their father's land, 15 nalih of wet-rice land (about 5 ha., a larg- amount), 8 buffalo, a fishing platform along the lake, and tie house. There had been efforts made since 1938 to induce IMS to divide the estate, but it bad remained in her hands until now (she was part of a family that had become followers of reformism in the 1930's). The court ordered that the property be divided up between the two sisters without specifying how the division was to be made. The appeals court in Banda Aceh then specified that the division should be equally between them (21:18). The second interpretation followed by the court was that the gift of bridal goods (tempah) to the daughter at the time she married out was

in effect a pre-payment of her inheritance share, or a substitute for the share. In the following case from the mid-1960's the court spelled

out this interpretation of tradition, which is worth citing here:

335

In case 47/Perdt./19&i a brother had remained in the lineage while his two sisters both married out. In 1933 their father died, and at the funeral ceremony D O claim was made to the property by the sisters, nor was such a claim made thereafter. The brother took over control of all the land, and then passed on this control to his son. The sens of the two sisters then brought a claim to the Islamic court in Takengon, to the effect that the land should be divided up among them. The Islamic court complied, and awarded shares on the basis of Islamic law. The brother's son then toot the case to the secular court, which overturned the first decision, saying that: "According to Gayo dt law someone who has married out (ju'J'n) has no rights to further shares of the estate {uari' san) because at the time of the marriage she had been given sufficient goods as teepah. In these goods there are often found portions of the estate, sometimes declared formally, sometimes not. Furthermore, from the tise of their grandfather down to now the plaintiffs have never made claims, such that now the plaintiffs 'cannot follow, do not receive wealth, the bridge is broken, do not get inheritance.' {gantung tunung

gr' murets,

patah titi

gr'

mupesaka).'"

Note that the proverb referred to in the end by the court is precisely that used traditionally to refer to the consequences of a virilocal marriage. In Isak the general interpretation of the proverb is that is only given to In

marriage redefines claims to property, sad that pesaka

those who do not "break the bridge" by marrying outside the lineage.

the court's interpretation of the proverb, the marriage is only incidental to what really counts, the hidden giving of inheritance in the form of bridal goods. Thus, the court justifies the surface form of exchange

not by a principle of lineage affiliation but by a rule concerning the' just distribution of wealth to all the descendants. The interpretation of 'd't in interpersonal terms at the court In Isak. villagers have responded and

level occurs in the village as well.

to town-level changes by appealing to various combinations of dt hukum

categories (often significantly different from the town interpre-

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336
tations of these concepts). Villagers' motivations in these

reinterpretations are complex and ought to be seen case by case. They include a feeling of embarassment {kernel) that some of their relatives

are without land, a desire to amass greater control over resources, a genuine desire to approximate what are seen as correctly Islamic patterns of conduct, and a strategy of compensating for changes introduced in one part of the system by making changes in another. In the following example the actors are closely related to, and greatly influenced by, a moderately reformist religious teacher who moved from Isak to Takengon before Independence. The example illustrates the accomodation made between Islamic distribution and rules of lineage control over land: In this case, a man in the village of Kute Byem (Isak) had 3 tern of riceland. His two children, a son and a daughter, both remained in the lineage after marriage (marrying uxorilocally and virilocally respectively). The estate land of 3 tern was divided equally between them. The brother had two children, a boy and a girl. Eventually the boy remained in the lineage while the girl married a man living in Kute Kramil and joined that lineage. Their son remained in Isak while his mother's brother and their children moved to Takengon. The 1 1 / 2 tern land controlled by this branch was then divided between them following the local interpretation of Islamic law: the si ter's son received 1/2 tern and the brother's sons 1 tea.

At this point the people of Kute Ryem decided that if the sister's son were to continue to work that land after the formal division had been made he would violate their own residual right to the land, that the land must remain within the lineage. The sister's son therefore changed his lineage affiliation by paying the traditionally required fees to both villages concerned, and became a member of Kute Ryem. He then reimbursed the Other siblings for their portions of the land, and now works all of the land himself. In this case the effect of the sister's marriage out of the lineage would have been to remove her children from the distribution of goods if

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337 traditional rules had been foliowed. In effect, by insisting that the

recipients of the land be members of the lineage, but not reading the implicatory relation in the other direction (i.e., that leaving the lineage made the sister's sons ineligible for inheritance), the lineage uncoupled the categories of marriage and lineage affiliation. Following

this interpretation, affiliation and not marriage choice is made the necessary condition for receiving lineage land. Thus, rights to land

are divorced from the marriage history of the persons concerned, since affiliation can be changed at any time. The uncoupling of marriage and affiliation has also made it possible for brother's sons to challenge the right of (uxorilocally married) sister's sons to the property the use right of which had been awarded by the sister's parents. Such property is normally redivided after the

death of the parents, but the right of the uxori local couple to land that they have been working can often be based on a claim that the land had been given by the parents. This claim is strongest if there are few siblings who remained within the lineage. It can be neutralized, bow-

ever, if a challenge to their possession of the land is based on an interpretation of dt as distribution to all children. In the follow-

ing case, such a challenge is made in combination with a interpretation of dt by a clever and influential brother's son:

338

This case concerns land in the village of Kute Rayang (Isak). The 6 tem of riceland had originally been divided equally between a daughter who married uxorilocally and a son who married virilocally. A second son remained with the father and earned his living by sewing clothes, while the two younger daughters married out. This distribution followed normal practice under dt: the land was not overly fragmented and the support of those children who remained in the lineage was guaranteed. But in the next generation the second son, the only surviving child, directed that his own son take over sose of the land given to the elder sister. The claim was made that the uxorilocal couple had only been given the land to use, not to own. Moreover, since the elder brother had only daughters, the younger son's son was the proper guardian (uaji) for his cousins and for the land. This situation was then disputed by Asan 6, the eldest sister's son. Aman B claimed a right to all 3 tem of land that his parents had worked, saying that he and his wife had been given {hibah) the land, and that the land was thus now his as inheritance (uarisan). I asked Aman A, the brother's son acting as guardian, about the problem. He said that he had proposed that they divide up the land "according to dt, which does not differentiate between men and women, so the sen together would get 3 tern and the women together 3 tea. If we followed Islamic law (he continued; the women together would receive only 1 tern, thus only 1/3 tem each, because their total share is only 1/2 of the sen's. But we value dt over
Islamic law, 'senang crue dt, pues orum hukum' (happy with

dt, satisfied with Islamic law;, and we have a feeling among ourselves about it. It is only when there are disagreements among siblings that you have to go to Islamic law." This interpretation--which I take to have been a conscious distortionrepresented a very clever stance by Asan A (who, I should add, was also my close friend and general guardian while in Isak). By misrepresenting

Islamic law as sore unequal than it really is, and presenting dt as similar in aim (the distribution of goods asong all descendants), he was able to directly compare the two systems in a way that was very favorable to dt. In this light, dt appears as such sore fair in its prinIn practice, however, since there were

ciple than does Islamic law.

sore sisters than brothers this interpretation (of shares by same-sex sibling group) still yielded a smaller share for the forser.

339

Other people told me that Aman A acted as he did because he felt ashamed {kernel) that his father's sister's children had received nothing By obtaining the right to a share in the land for

of the family land.

them, he increased his own self-esteem as a proper guardian. Moreover, by acting in their name regarding the land he reaffirmed his own right to work the land for them. In the end, he worked the shares of the two

sisters, did not give them a fixed share of the crop, but gave them something from the yield in those occasions where they needed it: a gift {penosah), not a share." I was unable to determine with what regu-

larity these sisters or their children did receive anything from him. This reinterpretation of dt along the lines introduced by Islamic law has extended to the concept of bride goods as the prepayment of inheritance. The view has been promoted by Gayo who have obtained higher education at the state religious university, the IAIN (Institut Agama Islam Negeri), as a way of interpreting Gayo dt in terms that are relatively just and intelligible from an Islamic perspective. One 1976 thesis from the IAIN in Banda Aceh was entitled "The Islamic view of Gayo inheritance adat" and asserted that: "in essence all children receive the same share of the estate; it is only the time of the division that varies " (Abubakar 1976:74). The sister who marries out receives her share in the form of the bridal goods, while the other siblings receive theirs in land. A brother who married out of the lineage and thus did not inherit from the estate was explicitly not considered in this statement "because his wife's parents will provide sufficiently for him." The analysis is an interesting mixture of two types of justification for dt: one, that everyone receives an equal

s
340

share, and another, that siblings who marry out are provided for elsewhere and so do not need a share of the inheritance. In its con-

tradiction, this local, learned reformulation thus encapsulates the difficulties of viewing dt as a system of distribution among individuals. The view of bride goods as a pre-payment of inheritance does not, in fact, provide an adequate description of the nature of the two kinds of transfers. First, the amount given as bride goods does not seem to vary significantly with the wealth of the parents (and thus with the expected inheritance). While it is difficult to compare the value of

land (which provides most of the value in most estates) with the value of these goods, we have only to note that in Isak, bride goods rarely included more than one buffalo (the major item of wealth and the most valuable item among the goods), while some villagers nonetheless owned over 100 head. Many more villagers held enough land to generate a rent

of 5 or more buffalo per year. Therefore, the value of the bride goods was surely well below that of the shares of the estate received by the sons and even daughters who remained in the village after marriage. What variation there is in the value of bride goods seess to be due more to the amount of bridewealth received by the bride's father than to the value of the estate. Such a correlation would be in keeping with the function of the bride goods as a sign of the exchange, as a material moment in a continuing affinal relation between the two sides. Furthermore, whereas an inherited good becomes the alienable property of its recipient, the right of alienating bride goods is not transferred to the married daughter, but is retained by her source line. It

341

is only when the goods are rebestowed on her children that they become alienable, inherited property. Finally, an item of wealth which has

been inherited may increase in value, and that increase is part of the inheritance. The offspring of a buffalo (or other livestock) which have

been inherited by a man or woman become additions to his or her wealth, without affecting the distribution of the estate. do not increase in wealth. Bride goods, however,

The offspring of a buffalo which had been

given to a daughter as part of ber bride goods do not add to the value of that category, but rather become part of the joint estate, the residual rights to which are held by the husband's lineage. The offspring

were produced by the husband and wife, working together as members of the lineage and on lineage laud. The value of Gayo bride goods, then,

must be treated as defined by their function in a set of exchanges, and not as a single field of inheritance. However, the pre-payment view has become a part of a general local theory that dt can encompass Islamic law. Bridal goods or other gifts are, in this view, seen as the equivalent of inheritance within a single dt system.

One man, respected for his religious knowledge, and for his status as haji, said to a that is Gayo dt wealth is divided into two categories: pesaka is passed on to sons, and pera'il is wealth that is given to daughters as a gift Ipenosab, hibah were the two terms he used). In this interpretation, inheritance (.pesaka) is a system of redisremain

tribution within the lineage, and assumes that all the sons within the lineage.

Gifts, including the gift of land to the uxorilo-

cally marrying daughter, the bride gcods to the daughter who leaves, and any other gifts to women, are seen as an equivalent and parallel system.

^irigffiiiiiiiiHi^^

342

Together, the two modes of redistribation make up an dt equivalent to Islamic law. We have already sees that this position was net accepted by the Islamic court in Takengon, which eventually obtained jurisdiction over all family law cases. Thus, the giving of bride goods has been increasingly perceived as a practice which has been effectively undermined by the application of Islamic law, and some people claim this as their reason for giving little or so goods in the earriaie of their daughter. A second major shift in the ideology of transfers has occured which is only partially a correlate of the first change. la a new, town-based view of property, the mediation of ownership by the lineage structure is downplayed in favor of individual ownership. In this view, all relations of person to property are conceived of as ideally, or eventually relations of ownership. Gifts, the past ose of wealth, and the creation of oev value are all valid grounds for claiming a right of ownership (hak milik). Tue test of this new view comes at the moment of

the dissolution of a marriage, by death or divorce, where the control over wealth brought to the marriage or resulting from it is at issue. Two categories of wealth have bees the subject of recent court cases in Takengon, and illcstrate the logic of the new interpretation of the nature of value. The first category is that of bride goods; the second, the value added to land by a uxorilocally married mam. Bride goods, as we have sees above, function as the sign of the

relation of the wife's soarce lineage to her children, who by virtue of the bestowal of these goods are affiliated to the hasbaad* lineage. The dissolution of the marriage by the death of one of the parties leads

343

to a second bestowal of the goods onto the children of the marriage, and thus the reaffirmation of the affinal tie. Divorce, on the other hand, dissolves the tie as well as the marriage. In this case, the children and the bride goods remain in the husband's lineage and the goods are said to have "disappeared". If, however, the bride goods are inter-

preted to be the pre-payment of inheritance, then they ought to remain her property independently of the status of the marriage. The Takengon ccuri has Ivxiai based its decisions in divorce cases on this interpre-

tation, and has ordered husbands to give to their ex-wives all the goods brought with them to the marriage. As a result of the court's decisions in a few cases, divorces in villages near the town generally are accompanied by a demand for the return of the bride goods. Divorce is still rare in Isak and bride goods are rarely a part of marriages today, so the issue has not arisen there. In the 1930's a new category of wealth was created to correspond to the Indonesian category of harta The Gayo term is pohroh, bersama, "wealth earned together."

from, I believe, a phrase in Acehnese composed "fallow, left

of the verb poh, "to hit. strike", and the adjective roh, unworked (of a rice field)".

In Acehnese, the phrase is used to refer

to the action of working a field that has not been worked for one or more seasons. Clearing such a field is hard work; weeds will have grown up in it and the ground will be very hard. Hence the'amount of labor

put into this sort of work will be very much greater than that put into clearing a field that had been used the previous year. The term roh has the same meaning in Gayo (probably as a borrowing from Acehnese, since it is homonymous with a Gayo word meaning "good, satisfactory"). It was

H^W,.,.,,,,!*^.^,.-.^^

'r'iririiiiimimiiHi^y,

344

relatively easy to incorporate the entire phrase into Gayo usage as a legal term. The legal meaning of pohroh couple working together." The origin of the word pohroh points to another feature of its meaning, that such wealth is seen as the product of the labor of the couple rather than of the capital used. Just as fallow land is itself is now: "wealth earned by a

of low value relative to the labor put into its clearing, so is pohroh wealth considered to be of value insofar as it embodies the labor of the couple, not insofar as it embodies the value of the capital (primarily land) used to produce it. This new category of wealth, and the assumptions which underlie it, have led to a new basis for the distribution of wealth upon divorce of a couple. This new basis has been applied to both viri local and uxorilocal marriages. But the introduction of the category was certainly motivated by a rise in the value of labor relative to land, specifically with the rise in value of cash crops grown around Takengon. Coffee has been grown on the hills north of the town since the Dutch period, but new fields began to be opened up in the 1960's, and this process quickly accelerated with the jump in international coffee prices in the mid-1970's. Since unowned and uncultivated land was plentiful in just those areas most suitable for the growth of the higher-priced Arabica coffee, Gayo and some Javanese former estate workers began to clear and plant 1-3 hectare plots of land in coffee. Many of these were uxorilocally married couples, and some of these marriages ended in divorce.

345

In the past, when farming had been almost solely of wet riceland, the labor provided by the husband who married in and used his father-in-law's property added very little value to the land above and beyond that season's crop. As long as the contribution of value that was attributable to the labor was low relative to the value of land and livestock, the court supported the older view that a son-in-law worked in virtue of his marriage to the landowner's daughter, and was sufficiently compensated for his work by the food, clothing, and shelter he received. When coffee was perceived as a profitable enterprise, the labor of sons-in-law was increasingly directed towards the clearing of previously unused dry mountain slopes, the planting of these new fields in coffee seedlings, and the tending and harvesting of the coffee beans. The value of the land was thereby raised from nearly ngligeable to several Billion rupiah per hectare. A great deal of wealth was now produced by the labor of a son-in-law for his wife's parents and a new view of value was arrived at by the court. The headman of Bbsn, a village which contained many of these new coffee growers, explained how divorces are settled in such instances.

346

I asked him what happened to wealth if a couple divorced who had been married uxorilocally. He said that a clear distinction is made between the property that had been given to the couple to work, which cannot be alienated from the household and from the lineage, and the property that is the result of the couple's work on the land. This latte/ is called pohroh, and is divided in two between them on divorce. This often happens now, and is always settled this way. Furthermore, the effort made by the son-in-law in improving the land is also remunerated. For instance, the wife's father ay have given the couple land that had beer, cleared for planting but not yet planted. If the couple then plants this lar.c with coffee seedlings, the man, if he divorces his wife, has the right to some money in return for his effort, as penayah (payah: "difficult, exhausting"). You figure this amount by calculating what it would have cost to pay someone to do the planting and to keep up the garden over X years. If, for exaxple, this came to Rp 100,000, the man would be given Rp 50,000 of this. Even if his wife never worked on the land, her work in the hone, in cooking, bringing him food, etc., is considered to be the equal of his contribution. Conversely, the bride goods and half of the pohroh have been Since, as I

awarded to a wife upon divorce from a virilocal marriage.

explained above, bride goods have been reclassified as personal property by the court, and value relocated in labor, these awards are consistent with the reinterprttion of property. In each case the court investi-

gates the origin of each item; if it was purchased with the joint earnings of the couple, then it is classified as pohroh. assigned to the owner of the original capital. Otherwise, it is

The value of labor,

rather than the exchange function of mate-rial transfers, has now becoae the priaary standard for arriving at a proper distribution of wealth. This and the previous chapter have focused on the relationships among marriage rules, lineage ideology, and the control and exchange of goods. We now turn to an analysis of the sequence of events which make

up the marriage ritual, and in which ideology is depicted through sequence, exchanges, and alignments.

-~-~TVrtitiiiir<MiiTi*iiM

CHAPTER 8: PROCESS ASD EXCHANGE IS MARRIAGE RITUAL

TSE KARRI USE PROCESS

The entire process of marriage is referred to by the verb from the root kerj (tarry; engage in sexual intercourse).

ngerj',

In the fol-

lowing discussion, I will use the word "wedding" to translate the Arabic and Gayo word nikab and use "carriage" for the sequence of rituals involved in ngerj

Blding The steps leading up to the formal acknowledgment of at. engagement are spoken of as the progressive binding of the two sides through stronger and stronger ties. A passage in formal speech lists the progression in this way: joking at the well, kidding at women's prayer bouse, finally brought hose. Then they start in to forge a tie. They tie with roots, and the tie with roots doesn't break too auch, so they tie with rattan. The tie with rattasi also doesn't break; they tie with wire. Tied with wire, they go before their sarak opt. Sow it's even stronger.

3*7

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348

The tie with roots signals the acceptance by the girl's father of a token, caram, that "stops up the blowing breeze" so that no one else The caram is usu-

can propose while he thinks over the boy's proposal.

ally is. the for cf an old Dutch florin. The girl's parents during this period "think it ever while asleep, dream it while awake" (aral mipi jg"), noo,

a typically paradoxical phrase which playfully indicates

that the set of excuses that can later be used for rejecting the proposal (bad dreaas, cnlucky omen) are, as everyone is aware, usually polite alternatives to commenting on the girl's feelings or the boy's character. In est cases the intentions of both parties will have been made

clear prior to tie official visit by one set of parents to the other. This is usually done through the services of a go-between (icjangk) in

order to avoid tfce embarassment that would follow on a flat rejection, no matter how indirect it might be. If the offer is accepted the caram it kept by the girl's parents,

and some bints aicut bridewealth are dropped and, equally indirectly, commented os by the boy's parents. The relation is "tied with rattan" at tfcxs point, and the boy's parents return to consult with his close relatives about their capacity to pay bridewealth. ing may continue ever weeks or months. vill Subsequent bargain-

Sometimes a very high amount

be set in order to indirectly refuse the marriage; this strategy however, when the boy's side finds unforseen resources

often: backfires,

asm meets the demands. Once the amount has been agreed on, a meeting taes place betveen the two headmen or their representative to offi' C.A'.IJ recognize the agreement.

 * * " " * " " " """'^"

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349 The final step in these preparatory events is the bringing of the bridewealth goods to the girl's village, mujul teniron. From this

point the relationship between the two parties to the marriage involves the headman of each village as representatives of the eo*er. If either party withdraws from the marriage after this moment a fine is imposed, called ubah ("change one's mind") if cooking preparations have not yet begun, or enggan ("refuse") if they have. The two sides are bound by words exchanged in the formal speech (melnkan) between representatives of the two polities. The boy's side,

which has brought the bridewealth, says that the tie should be firm, alluding to the "nearly-impossible" possibility (in the polite conventions of formal speech) that one side or the other pulls out: Areroi roc mujadi ng, kalang memang mujadi gerd

(a worm becomes a serpent, a butterfly becomes an eagle) Such events of course never happen, but if they were to happen (meaning, without saying it outright, that one of the parties pulled out) then the penalty would be as follows: enggan ari si rawan, nyaua, enggan ari si banan, ma se.

(if the boy refuses, his life; the girl, her gold.) The girl's representatives respond to these words with a general phrase that may apply to any situatioa: alih kin langkah, rupee kin gerali'

(let our movements determine our direction,.and appearance/speech be its

350

Which means: let the direction and name (nature) of things be as they have just been said to be. The values given to the girl's gold and the boy's life as they are implicated by the formal phrases were set by the district ruler before Independence. The value of a boy's life was, for these purposes, set at Rp 1,200 (at least four to six times the total bridewealth paid); the girl, if she backed out of the agreement, had to repay twice all that had been paid already (or agreed on in payment) to the boy's side. The marriage is "tied with wire" at this point. Sometime thereafter, each of the two villages meets to plan the wedding. The boy's or girl's parents, the empan sint (owners of the bersint

marriage) now turn the work of the marriage over to the sukut

(marriage core), the close relatives who will carry out the work of the marriage.'

Sequence and Delay

The sequence of rituals which together make up the marriage process consist of three types of "bringing" rituals, each designated by the construction rah (X) (bring X), which are preceded and followed by "eating" rituals, each designated by the corresponding phrase mangan/man

1 The word sukut brings to mind the phrase perang mupangkaj, kerj musukut (war has its beginning, marriage its core). The word sint has a more specific meaning than kerj, although both could be glossed as "marriage." The latter word is used in its root form to refer to the act or state of marriage, or to sexual intercourse (among animals as well as humans). As a transitive verb, ngerj(n) means "marry someone off." Sint, on the other hand, only appears as a root, used nominally to refer to the process and work involved in putting on a marriage.

^ . ^ , , ^ ^ ^ ^ 1 . ^ , - . ^ ^ . . . . . ,w^l.,...^

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351 (X) (to eat X). are as follows:

As they are carried out in Isak today, these rituals

man man mah man mah mah

penan 1 penan 2 bai kro karh kro atur

(eating cakes) (second eating cakes) (bringing the groom) (eating "stirred rice") (bringing rice) (bringing "rule") (eating "stirred rice")

man kro karh

For the rest of this chapter I shall analyze the representative role of these rituals as presented now in Isak. But I wish first to draw attention to the change in their sequence that took place in several districts in the early part of the century. In the 1920's and 1930's, the marriage consisted of four rituals on four successive days In the case of a district ruler's daughter's marriage the process would be expanded to seven days. The four main events were: (1) Gatherings within each lineage to prepare the bride and groom for the wedding. The gatherings were called menjamu and in terms of the persons who attended and the activities performed corresponded roughly to the two events,of man penan today. (2) A series of small events in the bride's village, where the bride and groom are staying (the groom with the imm). jcgc This ritual is labeled

use (small watch), and consisted of a pilgrimage by members of the

bride's lineage to the grave of the local founding ancestor (In Isak, Merah Mg). A didong ai the older type, with a single singer-dancer,

would be performed there, and the groom would perform a dance reserved for these occasions, the tari gul, or "dance (accompanied by) striking

(of gongs)." A poor dance signaled a poor job of being a husband, and

lii. m'mitriMi iirriinrr ni iinirun i - r i r -|iriiilii]itrt>rtmM^feiTfiii|-iiiiilltiBiiirTfimmimmmmmmat,

352

the groom would be fined. (3) A larger gathering, with other lineages coming to mah atur, ing their own didong bring-

singers to compete. This sequence of formal speech kul,

exchanges and singing, akin to today's festivities, was the jg (great watch), and would last until the aornisg boors. (U) The "climbing up of the groom", nik bai,

so called because the

groom would (like everyone else) have to cliarc. a ladder up into the house for the wedding. The groom would have been in the bride's village over the preceding three days, but would be "borrowed back" at this point, and escorted by members of his own lineage to the bride's vil' lage. After the Islamic wedding, the nikab, the couple would spend

seven nights at the bride's village before either "bringing rice" (man kro) in a reciprocal visit to the groom's village, and then returning to

the bride's village for a period of uxori local residence or definitively escorting the bride in a tnsn husband's village. In this sequence of events, the attention, attendance and energy of the participants were focused on the activities of the third sight, the jg kul, when distant villagers would come and exhaust themselves vat in the activiprocession to take up domicile in the

in speeches and singing. The marriage itself (kerj)

ties of this day and night while on the following day the wedding (nikah) gave Islamic legal sanction to what lud already been carried out dt.

in terms of

One proof of this interpretation lies in an alternative spacing of marriage events that was frequently used in Isak (rarely now), whereby a couple was nikah in a small, almost ignored ritual which allowed the new

352

the groom would be fined. (3) A larger gathering, with other lineages coming to mah atur, ing their own didong bring-

singers to compete. This sequence of formal speech kul,

exchanges and singing, akin to today's festivities, was the jg (great watch), and would last until the aornisg boors. (4) The "climbing up of the groom", nik bai,

so called because the

groom would (like everyone else) have to clime a ladder up into the house for the wedding. The groom would have been in the bride's Tillage over the preceding three days, but would be "borrowed back" at this point, and escorted by members of his own lineage to the bride's vil* lage. After the Islamic wedding, the nikab, the couple would spend

seven nights at the bride's village before either "bringing rice" (mab kro) in a reciprocal visit to the groom's village, and then returning to

the bride's village for a period of uxorilocal residence or definitively escorting the bride in a tnsn husband's village. In this sequence of events, the attention, attendance and energy of the participants were focused on the activities of the third night, the jg kul, when distant villagers would come and exhaust themselves was in the activiprocession to take up domicile in the

in speeches and singing. The marriage itself (kerj)

ties of this day and night while on the following day the wedding (nikah) gave Islamic legal sanction to what had already been carried out dt.

in terms of

One proof of this interpretation lies in an alternative spacing of marriage events that was frequently used in Isak (rarely now), whereby a couple was nikah in a small, almost ignored ritual which allowed the new

WlWrtiTiftftiJM**ilMI^^

iiriiii-illirl'lll

II '

<iM^M<Mt>ija<MMimi

353

son-in-law to be "tried out" for a year before proceeding with the rituals by which they would be tarried. Gayo will discuss the difference using the pair nikah/kerj as I have done above. A dissatisfied

father-in-law could, after several months, order a formal divorce. Since a wedding without marriage did not involve sexual contact between the two persons, such a divorce did not produce a divorcee, only an incomplete wedding. The girl could rewed as a virgin, commanding normal bridewealth, since she would never have left the unmarried state. The third night of what Gayo now call cultural (non-legal) events was the foregrounded unit in this syntagmatic chain, the climax which was followed by the nikah and a chance to relax f-om the preparations

and festivities. The second and third day celebrations made the marriage socially legitimate while the fourth day only wed the couple. This ordering of the two categories of events depended on the sociolegal legitimacy of keeping the nikah as the nikah in the background. Only so long

could be portrayed as a necessary but insufficient (and

unsatisfying) event in the sequence could the two traditional jg rituals be highlighted in the overall process. Beginning about 1950, the sequence of the two rituals was frequently inverted. The nikah was held on the day of the jg kul, so

that the boy and girl were already wed on the night of the marriage festivities. This was probably the result of Islamic reformist insistence that the essence of marriage is the nikah, and that the marriage

ought not to be celebrated until the wedding has taken place. Takengon reformist families today frequently hold the wedding the day before the

354
festivities, and do not allow there to be a mah bai at all.' This radi-

cal separation of events is interpreted as a distinction between what is properly religious (the wedding itself) and what is merely cultural (all the rest). One explanation of this change provided in Isak was that the newsequence served to prevent elopements. that the exchanges and didong It would happen, I was told,

singing would be held in preparation for

the wedding, and during all the excitement a foncer boyfriend of the girl would sneak in and make off with her (usually with her consent). have only heard of one such instance in recent memory in Isak, but I have been offered this explanation by many Isak residents. It may also I

be that the curfews and economic hardships which accompanied the Japanese occupation and the Darul Islam rebellion contributed to a downgrading of the two nights of jcgi'.

The separation of marriage and wedding mentioned above can better be understood as part of a general phenomenon of delay in marriage. Many Isak marriages from the 1920's to the id-1950's involved a separation between the wedding (nikah) and the marriage [mah bai, kerj) which did not accord conjugal right*, about a year later. During this per-

iod the boy lived with his parents, but would come and work on the

1 It has been noted for several cases that frequently Islamic reformism has had a greater impact on Isak marriage practices than on most villages near Tai'engon, despite the fact that, in terms of religious practice (e.g., prayer, funerals), Isak is relatively traditionalist. The answer to this paradox, I believe, lies in the particular history of exogamy in Isak that was discussed earlier: there was little tradition of marriagf: exchange or opposition among Isak villages, so the reformist de-emphasizing of exchange rituals was not incompatible with local conditions.

-J

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r/a,immmmgilUiglSi^mmmtmj^^

355 girl's fields. This form was called katib,

and was seen comparatively

as a kind of engagement, the equivalent cross-culturally to the Malay bertunang ("engagement ).

This engagement delay was requested by the girl's parents, for one of two reasons. The parent could be unsure about the willingness of the boy to work diligently for thea, and request the delay as a trial working period. Or, they could be temporarily in economic difficulties, and need the extra time to come up with the resources to put on a proper series of marriage feasts. Since the bridewealth was usually paid at the time of the "engagement", this gave them an economic boost. A saying brings out this connection between finding fortune and turning the marriage from an "engagement" into the real thing:

"terbang puyuh k'um Sitang, mendpt uwab si jaba-jabi; ike bertunang p seumur hidup, beruntung tuah kati jadi. (the parakeet flies to Sitang fields, finds fruits of many colors; even if you are engaged all your life, 'saking it happen depends on fortune) While this first strategy let the marriage wait until the would-be son-in-law had proven himself, in the second, more common strategy, the marriage took place at the same time as the wedding, but the couple spent the first year living with and supporting the wife's parents. Part of the bridewealth, usually a buffalo, was earmarked from the start as a penurip, a "means of support", and was not paid so long as the

couple remained with the girl's parents (themselves serving as the parent's support). As was mentioned in Chapter 6, all marriages, then as now, began with this initial year of work and residence with the

356

wife's parents. In cases where the couple then moved out of th parents' residence, took up their own separate economic activities, but remained affiliated to the wife's lineage, the buffalo was paid. The marriage thus remained uxorilocal, but residence and direct everyday support was separate. Where the marriage had been designated as virilocal from the start, the required, fixed-by-rank 'dt portion of the bridewealth was paid after the initial year or so and the couple changed domicile/affiliation to the husband's lineage. The remaining marriages remained uxorilocal and co-residtnt, although in some cases, full bridewealth might eventually be paid and the marriage become virilocal. Whether it takes the form of a separation of the wedding from the carriage, as with the katib, or a distinction between the initial and

eventual domicile, both forms of delay involi'e the temporary subordination of the groom to the wife's parents. The husband works for and lives under the authority of the wife's parents during this intermediate period. The proper pattern of affinal relations, which depend from the assymetry of raliq to julo, is established during this period.

Purification

and Bewailing

We will now examine each of four main rituals that mark the middle period of the marriage, and in which both a "passage" is carried out and the relational nature of society is represented. The first of these rituals is the set of two "eating cakes" sessions, nan penan. The two

sessions are gatherings held by each of the two sides at the bouse of the respective sukut as preparation for the wedding. These sessions

involve a progressively wider range of relatives. At an initial meet-

'V
357

ing, called begezap,

only members of the village attend, and decide on where cocking takes

the suJrur. of the marriage. At the first man penan,

place and last-limite preparations are made, men and women vo stand as "source" to the core come to pay their respects, which consists of bringing contributions in money and raw foodstuffs, sitting (in the place of honor) and by their presence lending their approval to the proceedings. Those who stand as (juln) also come, but to do the work

of washing, cooking and making the house ready for the feasts. At the second session, others in the district are invited to attend. Relatives to the two parties represent their kinship ties to one party or the other by their attendance at these sessions, and by their contributions to the expenses of the marriage. Today, the sakut keeps a

book with names of those who by their contributions (in money) become

for this marriage as sukut bersint

the marriage, thereby tied to us").

kin jadi ikotn orum kite

("core for

Often, a couple will have close

ties to both parties, or will be both potential "core" and potential "source" or "married-out" to one of the parties. One of ties* relations must be selected for purposes of the marriage. The select often cross-cuts lineage membership, and is strictly a function of genealogical proximity of husband or wife to the bride and groom. A couple never splits its alignment on kinship grounds, although conflicting ties through kinship, domicile, and political office do sometimes lead to the husband and wife appearing on different sides of the marriage at different points in the processA second selection of ties takes place when patrilateral ties of origin (asal) at* drawn on. Members of a uxori locally-married man

358

natal lineage often participate as sukut,

in the marriage. The precise

implications of these ties for marriageability are frequently debated in Isak. The following case will be referred to later in the chapter; it

concerns a marriage where the fathers of the bride and the groom had previously married out of the same village. The two fathers were not from the same lineage, and had married into different villages, so the proposed marriage was not to be between close kinsmen or between the residents of one village. However, because

the two men were from the same village, some, who considered the patrilateral tie as perduring after a uxorilocal marriage, disapproved of this marriage. Those who saw the current domicile of the bride and groom as the only relevant issue had no objection. A second issue involved the stance of the common village of origin vis-a-vis the other two villages. Either of the two fathers could have

drawn on his tie to his natal village in carrying out the work of the marriage, but if both were to do so, the marriage would appear to be illegitimate in that it would be within one village. The problem was resolved by realigning the respective kin ties. In its choice of work

partners, and in seating arrangements, the common natal village aligned itself with the groom's side and became part of its sukut. Indeed,

members of the father's natal villages assumed almost all the major male roles in subsequent events. The bride's side, on the other hand, did not display any connection with the origin village. The father of the bride was represented as solely a member of that village and lineage. The position of the common village of origin was thus rendered unambiguous vis-a-vis the other two villages. The issue of affinal alignment

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will emerge again when we consider the representation of social relations in the formal exchanges that constitute the last of these four rituals, the nah atur.

It is at the second man pen an sessions, one in each of the two villages concerned, that preparation of the bride and grooa for the wedding begins. Both sust be purified and protected against possible spells or other disturbances. But the issue of purity for the bride turns on her virginity, in other words, the present ritual (stated as a "cooling") depends for its success on a past event (or, ore precisely, absence of an event). This issue does not arise for the groom, who say be "cooled" without reference to his virginity. Secondly, the marriage is interpreted as bringing about a more emotionally stressful separation between the bride and her mother than between the groom and either of his parents. The mother-daughter tie is seen as the closest kin tie, and its breaking the most wrenching. The emotions produced at this moment are given vent through a speakingthrough-tears called sebuku, which always takes place as dyadic crying

events: daughter and mother, two sisters, niece and aunt. Both the purifying and crying events are labeled berguru, something under the guidance of a guru." "do

Guru can refer to a healer,

teacher, or person knowledgeable in spells; for the girl, it is the wife of the religious official, the imm, who acts to teach the girl the spells necessary for wedded life, takes her around for sebuku, and con-

ducts purification. Her husband, the imm of the bride's village, teaches the corresponding spells to the groom, but bis purification takes place in his own village, carried out by the item there and by

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360

older men and women of his village. Early in the day, the imm leaves to look for cooling plants (petauaren, from tauar, "cool"), or she sends an older woman out if she

is not knowledgeable in these matters. The precise plants looked for vary somewhat by district, but the jejerun is usually the focus of the

search. This plant is said by some to be the oldest on the earth, and has very strong roots. It can thus be used to ask questions of the earth; specifically, it is asked (a) about the virginity of the bride, and/or (b) the length of her life and those of her children. These questions are posed to the roots, the plant is pulled up, and the roots examined. Short, broken roots will indicate either a lack of virginity

or a short life, depending on the question asked. Many branches to the roots indicate many children, with the length of their lives depending on the length of each branch. These plants are brought back to the place where the girl and her mother have been waiting, and are used to cool both of them, dipping the plants in water and holding them up to the head and shoulder of each three times, letting the water run down their faces. The plants are then used to cool the areas to be used for the wedding ceremony. The imm walks around the inside circumference of each area in a left-hand circle.' As far as I could ascertain, neither the bride nor her mother is told the outcome of the questioning.

' Left-hand circles close and secure things (rice fertility, a purified state;, while right-hand circles open them up or stimulate things (rice nourishment, impurities to be washed away).

^rifrirftnliiii^-^"--^^-^'"^^

361

In a second operation, the bride's sideburns are shaved slightly. This shaving, called kun, provides a second sign of the bride's status;

if the sideburns flip up when shaved, the bride is not a virgin; otherwise, she is. The correspondance between this sign and its reading was interpreted for me as the refusal (or not) of the hairs to accept the shaving; i.e., the sideburns, correctly understanding the shaving to be in preparation for a marriage, would refuse the shaving (by flipping) if the ritual was redundant, if the bride was already kerj. I was told

that, in former times, if the reading was "non-virgin" then the boy's side could demand a reduction of the bridewealth, but I have not heard of any specific cases of this occuring, and I don't believe that the shaving was done publicly. The results would have been easy to conceal. A third reading is not of the past but of the future, and consists in a divination by mungkur in order to ascertain the likely future of the couple. This reading, alone of all mentioned here, is carried out in both the bride's and groom's villages. The mungkur is a small, wrinkled citrus that is used in many events as a vehicle of communication between the outer and inner (spiritual) worlds. Its special powers derive from its origin as the cleanser of the Garden of Eden after it had been polluted by Adam and Eve; after this, it was assigned by God to be man's cleanser, purifier, and repeller of evil spirits. As the vehicle for commands and exchanges with the spirit world, it is able to indicate the inner nature of persons, hence its use in the present context. In this as in all citrus divination, a bowl of water is brought out, with (usually) three fruits, and some silver lying on the bottom of

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the bowl.

Silver is a sign of purity, and is abundantly present at

several stages of the marriage. The first citrus is picked up (usually with incense already lit) and one end, then the other, sliced off thinly into the bowl of water. It is the interaction between the two ends that

is examined as an icon of the future interaction of the bride and groom. The desired outcome is that the two ends approach one another in the bowl. I have seen several of these divinations, and they have all been Perhaps surface tension leads to an attraction between the In one instance, the second end was seen as doing poorly; the

positive. two ends.

officiant then picked it up out of the water, put it back on the fruit from which it had been sliced, and flicked it off again with the point of his knife. This time, he was satisfied. After watching the fruit ends behave, the rest of all three fruits are sliced into the water. Then the knife is held in the water and a spell said in which the marriage is requested to be cool like the coolness of the water and the knife. Those seated around observing then join in with a chorus or two of the "Al Fatihah" prayer, the first sura of the Qur'an. The bride or groom is then cooled by three older women

of his or her lineage, using the divination water and the plants which had been picked earlier in the day. In each case of divination (roots, shaving, citrus), the objects or activities involved are themselves signs in the ritual process. The

roots examined for signs of the bride's condition and the citrus used in divination are used for cooling and blessing, and the shaving marks the transitional status of the girl. The names of the couple are also examined for their effect on future happiness (as was explained in Chapter

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363

5). The second major event that takes place as part of berguru cry ing-througi.-words (or speaking-throtgh-sobs) called sebuku for this activity with no other meaning) or pepongotn someone). is the (a name

(crying over

1 cite a description cf one such session, which began immedi-

ately after the citrus divination, had been completed.

The imea's wife then brought the bride oat of the other house where sie had been waiting cd led her around outside, pointing out people whom she sbacld cry over. The bride wore a long cloth that completely covered her face; she woald run up behind someone, put the cloth over both their heads, and cry over them. Toe girls would run ray from her. harassed to be cried on, but if caught, resigned themselves to it. She cried over four girls her own age and then was led inside.

Until now the mood of those watcMng and those being cried on was still gay. The girls were engaged in cooking, and would laugh during the crying, tut now the bride went into a small side room where her mother was sitting, and fell on her, the two of them crying loudly. Her mother lamented her and her daughter's fate while the bride just sobbed back at her after a few initial ritual phrases expressing sadness. After a few moments the bride was led back cstside by the imm's wife, cried on her FyoZ, and then was led off to calm down and be dressed for the wedding.

Her mother, however, continued oo in ber lament. When she had finished, she calmly got up, took my tape recorder op off the ground where it had been recording her. and handed it to me, saying "if you're, going back be sure and take this with you." Clearly the long sebuku no longer had the emotional force of the first few minutes. But this crying had changed the mood of all outside; all the girls and women began to weep silently to themselves, all eyes were red and watery just a few minutes after the sebuku stopped. While the bewailing is clearly ritualized in that the words are very often standard phrases, and the order of weeping (younger girls and boys, then mother and elder female relatives, never men) is set by the imm, the grief expressed at some of these dyadic exchanges of words and

364

sobs is very real, and contagious to all around them. This bewailing is one of the few arenas for the Iegitinate, unhaopered expression of grief in Gayo life. Vhile a woman will be told to stop and gradually calmed down by her friends if she starts to sob uncontrolled!?, she is left to sebuku for as long as half an hour if she wishes. This transitional

moment is a moment of release, one that is considered Iegitinate and not to be in conflict with the intent of the ritual. Veeping at funerals, on the other hand, is expressly prohibited (although inevitably tolerated in snail aoounts) because it is denying to God what he has just taken back to himself. Sebuku is bemoaning what has been decided by

humans, while crying at death would be to regret divine agency. Moreover, the content of the crying is both expressive and admonitory. The aotber (for the longest crying is by a anther or other's sister or Bother) bemoans her own position in the village, and the loneliness she feels at being left by her daughter. Her daughter, on the other hand, cries over her loss of youthful freedoms: "no longer will I play with my friends." The structural nature of the seemifigly abstract phrases that appear in the crying are understood by all those who bear. And, since Bost of the content of these cryings is sobbed out after the bride has moved on, the primary hearers are others in the village, who are often the topics of the lament.

The following excerpt fro a long other-daughter cry, which cliaxes with the other's soliloquy, will illustrate the interrelated expressions of grief and structure. At first, it is the other's sense of loss and her daughter's sadness at her father's death several years before that emerge:

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365
(Mother:) "...anakku Ayu, mai ko mi tubuhku..." (Daughter:) "pecengang ni ruh-arwah ni amangku."

Ayu my child, take y body with you Look on, departed spirit of my father.

But the mother, taking control of the sebuku after several sobbing exchanges like the above, pours out her feelings of dependence on her daughter (her "fruit of my heart", "center of my feeling") with a rush of images of comfort and richness, and links them to her feelings of isolation and bitterness at the sharp, piercing sneers she has received from other members of the villageand at the same time tells her daughter always to stand firm at such treatment: (the exclamation ine'

(nother) that often appears at the end of lines in the text is roughly equivalent to the English use of "0, my God", and does not indicate a "mother" as hearer or contextual feature. I have deleted the expression in the translation for greater clarity) "0 Ayu, bayak bajungku anakku. Ayu, my richness, y covering. Aku bersesrn ku I lean on the fruit of y buah atingku. heart. berlongohen aku ku 1 take shade in the center of jantung rasangku, anakku my feeling, my child. Ayu, kunh p seligi Ayu, however so sharp, bayakku my richness, kunh p ranyo however so piercing, opohku, my envelopping one, lagu tan si sebetul-betul hold back what you really feel, bayakku. y richness. (20 lines) Anakku mulo ni tonku bertanang, My child, this was at first By num n paluh ni uln stopping place, but I no longer anakku kuperthn. can hold onto this Anakku beru aata below-the-moon, y three aids, si tulu buah, anakku. my child.

This "below-the-moon", this village, was her husband's village of origin. He arried into her own village langkap) but they oved back to

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366

his village after a number of years, just moving, without paying full bridewealth. Then he died, and his fellow-villagers feel that they have

no real responsibility towards her, since she was never officially brought (bought) back into the village. Some felt the marriage was not their responsibility, that strictly speaking the bride was the burden of the mother's village, not theirs. The sneers and put-downs that she had felt ever since her husband's death thus increased before the marriage, and give the tone of bitterness to this crying speech. She speaks of this village as only a "place to stop in", bertanang. which has the

sense of "visiting", and certainly not residing. Her three daughters are now to all be married off, and thus her last link to the village is leaving her, and her place "cannot be defended" anymore. She then continues to link her situation to the conditions of her daughter's arriage: "Ike lagu ni jema, bayakku, ijurahn anakku ini, syarat yakin anakku, tn kut muralai tubuhku. 0 Ayu, sana di si kuosan kas bayakku, sana si kujurahan anakku. Others, y richness they would bring y son here, a strong sign, my child, a firm token, that my body would be cared for. 0 Ayu, what will I give you later on, my richness, what will I bring you, ny child?

Her daughter's marriage had no "strong sign" (as a buffalo has been in the past) that tbey would remain and care for the mother in her old age. There is a veiled threat here, as the passage was interpreted to e: if the couple is not coming to stay for good, then how can the other give them any wealth? There is no "fir token" of continuity in

the household, and it is, in part, this uncertainty that she is bemoaning.

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We may contrast the tone of this sebuku

with one that occured at a

marriage which was "definitively" uxorilocal, where the continuity of care from the son-in-law was guaranteed by prior agreement. In this case, although sadness at the poverty of the family emerged in the texts (and veiled references to that fact that the couple had been "caught red-handed" leading to the quick marriage, or "shooting the oon as they say there), a major theme was the satisfactory resolution of the family situation: the older parents now would have a son-in-law to care for them. In this section, the bride's other's other recounts how

helpful the couple (and particularly the groom) will now be (no doubt meant as advice): "Ipak ho, malh kin ni tumung asku. Malh kin matngku, kayanku. Malh kin ni isi ni Malh kin bayakku, penurip murip n'ama ni bayakku, penanom 0 girl, my richness, (you) will be the support for your father, my gold. (you) will bury e at y death, y wealth. (you) will be the helper to the faily, y richness, (you) will be the assister to the eldest.

tempoh tamah bayakku. tolong bantu

ni ulubrngku.

The content of these texts thus points to the contrast in emotion and material support between an unstable situation which is disharaonic between residence and official domicile, and a stable, harmonic one. The latter is expressed in terms of hope and expected support, while the former results in laments about the barbs and iri that the woman finds fro all sides. These texts draw on several poetic devices that are used in other speech forms as well. The last text cited above included the internal parallelism: tempoh tamah and tolong bantu, in which the two couples at (malicious hearts)

'VW1
366

are also synonyms with each other, and thus are a double-parallel structure which focuses the listener's attention on the help and assistance which is expected from the in-marrying man. The texts also contain interesting shifts in the identity of the addressee (who is not necessarily the bearer). In the last line of the text, the groom is

addressed in his capacity to aid the bride (who was the eldest sibling) as well as the other members of the family. But the use of the address

for "ipak" (little girl, daughter) throughout the text makes it clear that in most sections it is the bride who is addressed (and, in fact, she was being cried over with this text). The content of the crying gives verbal shape to the particular circumstances surrounding the marriage, drawing on the impact of the local structure on events (e.g., the ambivalent position of a non-paidfor wife living in her deceased husband's village) in so doing. Grief, bitterness and (in some cases) relief are articulated with structural features in these texts. Other, more contingent aspects of the girl's life and situation ay be worked out in the sebuku as well; one long

text that I collected in Terangon (southern Gayo) was built around the girl's father's too-great willingness to marry her off at a young age and bis overattention to his trade activities. The sebuku before the wedding concerns only the bride. Although the boy will be cried over in the evening obeisance ceremonies no great outpouring of emotion takes place on the boy s side. Ideologically this emotional asymmetry is expectable: the boy is seen as a position in a chain of patrilineal continuity, while the girl is perceived, felt and represented as being torn out of ber natal context. (semab).

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Although a period of uxorilocal residence will follow the marriage (that nay extend over the remaining lifetime of the girl's mother), the event of marriage is seen as a fundamental separation of mother and daughter in a way that is not true for the groom. The ideological dominance of

the virilocal and patrilineal model is thus represented in the form of the ritual. The bringing of the groom (mah bai) penan/berguru immediately follows the man

described above. The transition between the two events is

marked as one between "women's work" and "men's work", or the "desireable" (varus) part of the marriage and its "necessary" (uajib) moment.

The cooking, inviting, and preparation/purification of the bride and groom is "women's work", although men were involved as well, while the formal bringing of the groom to the bride's headman, the wedding, and the formal exchanges that will occupy the next day and a half are "men's vork." In the procession to the bride's village, the women may at first

preceed the men, carrying cooling plants and preparing the way for the groom. But, shortly before reaching the outskirts of the bride's vil*

lage, the party reorders itself, with the men now passing to the front with the groom. This moment marks the transition fron one kind of work to the uajib, the merely desireable to the

to the other, from the varus absolutely necessary.

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Toe marriage process continues with three named events: mah bai (the bringing of the groos), nah kro (the bringing of cooked rice), and mah atvr (tbe bringing of rule). Each of these rituals entails the sarak opat, or

formal confrontation of two political units, the dt,

r'j, in light of an affinal relation between two lineages. An exchange is thus simultaneously between affines, with other relatives aligned on one side or tbe other, a i j d between villages acting as political units. As one or tbe other of these two levels is foregrounded at different f tints ir. the marriage process, individual alignments or self

definitions may change.

Bringing

tbe Groom and tbe

Wedding

Two events are superimposed one on the other, with minimal syntag* static separation. One is the formal surrender of the groom by the groom's village to tbe bride's, tbe mab bai second event is the nikah, (bringing the groom). The (wali),

where tbe guardian of the bride, her

ves t'se groom to tbe bride. The uali

is a close male agnatic relative

of tbe bride, rarely, but increasingly, the father himself. Today, village Gayo (e.g., iz. Isak) will refer to the entire doublec-op event as mab bai, thus foregrounding the formal exchange

between two polities with which it commences, while reformist Gayo living in Takengon will often refer to tbe entire event as akad nikah,

foregrocnding not only tbe Islamic part of the event but the Islamic

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371

character of the entire marriage process. The man bai involves a formal speech exchange (melnkan) between a

representative of each village, in this case the two imm, with the headaan present to reaffirm the political nature of the exchange. Subsequent speeches are conducted by the headman himself. Tbe mah bai, as the surrender of the groom to the bride's village,

is incomplete until it has been reciprocated by the bride's visit to the groom's village on the following day. Together, these two presentations constituted the core ritual of the traditional marriage. The two acts, however, are not symmetrical. For all marriages in Isak, the groom is surrendered to the bride's village and is told, in formal speech, that he should remain there, as he has become a member of the village. The bride, however, is only brought to "visit" (entong) the groom's side in

the reciprocal ritual. That ritual is appropriately named, not "bringing the bride", but "bringing cooked rice," (mab kro"). Tbe formal exchange of words constructs a series of parallels, thereby suggesting the equivalence of two poles. Passing the groom over from one of these to the other is represented as a simple transfer across a sign of equation. The following excerpt is an illustration of tbe poetic structures: "ini kami ara maksud ari uken ng juln bayi a. dt ini osab, dt so menerima Karena ng taring batang ruang so, Keta batang ruang isin idpti Itaringn ama so. Keta ama isin idpti. Itaringn sudr so. We come from upstream with a purpose, to escort the groom. dt here gives, dt there receives him. Since he has left behind his house there, So a house here he has come upon. He left his father there, he has found a father here. He left lineage mates there,

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Keta sudr isin idepeti Itaringn sarak opat so Keta sarak opat isin idpti Keta jri kae anak ni, Kune peraturen isin, beta. Ike salah tegahi, Ike benar ipapahi. Ike dengan ukn, dis dengan toa ni. Ike in ukn, dis in toa ni. Ike asa ukn, Dis ama toa ai." he has found lineage mates here. He left his polity there, So a new one here he has found. So, you all teach our son here, However rules are here. If he is wrong, correct him, If he is right, follow him. A cross-sex sibling upstream, (be the same towards) one downstream. A mother upstream, be the same here downstream. A father upstream, be the same here downstream.

The passage of the groom is from the "upstream" village (his own) to tbe "downstream" village of his bride. His village could in fact be upstream or downstream from the receiving village; the point is the representation of equivalence and not an asymmetry of upstream/ downstream in this passage. To put it in other terms, it is the balance of the two"you must have an upstream to have a downstream that is foregrounded, not the priority of the former over the latter. This passage or transition is described as finding an equivalent fcr everything that be had left behind him--a house, a mother and father, and lineage mates. This first series of equivalence statements then makes possible a second set, wherein the groom is admonished to treat bis new-found relatives here exactly as be would those whom he left behind. And, the receiving group is told to teach him what he will need to know in order to conduct himself properlysometimes a list of maxims concerning proper conduct follows on this general exhortation. The receiving group then acknowledges the statements and requests made by tbe "upstream" visitors. Tbe equivalences are then repeated.

^iiiirry-'rfiirtw-irti^^

373

and the groom is accepted. The speech establishes the equality of the two political units (here, the two villages), regardless of the form of the marriage and the affinal relations which are created by it. I have encountered other forms of this statement of equality in other villages. In Terangon, for example, a goat is brought by the groom's side well beforehand. When cooked, the goat's head is split in two, and one-haIf eaten by each of the two headmen. The two dt are thereby presented as

equivalent, and in a symmetrical relation to each other. The nature of the marriage contract is also specified during this ritual. Stipulations of domicile or future payments are stated and often written down and witnessed by the district religious official and signed by the groom and his village head. For instance, if the marriage

will require the continued domicile and residence in the village by the couple, the words: Ike bluh tunung, ike mosop perahi"

(If he leaves, follow, if he disappears, find bim) are added. In one recent marriage, an agreement was written out that if vil-

the couple were to change their residence from the wife s parents

lage, even if they retained their official domicile there, then a fine of one buffalo as penurip sion used was as follows: Betel-nut returns to its stem, sirih leaf to its base if (he is not) the support in life and the burier at death. (then the fine will be paid). These and other phrases are the binding words of the ritual. Labels (juln, angkap) ate rarely used, giving rise to the discussions about "Pinang ulak ku canik bio ulak ku rudang ike gr kin penurip murip penanom mat." (source of life) would be paid. The expres-

374

the marriage category that were examined in Chapter 7. Following the acceptance of the groom in the bride's village, the guardian of the bride weds the boy to the girl (nikah, valent osah hukum, lit. "give law"). or its Gayo equi-

This essence of the wedding is a

series of recitations by the guardian each repeated, word for word, by the groom. The guardian pronounces the confession of faith ( " I bear witness that there is no god but God, and that Muhacrnad is his Messenger"), usually followed by a "Bismillah", and then a formula pronouncing the act of nikah. The confession and Bismillah are usually recited by

the guardian line by lise, each line being repeated by the groom, but the nikah formula oust be recited all at once, without hesitation, by the boy. The formula is usually in Malay/Iodonesian, as in the following example: "Beve diwakilkan ibu-bapaknya kepada aku, aku nikahkan (XAXEj menjadi isterimu, halal dengan mahar 15 gram mas perlu atasmu." That her parents have given me the authority. I wed (SAME) to yon as your wife, legitimate vita mahar of 15 grans gold required from you.

The precise language of the formula will vary with the individual guardian, and it must be repeated (with the appropriate change of shifters) word for word, without stopping, by the groom, and witnessed by three adult men. If he fails to repeat it correctly the first time, he may try again, and a brief pause may be takes while he collects himself before trying a second or third time. Indeed, most grooms have to

repeat the formula at least once before getting it right, due to their nervousness. The correctness and boldness of the groom's repetition is taken as a sign of the well-being of the marriagealthough one groom

'fcWiTi (tl m i l M n f i i l i m m m m m i l m m ^ ^

375
who shot back the formula quickly, correctly, and a little loudly was deemed to have an underdeveloped sense of self, insufficiently mukeml. The payment of mahar is made at this time to the bride, through her guardian, by the groom. Two additional payments are often made at this time, both of them outside the main channel of events. First, a payment called pa is made from the women who stand as close "mothers" of the boy (usually including his mother and her sisters, sometimes several relatives of one more degree of reaove), to the equivalent "mothers" of the girl. The payment is as a "cospensation for the labors of giving birth", upah ngict (where the term ngint refers to the process where

the mother lies very close to the coals for several days after giving birth in order to recover). Secondly, if the kin term relationship between the bride and groom crosses a generation, then the boy's family gives a payment to the girl's in order to "level their tutur." There are two names for this takes as a result

payment depending on which direction the bride's tutur of the change. "Atas berpenyig, tuyuh berpenentam"

(On top, pay a "ladder", on bottom, pay for a descent) In both cases, the phrase refers to the position of the groom's to which the bride must either ascend or descend. Two more speeches follow the nikah: the cbotbsh (sermon), which tutur,

usually dwells on the importance of faithfulness and being satisfied with a materially poor life, and the closing remarks by spokesmen for each of the two villages. In these closing remarks the couple are pronounced to be members of the bride's village. Is lsak. all couples are.

376
at this moment, affiliated into the wife's village, even if their domicile is altered later on. The wedding provides another scene for alignment vis-a-vis tie married couples. Men line up oa the side of the guardian and the bride or the side of the groom, while women present therselves as givers or receivers of the pa payment. (man penan), In the sessions held before the weddisg

alignments were often across village lines, as kin ties This foregrounding of the affinal

were weighed over lineage membership.

relation and kin ties continues in the alignments at the wedding itself. The seating of men and women in the inner and outer rooms of the housse, respectively, provide maps to these alignments. In the case presented earlier, in which the father of both tibe bride and the groom were from the same village, the men and women 1A0 sat on the groom's side at the wedding consisted entirely of members of the groom's father's natal village, rather than the village into vbch he married (and to which the groom was affiliated). This rather dramatic assertion or (as judged at the time) over-valuation of patrilateral, cross-village ties was a claim by the village for their "menfcer by origin", as they put it. Similar "crossings-over", reflected in seating and the identity of those who brought the groom, occurred at other weddings I witnessed, although never in so dramatic a fashions. At times, members of nuclear families will divide their allegiances across both sides. In oa* case, while the family was a member of

the groom's village, the mother was acting as healer to a close lineage relative of the bride; one son and the mother worked for and sat with the bride's party, while the eldest son, whose name provided his moth-

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377

er's teknonyo, aligned himself with the groom. At the same time, the mother and close older female relatives of the groom meet those of the bride to commence their new relationship as

in-laws

(un).

At one marriage, they sat down together towards the door in the women's side of the house and chewed betel together. Each said she had sirih from near her own village, and then they said "let's exchange betel", and they did so, exchanging batil (brass betel-nut containers), using the kin term um for the first time, at first tentatively. In a scft voice and laughing a bit at its strangeness. These "mothers" will not come to the "eating stirred rice" the following morning, as they are still kernel, a bit shy with each other. After the closing speeches, the groom's party returns to its own village, leaving the groom behind.

Joking

and

Obeisance

On two occasions the bride and groom pay formal obeisance to their relatives, are taught new tutur, of these obeisances (semah) and receive small presents. The first

is on the night of the wedding, at the But this ritual of formal

bride's house, in front of all her relatives.

obeisance and kinship reassignments is preceded by a session of otherwise unheard-of intimacy and joking between the groom and all the girls in the village, the unmarried friends of the bride from whom she has now separated. 1 shall cite one of my descriptions of the joking:

t ii r i r a i f H I T i l i i iiaimiirlii r n

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m
378

In the next house over, away from the gathering older people, the Aman Mayak (the term given to newly married men) sat on the eating platform surrounded by all the girls of the village. They had him beating a drus when I walked in and were chatting with him. Just after I arrived they led him into a snail room where the bridal bed had been fixed up, and they all crouched on the floor eating, the boy and all the girls together. The girls served his food and pointed out what be had to eat. He kept putting bits of rice and meat back into the bowl, and tried to push some cr.to their plates. They were all extremely familiar, jostling one another. When he had finished eating he wiped his hands on a girl's sarong, put his hat on another girl's head, and picked a piece of meat off ber plate for himself. Such behavior which could never happen is public, and in private it would signal an intimate relationship between the parties. The kin terms which the groom will use towards each of these girls will vary from "daughter" to "mother" teres, and they will be fixed immediately after this joking interlude. While he is carrying on with the girls, he is addressed by all of them as "kil" (FZH), a term which

may be used to construct a "light", joking relationship independently of age. Probably few of these girls will use this term for him afterwards Its use here is amusing to the girls,

or have used it before this.

because the kin term is "higher" than the terms which they had previously used towards the groom. The term is nonetheless consistent with membership in their village, since a FZH would, at least immediately after marriage, reside in their village. I would interpret kil as a

"floating" kin term that acts as a transition marker, from without to within the village, and in addition marks the moment as a light, permissive one. The groom remains silent through this play. The couple is then dressed in formal wedding garb and led into the outer room, where the men and women of the village, and others who have aligned themselves with the bride's side, have arranged themselves around the room: older men in the center, towards the door, other men

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along both walls on either side of them, and women all together in a clump near the door to the kitchen. such event: Square woven mats were piled up at the center of the inside wall (the oost honored spot is the room) and the bride and groom were seated together there, facing into the room, the girl on the boy's left. The two elder women who escorted then out (pengasah) then "cooled" them with uncooked rice and cooling leaves, touching them to their lips, forehead and hands. The couple was then led around the room to bow before each of them en. They began with the center group of men, which included her "fathers" and the religious officiant, then to the older ten seated to the immediate right of the first set, and then those to their immediate right, and then to all the others. I shall again cite my notes on one

In each case the bride bowed first, crouching, leaning far over and touching her head to the hands of the relative, held outstretched towards the gro-und, then bringing herself up slowly and releasing the hands. The older woman followed with a batil into which each person placed a small amount of money (RplOO-500), and then came the groom, who bowed as had the bride. Then they were seated, and the women came over to them, each kneeling in front of the couple and receiving their bows. Some of the women cried over the groom; none over the bride. The bride was then led away, but the groom had to remain seated in front of us until we all had left. The difference in the couple's obeisances towards men and women is another visible index of the differentially lived relations towards the two parents. As one couple put it, commenting on this ritual differ-

"Men are ashamed (kernel) to approach their children. In general, fathers are willing to ignore and not care for their children, as are children towards their fathers. Mothers, however, are like an unbroken stream; you cannot separate the from tbeir children,, just as upstream and downstream have no clear break between them. Mothers are not kernel to come to and weep over their children, while fathers are.

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The upstream/downstream image is again used, in this case emphasizing its feature of continuity as well as the complementarity between two poles. The crying that does take place at the semah is generally

over the groom; the bride has already been cried over before the wedding took place. This crying is relatively short, and consist in lamenting the condition of the boy, who is not among his fellow-villagers. In the

following example the groom's father had died when he was young, leaving him with only one parent. The boy's loneliness provides the imagery for the crying: "Ike sara ni pake. Those others, most people, ike lagu ni jea, rempak mulo, aa orum in. other and father together. Bertepuk semelar, tangan, Clap with one hand, beremalan semelah kiding. walk with one foot. The gifts of money received by the bride from her relatives are called lapik n'uku, "small knee-cloths". In earlier times the bride

would carry a cloth with her and place it on the lap of each person as she bowed to him/her. The gift was given in return for the cloth, metonym for the bowing itself. No return is expected from these gifts; they are the final gifts from each of her fellow-villagers. The rest of 'the evening is relaxed, as tensions are released through the crying. The fixing of the new kin terms ha closed the event on the bride's side, ending their half of the marriage. inner rooms, the women gather in a gay mood, and begin dancing: In the

W.iiririrrrinii*riiifmii^

381
A number of the older women were standing on the eating platform in the back of the house, dancing and beating small drums and gongs. At first they just danced around to the beat, then someone brought out a pot cf betel spit, and began smearing it on the other dancers' faces as they danced. So one objected (at any other time such conduct would have started a fight, and in fact never would have happened), and the women seemed entranced in their dancing, their faces blotched with red spit. Two women began a mock fight, wrestling on the floor for several minutes, playfully, before they resumed dancing. All the women had rearranged their dress in outlandish manners, working sarongs into puffy headdresses, tying plates into their cloths as if they were carrying babies with them, one woman taking her red necklace in her mouth as if holding a bit; the others loved this step, screaming that she had grown a beard. Another stood in the center of the platform, no longer dancing, just turning around and around, clearly in a daze. They stopped, exhausted, shortly thereafter. Men stay out of doors while this wild behavior is going on. Most en are embarassed to see the dancing, since many of the women stand in "heavy" kin relations to them. On some cases the attitude of the women

was hostile towards any men who came into the area where they were dancing; the more vocal among the ordered all men away (I was usually exempted, but not always). Indeed, the dancing represents the emotional

peak of a series of women's activities that make up much of the marriage process.

Reciprocal

Visits

The following day is a period of reciprocating, reaffirming the new affinal tie, completing the marriage by bringing the bride to the groom's village, and putting on the formal exchanges of speech and didong music that last the entire night. Here I shall examine the first

two of these events.

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382

On the two successive mornings after the wedding has taken place, the bride cooks and serves a meal. The first meal is cooked in her

village on the morning after the wedding, and is served to the elders of the groom's village who have come to her village for this purpose. The second meal is cooked in the groom's village on the morning after she has spent her first night there, and is served to elders who cone from her own village to eat. Together, these meals constitute a kind of chiasma, the villagers crossing over in both cases to eat the girl s cooking, and thus legitimizing through commensality her new status. Both meals are called "eating stirred rice"; as one friend said to Be: "of course, all rice is stirred, but here the Inen Mayak (new bride) has stirred it." Emphasis is on the bride's self-definition through her initial acts of cooking. meals. The parents of the couple do not attend the

The change in status is too hard for them to digest so quickly; at the change.

they are still kernel

On the evening after the bringing of the groom the "bringing of cooked rice" (nah kro) is held. This ritual reciprocates the MO bai.

The bride and groom are brought together from her village to ais, but the groom waits outside while the bride is "cooled" at the door and led in to the women's side of the house. Parallel to this, in the men's

side, the headman of the visiting village formally presents cooked food to the headman of the visited, and states their intention to visit the house. The bride is not turned over to the receiving house in the saae The reciprocity in the exchange has two signs:

anner as was the groom.

first, a visit to repay the visit that brought the groom, and second, the bringing and exchanging of quantities of cooked rice. After the

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formal exchange, the visiting delegation eats rice cooked by the receiving village off plain plates, while he latter eats the brought rice, off plates with a banana leaf under the rice, the container used to carry the cooked rice. In fact, the rice is all out of the sam* pot; no great attention is paid to who gets whose rice, but it is very important that the two kinds of plates are distributed correctly, so that no one eats rice that is marked as his own. The receiving village fills up the woven sacks that were used to bring the rice with raw items: uncooked rice, sugar and a bit of money. The mah kro visit thus emphasizes reciprocity on one level, but the asymmetry of the two sides on another. The groom has been given to the bride's village in the first moment of this cycle. The emphasis in the language of the mah bai is on the physical presence of the grooa; he or the "wrapped up" thing (*er-

is referred to as "the body" (tubuh), taris).

The return is not in the form of the girl herself, but as the

rice that she (and others) has cooked. This cooked rice is in turn net by uncooked foodstuffs and money. In terms of the logic of the goods

exchanged, the mah kro ritual presents a dichotomy of raw and cooked goods, corresponding to the man's and woman's side, respectively. But it also fixes the place of the boy in the bride's village; be is not returned, nor is she offered in return to his village. Only with a separate event (either paying additional bridewealth, penurip, side Isak, tnsn) The mah atur will counteract this asymmetry. exchanges involve a forma! visit by a group of people or, out-

who stand in an affinal relation to the grooa's or the bride's side. The literal meaning of atur is "rule, order", and the sense conveyed by

384

mah atur

is to highlight a certain relation and represent it

politically, in the name of the sarak opat of the two parties. In a mah atur exchange, it is the headmen or their representatives who speak in

light of a particular affinal tie. The mah atur exchanges are made in virtue of affinal ties to

either the bride's or the groom's parents. The ritual is held at the bride's house on the night of the weddiTig, if the exchange is vis-a-vis her parents, or at the groom's house immediately following the mah kro ritual, if the opposite is the case. Several of each kind happened in Isak during my stay. Even if the ritual is held along with mah atur it

oust follow it, if only within the narrative of a single speech, since until the bride has been formally received by the groom's village, there is not yet a marriage on which to hinge the exchanges. A mah atur exchange may either be initiating (nyuun, lit. "to

sow") or reciprocating (mbls).

In either case, the prestation is in (source line),

view of one's relation to the other party as their raliq juJn (married-out line), or biak,

a word which means "friend, compan-

ion", and here refers to two persons who want to initiate a close relationship outside of an affinal category. These biak relations are often

between two men, one of whom has married out of a lineage, and thus cross-cut village line. Exchanges ideally are in the form of an unbroken chain over time. One person. A, "sows" (nyuun) an exchange, giving a certain amount of

money (say Rp 1000) and some raw foodstuffs to B. B then returns this prestation at the next possible occasion, i.e., when A or close family of A sponsors a marriage, giving Rp 1000 as the return to the initial

365

gift, and, e.g., Rp 1500 as a new "sowing." The precise aaount may rise ox fall but the important element of the exchanges is their asymmetry; B rast never return precisely what A gave, but that amount plus something els. The items exchanged in the mah atur include money, foodstuffs and

words. The visiting groop brings raw items with it, usually consisting of uncooked rice, a cocosat, salt, sugar, and money. They receive cooked items in return. Seven plates are set out before them as they arrive, with cookies, cakes of glutinous rice and other sweets distributed over theo, and all seven covered with a single long cloth. A unique construction, called a perarakan, plates. The perarakan is set up next to the row of

consists of a thick banana stalk wrapped in a brass stand otherwise used for tbe

cloths and standing on a dulang,

food of honored guests. Betel-chewing objects and sticky rice are also placed on the stand, bidden fron view by the cloth. This stalk-on-stand is presented by the visiting side along with tbe foodstuffs, and tbe groom sits by its side.* The visiting side lines j p along one side of the seven plates (or fourteen, if two relations are being "brought-for" at once, or, conceivably, twenty-one, etc.), while the receiving group sits along the other. The groom sits by tbe banana stalk to one side, the silent witness to

* Tbe same word (perarakan) is also used to designate the stretcher on which a corpse is carried to be buried; the root (arak) refers to this particular mod of carrying something. The stalk is indeed carried on the shoulders to be set up. The perarakan is thus a vehicle for a body. A was mentioned above, the language of the marriage exchange is about physical bodies: the tubuh (body) of the bride and groom, frequently used imagery of the bamboo section (rue's), or the (clotb). etonvms baju (shirt), cpob

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386
the proceedings. He is dressed in formal groom's clothes, including the branching, decorated headdress which he wore for the wedding procession. The speaker for each side ay be a headman, or another member of the village, or a good speaker who has been borrowed for the occasion by the village.

Formal Speech and Social

Ties involve an exchange

All instances of ritual speech (melnkan)

between political units in light of an event. The items of exchange may be foodstuffs, a person (bride, groom, or someone being brought into a village), or wealth (bridewealth, bride goods, or fines). The event may be a marriage, either a present or a past one, a dispute settlement, or a leave-taking (as in my own when I left Isak). In all these cases, the

exchange of speeches in ritual style constitutes the event; if reference is made to the transfer of material goods, those goods are as they are stated to be in tbe speeches, and their formal acceptance closes the event. In most instances, tbe material goods exist as signs of the

exchange of speech, rather than the other way around (an exception is the presentation of bridewealth). I can characterize the style of ritual speaking in tera of three pairs of features. The first is allusion and indirectness, themselves (as I argued above for kin terms) valued features of conduct in other domains as well. Figurative language abounds in the speeches. The groom is referred ta as bertaris num kirimn (wrapped up but not a

package); circumcision is not named but alluded to as "throwing away the forbidden (haram), keeping the permitted (balal)." The name of the

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387

speech style is itself used as part of the speaking. Many sentences end with expressions such as "kdab aclo" "beta kir-kir" "melnkan" or combinations of the above, all meaning "more or less", or "figuratively speaking", fros which comes the name of the style itself,

melnkan.
Secondly, the style employs repetition and parallelism. The speaker will ead each line with one of the phrases mentioned above which means "more or less," developing a rythmic delivery into which the new items of information are inserted. The use of these phrases also allows the speaker tc speak quickly and almost witbo.it stopping for long periods of tine, by inserting such a phrase whenever he needs another second to think. For this purpose the longer phrases are best, such as "melnkan kdab mulo" and such. At another level, parallelisms are used to their utmost. These units are often themselves combined to form parallels on parallels. 1 shall illustrate with one brief section of the speech which will be used below to illustrate the formal structure.* Rj. Rj. Melnkan sana we kite Vhat can we do? Murip ni rj. This life, rj... l ' j e r . kir berasal, rain bas a beginning, angin kir berusol. wind has an origin, perbutn kir suasaliyab. actions have causs, Asaliyah ni pcrbut ni rj. The causes of these things: ike urn ari reduk. Rain is from its clouds, ike kuyu ari gerak. Vind is from its movement.

* After tbe first instance of its use, I omit the set of words meaning "more or less" (melnkan, et al.) trom this and other texts, as they are pri**rily fillers.

^ ^

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388

Enta sana w kite ou rip ni p rj.

what can we do? this life, rj. In it, the

This set of phrases is used by nearly every speaker.

speaker layers one figure on top of the other, building up to the causes of the exchange--in this case, the history of the bride. Rain and wind are in parallel, with the addition of the "straight" phrase that all activities have their causes. In this case, a "condition" is given a cause in an easily visible activity (rain from clouds, wind from movement), so that "cause" of the marriage will be linked in a similar way to the events preceding it in the biography of the girl. The single parallel construction is itself duplicated by the movement between Malay and Gayo roots: Malay (with Gayo pronunciation) "ujn" and Gayo "uren" for rain; "angin" and "kuyu" for wind. Predicated of the Malay nouns are the synonyms "asal" and "usul" (origin, cause), which are arranged in a phonetic chiasoa: u + a berasal) followed by a + u (angin berusul). (ujn

This phrase is often used

in everyday life, usually with the sense of "where there's smoke, there's fire." Perhaps it is the parallel-chiasma combination that makes the phrase attractive. These parallel structures are repeated, referred back to, and built upon throughout the speech, densely texturing it and lending it a high degree of formal consistency. They carry most of the semantic load of the text as well. In the speech cited above, the act of marriage was or sint, but by the combination of two paral-

referred to not as kerj lel structures: "warus iwajibn ringn ibertn."

the proper is made obligatory, the light is made heavy.

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This phrase highlights the transition in status which follows from the marriage rather than the involveaent and encounter of the two lineages and villages. The phrase is used in the context of the biography of the girl, where it is the subject's point of view rather than that of the society as a whole that is taken by the text. The third stylistic feature of the speech style is underplay and apology. Foodstuffs brought by the group or set out for a meal, even if

quite copious, are spoken of as "a drop of water, a slice of meat" and so on. The speaker apologizes for his own inability to speak ("ay tongue has no bones, y lips, no cross-ties"), as well as for the behavior of all those who accompany him. He recites the characteristic foibles

of the elderly (making noise with their betel-pounding sticks), the young (running back and forth) and the very young (crying and gurgling). A feature of the speaking that I mentioned above, the constant use of a filler phrase (melnkan, etc.) is also a sort of running apology for

everything said, with the sense of "I more or less have it right." Each of these stylistic rules for meJnkao speaking can be sus-

pended for purposes of humor, or slightly let down in order that a criticism be made of the opposite side. One speaker, often given to irreverent humor, recited a long underplayed acccnnt of the food brought by his side ("one drop of water, one slice of meat") but ended with: "two goats." The stylistic incongruity was very fanny. In the same

speech, a formulaic, ritual recounting of the bride's life was suddenly juxtaposed with a mention of eating, but using rhyme and parallelism, so that semantic incongruity co-occured with formal rule-following, making the lines very amusing to the audience. When he came to the naming

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ceremony for the infant the speaker said:

"ion berfcikah. ion berkenduri. Ara kanixg, ara bebiri."

There we sacrifice. there we eat a ritual meal. We have goat, and we have lamb.

Similarly, the most successful criticisms of the other side s conduct during the exchange are couched in stylistically appropriate forms. I quote a bit of one speech, where a "source" (ral-q) line had

been kept waiting to "bring atur" until after a "married-cct" (yuVen) line had finisheda reversal of proper order, since the former should precede the latter. In part of his reply the "source" speaker plays his

obligation (and the tone of the speech at these points is akin to "I'd really love to" but...) against his hurt feelings: Juln. offering (must be) received, calling (must be) answered. But what about it? We've been left behind at the batfcing-place. swept away a t t h e r i v e r - c r o s s i n g , with our good i n t e n t i o n s with our complete good-wishes, So: a l i n k by i n s u l t . . Sounds of clacking. said people leng ago, a spinach stalk for a flag. * duck is really a duck, Only makes it through a chicken's kindness. That is all for now, to our juln

"Jul'n. jurah ni berjamur, talu ni bersttt. Kun, kami ini ng taring ipemanin. ng manut i p e l i p e n , orum pakat j e r o h t orum doa sennxmant beta t a l i ni' sinrn. Tikku geritik. ken jema jen, batang ni barem kin pepanyi. Sunguh itik bergerai itik kasih ni kurik kati jadi Oya mulo ku nahma juln.

A duck, say the Gayo, is ignored by his mother after being batched, so be must follow hens around for his first few weeksand she is very confused at her "children's" love for water. The point of the

'l 'i R' '

391

saying is the dependance of the receiving group on their

source

line

for their existence in this world, and for anything they do successfully taking place. Ignoring the "source" at an important event is like using a spinach stalk for a flag (ineffectual) and being as ungrateful as is the duckling after he is able to leave his "mother" behind. The sequencing of the exchange itself is governed by clear rules, rules which throw light upon both the ideas of communication instantiated in the speech, and on the events on which parts of the speech form a commentary. Each side to the exchange makes an initial speech (sometimes broken up into two parts), in which the required elements of the speech are laid out by one speaker and then repeated and acknowledged by the other in the form: "it is very true, what was just said, that suchand-such". The subsequent four or more rounds of exchange either repeat this material, open up areas of difficulty, or throw in elaborating remarks or puzzles for the amusement of the audience. I will limit my remarks here to the opening speech by the presenting side, in which the major elements of the exchange are presented. These elements are five: the presentation of the batil (the copper

container holding'the four iteas used for betel-chewing), excuses for the speaker and his retinue (about which ewsugh bas been said above), the history of the event in question, the point of the exchange, and the presentation of the objects (food, groom, bridewealth, etc.) to the receiving party. The betel-case (batil) is what is first presented in the speech to

"open the way for speech." The case is referred to as the "batil that fills itself" (batil seisin diri), that has arrived (underplaying

gtiy

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392
agency): "Tos ni rj, enta sana rj, ng sawah batil terisi diri menunung kir kasat." As it happens, rj, how did it happen, the self-filled case is here, following our wishes. It is filled and comes to

The batil acts as an autonomous sign.

the even as if no one had brought it. The batil stands for the rj; anyone can speak, but the rj sends his batil along as a sign that the speech is in his name. The two speakers exchange batils and chew a bit of betel from each other's cases before saying any words of consequence. This permits the exchange of words to occur as binding words between two rj. The contents of the batil also represent a perfectly balanced four-way opposition between elements, that in its completeness acts as does the four-colored rice mentioned earlier as a sign of a social unit. Lying in the batil are betel and lime, the one as the balancing taste to the other, and sirib and gambir, which also make up a gustatory complementary pair. Tobacco is present (in the batil or the speeches) as an optional fifth element. Each taste has its distinctive name, as does each classifier for the elements. The two lists (classifiers, tastes) are combined to make up the body of the batil part of the speech, as below: Ik ik ik ik kin ik Ini blo ara sara ri Iah pinang ara sara smir konyl ara sara taka kapur ara sara palit tn. bako ara sara jemput kujurahan ku kite." Of sirih, a leaf of betel-nut, a section of gambir, a slice of lime, a stroke as a sign. of tobacco, a fingerful. I hand this to you. Of the sirih's spiciness, taste it for its spiciness;

Ini jaing ni blo, irasa kin jaing;

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ik apak ni kapur, irasa kin apak; ik mid ni pinang, kite rasa kin mid; ik kelat ni konyol, kite rasa kin kelat Rasai mi kite orum-orum aku orum kite. of the lime's bite, taste it for its bite; of the betel's strength, We taste it for its strength; of the gambir's bitterness, we taste it for its bitterness. Taste it together you and 1.

The internal equilibrium of the batil's contents and its autonomy, a "self-fulfilling" sign, make it into an ideal signifier of completion via internal structure. The batil, as explicated both in and out of the formal speeches, is the perfect system. Just as the four-colored rice

is a system of uncooked foods, and thus fit for opening up communication with the wild, and the four foods of the ritual meal form a system of cooked food, and are thus fit for opening up cormuncation with spirits, the batil constitutes a system of super-foods, elements outside of food needs, and seen as the ultimate in cultural consumption. The batil is thus properly linked to important, official speech. creating words that will last. As an item of external exchange, it is thus a token of the effectiveness of speech, their perdurance. Sometimes a distinction is drawn in the speech itself between aangas mudekala (everyday chewing of betel) and mangas sedekala (betel-chewing The batil sedekala.

that is "passed down through the ages," turun-temurun).

offered in ritual speech is specified as the batil of mangas

The exchange of batil allows the speaker to continue, after making excuses for himself and his group, to recite the reasons for the exchange. The relation of natural events (wind, rain) to their sources provides a basis for relating the work at hand (exchanges) to their origin in the growth and marriage of the girl and boy. The speech recounts the utang opat of parents towards their children which were

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394
presented in Chapter 1. Beginning with the birth and turun mani of the

child, the speaker narrates her/his progression towards the marriage, and eventually to the work at hand. Thus, "one event leads to another" and the present visit is described. "Rj. Keta ngeraupakatkir kami laki-isteri rj. Karena ng munentong mulo batang ruang titi gergl bcrtenmngn kir pumu berjujungn kir ulu, bertenemn kir kuduk. Rj. We have decided among ourselves, husbands and wives, rj. Because (we are to) visit now log-rows floor-crossboards; carrying from the hands, bearing on the head, shouldering on the back.

Then the content of what has been brought is described, and the presence of such objects deened essential to this carrying out of an adat ritual: "itosn kir kro sara sup gulew sara nls weh sara tenting, kin tenmng ni pumu kin tenujung ni ulu kin nemen ni kuduk kir rj kin sarat ibarat munentong ruangt rj. "Keta kin oya p rj, enti kir sasat pln enti kir bing sj melnkan sana w rj ike dt kir berujud ike hukum: kir berkalam. Karena ng kit &egngon sarh ipanang kir nyata melnkan kit amat kir mutubuh, kit pangan kir murasa, melnkan sana ini ujut kuserahan ku kit, rj. A handful of rice was cooked, meat for it, one slice, water, one drop, as something to carry with bands and bear on the head, and carry on the back, as a token, for example, to visit your house, rj. And in that els', rj, not in vain not just useless After all, rj, Adat is in a (visible) object. Law is in speech. Since we have seen clearly, and found it there when we looked, (as if) we grasp it and it has a body, eat it and it has a taste, So after all, its objecthood I give to you, rj.

rtfrT'f"--"HiTiiiiniTi

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395

Once the reason for the exchange has been accounted for (by reference to the unfolding of social time), the nature of the exchange is derived from the key maxim that defines the relative forms of processes in the domains of traditional law (t) law berujud, and Islamic hukum. Traditional

functions in terms of a visible object. One principle of

Gayo criminal law is that an object must be found to back up an accusation made by a single accuser; otherwise he is subject to fines for false accusation. Ritual exchange functions in terms of the exchange of objects as signs; speech itself must be "opened up" by the exchange of the batil. Islamic law, on the other hand, functions in terms of the word. In its most "basic" meaning within Gayo culture (at least for Isak society and the other two villages that I will discuss below), hukum refers to the Islamic wedding, as in the phrase ossh hukum mentioned above, which has the character of speech, the repetition of the marriage formula. Even the mahar or "Islamic marriage token" is often interpreted in terms of the word, either as the gift of a Qur'an or the recitation by the groom of several of the short prayers that conclude the Qur'an (spoken word). More generally, "hukum" relies on interpretations

of the words of the Scriptures, whether locally or by judges, in which testimony and writing play the predominant role. Finally, the speech identifies the proper roles occupied by the two exchanging parties, and the affinal ties with regard to which the exchange is being conducted. I cite the continuation of the speech last events are

cited above as illustration, where a mah kro and two mah atur taking place within the one speech exchange:

satu*

'

"

396

Kulapis mi rj. karena kir menunjukan batang ruang titi gerglt, rj, segr itengkah tulu luin. Sara tengkah menurus anakku batang ruang titi gerglt. Keroa tengkah ni karena cuninget kit sawah blo-nt sara rsk pinangt sara smir saat n rj munawir. kir langkah-nt Sara tengkah mi beta c'aaa arti jult; pertama juln kir si tu atas kedu juln kir si bengsu.

Rj. I add another layer, rj. Because coming to your log-room floor-crossboards, rj, once struck, but three are hit. One strike, so to speak, bringing my child to your log-room f1ocr-crossboards. The second strikes Because we recollect Our sirih, one leaf, arrives, our betel, one section just now, rj, preparing our steps. One more strike, so it goes, His father is our juln. first, the elder juln, second, the juln who is the youngest.

Tne exchange is thus declared to contain three events: the mah kro, where the bride is brought to visit the groom's "log-house, floorwhere the father of the groom is, in to the visiting party. The

crossboards", and two mah atur,

this exchange-event, in a relation of juln

end of the analysis of the speech itself thus brings us to the representation of affinal relations within the mah atur. The mah atur exchanges

interpret a particular past marriage as creating an affinal tie with respect to which the bringing party is labeled in exchange terms, as either raliq, juln, or biak (and thus as neutral to the exchange).

However, the precise tie between the two parties is subject to multiple interpretations by actors. Each exchange stands in an historical relation to other such exchanges as one in a series. It may be the first, in which case it sows (nyuun) past exchange (mbls). the relation, or it may reciprocate a

Moreover, the exchanges depict past marriage

events in such a way as to foreground marriage exchange and supercede

397

uxorilocal domicile. These characteristics of exchanges as signs, positioned in historical chains, foregrounding virilocal marriage, and capable of multiple interpretations mean that the exchanges are subject to rationalisation and reconsideration as part of a reflexive discourse about the society. They thus may be seen as models "of and for" society, but only if this phrase is meant in an interpretive sense, i.e.. that these discursive representations of social ties are signs that actors draw from in constituting their social world, not as mechanical "maps" of that society. I will illustrate these features of the exchanges with three cases. Case One, figured below, involved two exchanges that were made

at the same marriage. The father of the groom, born in Kute Rayang, bad married nxorilocally into Kute Baru. His son was married from that village. This marriage was discussed earlier; the bride's father also came from K=te Rayang. Both mah atur vis-a-vis the groom's father. The first exchange was made by the man labeled la who stood in the relation of juln to the groom's father, because of the marriage of the discussed in this case were made

groom', father's sister to Kramil. Thus, although the prestation was made by Kramil to Kute Baru, it was made in virtue of a relation to Kute Rayang. The exchange thus highlights the groom's father's patriateral tie to Kate Rayang over his current status in Kute Barn. Tbe second exchange in Case One was made in virtue of the circled marriage, in which the lb, the man bringing the exchange, stands as raliq to Kate Rayang. lb's WTZ was married juln to Kute Rayang. In

this case two uxorilocal marriages are bracketed. Tbe first is the

iiimmMBmilMI^^

396

Figure

17: Case One, Hab Azur to Kute Baru

Kramil

Kute Rayang

Kute Baru

Kute By n

r* Alb
la (cah atur) (mah atur)

"bringing" man's own marriage out of Kute Ryem. since he "brought rule" as a member of Ku<e Ryem. The second is, again, the marriage of the groom's father out of Kute Rayang. Tbe patriateral tie of tbe groom's father to Kute Rayang had already been highlighted by the salient participation of Kute Rayang men in the marriage preparations which were discussed earlier. The two sorts of alignments thus reinforce each other to the same social structural effect: foregrounding exchange ties as if between patrilineal units, and backgrounding the cross-cutting ties generated by uxorilocal

saa

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399

marriage.

The exchanges represented the marriage histories as if they

were as in the next figure: two virilocal marriages, and three villages instead of four. Figure 18: Case One, Carriages Implied by the Exchanges

Krasil

Kute Ravang

, Kute Ryem

i
rubric of biak entong ju'ln

PA

lb

grooa's t father j

In the second exchange the bringing party came under the hybrid (friends coming to visit a carried-out without using the term. In

party) The group thus came as a quasi raliq

terms of the foregrounded exchange relation (the sign of which is the marriage 1 have circled in the diagram), the exchange-event was from Kute Ryem (the bringing party's village of origin) to Kute Rayang (the same for the receivers); in teras of affiliation to political units the

arnfilfilif m i n mm >,

400

parties were both members of Kute Baru (both by uxorilocal marriage). An exchange between members of the same village is not permitted. Their relation as fellow-villagers is indicated by the self-description as biak. The direction of the exchange relation brought out in the event juln.

is indicated by the designation of the destination as Case Two involves a raft atur

made to Kute Rye, during the marriage marked as 2 in the

of a girl from the village. The woman who mah atur.

following figure, married viriiocally from Kute Rayang into Kracil. but came in virtue of her natal status as raliq to Kute Ryem.

Figure

19: Case Two, Hah Atur to Kute

ttyen

Kracil

Kute Rayang

Kute Rym

F i -U
A *
(53h a t u r )

t
t
O
bride

Here an initial affinal tie perdures over a subsequent exchange marriage and change in domicile. But the virilocal marriage meant that the womari came as part of Kraai 1 village rather than Kute Rayang. in

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401

contrast to Case One (exchange lb) above, in which the exchanging man came as part of a delegation froa his natal village out of which he had since married. The uxorilocal marriage can be superceded through

exchange to a degree that the virilocal marriage cannot. In Case Three, shown in the next figure, a marriage was conducted in Robel, but the official affiliation of the bride and her father was to a village downstream from Isak, Lning. Rayang man who came as raliq The aft arur was from c Kute

to the bride's father.

Figure

20: Case Three,

Hah Atur

Exchange

to

Robel

Robel

t'ning

i'-ste Rayang

( i r . a h atur)

bride

The exchange involves four generations of marriages, as summarizea below:

,,..,.

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402
The bride's father's mother's mother married from Robel to l'ning. Their daughter carried a car. from the same village (different belah), and they had a son (the bride's father). When his father died, his mother took hie back to Robel where they lived with her mother's relatives. She never redeemed and th- son thus continued her son free l'ning (tebus waris), to be affiliated to his father's lineage in Vning. The son later married a woman from Kute Rayang. and they, in turn, had several children, after which the marriage ended in divorce (one of very few in Isak). The bride at this marriage was the eldest of these children. The bride was married from Robel because she had grown up there, and because of her father's mother's mother's origin froc the village. In the exchange shown here, Kute Rayang a* arur to Eobel as raliq vis-a-vis the bride, and by virtue of the bride's own status as juln vis-a-vis Robel. The aft atur in Case Three was from raliq to juln, but it was

delivered to the headman of Robel, to which the bride herself stood as juln. The exchange was thus in virtue of two past marriages, one from

Eobel to Vning. and one from Kute Rayang to tning, but from which Ining was left out. Two generations of residence in Robel appear to have made that village the primary political representative of the bride'* father, even though, in terms of the logic of marriage and domicile, he continued to "belong to" tning. In each of the three cases the mab atur exchange was made in virtue of a past virilocal marriage, and was figured in such a way as to render intervening uxorilocal mariage irrelevant. The exchanges serve to depict the social world as a set of lineage* which exchange women among the. The very presence of sxorilo-

* To further complicate matters, the headman of Kute Rayang who participated cz. one side of the exchange was himself domiciled is. Robel; be was one of the cross-overs discussed in Chapter 6. Although he sat on the sice of Kute Rayang for the exchange I where the political relation was highlighted;, he sat on the Robel side for the seeab, aui his wife worked for the Robel feasts (where the kinship relation was highlighted).

403
cally married men acting as headmen and often as spokesmen for their natal villages for these exchanges lends additional force to this representation.

The Bride's

Reincorporation

The major events in the marriage process have been completed by the time that the bride is given her new kin term relations to her husband's villagers. The final obeisance ritual (semah), carried out in

the groom's village, is similar to the earlier ritual which was carried out with the bride's relatives, with one difference. Whereas in the former ritual the bride was given gifts of money from her relatives, in the latter the bride also receives monetary gifts, but from her husband's close kinsmen, and as items in an exchange with her, an exchange that marks her initial obligations to members of her husband's village. The girl is expected to give items of her handiwork (bags and mats of various sizes and quality) in strict correspondance to the amount received. At the time of my fieldwork, Rp 500 "bought" a smallish bag, Boys in the village would pool money

Rp 1000 a plain mat, and so forth.

to receive certain items, deciding on what they would most like to have from her. The succession of semah rituals parallels the logic of the bringing rice" rituals discussed earlier. In both cases, it is the work of

the bride which is offered to her husband's village. The bride's relationship to her affines is depicted in terms of gifts and returns, where she receives raw items (money, uncooked food) and presents finished (mats) or cooked (rice) ones. Her interpersonal relationships in her

i
husband's village are thus represented as affinal ones, based on exchange and reciprocity, rather than kinship ones.

404

The second new interaction between the bride and the boys of her husband's village is as a joking session, the equivalent to that undergone by her husband but again with an asymmetry. The joking session

between the groom and the girlfriends of the bride was a strictly deliited transition event. It took place inside the bridal chamber, with

village elders sitting in the outside rooms, immediately prior to the setting of kin terms, and with the use of a single joking kin term by the girls. It was bounded spatially by the small room in which it took It

place, and temporally by the wedding and the obeisance ritual. appears as a classic mini-ritual of transition.

The corresponding joking between the bride and her husband s friends, however, is relatively outside and open-ended. It usually

takes place either in a separate house or by the river, with little or no supervision. The joking ay take place before or after the final It ends only when the bride can somehow get

obeisance by the couple. away.

One such session was as follows:

Some of the boys brought the girl up into the top room of the house around noon ar.d joked wit:, her there, making her dance and sing. One boy was particularly ar.d daringly intimate with her, grasping and holding her, touching her knees, singing to her, in a way that was both teasing ar.d sexual, all of which clearly irritated her. but with which she had to put up until they let her go. She finally escaped by saying she would make them coffee, descending and slipping away. The girl's ordeal is much more extensive than was the teasing received by the boy, and sometimes leads to taking the girl to the river, dousing her and making her change her clothes--all much more

U i H

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405

normally "unacceptable" behavior than was that displayed towards the groom. The contrast between the two sets of joking sessions illustrates the contrast in the relations of the boy and the girl to each other's villages. The groom experiences only a delimited transition rite in the bride's village, after he has been incorporated as a member of the village. The bride, on the other hand, stands in an exchange relation to the members of her husband's village, a relation which i mediated by the provision of goods and services and their reciprocation in the for of money. The joking relation is thus not with a member of the village, but with someone who stands outside of it, for whom the p-ohibitions on familiarity apply somewhat les. The difference in the ritual point* to several contrasts which have occurred in the marriage process, to which we now turn.

Ritual and Structure

Features of Isak social structure appear in the ritual, in the form of sequences, exchanges, and representations. In particular, the

asymmetries of residence and marriage types in lsak are the basis for features of the ritual process. In terms of the initial residence of a couple, all marriages in Isak are uxorilocal, a statement which was in fact made several times to me, one instance of which was cited in Chapter 7. Even a marriage which explicitly involves an opposition of raliqljuln begins with the incor-

"v~_^ . . ^ ^ . . - . ^ . . . ^ . . ^ ^ ^

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406

poration of the groom into the bride's village.* The marriage thus begins with an asymmetry in the relationship of the bride and the groom to each other' village. While the groom is incorporated into the bride's village, the bride remains in a mediated relation of exchange vis-a-vis the groom s. The groom is surrendered to the girl's village at the beginning of the marriage process. He is in'iorporated into the village and then married to the girl (two different events) before the didong festivities, tab atur, semah, and reciprocal serving of meal. After his pro-

nouncement of the wedding formula, the groom does very little for the rest of the marriage process. One could even suggest, recalling his placement next to the perarakan (the banana-stalk construction with the

aie name as the corpse carrier) that he is symbolically dead during the exchanges that follow the wedding. The bride, on the other hand, play an active role in the*e exchange. At the first semah, to her own village members, she receive

presents from them which will later be reciprocated by invitations to eat. At the second, in the groom's village, she enters into a set of

obligations to embroider and give mats to each of the men or women who give her a bit of money. At each of the occasions where a meal is served to member of the opposite village, it is the bride who cooks the food, feeding both her natal village from her husband's, and her hus-

* Tlii feature of Gayo marriage rules is akin to many Eastern Indonesian marriage systems, where a marriage is uxorilocal unless additional payments are made. In the Gayo case, additional payments are not aiways necessary, and the eventual domicile of the couple and affiliation of their children may have been decided upon before the marriage.

aMyttMMtti(aamia|ma1iiiH^^

407

band's village from her natal one. Only at the end of this sequence of exchanges does the bride perform the second semah (with her husband) at which she is taught her new tutur for members of her husband's village.

This ritual asymmetry is due, I believe, to the fundamental asymetry in men's and women's relations to each other's social units. The dominant ideology of marriage is as exchange between patrilines. Women are thus represented as entering into exchange relations with their affines as part of the marriage ritual itself. Although men do engage in uxorilocal marriage, there is no ideology of such marriage a exchange; rather, as we have seen in Chapters 6 and 7, uxorilocal marriages are redefined in patrilineal terms. The initial entry of a an into his wife's village can therefore only be depicted as incorporation, and the groom rendered an immobile, silent actor in what follows. The ideological dominance of virilocal marriage over uxorilocality is itself the second feature of Isak social structure which i reoreented in the marriage process. Virilocal marriage tie are highlighted, and uxorilocal ties downplayed, in both the mah atur and the active participation as sukut exchanges

of uxorilocally-married men's

patrilateral relatives. Each of these was analyzed in this chapter. The set of rituals which make up the marriage provide forums on which this ideological asymmetry may be played out. The headman who has "crossed over" represents his village in formal exchanges, often ris-avis his wife's village in which he is officially domiciled. The mab atur themselves are initiated by actors who exchange in the name of

their own natal villages out of which they have married uxorilocally (but not if they have married virilocally), and in virtue of past viri-

il

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408
local marriages. The tension between patrilateral ties and uxorilocal responsibilities surfaces at marriages, as each household must choose its position vis-a-vis the two sides. This analysis suggests that weightings of the two marriage forms which differed from the Isak one would lead to differences in ritual form. In the next two chapters the evidence from two villages with

contrasting configurations of these elements will be examined.

CHAPTER 9: THE SOUTHERN GAYO VARIANT

Of the four plateaus that make up the Gayo highlands, the southern area (Gayo Lues) has been the most physically and socially isolated fro the outside world. The Isak valley has been in easy reach of the north coast since the 1920's, and was the major source of damar resin for the northern processing plants from the 1930's until recently. Moreover, its proximity to the major Gayo town of Takengon meant that new religious, social, and legal ideas and institations had a rapid influence on Isak society. Takengon itself was incorporated into the colonial political econooy early in the twentieth century, and was a center for religious, political, and economic change. Serbojadi, the subject of the next chapter, was from the beginning economically dependent to the east coast in a way which had a fundamental impact on social institutions.

BISTORT AND POLITICAL STRUCTURE

The southern district experienced neither massive colonial economic incorporation nor did its residents engage in circular migration to the coasts. Transportation north or south from Blangkejeren, the only town in the district, has been difficult until very recently. Th southern district has had a more internally focused economy than bave the other districts. An expanding population has been able to open new ricelands in its spacious plain area (the spaciousness, /lie's, that aoti* 409

mtmmmmism^**'1*^***

AIO
vated the name of the district). kecamatan Much of this expansion has been in the

of Kute Panjang, where the average amount of wet riceland per Blangkejeren and Rikit

houseland has remained at a high 1.6 hectare. Gaib, the two kecamatan

along the route from Isak to the south, have

very little remaining unused plain area, and have a smaller mean landowning figure, of 0.8 hectares wet riceland per household. Terangon, at

the end of the Trip river valley, and bounded by high mountains, has the lowest average figure at 0.6 hectare per household. However, Terangon farmers de%-ote what appears to be substantially more of their time to dry land farming than do farmers in the other three kecamatan.

A considerable number of Terangon farmers plant and market tobacco and plant little or no wet riceland. The social character of this expansion within the district has been frequent lineage fission along elder/younger lines, movement to new village, and shifting inter-village alliances. At the end of the nine-

teenth century, there were two such alliances in the area between Blangkejeren and Rikit Gaib. The anak si onom (six children/offshoots) was located slightly south of the second alliance, which was of seven villages (anak si'pitu). in the ciq perempat ity as ciq The villages around Blangkejeren were grouped (four elders), each of which held political authorcircles

over several other nearby villages. These four ciq

engaged in battles among thessselves, and with the two northern alliances, including the "Bukit Var" in the late nineteenth century, during which he Kejurun Petiamang was killed (Snouck Hurgronje 1903a:229-231). The authority of the Kejurun towards the end of the century appears to have been largely limited to his own ciq area, and in general depended

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on the alliances forged with the other powers. These characteristics of the southern district were noted by Snouck Hurgronje in 103 (1903a: 137-38, 220-22) and were the source of continual frustration for Dutch administrators who sought to transform the system into one of centralized territorial rule. The Controlleur the district in the 1930's called the situation "anarchy" (Palmer van der Broek 1936:35). One feature of southern society which frustrated the Dutch was a continual process of internal differentiation within villages. A village might be composed of three, four or five belah, one of which conof

tained the ruling patriline of the village. Frequently, however, the ruling lineage, the belah belah ciq rj, would in turn split in two, creating a

(elder lineage) and a belah mud (younger lineage), which

would then divide authority over the remaining lineages between themselves. In cases where the lineage in question also stood as ciq to other villages, fission within the ruling lineage might lead to a realignment of political ties, or to a struggle between elder and younger branches for control. The result was a series of wars between and within inter-village alliances. The Dutch response to the first issue was to declare that, in the case that a lineage had more than one branch, the ciq branch was to be the ruler of the entire lineage and village (Gouverneur van Atjeh 1905). At a loss to define just who the rulers were in this proliferation of branches, villages, and alliances, the government stipulated that the rj vas "he who is ritually bathed (meniin) on 1 Syawal" (ibid). As

we saw in Chapter A, the bathing ritual at the end of the fastin month

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was indeed the critical arena for the demonstration of political authority. The political ties of ciq/audc between villages were often not

based on genealogical relations (Snouck Hurgronje 1903a:221; 1902:29). In fact, the appropriate phrase of political subordination was X ku Y (X acknowledges i as ciq), without the use of the term mud. of the direct berciq

The sub-district of Terangon was free (vks)

authority of the Kejurun. Two days' walk from Penampaqan and Blangkejeren, Terangon depended in the past on westward trade to the Acehnese coast near Biang Pidie more often than inland to Blangkejeren. In this westward, Acehnese orientation, Terangon resembled Isak, where the route to Meulaboh on the same coast was more important in the past than the eastward, longer route through Takengon to the north coast. Sow. however, the relatively easy wclk from Terangon to Blangkejeren and the improvements in travel from the town out to Medan mean that the inland root is preferred. In Terangon I chose the village of Rerb as my focus, both because it was relatively self-contained and removed from the store area of Terangca, and because it is said to be the least changed of the surrounding villages; indeed, neither the government forces nor the troops of the Daral Islam rebellion were said to have dared enter its bounds. Rerb today indeed does seem at first sight to have changed less than villages elsewhere. Many of its inhabitants occupy ionghouses, although these houses appear much less well kept up than were older houses elsewhere (judging from photographs). Many other households in the village have built single-family dwellings, however. At the time of

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my study, neither government schooling nor paramedical services had reached the village. Moreover, the dispute-settling mechanisms of traditional dt where. I have, however, refrained from assuming that Rerb represents the past of any other village, "where Rerb is now, there was Isak." The physical remoteness of the village, its rather fierce independence, and its lack of political integration with other social units means that its own history is unique to it. Rerb traditionally berciq to the nearby village of Pasir, along operate with far more conformity to past ways than else-

with several other villages in the area. Rerb men are thought of as independent, fierce fighters by other Gayo, who fought during the Darul Islas rebellion but refused to be under the control of the Gayo rebel leader Ilyas Leub. The village of Rerb consists of 1097 people living in 189 households with an average household size of 5.8. About one-half to onethird of the households are in longbouses. The houses are built close together, but dirt paths establish boundaries between the four belah that make up the village. A mosque and a water-driven rice mill stand near the center of the village, along with several houses from which some supplies are sold. Very little can be purchased in Rerb.' however, and most supplies are bought by each household for itself from the stores in Terangon, less than an hour's walk away. A school and teacher's house had been built before my visit, but neither had been finished, and the teacher assigned to the village had simply refused to Even among people in their late teens, many had never seen

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414

Indonesian writing, a fact which is surprising in Sumatra.

HMKIAE

In Isak, as we have seen in the earlier chapters, tee marriage type which is felt to be basic begins with uxorilocal domicile. The marriage or may not be converted at a later date to virilocal domicile and affiliation of children to their father's lineage. The sense of "which way" the marriage will fall is based on the size of the marriage payment, but, because the act of marrying does not involve a definitive assigroent, labeling itself is not emphasized. Instead, circumlocutions

are employed which describe in which direction the marriage is weighted but also stress its open character. The other two alternatives are correspondingly lexically marked. openly labeled as angkap. "Definitive uxorilocal" marriage is phrases,

and marked by the use of certain

often by the absence of even a token payment, and by statements of the permanent character of the uxorilocal affiliation. Marriage which is labeled as juln will lead to virilocal domicile within a year of the

time of the marriage. In Rerb the relationship among categories is different. All ' marriages are labeled. The definitive uxorilocal category, referred to as angkap empat mas, (four gold pieces uxorilocal marriage), referring

to an amount paid in bridewealth, is also called "truly Acebnese marriage" and was said to rarely occur with Gayo men. In fact this mar-

riage form does occur with Gayo men, but the labeling devalues the marriage type, making it into an outsiders' kind'of marriage. The

n i inTirninf^r-fir -~-*~T

415

(unmarked) uxorilocal marriage is formulated in Rerb as a delayed form of virilocality; the phrase used is angkap duduk dt, (uxorilocal,

sitting (for) the bridewealth), i.e., waiting until such time as the husband is able to afford the affiliation transfer payment. This type is sometimes secondarily called "Aceh Gayo", and allows the couple to change physical residence during this period, to leave the wife's village to seek work, or take advantage of available land elsewhere. The basic marriage in Rerb is virilocal, with the escorting of the bride to the groom's village two to seven days after the wedding. It in turn stands as unmarked vis-a-vis a supplementary "type" (really an additional act of unit definition) called Jejaqn, a word derived

from the Acehnese Jaq (to go) and with the approximate meaning of "to make go/leave." The word refers to a more severe form of the escorting to the husband's village, where the bride is said to be cut off from her source line, to the extent that if she dies while visiting her parents, she could not be buried there, but would have to be carried back to her husband's village for burial. The Jejaqn tnsn. form is thus an extreme

The two meanings differ correspondingly; while the latter

means "making someone arrive somewhere", the former connotes a pushing out of someone to make him/her "go." In the Dutch period, the amount of the fixed bridewealth payment in Rerb was figured in water buffalo, usually amounting to 3 or 4 buffalo, the equivalent of 100 to 140 rupiah. The current amount is about the same, measured in real terms. Among current heads of households in Rerb, 164 of 189 (87%) had married virilocally, i.e., were domiciled in their natal belah after marriage. 25 households (13%) were uxorilocally domiciled.

n m n s M H l i W l l l l UU UJ LMWHiiwii'Wiwjm.iuji-swwfiwpm^^

- : - ^ - - - ^ ^ - - ^ - ^ - - < -

Vhereas statements about marriage in Isak usually begin with presenting the two types as nearly equally valid options, in Rerb (and in Terangon generally) virilocal marriage (involving the tnsn escorting)

is presented as the general case, with instances of a uxorilocal marriage as requiring explanation as special cases. A daughter, I was told, will generally want to be married out of the lineage so that she and her husband will control a full share of an estate, rather than the half-share tbey would receive if he were brought in to her lineage. Several different political genealogies begin with a brother, the founding ruler of the village in question, and a sister, who is told to remain and be married uxorilocally. The brother's reason for telling his sister to stay is in order to quickly build up the population of the village. The sister, in each case, refuses to assent unless she is given the fasily heirlooms (pesakai in return. The brother agrees to

this, an outsider is brought in as son-in-law, and the two either leave, taking the valuables with them, or do not produce children and drop out of the genealogy. Uxorilocal marriage is interpreted as either a way of keeping an elder daughter in the bouse to care for the parents (a guarantor of care for old age) and obtaining an additional male worker, or in terms of the lack of wealth on the part of the boy's parents. Of the uxorilocal marriages that did occur in Rerb, 80% of them were with first daughters or as the younger of a "uxorilocal pair", two daughters, both of whoa are married uxorilocally. Indeed, the choice of the uxorilocal

form appears in some cases to be best described as a stylistic variant in marriage, a kind of cultural dialect in the main stream of virilocal

417

speech. In addition to the several cases of uxorilocal pairs of daughters just mentioned, one sibling-set in Rerb consisted virtually entirely of uxorilocally-married couples. Of 6 sisters, all but the youngest were retained in the lineage. The 3 brothers all brought in wives, so that all 9 remained in the lineage. The eldest of the brothers, however, was left a widower twice, after two virilocal marriages. He decided at that point that he "had given out enough buffalo," and married uxorilocally into another lineage, into a family with large buffalo holdings. In this case, as is generally the case in Rerb, it is the youngest, virilocally married son who has cared for the parents and who will receive the extra full share of the estate that is reserved for the child who stays with them. Care across generations is conceived of as

the youngest son's responsibility; the heirlooms are left with him, and the material continuity of the household guaranteed by him. Myths, such

as those referred to earlier, relate the consequences of entrusting the heirlooms to a uxorilocally-married daughter-, she will leave and take them with her. Retaining both daughters and sons in Rerb constitutes a claim to status. Given a reluctance on the part of daughters to remain in the '

lineage after marriage, and the foregoing of bridewealth represented by a uxorilocal marriage, keeping daughters in the lineage demonstrates both wealth and persuasive powers. The one marriage that I witnessed in Terangon happened to be of the first daughter of one of the wealthier men in the area (who lived in

418

Terangon town) with a boy from the nearby village of Rumpi. The marriage was uxorilocal, as one might expect knowing that the daughter was eldest and her father rich. The uxorilocality of the marriage itself gave rise to ill feeling on both sides. These feelings emerged in the crying speech by the groom's father's sister to the boy, where both the fact of his alienation from the lineage and the reasons for it were "cried oat" quite clearly: Rj n'ibi enti kas kin jauh ni pikirmu; kataku si ng lepas, priku si ng mnanyur. Kerna rusrnu ni ng ibonn kin kaum biak ng ibon k m kuru-reg ujuimu Enti kas ikatan ko sug gh ara, enti kas iprim ko sug gh ara. Enta kas ibersuti ko rj ni dengaa, enta kas gh ara si mapah. Kah isampen ko kin kuru-rg ni ine, ibon ko kin kaam biak. Isempernan to 'tas ujatmu 'My king', let it not worry you 'later on; "T words that have gone by. my speech already spoken. Becarse your body ^ has become of our friends , They have made of their group your self. Do not say later that there were no riches, do not cry later that there were no riches. Maybe later you will be angry at your father (her brother), Maybe later there will be no one bia > r e ioT You " ** ** P* rt of their group. be pat as our friend . Improve yourself then.

This boy was married off by his family because they had no wealth to buy him a bride; he had used it all up buying his elder brother out of prison. The father's sister cries over the fact that the boy will now be out of their lineage and will stand to theo as biak, "friend", a

label for patrilateral cross-lineage ties. She also couches her references to the source of the trouble, the inability to come up with bridewealth, in admonitions to the boy not to say it (and thereby herself saying it). The same rhetorical device was ecployed by the relatives of the bride when crying over her. "Do not say that you were married off

_~_

1M

.i.n ....

419

too early," they tell her, which is their own view-she felt pressured by her father and in a way herself "sold off" early, as the groom will help the father in his store, where he now spends all his time. At the same marriage, the groom's side was snubbed, treated as low-status line because of the uxorilocal marriage. At their arrival in the village they were kept waiting and were not fed, a clear insult. The boy's mother's brother felt that the marriage was beneath hi and did not come to Bah atur as is normally done in Terangon. The low sta-

tus of the groom in the marriage was thus made clearly known.

UNEASE, VILLAGE, AND KINSHIP

The lineage (.belah) Isak kuru.

in Rerb appears as formally identical to the

In both cases the village is composed of one lineage for imm, petu), paluh, with the addition in (downhill side) which split

each of the three offices {rj,

Rerb of a fourth lineage, the belah off from the belah rj.

However, whereas a kuru is a descent category, may be composed of several

people who descend, from one ancestor, a belah

descent categories. The village of Terangon, for example, consists of one belah kuru) but two kuru, since two separate immigrant groups (thus two belah).

united to form one exogamous unit in the village (one The belah

is primarily a unit that stands over and against other

units in marriage, and potentially in contest or conflict as well. Where it coincides with a village, as is the case with Terangon, the distribution of office is by lineages (.kuru), the village stands for the belah and the headman (rj) of

as a whole. Where a village contains

....,, :,.^.

^.w.,..,^.^,.,.--..,

-^ , , , . > . , . , . . . j a ^ ^ ^ M n ^ , , l . . i i W i M < i l m i i > f i f, , ,

420

several lineages, as is the case in Rerb, each has its own set of leaders, and the village headman has overall authority only in matters which concern the village as a whole, usually in settling inter-lineage conflicts and presiding at village rituals. In Rerb, each of the four lineages has a leader and one or two assistants who together make a village council of "the ten" who meet to decide matters of village concern. Luring my stay, this group met to consider the settlement of a dispute between two sides, the preparations for an upcoming purification ritual, and my own coming to the village. In the rest of social life, members of the four lineages stand in opposition to each other, in both senses of the Gayo term for "to oppose" (ber lettenen). This reciprocal verb is used primarily to refer

to violent opposition in fights or battle, and to the highly ritualized opposition that characterizes marriage. It is also sometimes used to

refer to the state of being able to marry', to a relationship of exogamy between two social units. These two aspects of opposition aptly summarize the feelings which accompany being in different belah. Boys in different sides in Rerb

frequently argue and fight with one another, and there is a constant underlying tone of hatred among them. At a meeting held to settle a conflict between two of them (as if often the case, over a girl), each group of boys entered separately, carrying their unsheathed long knives and laying them down on a table by the door with much clatter. The proceedings were interrupted several times by violent arguments between the two sides, and one side threatened not to accept the final decision of "the ten."

.;i' T im, u>

421

These tensions are not limited to boys.

I was struck by the way

in which Rerb is laid out with paths separating the territories of the four sides. Men of different sides encountering each other on a path will clasp their knives closely to their sides and grunt, passing without a word. These mute, hostile encounters were in stark contrast to the relations between villagers of different lineages in Isak, and even those between members of different villages, for whom polite greetings, using appropriate kin terms, are the rule. In fact, all Rerb people are interlinked in multiple marriage relations that makes of any dyad close affines. The table below documents this; most marriages are within the village, and the choice of side is evenly spread across the village, i.e., there are no privileged alliance ties. It is the interpretation of these ties that stands out

in Rerb, in the degree to which affines are those towards whom one stands in opposition and set off against the members of one's own to whom one is patrilaterally related. The next table presents the frequency of marriages between each of the pairs of- sides in the villages for the 164 virilocal marriages contracted by current heads of household. 104 of the marriages (63*.) took place within the village, and 4 were within a lineage. 2 of these were in the belah rj, between the descendants of belah,

original line and a small sub-lineage composed of manti,

"forest people" who were brought into the lineage several generations ago. This group used to exists as a separate lineage, belah vakil but

were recently merged with the rj lineage. The 2 marriages within the belah paluh, however, contravened the rules of exogamy and led to the

fa. , ^ ^ ^ .

J U J

_ _ _ _ _

,-..,-*

rfriTtn t j " ^ " -

iW^'i

UZI

TaWe 2<: Virilocal

Harriages by Belah, Rerb

Uife frem belah Busband from belah

rj ima paluh tu Total:

rj 2 16 5 7 30

ima 13 0 7 14 34

paluh 1 4 2 1 8

tu

outside 17 13 10 20 60

Total village
46 46 30 42

13 13 6 0 32

164

payment of fines by the parties concerned. Genealogies of ruling lines in Terangor.-area villages present the rulers as succeeding patrilineally. in a batang, no uxorilocal marriages occuring. "core" patriline, with

The figure presents the genealogy of

Rj Jabo as an illustration, where eldest sons initially succeed fathers. Incidentally, the fact that such genealogies are remembered is itself a variant in the system, connected with a greater patrilineal stress. I found such politically salient genealogies easier to obtain here than in Isak, and virtually non-existent in Lukup. where many rulers have married in from the outside. Terangon villages are consistently depicted as the partition of lines among brothers, much as in Isak. In Rerb, for example, the

founding genealogy is as depicted below. Three sons of the founding man become the ancestors f the three lineages (the fourth, belah later point). palub, splits off from the headman side at a

Three daughters are retained in the village in order that

r '

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- '""

'""

iiiriiiiiiiimiM*nii-tflr";'J,~Jt^ri-"*'--^

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i23

Figure

21: Genealogy

of Rj Jabo,

Terangon

1
r~x
3,5

i
A

fi

ii

6 o

Cacat 6*A (current Terangon)

Kumbers indicate order of succession to office of Rj Jabo.

it might increase in number. These three uxorilocal marriages, however, do not have a history; in each case, the couple and their children were divided up among the three sons' sides after the death of the father. And, as we saw earlier, daughters who were given family heirlooms in order to persuade them to marry uxorilocally either left afterwards or had no descendants.

424

Figure

22: Reri'b' Founding

Genealogy

q Tinkem"

OA A
_/ \_

0*A A
f V

<>A
kuru imo

kuru petu

kuru r j e'

Village founders stand in a relation to Linge that is mediated by a. In the case of Rerb', the sister of the headman of Senile left for the Terangon area bringing some of her brothers with her. She eventually disappeared, but her brothers founded villages in the area. In the local story of Terangon, the sister of Rj Linge married Syiah Utama, and her descendants traveled to this area and founded Terangon. In both cases history replicates the local structure of society: women mediate between patrilines (even if men found them), and villages stand to each other in affinal relations. In theory. p H
ot G

>' **

tloa

this perspective, either "source" or "married-out."

'Uil il lm'ni IM Vi

nimnm

iTMtri

425

lia

Relations
The Terarg-n-Rerb emphasis on the patri lineage leads to a dif-

ference in the way in which kin tens relations are represented.

In

formal speech recorded at a Terangon marriage (interpreted later for me) the different relations of children to their father and to their mother are expressed in a way that contrasts directly with Isak forms. In Isak, as we s BY earlier, the image of continual flow is used to depict the relations of mothers and daughters, whereas fathers and sons have little to do with each other. In Terangon and Rerb, however, it is

rather the son (usually the youngest) who is expected to provide care for his parents; the imagery is correspondingly reversed: A father's teachings are as flowing water; A mother's, like fingerfuls of rice.

Ike maust petenah si ari ana lagu weil si tuang; ike ier-pamah ari in lagu kro si sulang.

The father is presented as the main source of teaching, a continuous source of wisdom, whereas a mother more often just says "listen to your father," ad is less likely to offer advice herself. The relation

between brother and sister is correspondingly downplayed as a relation of continuity, just as its status as a focus of exchange and opposition is highlighted. I have already referred to the portrayal of the sister

as "trickster", staying in the lineage, obtaining the heirlooms and leaving. A corresponding transformations takes place in the Rerb version of the Senga story, the second part of the Gayo origin story which was

-ImiitfimBtinilnir f i i

rt1^ffi..-mwirimr^...-^.^^-^---^.......-.--..

. --

m
426

the subject of Chapter 4. The northern Gayo version of the myth has already been presented. The following is a brief version of the story from Rerb: Rj Linge had a sister whom he told to move to Senile. Then he brought in a man to marry her angkap. There she had a son, her only child. While the son was still in the womb light appeared in the sky above the village. It began to appear one month before he was born, and the glow increased in brightness after his birth. Rj Linge did not want this anak ni bn'n (sister's child) to replace him on the throne, so he ordered the child killed. His sister allowed him to do so.

As he was killed, the boy turned into an elephant. This was an unusual occurence, so it had to be reported to the Sultan of Aceh. The sister went to Aceh with a picture of the elephant, and the Sultan had her bring the elephant to Takengon. where he made her Rj Bukit, higher in rank than her brother even though Ling was older than Senile. Rj Ling's own children were all girls, fl later told my informant the Takengon version of the story, which he said was incorrect). In the northern version of the myth, the primary conflict is between the Rj Ling and his own children by a Johor wife, a son and a daughter. These children, the patrilateral half-siblings of his Ling-born sons, arrive at Senile by kite. The daughter is killed and becomes an elephant, assisting her brother to become Rj Bukit. In the

Rerb version, the conflict is between the Rj Ling and his sister's son by a uxorilocal marriage. Moreover, it is because of the uxorilocal marriage that the hostility arises, since the sister's son is seen as a threat to the ruler by his affiliation to the ruler's lineage. This version parallel the story of the White Pig which was discussed in Chapter 6. The sister and her line is despised by the brother. The eventual access to power by the sister (in this myth) or her son (in the White Pig) is mediated by the animal form of the sis-

n m iimn

jiun.li

i JWflJmmj l i l

uijuifmmm^mmmmj

... s ^ ^ , ^ ~ . ~ ~ ~ . - . ^ . . ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ v ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ r . ^ ^ ^ ^

nnnmti1Mt.iilii- BW.!

427

ter's son. In the White Pig story, the sister's son succeeds to the mother's brother's office because there is no son. In the Rerb White Elephant story the ruler is also without sons, but the succession is to the new office of Kj Bukit. But both myths ascribe to uxorilocal marriage the conflict between mother's brother and sister's son. We make think of the transformation in Rerb ideology as an increased tendency (relative to northern Gayo) to highlight lineage continuity and opposition over uxorilocal marriage and cross-lineage ties.

Exchange and Cousins

This tendency suggests that Rerb and Terangon would also highlight the asymmetry of the raliql jul'n relation and the distinctiveness

of the two categories. Tnis asymmetry is in fact emphasized in both ritual form and kinship ideology. and the sung narrative ididong) In both the formal speech (melnkan)

which accompany a marriage or certain

other major events, the major parties to the event are represented a the biak opat, {tout friends, relations) of the source line, the

married-out line, friend and teachers. The text, which I heard many times in Terangon but never in Isak, is as follows: Mera aku teringt kin biak opat. Biak opat p mugeral mulapal murasi. Pertama raliq keu jueln ketig sbt keopat guru-gurvt*. Raliqku sangat berat. man penjamu. Jueln kin bibes-tiws; I now recall the biak opat. The biak opat have names, titles, foras. First raliq, then juln third friends fourth, teachers. My raliq is very heavy, coming to eat as a guest. Juelen as quick-commanded;

 . . . . . . .. i . . . .

^ ^ ^ ^ u u t f ^ g ^ a a m M .

' i

428
bacar ken pantas italu. Sbt we pendpt, Guru bernama tengku. if ordered, goes quickly, if called, comes at a run. Friends just for opinions, Teachers are titled "Tengku.

In this view of the social woild, which Is brought out at just those occasions where exchange asymmetry is highlighted, the primary division of others is into the two exchange classes, raliq and juln.

Work relations, ritual etiquette and exchange obligations (the key matters at rituals) follow from this division. Others are equals, whose opinions one may solicit as friends, but to whom one stands in no particular relation, or are people with spiritual knowledge, who oust therefore be honored and addressed as "Tengku." Spatially, the same asymmetry was even more strongly represented in Terangon than in Isak. The mother's brother of the girl to be married is the only category (in the case I saw, only one person) to be seated against the inside wall of the initial place of reception. All others, including headmen, sit as guests against the outside wall. The Bother's brother is given food to eat immediately upon his arrival, rather than eating only later on in the inner eating room, although he eats there as well. The mother's brother need never move; once be arrives and is seated, all bis needs re attended to at that place. When the marriage is first being considered, he is paid a "requesting", oiro, of either a fishnet or a goat or (in 1980) Rp 10,000; if a uxori(instrumental prefix +

local marriage is being considered, a penangkap

"uxorilocal marriage") of only Rp 1000 is paid. The difference in the amounts involved is a further sign of the difference in importance between the two marriage types.

429

Vhile the mother's brother is considered as standing in a relation of superiority and difference to a person, the father's sister Ubi) is

seen as a close kinsmen with whn= one behaves freely. Your ibi cries over you when your are about tq be married, whether you are a boy or a girl; many of the longer texts of crying speech were fron the boy or girl's ibi, who often speaks of her brother's position and actions witheven if she nas to

out the embarassu.*^ tUt i ~-ter would feel. The ibi,

been married out, will have returned to her natal village as joJn

help in the marriage preparations, and is very much like a ember of one's own lineage. The difference between the two sides becomes clearer when we examine the cousin relations. A father's sister's child is said to be "like a sibling." For a male Ego, the FZD is like his own sister, with whom he may not joke freely (which would imply the possibility of sexual intimacy) but towards whom he need not feel respectful or distant. As one saying goes: pinang kedidi, pinang gawar anak n'ibi kin pakan awar. (Two sorts of betel-nut) fZ s child, T *>* * e t chicken pox-

There is no corresponding saying about a mother's brother's child, but 1 did find one, in the same two-line, vegetably-grounded for: pun jumpun raliq ni glime; pun pedih raliq n'in. (jumpun: kind of grass) stem of the pomegranate. The real "pun i* the source of one s mother.

I find this saying a particularly informative one because it brings together several associative sets. One is the set at band: the contrast between the mother's brother and father's sister is clearly

~ ^ - - ~

--

--',-

^-.-sv

^-,fe.^,^..^

430
expressed by the contrast in message between these two sayings: chicken pox versus the respectful "source of one's mother." A second set is that of words in Austronesian languages which derive from the root puhuo (tree trunk, base, origin) as reconstructed by Dempwolff (1938). These

words cluster around such meanings as trunk, clump of grass, and mother's brother (Fox 1980a). ings: The saying puts together three of these meanwhich is in fact an Acehnese

clump of grass (in the form juepun,

word that I have never heard used in Gayo outside of this single saying), stem (of the pomegranate) and mother's brother. The third set is the statement that the real pun is the source of one's mother, defining the basic meaning of the kin term pun in terms of the exchange relation that produces the opposition raliql'jujn. This implicit definition of

the kin term makes the ideological dominance of the virilocal marriage/ patrilineage model more explicit than in Isak. The source/tarried-out asymmetry appears in the representation of cousin relations, and in particular in the discussions of the status of uali. The following figure depicts the direction of the wali relation

as described in Terangon . The figure is also true for Isak kin relations, but the relation is drawn on in more explicit fashion in the Terangon area. Since a man retains a guardian relation vis-a-vis his sister, bis son also stands in that relation, since ties between males preserve the tie. A male ego thus stands in a relation of uali hukum, "legal guar-

dian" towards bis FZD as locally interpreted. A female ego does not stand as a wali vis-a-vis anyone, so this relation is always figured from a male point of view. As a guardian, a male Ego has a "blood tie"

. f

L.I

Hilf K U II

431

Figure

23: V al i Relations

Between

Cousins

Ae-O
O
wali

U^h ^0

I**

(always expressed in Malay as a tali not a proper marriage partner.

darah)

to his FZD. and thus she is

She is thus doubly "like a sister:"

both because her mother stands as a quasi-mexber of Ego's lineage, and because of the guardian tie. . It is important to note that this relation is primarily an exchange relation, that is then interpreted in terms of a jural tie. which is in turn interpreted in terms of a metaphor of substance, as a blood tie. If the basic metaphor was that of substance, we would expect both that the metaphor would be elaborated (as it is not) and that it would be equally true for brothers and sisters (since there is no theory of differential receipt of substance by boys and girls), and thus that the FBS would equally be attached by a "blood tie" to his MBD (which i* also not the case). A similarly context specific use of blood as described earlier, where, in rather recherch native theory, blood is transmitted from mothers to children, whereas as an idiom for kin con-

MMUiiHIm*JB)t

% s

432
nection, "blood tie" is used to describe the relatively greater solidity of ties to fathers. Unlike many Melanesian cultures, Gayo (and probably Sumatran cultures generally) do not base social structure on a substance theory of generation. From a male Ego to his mother's brother there is no relation of wali hukum, but the phrase wali karung, "womb guardian" is used to

describe the tie. This relation is not represented as a substance tie, but as a way of contrasting relations in the two opposing directions. A MED, with no guardian ties to Ego, is a proper marriage partner, and several MBD marriages have taken place in the villages of Terangon and Berb. A matrilateral cross-cousin marriage is spoken of by some as a preferable marriage, and by others as possible but too close. Those who hold the first opinion pointed to the close kinship tie between the parents as their reason. As brother and sister, they say, the parents

are already familiar with each other's children, so that the feelings of discomfort that characterize the initial period of a marriage are avoided. Moreover, wealth remains with relatives; bridewealth is not

really paid out, because it is going to one's sibling, and inheritance is benefitting both sides to the marriage as well. Parents retain

sibling kin terms after a MBD marriage rather than adopting the in-law terms, as depicted here. Patriparallel cousins are, of course, most emphatically unmarriageable, since a FBD is of the same decent line as Ego, sara nan. keturw

This prohibition is a cultural invariant across Gayo districts.

Katriparallel cousins, however, are potential marriage partners in

ttjmmmmII^^

*jh\i
433

Figure

2i: Kin Terms after

USD Karriage,

Terangon

jo

el

*=
EGO < -

1
| abang (juntil

Terangon district, although here opinions strongly differ. One view points to the probability that sisters will have nursed each other'. children and thus have transmitted the same milk to the. A MZD would thus be sara susu, "one milk/breast" to a boy. This factor is. however,

a behavioral criteria of substance connection: a tie through shared milk exists if and o n * U c h breast sharing did occur. If. therefore, two

sister decide that their children did not share milk, and that a marriage between the would be desireable, the marriage is considered proper. Such a marriage would have taken place during my stay, in a nearby village, but for the resistance by the boy and girl, who felt a. brother and sister towards each other. of sisters (sar'anak juln) Other marriages between children

have occured. however.

"

"

- - - * " - " ^ " " - " '

" "

434
The four cousin-types, for a male Ego, thus appear to have the characteristics of a hierarchy, where one is a more proper marriage partner than the other three, the next two more so than the remaining two, etc. In the following figure, the four types of cousins re arranged in order of decreasing disapproval of the marriage combination.

Figure 25: Bierarchical

Distribution

of Cousin-Types by

Harriageability

Kind of Tie Cousin

FK> FZ9 HZD MBL

descent
X 0 0 0

blood
X X 0 0

Bilk
0 0 X 0

close
X X X X

kin

Including the fourth column of close kin is not gratuitous, even though it dees not distinguish any of the four cousin-types from the others. Tue fact of close, "one grandparent" kinship between any first cousins is an reason for some informants to disapprove of (but not find prohibited) any cousin marriage. It is an interesting fact about the use of the kin tem impel that these informants sometimes claim that "one-grand?arent" (first) cousins are really to be referred to by sibling terms, and that the impel relation begins with "one-greatgrandparent" (second) cousins. The term impel appears to index the point at which the exchange relation overrides ties of kinship in bounding off a category of marriageables. Close-cousin marriages in Terangon are never part of a cycle or a continuing alliance between two lineages. Although the MBD marriage is conceived of as "replacing the mother," {ganti n'in), there is no sense

-MT

" -

--

--"-

' '

[ iinffW-WMnmuUfr

435

in which the marriage is repaying a debt, reversing or continuing a flow, reproducing a politically salient alliance, re-enmesuing two groups, etc. Political organization, here as in Gayo society generally, stands on another level froo that of affinal relations. In Terangon area societies, the highlighting of the exchange nature of one marriage makes possible a close-cousin marriage on the succeeding generation. This function of the marriage over time is expressed as follows:

"Kesali Jtivn sara datu ku sara mpn, ari sara pu ku sar*ini."

One great-grandparent returns to one grandparent. from =e grandparent * rae other.

tfat Terangon cousin marriage tells us is that, if the fundamental relation to the structure is that of brother and sister, then one alternative to stressing the continuity of that relation over and above marriage (toe Isak and Lufcup solutions) is to acknowledge an initial discontinuity so as to permit a re-uniting on the next generation. An initial separation and opposition permits a mediated return {the basis, after all, of gift-giving)-

Ritual and

Reciprocity

Toe form taken by the marriage process and exchanges also serve to highlight the virilocal marriage. Terangon signs of exchange marriage are signs supplied by the groom. An initial set refers to the impending

sexual intercourse between the couple. The groom arrives wearing a special headdress, which has two horns mounted on top. The headdress is called the sunting kun, where "sunting" is the general term for head-

dress and "kun" a special term with two referents: one is the shaving

436

of the bride's sideburns, where her non-virginity is signaled by the "refusal" of the hairs to accept the shaving, flipping up at the cut; the other is the horn headdress worn by the groom. Vhen I asked about the meaning of this word when applied to the headdress, 1 was told that the two referents of the word were "the

same," without being given an explanation of the headdress itself. The two objects are signs of intercourse (horns, cutting near hair) between the married-out virgin and the "buying" groom. Failure to meet either of these conditions (non-virginity, non-exchange marriage) leads to the refusal or absence of the sign. The lexical association of the horns with shaved hair (and thus virginal intercourse with exchange marriage) gives a cultural highlight to intercourse performed under a virilocal mandate. Uxorilocal intercourse, relatively played down, is also relatively devalued. Moreover virginity has no sanction in a uxorilocal marriage, since there is no dt whose return one can demand. The association thus come full turn:

both virginity and sexual intercourse only receive their full cultural valuation in the case where the marriage is Juln, and this valuation

is signified by horns and shaved hair in the respective moments in the marriage process. A third sign further reinforces the association. In and only in

the case of an exchange marriage the groom brings with him objects called alang-alang, (lying around). These objects, in which the obliga-

tory elements are an egg (as a potion) and three mungkur citrus fruits (as cleansers) usually include cakes and sweets as well, all "sweet and oily" things. The potion and cleanser are used at intercourse, to make

437

the event safe and free from evil spells, and to cleanse the two afterwards. Again, these objects are not provided at a uxorilocal marriage. Whereas the alang-alang serves as a sign of the relationship be-

tween bride and groom, a second prestation signals the relation between the two sarak opat. In an exchange marriage, the groom sends approxias kedten, ("dt", plus the ke-an

mately 150 pieces of gambir (kacu)

affix: "dt-ing, making in accord with the polity"). The gambir pieces, thin slices of a dried substance that is used in chewing betel (the supremely cultural foodstuff), is distributed by the receiving headman to the members of the village. By accepting the gambir, each household head recognizes the legitimate presence of the boy in the village. The pieces are a prestation to each villager as ember of the sarak opat and place the groom in an exchange relation vis-a-vis these embers. The boy also sends ahead of himself a goat. The bead of the goat is split and and served to the headman of the two villages as a sign of their equality as headmen, independently of the asymmetrical relation between the exchanging lineages. The thighs of the goat are served to the two religious officiants, the imm. This practice is Gayo-wide; the

thigh is thought to be the tastiest part of the animal, and is thus offered to the iatm as the leader of the religious ritual. Both of these prestations establish the position of the boy as "giving groom" as well as the boy's village as polity at the ritual; neither is given in the case of a uxorilocal marriage. case, the gambir as kedteo In the latter

is still distributed, but it is supplied by

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438

the bride's side as a sign of their bringing the boy into the village. The boy is being "taken up" (angkap) by the girl's side at the ritual;

their active position is signaled by this prestation. The most prominent exchanges in the marriage are the mah atur exchanges which were analyzed for Isak earlier. However, in Isak, a fewmarriages that occurred during my stay were accompanied by 5 or 6 rulebringing prestations, several more by 1 or 2, but most by none. The focus in the exchange was on returning a previous prestation imbls) "sowing" a new debt (nyuun). or

The objects presented were primarily raw

foodstuffs plus a small amount of money, but the amount seemed relatively unimportant-, at the events 1 witnessed it was always around Ep 1000 to 2000. In Terangon, however, these exchanges are more highly elaborated. In the one marriage that I witnessed at Terangon there were 23 separate mah atur events, brought by 23 distinct belah. This number was unusu-

ally high, but it is, I was told, not unusual to have 10 to 15 prestations at one marriage. Moreover, the amount given was strictly defined by its role in the exchange chain: an initial gift of Ep 1000 was met by a return of Rp 1000 in a future prestation plus an additional sum, perhaps another Rp 1000, to "sow" the relation anew. Toe amount given thus signaled the intent of the exchange, either to cut off or to continue the back-and-forth of the prestations. Moreover, Terangon area prestation relations are made the basis for labor cooperation, particularly in working the land and harvesting. Since the forms of cooperation in the area are generally by belab, cross-unit ties are highly visible in the community. these

439

The affinal relations which are highlighted in ritual exchange thus become relations of production as well. Compared to Isak, the

ideological dominance of exchange relations between patrilineallydefined lineages over the uxorilocal alternative has been developed much farther tere, leading to consistent differences in local organization (the sense of opposition in the village), myth, and ritual. Within a constant set of carriage rules, lineage ideas, and political form (the sarak opat), the two sub-districts have grown increasingly different in

the relative ephasis given to different relations im the social structure. la 1900 there were already differences between the northern Gayo societies and those to the south. Political organization in the south consisted of a set of alliances between villages, structured around relations of cf/Bod, and a Kejurun of little power. Lineages were

divided into ranked branches and competed for power both within and between villages. There was a highly-developed sense of opposition between belah.

Kuch of northern Gayo, by contrast, consisted of lineages standing in a fixed relation within one of two political domsins. Bukit and Ciq. Opposition between these two domains was sometimes heated, but there seeas to have been less opposition and conflict within each. Isak and

much of the rest of the Isak valley retained a stroeg sense of common descent. Population expansion was directed out of the Isak valley,

often leapfrogging past Bukit and Ciq to begin new settlements in the northern expanse.

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In the first half of the twentieth century, Isak experienced two major changes which Terangon did not: a sudden and direct effort at territorial rule by the Dutch and Kejurun rulers, and religious reform which saw "exchangist" practices as contradicting the tenets of Islam. One effect of political and economic change was to encourage settlement in a common store area and to reduce the political scope of each headman. Prohibitions on intermarriage among villages were themselves prohibited. The rapid social engineering implemented by the Dutch left the villagers to quickly rethink the basis on which marriage was to be carried out. The response*in Isak was to downplay the sense of opposition in virilocal marriage; this response meant that Islamic social reforms which began in the 1930's found little local opposition. The absence of direct Dutch control in Rerb. an initial political tendency towards inter-lineage opposition, and expansion within the sub-district rather than out of it. have led to an increased internal differentiation among lineages and the ideological dominance of virilocal over uxorilocal marriage forms. Different local conditions in Serbojadi have produced precisely the opposite result, e now turn to an analysis of these transformations.

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CHAPTER 10: SERBOJADI TRANSFORMATIOXS Serbojadi only became a full domain in the Gayo political system as a result of Dutch redefinition of that system. Historical evidence introduced in Chapter 2 suggests that the Serbojadi area was probably relatively sparsely populated before the last third of the nineteenth century. Each present-day village in the district retains the memory of

ties to villages of origin, mainly in the Isak valley, but few of these ties have been maintained.

BISTORT MID POLITICS

I will suggest that the initial conditions of the Serbojadi socio-economy led to a transformation of social structure in that district. The argument will proceed from a discussion of the ninteenth century evidence to information which I gathered in 1980 on current economy and society.

Economy Agricultural development in the district has been limited by lowyielding soils and a scarcity of land that made wet riceland prices 4-5 times higher than elsewhere in 1900 (Snouck Hurgronje 1903a:259). 1 the 1970's there was approximately 0.3 hectare of wet riceland per house-

441

442
hold in Kecamatan Serbojadi, compared to 1.5 hectare in Kecacatan Ling (the Isak valley).' Each hectare yields about 2/3 of equivalent land in Isak, under similar conditions of irrigation and 'techniques. The subsistence deficit in the area is made up by two additional activities. Women grow and process the leaf of the gambir plant (Urtcaria gambir). The plant has been cultivated in the central valley

around Lukup at least since the end of the nineteenth century (Landschap 1914:445). At that time, the product was purchased by Malay mad

Acehnese traders from the east coast, who also purchased resins and other forest products for sale on the coast (Snouck Hurgronje 1903a:260; 1902:406). Up to five years ago, I was told, nearly everyone in the Lukup area (the central part of Serbojadi) processed gambir ikacu in Gayo) at

least some of the time. Women picked the plant and distilled it into hard sections, which were then either carried by men to the coast for sale, or sometimes sold in local stores, but for a greatly reduced price. One woman produces between S and 10 tern of gambir a month. There might be from one to three women working in a household and the per household range for full-time processing is about 5 to 20 tern each month. On* tern of gambir would bring Rp 3 in Dutch times; is the 1950's the price was around Rp 500, compared to Rp 5,000 at the same time for a large water buffalo. In 1976, gambir prices were Rp 3,000 in Lukup and

* The most recent figures for Serbojadi are for 1974, when 470 ha. of wet riceland was planted and 500 ha. of dry riceland, by 1423 households, giving a mean wet riceland figure of 0.3 and a mean total riceland figure of 0.7. Well over 90*. of the households in Serbojadi and Ling farm some land (Bappeda Aceh 1974, 1980).

443

Rp 10,000 in Perlak (the nearest city on the east coast).

The price has

dropped somewhat vis-a-vis the price of buffalo, but is still a remunerative activity. In recent years Serbojadi, along with other parts of Sumatra, has turned increasingly to coffee production. Some of the gambir land has

been planted with coffee trees, but in 1980, when I visited the area, few trees had begun to produce fruit. A primary source of income continues to be wage labor on oil palm, rubber, and tobacco estates. Men travel to the east coast after clear*

i.-<6 and planting the rice fields, spend between one and four months there, and return after the harvest. Some find work on the estates,

while others gather rattan, fish, or haul heavy goods in the cities. I was in Lukup during the weeding season, and saw few men in the villages. Based on estimates given to me by men and women in Lukup village, the income derived from wage labor has generally been far less than that derived from the sale of gambir. Probably about 60-80*. of most house-

holds' income has come in the past from gambir sales, with the remainder from wage work and perhaps some sale of fish or other forest products during the year. I was told that nearly all households purchased rice.

This pattern of circular migration appears to have been part of the Serbojadi economy from the nineteenth century on. One Dutch report

mentions poor, hungry Gayo who came down from the bills to the east coast in the 1870's "to obtain work on the estates or to commit robberies," because of the war tribute in provisions and in fighting men which has exacted by the Acehnese (Langhout 1924:32). While the attribution

of motive in this case was self-serving, the report of migrations for

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444

employment was probably accurate. It is thus likely that Serbojadi has been an agricultural homeland area linked by patterns of seasonal oigration to sources of cash income outside the district for some time. The district resembles in this respect the Pidie area of Aceh (Siegel 1969) and highland .Minangkabau (Kato 1961), where ricelands are left in the control of women, though worked jointly with Ben during part of the year, and households are dependent on cash income fro the activities of men outside the village. -,

Politics

and Immigration

During the nineteenth century there was a great deal of immigra tion, temporary and permanent, by Xalay and Acehnese en fro the east coast. Given the small initial population of tbe area, this inflnx made of Serbojadi a frontier society, with a mixture of en fro different societies, some of whom married locally. Snouck Hurgronje writes that, besides Malays, "also Acehnese, Alas people, and islamicised Batak have brought their numbers to the population; the angk&p marriage, wliereby the daughter remains in the house and the husband is taken into the family, from being the exception has become almost the rule (1903a:260). In some cases men from tbe coast became official or unofficial rulers of villages. One of the four eiq in tbe district, the Penguin Penarun, was an Acehnese man in 1900. The struggle for tbe office of Kejurun Aboq is illustrative of the dynamic relation between locallyborn men and immigrants.

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The following figure, taken from Snouck Hurgronje (1903a:25) shows the relationships among tbe en who held the office of Kejun Aboq as well as several other contenders for power. Figure 26: Genealogy of Kejurun Aboq Office-kolders to 1900

elder

younger

t
(Acehne sei

/A.-.-.an S t r f j a h

T
i
A

Rtje Bet-Jt

Asan Sapar (Xalay) R i k i h , Asan Cye

loaa Kemuning

Asan Syaq Ara (Xalay)

A report from 1914 describes tbe context for power (Landschap 1 9 . During the reign of Aman Serjah as Kejurun Aboq man named Syeraog. who is said by Snouck Hurgronje to have been a distant relative, helped Rj Ling in a war with Bje Bukit, and was rewarded with the title of Rj Mud in Lukup. After the Kejurun's death. Syerang set out to take possession of the office of Kejurun. basing his claim on his receipt of a title from Rj Linge, and on the fact that Rikib. who was supported

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446

by some, was still too young. The central villages of Lukup, Ujung Karang, Tualang, and Terujaq all opposed Nyerang, while the others, including Bunin, supported him. His main supporters were the two men from Deli (Malays) who had married into the Kejurun's family, Aman Sapar and Asan Nyaq Ara. When Nyerang

died after two years of fighting in the district. Aman Syaq Ara tried to prevent Rikih (now called A=an t'ym) from taking office, and traveled to Samalanga (on the north coast) where he obtained a letter of appointment from the Sultan of Aceh for himself. It is unclear whether Aman Nyaq Ara was ever recognized as Kejurun throughout Serbojadi. He does, however, appear to have managed to gain

support, since the 1914 report states that he was forced to flee from tbe 1902 Dutch expedition to the district, which then set Aman L'ym in office. Aman fcyem then signed the Korte Verklaring, as was mentioned in Chapter 3. Clearly, however. Aman Nyaq Ara was able to draw on local Moreover, as the figure

support, despite tbe fact that he was a Malay.

shows, be had married the daughter of a woman who had herself married uxoriiocally, to an Acehnese. It thus appears that, although the even-

tual succession to office was along a patriline, uxorilocal ties could also be the basis for a claim to the office. Tbe Serbojadi dynastic myth involves four founding ancestors, speken of as the aiyang opat. In one version of the myth, the four

founders were brothers; in another, three came from different places in the Isak area and the fourth originated from Blangkejeren to the south. In both versions, however, the initial founders of the district could not make crops grow, and an outsider had to be brought in to guarantee

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447

the fertility of the land. The myths differ on the "outsider's" status:

In one version of the myth, the four brothers were the rulers of Linge, but turned over their rule and their sister to a man from Nosar (the real-, of Syiah tama) named Muyang Terpi, because he had defeated an invading force. The brothers then started on their way south. They told the youngest to continue on to Blangkejeren by himself, and not to follow them. They came to Lukup but their crops would not grow, whereas the youngest's squash plant had grown out over a large area of land in Blangkejeren. The other brothers asked him to come so that their land would give forth crops, and he did. He became the ruler of the area, Kejurun Aboq. The other, I believe older version of the story says that the three brothers were from Bukit, Penarun and Uning. bringing heirlooms from Linge with them. They founded Lukup, but later called on a man from Blangkejeren to become their ruler as the Kejurun Aboq. His descendant was later embarassed not to have his own land here, so he brought some from Blangkejeren. In both cases, it is an outsider (in one version, an exiled brother) who comes back to rule in the village and to bring about a successful harvest. The incoming man is thus the guarantor of fertility for the relatively indigenous leaders. This positiur. reverses that occupied by the relative insiders and outsiders in northern Gayoland, where the office of Kejurun Blang must be held by a member of an indige-

nous line (Lot, in-Kebayakan and Isak). The story of a man bringing his own earth with him in order to claim an indigenous tie is found in Takengon as well, where the Bukit leader sat on a bit of earth he had brought with him from his own original village, Serule, and swore that the earth he was sitting on was his earth of origin. However, whereas the Bukit side requires the fertility services of the indigenous Lot side to ensure crop success, in Serbojadi it is the outsider who became both ruler and guarantor of fertility.

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In its political ideology, Serbojadi has incorporated the outsider as a positive element to a markedly greater degree than in Isak (and even more so than in southern Gayo). The organization of the village,

marriage, and kinship relations are correspondingly transformed.

CONTEHPORASr SOCIETY

1 chose the village of Lukup for closer study in 1980.

Lukup

village, with 432 people in 78 households, is modal in size for the district. It is located close to the store area, and was the village of

the district ruler, the Kejurun Aboq. The village consists of closelybuilt houses, mostly single household dwellings. Eleven of the 78 households included one or more parents of a married couple; the remaining 67 consisted of couples with children or grandchildren or, in five case, single household heads. There are no boundary paths between houses as in Rerb.

Village

Composition
Serbojadi villages are composed of several lineages called belah

as in tbe southern district, but which are defined primarily by their separate origins. Each village has been composed from several lineages, Lineages within a village

often at the request of the Kejurun Aboq.

cannot intermarry, and there is very little internal spatial differentiation of a village.

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The belah

is not sub-divided into kuru

in Lukup. Each of the

three main village offices is assigned to a lineage, but these offices were not generally passed down from fathers to son*, but to a "fitting" person in the lineage, sometimes chosen by divination. The office of district ruler is, I believe, the single exception to this statement (and possibility the office of wakil). belah.

In the village of Tualang, for example, there are three The belah vakil was the eldest in tutur

in the village because their Men

ancestor. Muyang Tualang, was the first to settle in the village.

in the village held the office of the representative of the Kejurun Aboq in the village. The next in tutur was the be?ah inm bale, the member

of which are addressed with younger sibling terms by same-generation people from the first belah. This belah would furnish a man to help the

Kejurun decide matters-, this sense was given to the title of imm. Toe third belah has the name of panglima ciq, and furnished the war leader

to the Kejurun. The headman of the village could be from any of the three belah. The three lineages would eet and select a rJ and item

from aaong themselves. This pattern applies to most other villages in the district. Each Lukup village was founded by a descendant of a ruler in the Isak area who moved and married in to Lukup. Each village preserves the eaory of its tie to lsak villages, even though the genealogy is not preserved. These lines constitute the focal lines of the villages, and are. in some cases, shared across village boundaries. Villages preserve their ties to the outside, both as co-descent across villages and to origin villages elsewhere.

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The Bunin sub-district of Serbojadi, for example, is compose of two pairs of villages. Bunin village and Racpah share a single belah rj across their village boundaries, the founder of which came from In Bunin the other two lineages, belah panglima eiq,

Penarun near Isak.

blah imem, are spoken of as "angka? trom Aceh." The two villages of Sembuang and ?Sesir share a single ruling lineage as well, which originated fro Lan, a village located downstream from Isak. The other lineages in each village were from outside the area, some from Aceh.

tlarriage and Access to Land

The labels for types of marriage are similar to those used in Isak. Informants tended to label all uxorilocal marriages as angkap, without a distinction between marriages involving outsiders and those within the district br edit or village. Virilocal marriages are referred to as bridewealtfc;. The relation of this category to

(paying, fixed

that of the csmarked uxorilocal marriage is as in Isak with respect to the timing of residence shifts. In both communities, nearly all marriages begin with.a period of uxorilocal residence, which may be followed later o r > by a shift in domicile (residence and affiliation). The difference between the two communities lies in the timing of the assignment of the marriage to one of two types. In Isak, some marriages are agreed on as eventually virilocal and involve higher payments at the time of the marriage. Tfce marriage is intended as virilocal even though it is not initially labeled as juln. In Lukup, I know of no

such cases occuring; I was told that even in the case of the district ruler during the Dutch period, the marriages of all his sons were uxori-

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451

local. The son who succeeded him was "bought back" to his father's lineage at the time of succession. Lukup informants will begin all jujn

discussions of the subject with the statement that "there are no

marriages here"; any currently virilocal couple has changed domicile subsequent to the wedding. toe way in which virilocal marriage has been more marked in Lukup relative to the other two communities is through a greater difference in amount of bridewealth between virilocal and uxorilocal marriages. Prior

to and during the Dutch period, the amount of bridwealth (dr) required to transfer a wife's domicile from her natal village to that of her husband was relatively stable in all three communities studied. In Isak

this transfer payment was fixed at Rp 120 for most marriages; in Lukup the equivalent payment was set at Rp 205. In both cases a buffalo was

usually required as a substitute for the care and work supplied by the couple to the wife's parents. In Rerb the amount was equivalent to Rp

100-140. For most marriages, then, the amount of the payment to make a virilocal marriage out of a uxorilocal one was significantly higher in Lukup then in the other two communities. In Isak marriages to high-

ranking daughters "cost more, but there were few such marriages. Virilocal marriage was thus more marked in terms of payments relative to other marriage possibilities in Lukup than elsewhere. This difference is harder to test today, since there is no fixed amount in any of the three communities. The Rerb level appears to have remained stable in real buffalo terms, as is approximately true for Isak as well isee Chapter 7 ) . In Lukup, the current dt payment is

roughly equivalent in kind to that found in Rerb, 3 buffalo, although

-* %f-.iiMiriii

452
my impression is that buffalo are easier to come by in Rerb than in Lukup. I look to the earlier figures, however, as being ore closely

related to the relative cultural importance of the two marriage modes in the three communities. In Lukup village in 9S0 there were 73 married heads of household who were domiciled in the village. Only 3 of these 73 (4*.) were domiciled virilocally; the remaining 70 (96'.) were domiciled nxorilocally (and none neolocallv). These figures suggest a preference for uxorilocal marriage which stands i strong contrast to the other w o communities studied. The followisg table suaearizes the marriages of household

Table 25: Marriages in Three Villages by Type of Domicile

Domicile Village
Rerb Kramil Lukup

Virilocal
164 f87*.) 35 (fro) 3 (4)

uxorilocal
25 (13) IB (34) 70 (96)

Total
1B9 (lOOT.) 53 (100) 73 (100)

heads in the three villages.

Two reasons are given for the strong preference for uxorilocal marriage in Lukup. First, strong feelings exist between daughters and parents; daughters vast to remain with their parents and care for tbem while sons are contest to leave in pursuit of wealth, nether it is outside the area or in another village as a nxorilocally married farmer. Secondly, because daagiters exhibit this care, and remain with their parents, they deserve to obtain control of the parental land. They have

L
remained in their birthplace (mwn tumpah darah,

m
453

lit. "place where

blood is spilled", i.e., in birth), kept the parents* graves clean, and in general succeeded the parents as heads of household along with their husbands. I often asked Lukup people to compare the two kinds of marriage in general. The answer was always unambiguous. "Angkap (uxorilocal marriage) is better," where "better" (Jerooen) was meant in a moral sense. Whereas a juln (virilocal) marriage, they would continue, separates a

girl from her parents, makes it difficult for her to come and care for them, or even to visit frequently, an angkap marriage does not constrain the boy in the same way. If a boy is angkap, be can continue to come

and help out, even in some cases to mote back to his parents' village. "Juln marriage is a part of dt, but angkap marriage is more in line

with religion."* The extra tie that a boy retains to his natal village is expressed in both consanguineal and jural terms. The formal speech Imelnkan)

giving the boy over to the girl's village after marriage always includes the following formula (specific, as far as I know, to Lukup): Kerna talak ara opat. So there are four separations. Tulu kami serahan Three we give to our rj ku rj ni kami si kami depeti. that we find here. Ik osop gelah iperahi, If he disappears, find him, ik blob gelah itunung, if he goes, follow hi, ik mw itentu tempati if he stays, point to his place.

In this criticism, the Lukup view converges with that expressed by Islamic reformists in northern Gayo, and may lead to a future entry for the latter into Lukup society. But the point of view is not the same; the reformist position insists that property should be divided among individuals independently of social alignments, while the Lukup view is just the opposite.

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Sara mi, taring darah setitik. But a drop of blood reaain*. In this key formula in the speech lies the essence of the boy's relations to the two villages. He is turned over to the girl's village in its capacity as political entity (sarak opat), who then have to look

after him while alive (follow him if he leaves and bring hi back, since he may not leave the village without their permission) and bury hi, "give him a place", when he dies. ut a drop of blood remains hi* tie to his natal village, the fact of his birth there, and that village thu retains the right to be told of what happens to hi. The boy's relation of origin in to that village is also the basis for his right to use his parents* land before it is divided. Men retain rights to use not only a portion of undivided lands, but also a share of the land after divibio, according (roughly) te "the lilamic 2:1 rule

(two hares for a brother, one for a *iter). However, these rights are only rarely called on. mutlak) In Gayo tens, en have a for*al right (bak (akhlak)

to their share of the estate, but proper feelings

demands that they allow their sisters and sisters' ons to use the land. Even though sisters have only use rights (hak pake) over the brother'

portions of the estate, they then pass on these rights to their own sons, who are told that the land is from their pun (other's brother). In the short run land ue include soe cross-village faming by brothers, but after one generation the use generally revert* to village em-

ber*. The process is then repeated on the next generation, with the sisters' sons marrying out and temporarily continuing to u*e the lands. In Lukup village nearly all the sen who had arried out of the village were said to have renounced their claim to use of their *i*ter*

.-p...,^,,.,.^..^^.,^^,,^,.^.^^^

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455

lands.

I was often initially told that these men "have no lands here,"

but after further discussion it became clear that these men possessed a residual right, defineable as the right over definitive alienation of the property, but that this right was not claimed. There were only 5 cases where a man who had arried out, or his son, continued to work Lukup village land. Of the 78 households domiciled in Lukup village, only 54 were resident, and all of these worked village land. In addition, 6 of the

54 also worked some land in the husband's natal village. Therefore, approximately 10*. of households at any one tine are working husbands' land outside the village.* However, considering domicile instead of residence produces different conclusions. It is i r > Lskup t h f f l f the two criteria produce the greatest difference in assigning households by place. At the time of the survey, of the 70 en who had married in to Lukup. 24 had moved back out, taking their wives and children with them. 12 of these moves were

back to the man's natal village, and 12 elsewhere. These shifts in residence were categorized as merely "going to find work" (bluh aha) and not a* shifts in domicile. berus-

In none of the case* had the men

paid the additional bridewealth required to transfer affiliation to their natal village, and no demands had yet been made to do so. There is a fine line in Lukup between legitimate move* and virilocal relocation without proper compensation. I recorded a number of cases where

' Depending on which figure is taken as the base, 6 of the 54 households work land owned by husbonds. or 5 of 59 farms were worked by married-out men.

456

such shifts led to desands for payment by the men of the wife's village. In some of these cases the couple returned to her village; in several others, the two-way pull led to divorce. Rarely was the additional bridewealth paid. In Lukup, Rerb and Isak, the theory and the rules concerning marriage and kin relations are identical: daughters have a greater tie to parents, sons have a greater right to inheritance, virilocal arriages bring about a greater separation of parent and child than do uxorilocal ones. It is the interpretation of these rules and theorie* significance of each that constitute* the

that differ, the relative

contrasting local structures of each community. All the reasons given for preferring uxorilocal marriages by Lukup resident are also valid reasons in Rerb or Isak. but in Rerb they are outweighed by another set of reasons, namely the appeals to the rules that constitute the lineage. In Isak the reasons for angkap marriages are given greater

weight than in Rerb, and were drawn on as arguments for ending the practice of escorting the bride (tnsn), but the ideology of virilo-

cal ity and patrilineality are nonetheless dominant. In Lukup, virilocal marriage appears as highly marked. The teras also differ according to the shift in emphasis. Elsewhere, the term ango. is a synonym for juln, but in Lukup it ha* the meaning of chang-

ing residence from one's wife's to one's own village, but without necessarily changing domicile, i.e., without paying bridewealth. The latter was always designated by the phrase br dt , (pay dt). A "properly

virilocal" marriage thereby receives further lexical marking by being not only de facto virilocal (designated by ango) but also de jure so.

- *"

' '

457

Virilocal marriage is also referred to by the verb .batang

(create

or perpetuate the patriline), where the vertical consequence of such a arriage (patrilineal descent) are foregrounded rather than the lateral preconditions (payments). However, so-e informants followed up such s t a t u t s by saying: "But there are no batang marries angkap." in Lukup, since everyone

In Isak. such focal or "trunk" lines define the cul-

tural and position of the lineage in the community, guaranteeing the transmission of certain key features (spiritual power, healing spells, or claim to rule) from father to son. In Lukup, the only such "trunk" ppe.r* to have been that of the district ruler, the Kejurun Aboq, where the successor to the office was "bought back" for the transfer of power. Otherwise, there are no such "trunk" lines, and the use of the expression cbatang expresses the greater value accorded to such marriages by

referring to the patrilineal rule, but not to existing traceable lines (see below). in Lukup village only 3 of the 78 marriages (4.) of current housebold heads were br dt marriages. These three men were all children of formerly rich parents, whose riches had come from building up large buffalo herds. Si'nce the current dt payment is figured in buffalo this form of wealth is s t easily translateable into bridewealth.' In on. case, the father had also br dt, in another, one brother (since

deceased) bad also paid dt. and the 3 younger brothers had married angkap.

Buffalo ownership is not ore skewed itj*****.J* Y?0\' 18 Lukup households own one or ore buffalo. 15 of these own 1 to 3 h.,,4remaining three owner* have 5, 7, and 8 beaa. head; the the remaining

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458

In the third case, while a younger brother had been married out, the man's two elder sisters had both been married out; this case is an interesting c?ustering of virilocal marriages, and indicates that the differentiating factor is not a desire to accumulate children (in which case the richer families would retain both sons and daughters) but that the following of the virilocal marriage rule itself is considered to be a high-status activity (retaining sons and marrying out daughters). This stylistic preference for following the marked rule is the precise equivalent of the "angkap clusters" mentioned for Rerb, where most members of a sibling set were married uxorilocally. But the relative

position of the two clusters in their respective communities is not the same. Whereas in Rerb the "angkap cluster" lends no raised status to

the families in question, in Lukup these "juln sets" achieve a certain renown (megah) by their actions.

In addition to the virilocal marriages in the present generation, several more were recorded for G+l and G+2, notably including those of the family holding the office of Kejurun Aboq, the district ruler. The last holder of this office married virilocally, as did his 3 matrilateral half-siblings. In the next generation, the ruler's own son mar-

ried virilocally, but all of his brothers' sons married out. This pattern applies to most other villages in the district.

Kinship
While elsewher. the term keturunan designates descendants through males, here the term is interpreted as "all descendants, through sons and daughters." A marked form, "real, original descendants/descent.

459
keturunan asli, is available to refer to a patrilineal descent category,

indicating that the hierarchy of patrilineal over bilateral descent is a pan-Gayo cultural feature, which ay or cay not be e=?hasized in a particular location. This marked for only arose in discussion of the virilocal marriage as a way of creating a patriline; it rarely surfaces in everyday discourse. Patrilateral ties, however, are spoken of in the idiom introduced earlier, the "drop of blood" that remains after the groom is given over to his wife's village. Brothers and their sons retain ties to land through their ties of consanguinity, and this sense of cross-village continuity allows frequent shifts of residence back to the husband's natal village without claims for bridewealth payment being levied against him (though these claims do arise in some instances). Although cross-generational continuity in the village is from mothers to daughters, it is expressed not in terms of descent, but as the rights that accrae to the daughter for her continued residence. The estate continues to pass from the parents to the children, with the daughters eventually exercising full control, without a formulation in terms of mother to daughter transfer. Kith a large share of land rights retained by marrying-out brothers, the preservation of a land-housebold coterminality in each village presupposes a gradual return of land rights to the sisters sons.

The relation of mother's brother to sister's child differs from that found in Terangon or Isak. Since the relation of raliq to julo

is not a central part of the ideology, this affinal relation fades in importance. All Lukap informants said that there was no special role

Iw

occupied by the mother's brother towards his sister's child: neither the healing powers nor the ritual awe that characterize the mother's brother-sister's child relation elsewhere appear in Lukup. While the mother's brother.is respected and honored at ritual events "he is just like the ujang (FyoB) in that respect." Such a statement could never be

uttered in Terangon, nor in lsak, where the FyoB is a relatively "lightversion of the father, with less avoidance required. This equating of the two roles indicates the symmetric quality attached to the two sides. Cousins are correspondingly not distinguished as cross/parallel. Some older men had heard the term impel before, but it is not in general use. All cousins are referred to and addressed by appropriate sibling terms, and all are pamili dekat ("close relative") and hence. 1 was

told, not to be married. "It is forbidden (haram) to marry your cousin," I was told, "because to be opposed in marriage to be enemies" injalu berarti bermusuh). Such marriages would set sibling against (berlun)."

sibling: "even the nome (for marriage) is 'to oppose'

In an unrelated context, a Lukup en told me the story of the origins of Ling which was transformed in an interesting way relative to versions heard elsewhere. The story in question is of particular interest in all its versions, because it encodes local ideas of "the proper" in a cross-culturally contrastive way. setting them against an image ol the Other labeled "Eatak." The Batak have represented the most culturally contrastive Other of non-Gayo cultures. Batak appear to to Gayo as culturally close, with similar house structures and clan ideas, but as opposed on the axes of religion (Islam/animism). culinary practices (principally the eating of dog) and behavioral style (an absence of

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461

reserve and refined conduct). The Karo have undoubtedly come into close contact with Gayo in the past, although the precise nature of this contact is unclear, and the trace of this contact remains in myth and historical narrative. In the version of the story told in Isak and Takengon, tbe first (Karo) Batak was a son of the first Rj Ling but mid not be circumcised. He fled in shame to the south where he became the ancestor of the Karo people, any generations later a group of Bis descendants returned to Gayo as the "27 Batak", who had become Soslims. This group drove the Bukit people fro their village and established residence there, near the current site of Takengon. In the Lutes version of the story, tbe 27 Batak are depicted as residents of Gayo who flee to Batak because one of their number marries bis mother's brother daughter. "After that, they could not be even Islam much less Gayo because of their transgression"' and had to leave. This severe and absolute rejection of close cousin marriage stands in contrast to its practice (albeit accompanied by an&ivalenc) ia Terangon, and the relative equanimity with which it is represented in Isak. In the Serbojadi myth, first-cousin marriage is taken as a feature which excludes one from being counted as Gayo (or Juslim) at all. In turning around the point of the Batak story from being non-Islamic because of failure to be circumcised to being non-Islamic (and non-Gayo) because of close marriage. Lukup highlights its own distinguishing position within tbe total Gayo cultural framework. Intra-cultural variation

is thus pointed to through mythic commentary on inter-cultural differ-

462

Karriage

Ritual

The marriage process in Lukup reveals further contrasts with southern Gayo. The formal mah atur exchanges which are salient and

frequent in marriage ritual in Terangon and Isak have a different, and minor form here. Vhile the term mah atur exists, it has a different

referent entirely. The element which is constant across districts is the relation of debt and repayment between parties to the exchange. However, the debt is in the form of an obligation incumbent upon the village which receives visitors to formally receive and feed them. The key expression in formal speech is:

Utang malam kubayar mala. Night debt I pay at night, utang siang kubayar siang. Day debt 1 pay at day. This phrase is in Malay, often true of formulae in Gayo culture. Whereas the "rule" brought in the Isak and Rerb versions of these prestations are the speech and song of a unit by virtue of a past exchange tie, in Lukup the "rule" is the speech and song brought by the visiting polity (i.e., the groom's village). It is merely another

expression of the encounter at hand rather than a reference back to past events. This is precisely what we would expect in Lukup, since marriage has not created exchange categories. A second way of looking at reciprocity in process is to examine the direction and delay of the visits that follow upon a marriage. Here again, Terangon and Lukup present a clear contrast in their representation of prestation and return. The differences are apparent by representing the two series together, as below.

I' JUT 'ill il'TT

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^ttjiaB|jDB$

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463

Figure

27: Contrast

of Terangon and Lukup Reciprocal

Visits

Terangon Day 1: wedding mab atur Day 2: semah to W's family Day 3: mah beru to H's village semah to H's family Delay: 7-10 days later, tenesen to H's Village

Lukup wedding seraah to W's family semah to H's family H's family mah kro to V s village H's friends mah bio and cakes to s village 20 day later, mah kro to H's village, bringing alun gifts

In distributing prestations, obeisance (semah)

and visits over

time in different ways, the two districts have portrayed diachronically the direction given to the respective marriage interpretations. In Terangon, the obeisance to the wife's family is closely followed by a reciprocal visit and obeisance to the husband's family. Moreover, the n of this reciprocal visit, mah beru, "bringing the maid, bride," is

the equivalent to "the name of the initial escorting of the groom, mah bai. "bringing the groom." The n a ~ , the form and the short intervening

period together imply a reciprocal, equivalent exchange of places between the two parties. The Lukup visit sequence, however, concentrates the events in the wife', village, with the only obeisance to the husband's family taking place in the wife's village, to the groom's retinue. Conversely, the husband's villagers make two prestation visits, bringing cooked rice

64

(*,) and then sirih leaf (Wo) and cakes. Only after a long delay is there a visit to the husband's village, brxnging mats woven by the bride as gifts to the groo='s relatives. These gifts, called alun both here and in M * . will be reciprocated by money gifts from their recipients. The initiative in the gift-giving is with the wife's side. It is as if the gifts are a kind of V e . l t h " given to the groom's side, rather than (as is usually the case in IsaV.) the return gift, for an initial money prestation to the girl. In Lukup, the wife's side appears as those who receive visits and give gifts, whereas in Terangon initial visits establish a balance bet, ..., fi-.ll* r-,1vH i* favor of the husband's receipt ween lu* HIS ." - - > of his wife in the tenesen ritual. The distinction between the two

orders of practice is not just in terms of the direction and delay of the visit,, but also in ter- of the degree to which reciprocity operate, as a norm. Terangon visits appear as "more reciprocal." here as in respect to other points of view, in the balancing of one visit with it,
return.

Lukup appears as "a-reciprocal". relatively indifferent to such

concerns, as .veral visits accumulate on one side before there i. after long delay.'- return. Tne.e visits are not the beginning of an exchange relation, as in Terangon, but the surrendering of a husband with the preservation of a kin ti.

Conclusion: Historical

Tranformation

In Serbojadi the structure i, the a as in Isak or Terangon, but the relative value given to each of it, component, has been altered. Patrilineal descent remains a part of the structure, inc. those parent,

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465

with high rank or wealth will engage in virilocal marriage so as to batang (reproduce the patriline). But the strong association between

women and land has skewed the system towards near-total uxorilocality. In the economy, society, and their rytbic representations, men are obile. Men either immigrate, bringing with them power and wealth, or Migrations and an economy linked to the coast

emigrate to seek wealth.

have combined to produce a Gayo version of the Pidie society described by Siegel (1969). Even in the political sphere, although succession was

in the patriline, it was possible for non-Gayo men who married into that line to assert a claim to authority. However, Serbojadi society remains Gayo. not Acehnese. The system of tutur has changed, but retains its G+l distinctions. The continuity ,

of lineages is through the control of land, and not supported by a de,cent ideology, but the belah nonetheless reains the basic social nit.

Marriage payments are given and ade by or.e lineage to another. The transformation has taken place within the structure.

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CHAPTER 11: CONCLUSIONS In analyzing Gayo society, I have distinguished between the features of the overall or global structure which is characteristic of Gayo vis-a-vis other societies aad variations in local structure which characterize one district vis-a-ris others. The myths, rituals, and social organization which were foand in each district draw widely on three sets of relation, or codes: the kinship code of siblingship, the affinal code of raliqljuln, Rj Ciq, and sarak and the three-tiered political code of Kejurun, opat.

VARIATICm

In dynastic myth and in the ideology of lineage composition, siblingship provides a code for a discourse about kinds of authority and legitimacy. Elder brother authority is jural in nature, while younger authority comes from inner, spiritual power. The relation leads to perduring and equal lineage membership for their descendants. The relation of brother and sister, bowever, is not stable in itself, but involves the sister's marriage as well. Gayo representations of brother/sister relations inclmd the third term of sister's husband, and so become a relation of ZH to WB. This relation leads either to the arrying-oat of the sister, in which case the relation becomes an affinal one, or a conflict whish is only resolved on the succeeding generation by the definition of tie sister's line as a branch in the lineage. 466

.Hiani'iBri'imiti'lV n ' "

. .,,* -r mr * mm a w

467
The two relations together describe a three-sibling set of elder and younger brother, and sister (with husband). This set appeared in the dynastic myths of districts and villages, sid is, we might say. the fundamental relation of intersection between the kinship and the politics! domains. The political code is three-tiered, inducing the the four Kejurtm, the seven Rj Ciq, and the sarak opat. In the first four

chapters, we explored the interplay between this code and the relations of authority as perceived by Gayo and Dutch actsrs. This three-way

model of political organization encompasses societies across Gayoland, providing a unifying framework in which Gayo see each other as culturally the same. Vithin each of three political levels, tie relations of siblingship provide a basis for differentiation and ordering. At the level of tie sarak opat, the three political offices say be related as descen-

dants of brothers and brothers or brothers and sisters, as in Isak. In southern Gayoland, the relation of elder to yccnger (ciq to muoV) pro-

vides a kinship idioo for district-wide political organization. The political code has a numerical dimension. Four serves as a sign of stability and completeness throughout tee culture, in the representation of the four elements which make up life (the nasir fear ingredients which make a complete kenduri opat), the

cc the highest level, and

the complete political units. The level referred to as "the four" encompasses tie entire Gayo political field, fc the level of the village tor sub-village political unit), four similarly delimits a stable, well-defined unit, the sarak opat.

uM^W

468

In between the stable fours are the shifting alliances and claims to power which characterize the level of seven, the Rj Ciq. Tie flux of political events has been found in this middle level. In Isak, while the village remained the stable unit on the third tier, a struggle took place for the right to occupy the position of Rj Ciq. In soutien

Gavoland this struggle took the form of wars and shifting politicomilitary alliances between villages under different ciq leaders. The

code appears virtually unchanged in Serbojadi. but the change of emphasis from lineage to domicile has divorced the assignment of political office in the village from the opposition among The relation of raliq and juln belah.

creates a network of criss-

crossing affinal tie, in the society. These ties may be represented over one or two generations through formal exchanges (mab star) bot

rarely over a longer time period. The marriage code does mot become an additional structuring element in political organization, since lineages or villages are not represented as standing in raliql'juln ties. In

this sense, the affinal relation stands alongside the kinship and political codes rather than, as in Toba Batak society, underwriting it. The affinal'relation only arises from a virilocal marriage, and the marriage code is ideologically unitary, i" that there is no code of perduring relations arising fro- uxorilocal marriage. There are several ways of representing uxorilocal marriages in the structure, (toe is to recode the uxorilocal marriages in terms of the affinal relation, as if it had been a virilocal marriage. This solution is taken iti respect to some uxorilocal marriages in northern and southern Gayoland. A second solution is to play down the marriage code entirely and to represent

-niiiiiiT

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469

marriage as a way of preserving the ties of women to land (the Serbojadi solution). Finally, the marriage may be denied or superceded ideologi-

cally by highlighting the ties of men to their natal village and lineage (as in Isak). In each Gayo district studied, the local structure draws on the kinship and marriage codes to represent society in a certain light. In each case, the ideologically dominant model is defined by virilocal marriage, leading to relations of raliq/juln age in terms of brother-brother ties. and reproducing the line-

However, one or the other of the

two marriage rules may be the most common form, against which the other appears as special, marked, and requiring of a reason. Serbojadi and Rerb provide cases from the two ends of what is in fact a continuum, with Isak somewhere between them. In each case, the particular selec-

tion between the two rules has implications for the relative weights or emphases given to categories of kinship, descent, domicile, and exchange.

HISTORY One aspect of the analysis has been to present the local structure found in Isak and to trace the possibilities for variation. A second aspect, however, has been historical. The possibilities of systematically selecting between the two marriage rules presents a possibility for historical change, an area of the social structure which may be acted upon, biased, or directed by particular historical events. Three kinds of factors which have had transformative effects on the structure have been explored here. The first has been the political

470
context. Isak at the start of the century retained a strong sense of vis-a-vis other sub-districts. The advent of

itself as one keturunan

colonial rule had two, superficially contradictory effects on the society. On the one hand, the sense of solidarity was clearly increased with the growth of a neutral, common residence are and the reduction in powers of the five headmen in favor of the Rj Ciq, the Kejurun, and ultimately the Dutch. On the other hand, marriage was now permitted among all villages in the sub-district. As a result, marriage became more frequent within Isak, but without a sense of strong opposition among lineages. A sort of affinal middle ground was found in which marriage neither created a strong form of affinal tie nor strongly incorporated men to a woman s lineage. In Rerb, political organization was, and continued to be, based on the shifting alliances between lineages, a radically different for from the supra-village political umbrella created in the northern areas. Although part of a single political unit, Rerb lineages appear as separate entities spatially, in their separate saman clubs, and the separate nah atur exchanges put on by each. The affinal opposition of

each lineage to the other has thus played a wider organizational role than in Isak. The second impingement of history on the structure has been through Islam. Gayo culture has been formed around Islam for centuries, such that forms of knowledge, ritual cycles, and the sarak opat are

already the results of the cultural appropriation of Islam. An opening for further change is thus already built into the system. The reproduction of the system passes by way of a body of doctrine, rules, and ideas

i,

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471

on which external agents have a legitimate right to comment. A reasoned critique of traditional marriage, prayer, and funeral rituals by outsiders (in the Gayo case, Minangakabau) is listened to when it is ade on religious grounds. Unless there is a tight separation of domain between tradition and religion (in Indonesian terms, adat and agama), these

external critiques can be powerful bases for change in local practicesChange in Gayo society has proceeded by providing new interpretations (in, for example, reformist terms) for older practices.1 In Chapter 7 we analyzed this process with respect to the legal issues surrounding property transfers and the issues of propriety surrounding marriage practice in the northern Gayo area. This area has been physically open to new elements, from the immigration of Minangkabau advocates of reformis in the 1930's to the establishment of Islamic courts in the 1950's. and has therefore been relatively more subject to change from religious sources than have Serbojadi or the southern district. Socio-economic conditions have provided the third explanatory feature of change in this study. In Takengon, the increased value of

labor as a result of the conversion of formerly unused lands to coffee production led to'a reinterpretation of the nature of uxorilocal arriage. Marriage, in that area, has become a contract in which economic

gain is no longer tied to conjugal rights. The economic history of Serbojadi appears to be characterized by the dependency of highland rice farmers on lowland supplementary sources of income. Men have igrated

1 In his study of Hawaiian history, Marshall Sahlins found that "Hawaiian* incorporated breaches of tabu by the logic of tabu, here, too. "structural transformation involves structural reproduction if not also the other way around" (Sahlins 1981b:68).

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472

seasonally to the coast, and women have undertaken the management of land resources (rice and gambir). Control of land has thus remained

with daughters, and men have married uxorilocaJy. retaining life-estate rights to land in their natal villages. The association of women with the household has thus been elaborated while relations of affinal exchange have been less central. The association between uxorilocality and ale seasonal migration is found elsewhere in Sumatra. In much of lowland Aceh. a high propor-

tion of village land and house space is transmitted from parents to daughters, and marriages are nearly always uxorilocal. While the Pidie pattern of rantau Migration) is not so extrealy followed in all of

Aceh, the socio-econo-y in north Aceh and Aceh Besar includes seasonal, weekly, or daily commuting by men to employment out of the village. The transmission of property to daughters does not entail an ideology of matrilisy. Although the provision of property to daughters

and uxorilocality is the rule in Pidie and Acefc Besar, for example, there is no ideology cf matrilineal transmission or succession, and the other's brother does not exercise control over the property of the sister or sister's son. In fact, Acehnese taorilocality is better ren-

dered in terms of the specific obligation to provide the daughter with a bouse and land, not as an obligation for the -in-law to live with or support the wife's parents (Jayawardena 1977:32). Moreover, a gift of land (.penuuo) is also made frequently by the husband's parents to the

* The social importance of this patten, does not depend on the amount of the household budget which is contributed by the migrant. This asount appears to be relatively small both ix Serbojadi and in the Pidie village studied by Siegel (1969:180-81).

473

couple after the marriage. This property remains as a tie between the children of the couple and their patrilateral relatives.

HOUSEHOLD MID BOOSES

More generally, there is a general Sumatra-wide focus on the perpetuation of the household through sons or daughters. This concern exists alongside of (or intersecting) the definitions of descent which characterize particular Sumatras societies. Karo Batak society, studied by Singarimbun, appears to combine a rule of agnatic descent with what he describes as a flexibility with regard to domicile. Although Singarimbun emphasizes the "patrilineal aspects" of the society, his data show that in 40*. of intervillage ar* riages, the couples reside uxorilocally after arriage. His summary of

the data suggests that the couple will tend to reside with whichever parent is a ember of the ruling lineage of the respective village. Since "no stigma" attaches to uxorilocal residence, the decision is otivated by political and econosic considerations (Singarimbun 1973:182-183). South Suatran societies, stretching fro Rejang in the north-west to Komering in the south-east, employ nearly identical categories of arriage, kinship, and descent, but change fro "atrilineal" to "patrilineal" in a kind of flip-flop as one proceeds fro west to east. Three contiguous societies, the Beseaah, Sesendo, and Eni, illustrate this combination of basic identity and alternation in descent rule.'

* Information concerning these three societies comes from my own

.*.

HHHM

iin-ilinilmiif'

-'-iBliriiiiiiii-TiiTriiiMinii fnrfrtwnw

47A In each of these three societies, continuity of the household is provided by one or .ore children who r.unggu tubang. The word tubang

refers to a bamboo container used to store document, and here in the sense of a container for the family. The verb irnnggu means to stay with, look after; tungguan in this context refers to the house (Wilken

1921:157). In each of the three societies mentioned here, the line through those children who hare nunggu ^uban8
is t h e

Jurai'

' """ USC<1

in Minangkabau society as well (there, for the matriline). In all three societies, the eldest son or daughter is expected to navbiq (to take in a spouse). In Sesemah, the eldest sen i expected to

remain in the household and take over the land and house property. Younger siblings (or elder sisters; are expected to either arry out or find another source of inccoe. A faaily with only daughters must snag (take in a son) to continue the household. In Seendo. to the so=th, the eldest daughter is the tunggu tubang, and must -arry uxorilocally. taking over control of the houseaibiq

hold land for the parents (Vilken 1921:170). Other daughters may also marry uxorilocally. but they will then have to set up houses on other sites. They ay a H o arry out; there is an asymmetry in this respect between the Beseaah treat* of younger sons (who ought to arry virilocally. but ay do otherwise) and the Semendo treatent of younger daughters (who ay arry either virilocally or uxorilocally). In the absence of daughters, a son will be named the tunggu tubang and a wife

fieldwork in Eni society in 1981. interviews with Besenah and Semendo informants who were living in Palembang, and from tne compilation b> Ulken (1921J.

i i mui m y ir i

mriviT-"-'-"'-!--

"-"--'- - " ^ - ^ ^ ^ ' " ' ^ - "

475
brought in for him. a marriage form which is called ngangkit

(take u p ) .

Finally, the Enim situation is intermediary, in that there is no clear preference for sons or daughters as the tunggu tubang. The eldest

child is usually established as the heir, along with his/her younger siblings where economically possible. The jurai series of tunggu phrase ganti tubang is the line through a

relations between parents and children. The

juraiku

(y replacement, successor in the line) is used to i

refer to the tunggu tubang.

In each of these societies, it is continued residence in the house and Maafceatst of the land which is the criteria for tunggu affiliation to a lineage. The jurai tubang, not

is a line of house-continuity

rather than a descent category, yet in Besemah and Semendo, there is a clear preference for one or the other gender as the link in this line. We are thus faced, here as in Aceh and Gayo societies, with what Uvi-Strauss has called the "dialectic of filiation and residence" which characterizes societies in which the continuity of the house i a primary feature. Simatran societies, as those in Eastern Indonesia, may be included in Uvi-Strauss* category of "socits naisons" (1979:18i-186). The South Sumatran examples and the contrasts within Gayo society demonstrate the possibilities for variation in the statistical outcoe of this dialectic. Recent analyses of Minangkabau ociety

also suggest that it is the continuity of the house which is at issue. Kato reports that the ost persistent surface form of atriliny is the ownership of the house and property by women, while the direct control by the other's brother over daily affairs has declined (Kato 1981:209-210). Traditional titles are increasingly assumed fro either

y
476

other's or father's lines (Taufik Abdullah, personal communication). Conversely, a society with a bilateral kinship system such as Perak Malay distinguishes between the transmission of "seed and land" fro fathers to sons (uaris benih dan tanah), tanab) and the transmission of land (Josselin de Jong 1980:37-38,.

from others to daughters iuaris

There are. oreover, historical shifts in emphasis between one or the other of these two poles. Vilken notes that the Seendo see to have "slipped back" into atriliny. a finding which puzzles hi greatly (1921:171). Jaspan has described the change in Rejang society daring the 1930's fro patriliny to atriliny (the title of his dissertation) as the result of Islamic criticis of the institution of bridewealth and the difficulties of obtaining bridewealth during the Depression. (Jaspan 1964). Matrilineal Minangkabau has experienced shifts in the In ninteenth century Minangkabau villages on the

opposite direction.

west coast, the inhabitants of which were primarily engaged in trad*, land was transmitted from fathers to sons and daughters, and penghulu

titles began to be assumed from the father's side (Dobbin 1983:44-46). The study of the historical transformation of Gayo ociety should also shed further'light on the dynamics of socits maisons. In the particular terms of Gayo culture, the dialectic is between the association of daughters, bouses, and land, on the one hand, and the ties of descent and asal, on the other. The range found in South Sumatra bet-

ween the Besemah, Sesendo. and Eni is found within Gayo society, in the relative emphases placed on descent and residence in Rerb, Serbojadi, and Isak local structures. Perhaps it is the relatively indeterinant quality of the structure with regard to the empirical composition of any

tamlmlammmmammu

477

particular village or district which renders Gayo society particularly open to change, a trait, by the way, which Gayo frequently note. Further field research on the Gayo would concentrate on the changing relationship between the socio-economy (cash crops, wage labor, land pressure) and the cultural and legal interpretations of arriage, inheritance, and kinship. As Gayo society and economy continue to change

along different, local trajectories, such research may provide aterial for a better understanding of the historical transformation of society in Sumatra.

^
~^^M

-^-I;^.

. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ i -

.-.-.-..-..a^a^aa

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