Property in Social Continuity

Front matter

From where did the candle drip?

Behind the lantern on a cord.

From where did our ancestors originate?

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A NOTE ON ORTHOGRAPHY ABBREVIATIONS INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE: BASIC ASSUMPTIONS AND HYPOTHESES A. The Analytical Frame of Reference: Social Functions

1. Ze De

Group Leadership Authority Vested in Females Authority Vested in the Father

III. Authority Vested in Offices

1. 2 3.

The Offices of the Buah Gadang The Offices of the Atndu System The Hierarchical Structure of Social Positions of

Authority

IV. Authority Vested in Groups

V. Conclusions D. Relationships Between Individuals and Individuals and Groups

I. Introductory Note II. The Kin

13 Ze

Individualizing Reference References Involving Group Terms

III. Marriage

The Organization of Marriage

Rules Affecting the Choice of Marriage Partners Divorce

Relationships Established Through Marriage

E. Residence

II. Domestic Residence III. Political Residence

Residence in Adat Residence in Buek Residence in Pusako Residence in Jorong

IV. Conclusion

Chapter Three: The Pluralistic Situation

A. The Systems I. Adat/Adat Law 1. Adat 2. Adat and Adat Law II. Islamic Law III. Written Law.

B. The "Existence" of the Legal Systems in Minangkabau I. The Colonial and National Legal System 1. Pre-Independence Development 2. Post-Independence Development II. The Actual Use Made of the Systems 1. The Legal Systems Used by the Courts

2. The Use Made of the Systems in the Nagari Institutions of Decision Making

3. The Use Made of the Systems Outside the Formal Institutions of Decision Making

III. The Actualization of the Systems in the Knowledge of the Minangkabau

1. The Knowledge of Written Law 2. The Knowledge of Islamic Law 3. The Knowledge of Adat

Chapter Four: The Level Of Meaning: Systems Of Property Relationships In Minangkabau

A. Introductory Note B. Adat

I. Categories of Property Relationships and Property Objects in Minangkabau Adat

1. The Level of Socio-Political Authority Over Property 2. The Category of Pusako 3. The Category of Harato

II. The Adat Pusako: Acquisition, Use, and Diachronic Transfers of Property Relationships Based upon Group Membership

1. The Pusakoization of Harato Pancaharian 2. The Relationships to the Harato Pusako 3. The Relationships to the Pusako Kebesaran III. Transfers of Property Relationships in Minangkabau Adat 1. Introductory Note 2. Jua Balt - Selling and Buying

129 130 131 132

137 138

139 140 147 149

OO U B WA

. Pagang Gadat - The Adat of Pawning

. The Privileged Loans of Harato Pusako

. The Gift of Harato Paneaharian

. Umanatk, Wastyat, Htbah-Wastyat - Testamentary Gifts Ts

Utang - Debts

IV. Analysis of the Adat Pusako

Is

Corporate Group Structure and Property Relationships in the Adat Pusako

. The Limitation of the Society's Members' Autonomy

The Temporal Dimension in Minangkabau Property Relationships

C. Islamic Law I. Mal, Milk - Property and Ownership II. Property Within the Conjugal Family

III. Property Transactions and the Prohibition of Riba IV. Atba- Donation V. Wastyya - Testament VI. Wakf - Property of the Dead Hand VII. Faratdh - Intestate Inheritance VIII. Debts D. Written Law

I. The Basic Principles of Dutch Property and Inheritance Law

1. Etgendom - Ownership

2. Mede-Etgendom - Communal Ownership 3. Marital Property Relationships

4, 5 6

Inheritance

. Donation and Contractual Inheritance

. The Restriction of the Individual's Autonomy

II. Written Law in Minangkabau Property Relationships

Te . The Agrarian Act of 1870

CHAPTER

ND Om A W N

The Decree of 1853 Concerning the Pusako-Etgendomsakte

The Ordinance Prohibiting the Alienation of Land The Declaration of State Domain

. Mortgages

The Basic Agrarian Law of 1960 The Marriage Law of 1974

FIVE: THE LEVEL OF PERFORMANCE I: THE FULFILMENT OF THE

FUNCTION

A. Introduction

169 176 180 181 181 185

186 191

B. Stories of Property and Inheritance Affairs I. The Situation in a Kaum 1. The History of the Kaum of Dt. Kayo nan Gadang 2. The Socio-Political Status of the Groups 3. The Property Relationships 4. Summary II. Inter-Kawn Relationships and Property 1. The Kawn-Split 2. The Punah-Situation 3. The Inter-Kawn Pawning Case III. The Extinct Buah Gadang IV. Inter-Strata Relationships 1. The Descendants of Slaves and Their Mamak 2. The Descendants of Strangers V. The Children - Kamanakan Conflict 1. The Disputed Legal Status of Harato Paneahartan 2. The "Impure" Harato Pancahartan VI. The Relationships Between the Children

C. The Modalities of Diachronic Transfers of Property Relationships in Historical Perspective

I. Introductory Note II. The Means of the Holders The Means The Exercise of Autonomy

. From Status to Contract in Historical Perspective

> OU N =

. The Adaptation of Interpersonal Relationships to Property Strategies

III. The Means of the Would-Be Heirs 1. The Means 2. The Legitimation of the Would-Be Heirs' Claims 3. The Agents of Validation

CHAPTER SIX: THE LEVEL OF PERFORMANCE II: THE PRODUCTION OF LEGAL CONCEPTIONS IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE A. Introductory Note I. The Production of Legal Conceptions

II. Concrete and General Legal Conceptions and the Problem of Change

B. The Clash of the Systems of Property Relationships I. Adat and Western Law

274 274 273 275 278 285

2972 300 300 301 305

511 511

314 318 318

II. Adat and Islamic Law | C. The Development of the Adat System: Legal Consequences

I. The Recognition of Autonomy in Property Affairs in Historical Perspective

1. The Individual's Autonomy Over Harato Paneahartan 2. The Autonomy Over Harato Pusako II. Inheritance

1. The Inheritance of Harato Paneahartan in Historical Perspective

2. The Pusakoization of Harato Panecahartan 3. The Inheritance of Relationships to Harato Pusako

D. The Minangkabau Conceptual System of Property Relationships in Historical Perspective

II. The Elimination of Diachrony from the Conceptual System and the Reification of Property Relationships

Chapter Seven: Conclusions

A. The Factors of Change: Concluding Remarks on the Development in the Domain of Property Relationships in Minangkabau

B. The Minangkabau Social System and the Maintenance of Property Relationships Through Time

C. Concluding Note on the Approach Employed NOTES

MAPS

Map of the Research Area

Map of CKL

Map of CKL - First Settlements and Territorial Divisions Map of CKL - The Development of the Wagart Territory

Map: Distribution of Harato Pusako per Suku in Candung Kota Lawas

Map: The Legal Status of Land

321 326

328 328 332 335

335 343 350

351 351

373 384

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The research of which this study is the first major product was carried out by my wife Keebet and myself between 1973 and 1975, when I was still a staff member of the Ethnological Seminar of the University of Zürich, Switzerland. It was made possible by a generous grant given by the -Kommisston zur Förderung des akademischen Nachwuchses der Universität Ziirtch and by an additional grant of the Schweizer Nattonalfonds.

My wife and I spent several months in the Netherlands for literature studies, and for three months followed a language course given by drs. Mellema of the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam and by Mrs.

Padmi Strik. Our field research in Indonesia, which lasted from June

1974 to September 1975, was carried out under the auspices of LIPI, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, and under the sponsorship of the University of West Sumatra in Padang. We are indebted to the Rector,

Dr. Busjra Zahir, and to the Dean of the Legal Faculty, Burma Burhan S.H., who supported our research proposals. We had some helpful discussions with the staff members of the Legal Faculty. In particular, we wish to thank sdr. Narullah Dt. Perpatih nan Tuo S.H., who acted as our counterpart and conducted his own research on inheritance law, the results of which unfortunately are still unpublished. The Indonesian government institutions on all administrative levels kindly assisted us and took a friendly interest in our research. We would like to thank the Camat of

IV Angkat Candung and the Walt Negert of Candung Kota Lawas in particular. We owe special gratitude to the chairmen and staff of the Pengadtlan Tinggt in Padang and of the Pengadilan Negeri in Bukit Tinggi, Batu Sangkar, and Payakumbuh who supported our research in a very helpful way. Rasjid Manggis Dt. Rajo Panghulu and Sinjar Dt. Mangkuto Sati in Bukit Tinggi spent many hours in helping us to understand Minangkabau adat. The villagers of Candung Kota Lawas accepted us and our curious questions for a period of ten months with much understanding and tolerance. In particular, we would like to thank Itam, who so well understood our wish to learn

XIV PROPERTY IN SOCIAL CONTINUITY about Minangkabau village life, and Haji Dt. Bagindo Basa, Dt. Malano Basa, Palimo Putih, and Sidi Katik, without whose help our research would have been a failure.

We should also like to mention the fellow anthropologists whom we met in the field and with whom we spent many hours discussing Minangkabau and the pleasures of field work: Fred Errington, Nigel Phillips, Joanne Prindiville, Nancy Tanner, and in particular our friends and "neighbours" in nagart Gurun, Kris and Lynn Thomas. Prof. P.E. de Josselin de Jong helped us with friendly advice and temporarily very kindly provided us with some luxurious field equipment. Dr. Junghans and Dr. Häselbarth, the leaders of two German agricultural development projects working in West Sumatra, allowed us to make use of some of their material and assisted us with maps.

I gratefully acknowledge the helpful suggestions and comments made by Prof. J. Griffiths, Prof. J.F. Holleman, Prof. L.G. Löffler and Lynn Thomas who read earlier drafts of this study. Prof. J.F. Holleman, Mrs. G. Moyer and Lynn Thomas also helped me transform my English into a readable language for which I am very grateful. The responsibility for any faults and awkward phrases rests, of course, with me. I further would like to thank Hans Borkent for drawing the diagrams and most maps, and Ank Everts and Marianne Roest for typing the manuscript.

My wife and I spent endless hours discussing law, Minangkabau adat, and my study during the last years. I have profited immensely from our conversations. Fortunately, there are other ways to express my gratitude to her than in these acknowledgements.

Leiden, December 1978 Franz von Benda-Beckmann

A NOTE ON ORTHOGRAPHY

In this study I have regularly used Minangkabau and Indonesian words, particularly the basic concepts through which the systems of socio-political organization, property, and inheritance are expressed. I trust and hope that the reader will quickly accustom her- or himself to these terms and realize that, e.g., words like jurat, kaum, buah gadang, and suku convey a much clearer impression of social groups in Minangkabau than would the English terms lineage, minimal, minor, major, or maximal lineage.

In the literature, but also in interviews with Minangkabau villagers, the Indonesian and Minangkabau terms are often used interchangeably, e.g. harta pusaka (Ind.) or harato pusako (Min.) for inherited property. Combinations of words from the two languages are also quite frequent, like in harta pusako.In order to achieve some standardization, I have in principle employed the Minangkabau terms; only in direct quotations have I given the (usually Indonesian) forms. A glossary of Minangkabau and Indonesian terms is appended to the study (pp. 429-436); in the cases where Indonesian and Minangkabau words have been used for the same term, the Indonesian has been inserted in brackets.

With regard to the Indonesian and Minangkabau language in general I have followed the new orthographic convention which was introduced in 1972. It is contained in a government publication entitled Edjaan Bahasa

Indonesta Jang Disempurnakan. The main changes are set out below.

XVI PROPERTY IN SOCIAL CONTINUITY

Except for some direct quotations, I have transcribed all sources

using the old orthographic system into the new one. The glottal stop

in words like mamak has been transliterated with the letter k as has

become customary in contemporary Minangkabau and Indonesian; older

Dutch writers, by contrast, employed the letter q or an apostrophe.

The number 2 following an Indonesian or Minangkabau word, like in harta?,

is the conventional abbreviation for the duplication of the word. Du-

plication generally indicates the plural number or undefined quantities. In the transcription of Arabic terms I have followed Fyzee (1955).

However, most Islamic legal terms appear in their Indonesianized form. Finally, it should be mentioned that, unless I have indicated

otherwise, all translations from Dutch or Indonesian sources are mine.

DPRN

ABBREVIATIONS

Angku

Asststent Restdent

Arttkel (section)

Brother

Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch(German Civil Code) Burgerlijk Wetboek (Dutch Civil Code) Children

Candung Kota Lawas

Corops Penasehatan Ntkah Thalak Rujuk (Advisory Committee of the Registrar of Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage)

Daughter Dutch

Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Negeri (Elective Village Parliament)

Datuk, Datuek (title of higher adat functionaries, particularly of panghulu )

elder

Father

German

Gubernur Sumatera Barat(Governor West Sumatra) hectare

Inytek

Indonesian

Indische Staatsregeltng

Islamic

Karapatan Adat Nagart (Nagart Adat Council) Kerapatan Negert (Nagart Council)

Kantor Urusan Agama (Office for Religious Affairs)

Lembaga Kerapatan Adat Alam Minangkabau (Association of the Minangakabu Adat Councils)

XVIII

Landraad (Dutch colonial court)

Mother

Mahkamah Agung (Supreme Court)

Minangkabau

Musyawarah Besar (Full meeting of the LKAAM) Paragraph (section)

Pengadtlan Negert (State Court)

Peraturan Pemerintah (Government Regulation) Pengadilan Tinggt (State Appeal Court)

Pembantu Pegawat Pencatat Nikah Thalak Rujuk (Village Registrar of Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage)

Rechtsreglement voor de Buttengewesten

Regertngsreglement

Raad van Justitie (Dutch colonial Appeal Court)

Son

Staatsblad (Government Publication) Surat Keputusan (Provincial Regulation) Walt Negert (Village Mayor)

younger

Sister

Introduction

Learn the laws of inheritance and teach them to the people;

for they are one half of useful knowledge.

Mohammed (Fyzee 1955: 329)

When the prophet created this aphorism he had in mind the rules of inheritance law revealed to him by Allah. We could apply it to social anthropology as well sincethe inheritance of property and the succession to positions of socio-political authority are among the most important elements of social organization. They are the vehicles of continuity which maintain property and authority through time. In many societies, and particularly in those generally studied by anthropologists, inheritance and succession are closely interconnected with kinship and descent and provide the economic and political substance for the existence and continuity of kinship- or descent-based social groups. They are, as it were, the flesh on the bare bones of kinship relations. The importance of inheritance has, of course, not escaped the notice of social and legal anthropologists, and in recent years several studies have ably demonstrated the point (Radcliffe-Brown 1952, Goodenough 1951, Leach 1961 b, Goody 1962, Lloyd 1962, Gray and Gulliver (eds.) 1964, Derrett (ed.) 1965, Gluckman 1972, Moore 1969, Burling 1974). Yet in general, property and inheritance have rather been treated as an appendix to economic and kinship studies. In particular, 'methods of inheritance have received little systematic treatment'' (Goody 1962: 11), and ''there are only a few accounts available which give us more than oversimplified Statements" (Pospisil 1971: 347, cf. Moore 1970: 279 f.). This study attempts both: To make a contribution to the systematic study of inheritance and inheritance law, and to give a detailed statement for one society, the Minangkabau.

The Minangkabau inhabit the west coast of Sumatra. The greatest part of the traditional Minangkabau world, the alam Minangkabau, is today comprised of the province of West Sumatra of the Republic of Indonesia. Within the provincial borders, in the Padang Highlands, lies the nucleus of the Minangkabau world, the darek, which was divided into the three districts (lukak) Tanah Datar, Agam, and 50 Koto by the legendary rulers and law-givers Dt. (Datuk) Perpatih nan Sabatang and Dt. Katumanggungan. Surrounding the darek was the rantau, those areas which, according to the legendary history transmitted in the tambo-legends, were settled and colonized by the inhabitants of the darek. The rantau comprised the Padang lowlands, the coastal plains of West Sumatra in general, and large parts of the present provinces Riauw and Jambi. Together, darek and rantau extended nearly all over central Sumatra (cf. Naim 1974: 33 ff., 91 ff.). In the 15th or 16th century, a part of the Malayan peninsula, Negri Sembilan, was settled by Minangkabau immigrants and since then there have been constant relationships between Negri Sembilan and Minangkabau. Sometime in the 14th century a kingdom was established in the Padang Highlands. Little is known about the history of the Minangkabau kingdom but there is evidence that it had important external and trade relations with the surrounding areas and islands. But when the Dutch landed on the west coast in 1600, the coastal plain was under the controł of Achenese merchant governors The reports which reached the outside in the second half of the 17th century all indicated that no actual power was exercised by the king. The Minangkabau world consisted of nagart, village states, which seem to have been quite autonomous. Of the nagart in the darek it was said that they were governed by the panghulu, the leaders of the nagart matrilineages. The nagari in the rantau were Said to be governed by a rajo, a king, possibly a representative of the King of Minangkabau. The Dutch had ousted the Achenese as rulers in the main trading centers at the west coast in the second half of the 17th century. But it was only in the beginning of the 19th century that Dutch colonial rule was established in the Padang Highlands and the three districts. Since the Republic of Indonesia has established a regular system of administration, the province of West Sumatra is now subdivided into 8 districts, Kabupaten, which are headed by a Bupatt. Three of these districts more or less correspond to the old "three districts'' Tanah Datar, Agam,and 50 Koto. Each Kabupaten is divided into

5 to 10 subdistricts, Kecamatan, headed by a Camat. The Kecamatan con- |

INTRODUCTTON 5 sist of 5 to 12 nagari, which total 508 in the province. Besides the

8 Kabupaten, there are 5 townships or Kotamadya, Padang, Bukit Tinggi, Payakumbuh, Padang Panjang and Sawah Lunto, which have their own administrations and which together comprise 35 nagari. Most of the present nagari are also nagari according to adat, the traditional political constitution of Minangkabau. However, during Dutch colonial rule and also after Independence, some adat-nagart have been split and others united for administrative purposes. The contemporary population of the province numbers 2.792.221, 389.793 of whom live in the towns. Thus approximately 86% of the population live permanently in the nagart; most of the townships have a rather nagart-like character, too. Minangkabau have a long tradition, of "going to the rantau'', of a temporary voluntary migration (cf. Naim 1974). Nearly as many Minangkabau are estimated to live out- Side the province of West Sumatra as within.

Minangkabau is predominantly an agricultural area. In terms of measures of economic productivity, West Sumatra is one of the poorest of Indone- Sia's provinces as there are no highly remunerative natural resources and but little modern industry. The standard of living, however, is good and there is as yet but little poverty. The main subsistence crop is rice, which is cultivated on irrigated fields (sawah) and dry fields (ladang). The quality of the field differs widely, but in some areas two harvests per year are possible, and in many areas people can harvest 3 times in two years. Coffee, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and chili-peppers are grown as cash-crops. Rice is grown as a cash-crop, too. At the coast and in the areas surrounding the lakes, fish are an important means of subsistence and are also sold in the markets. Many nagart have long developed Specializations in particular economic activities. One is known for its gold and silver works, another for its weaving, and yet another for its blacksmithing industry (Kahn 1975, 1976; for detailed geographic and economic data see Scholz 1977).

Within Indonesia, Minangkabau is represented in nearly each small town by the people who have gone merantau and work as traders, proprietors of restaurants and administrative officials (cf. Naim 1974). A look at the street map of Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, indicates the number of Minangkabau who were prominent in the struggle for independence and who helped to govern Indonesia afterwards. Politicians and intellectuals such as Hatta, Natsir, Sutan Syahrir, Abdul Muis and Haji Agus Salim are Minangkabau, as also are others whom the street names do not mention any more such as Tan Malaka, the leader of the former Communist Party of

Indonesia. Besides, the Minangkabau are counted among the most devout Muslims in Indonesia. Any visitor will quickly realize that the puasa, the fasting, is kept very strictly in Minangkabau. Minangkabau has produced a large number of prominent Islamic scholars. Many Islamic schools have been established since the beginning of this century which attract pupils from all over Indonesia (cf. Taufik Abdullah 1971, 1972). It is estimated, that in. Jakarta, about 60% of the khattbs, the preachers who give sermons during Friday prayers, are Minangkabau (Naim 1974: 183).

Of course, the Minangkabau are also known for their "matriarchal" adat (socio-cultural and legal system), their adat pusako (adat of matrilineal heritage) or adat kamanakan (adat of the sister's children). This latter aspect was of particular interest for the Dutch and other foreign administrators and anthropologists. This Islamic society had a social system which fulfilled nearly all prerequisites of an ideal matrilineal system: The population was organized in matrilineal descent groups. Authority was with the mother's brother. Residence was duolocal or uxorilocal. There were no conjugal families. There was the highest rate of polygamy in Indonesia. Cross-cousin marriages were considered ideal. There was much to make anthropologists curious. And Minangkabau did make anthropologists curious. Among the Dutch scholars of Indonesian cultures and adat law, Minangkabau has always taken a prominent place. But as most reports on Minangkabau were written in Dutch, most of the available literature escaped the notice of the non-Dutch reading anthropological public. Publications in more widely read languages were rare until recently. In German, little has been written (Lublinsky 1927, Scholz 1977) since Kohler (1910) acquainted the German public with Willinck's monumental (950 pages) Het Rechtsleven bij de Mtnangkabausche Maleiers (1909) (The Legal Life Among the Minangkabau Malays). French publications are equally rare. Collet's book on the peoples of Sumatra (1925) only recently has been followed by Cordonnier's report (1974). In English, too, there had been only a few publications. After the work of Loeb (1934, 1935) and Cooper-Cole (1936, 1945), tt was mainly De Josselin de Jong's thesis on socio-political organization in Minangkabau and Negri Sembilan (1951) and the inclusion of Minangkabau among the societies discussed in Schneider and Gough's volume Matrilineal Kinship (1961) which made Minangkabau known to the general English reading public.

Only in the 1960's did there begin what may be called a Minangkabauboom. Publications on Minangkabau, written by foreigners and Minangkabau social scientists themselves, appeared in an increasing number, and most

INTRODUCTION 5 of them were based upon field research (Maretin 1961, Fischer 1964, Tanner 1969, 1970, 1971, Cordonnier 1974, Kahn 1975, 1976, Dobbin 1975, 1977, Evers 1975, Thomas 1977, Scholz 1977, F. and K. von Benda-Beckmann 1978; Umar Junus 1964, Bachtiar 1967, Taufik Abdullah 1966, 1971, 1972, Sa'danoer 1971, Naim 1974). Minangkabau thus certainly is no virgin field of study. Yet the words of De Josselin de Jong still hold true, that:

"the social organization of the Minangkabau is known generally but superficially ...'Generally', in both meanings of the word: there is a fairly adequate. general acquaintance with the Minangkabau among anthropologists

who are not Indonesia specialists; and the specialists have by now an adequate general picture of the overall structure of this society, but are at

a loss whenever one proceeds from the general to the particular" (1975:20,25).

The research which my wife and I carried out focussed upon three particulars:

l. The socio-political organization of one nagari. In this study, only a general account will be given of the socio-political organization of one nagart; we hope to give a more systematic general account of Minangkabau socio-political organization in a later publication.

2. The processes of dispute-settlement in the nagart institutions and in the State Courts, with particular emphasis on the problems resulting from the fact that the State Courts are mandated to apply substantive adat law but in doing so are bound by rules of procedure and evidence which have been modelled after Dutch law. These problems will be dealt with in a thesis my wife is currently preparing.

3. The Minangkabau system of property relationships and inheritance, of which there has been no systematic study since the writings of Willinck (1909) and Guyt (1936). This last topic will be dealt with in this study.

A contribution to the ethnographic knowledge of Minangkabau is, however, not the sole purpose of my study. It is further meant as a contribution to the anthropological study of property, inheritance, and law. Minangkabau is an excellent example with which to illustrate the theoretical and practical difficulties of legal anthropology. The legal system which pertains to property and inheritance affairs is pluralistic: There is adat, the indigenous Minangkabau system, Islamic law, and written law (statutory colonial and national law). Besides, a variety of institutions are given an active part in the social processes of dispute-settlement and dispute-prevention. There has, moreover, been a considerable change both in the legal systems as well as in the practice of handling property and inheritance affairs, in particular a process of ever increasing individual autonomy in property affairs and of concentrating property and inheritance within the conjugal family. Such changes are the more striking, because they are taking place in a society which still adheres to an ideology of matrilineal descent.

To deal with these problems, a different approach than that usually taken by legal anthropologists is necessary. The approach taken in this study tries to fulfill Moore's prophecy, that "in the future, law and legal institutions are likely to be analyzed simultaneously from longterm historical perspective, and from the perspective of individualcentered, short-term, choice-making instrumental action and interaction" (1970: 294 f.). In the first chapter I shall outline the assumptions and hypotheses underlying this approach. Here I shall only give a brief summary of the structure of the study indicating the main principles on which it is based.

This study does not just describe systems of property and inheritance. The system of property relationships is only one aspect of the total so- Cial organization (Moore 1970: 253, Nader and Yngvesson 1973: 886). In some societies it is so well integrated into the other aspects of social organization that it is nearly impossible to dissect it and treat it in isolation. That this is often so in traditional societies has already been stated by Maine, who held that the law of things can hardly be divorced from the law of persons (1905: 230). Yet if one wants to concentrate on one aspect, the dissection must be made, particularly in those Situations where a pluralistic system of cognitive and normative conceptions pertains to one field of social relations. However, it is necessary to the structure of the study that, before the systems of property and inheritance are described, an outline must be given of the social and political framework in which they operate and of which they are a part.

I shall therefore start my study with an overview of the socio-political organization in Minangkabau (Chapter 2) and shall then give a brief account of the development of the pluralistic situation in the administrative and legal field (Chapter 3).

Property and inheritance in Minangkabau will then be treated under three headings. First I shall describe the three systems of property and inheritance that exist in Minangkabau (Chapter 4). In the second part (Chapter 5) I shall illustrate how the Minangkabau actually handle their property and inheritance affairs, and try to assess the degree to which

INTRODUCTION ys their actions are influenced by the cognitive and normative conceptions which the three systems offer. The question of by reference to which system the Minangkabau use to legitimate their actions here steps into the background. The question remains important, but the emphasis here is on the actual conceptions used. For even if one system is satd to be used, this does not yet indicate which concrete conceptions are employed. Conceptions of one system may be used in the guise of another, and new conceptions may be construed and be declared to be part of a system. Many cases described in this part of my study involve conflict, and in many cases institutions of conflict resolution take an active part in the process of inheritance. Yet my concern is not with trouble cases per se. In terms of common anthropological language, the cases discussed are extended ones which are defined by reference to an analytical point of reference: inheritance. In the second section of Chapter 5 I shall isolate the various ways of bringing about inheritance, and attempt to analyze which role they play and have played in historical perspective. In the third part (Chapter 6) I shall concentrate on the application, change, and creation of legal conceptions in historical perspective. A differentiated approach is required here, for in Minangkabau there are several "authors" who continuously produce and reproduce legal meaning: The courts, the adat institutions, the literature, the legal experts within and without the nagari, and, last but certainly not least, the 'people''. I shall restrict my description and analysis to the conceptions that refer to what in my view are the most crucial aspects of the systems of property and inheritance: the problem of society's members' autonomy over property and the representation of time in the conceptual system in which property relationships are expressed.

After the description and analysis of the systems of property and inheritance (Chapters 4,5,6) I shall "put" property and inheritance "back" again into the social organization in general. In the concluding analysis I shall try to interpret the Minangkabau system of property and inheritance and the changes that have occurred therein as part of the overall social and political organization (Chapter 7).

With this organization of my data I hope to come close to a description and analysis which pays due regard to the dialectical process of social reality, as it has been reformulated recently by Berger and Luckmann (1967), and which Gluckman has cast into the formula "that law can only be understood through cases, and cases can only be understood through law'' (1973b: 622). The systems described in Chapter 4 are, of course, nothing but the result of the social processes by which inheritance is carried out and by which legal meaning is produced. They must be regarded as differentiated bodies of cognitive and normative conceptions, changing through time. Yet an understanding of the differentiating processes presupposes the knowledge of the systems, which are therefore best described first in order to make clear what is being differentiated. I do not claim that my ordering of the data is the only adequate representation of the dialectical process through time. The only thing I can say is that there is probably no "really" adequate form, and that the way I have chosen has been chosen conscientiously.