Minangkabau people

The Minangkabau people are indigenous to the highlands of West Sumatra in Indonesia. According to the 2020 census, the Minangkabau were the seventh-largest ethnic group and numbered about seven million people, accounting for about 2.7 percent of the population. The Minangkabau language is a member of the Austronesian family, the family of languages spoken across the Indonesian archipelago, and very closely resembles the Malay language. Most Minangkabau speak the Minangkabau language, as well as Indonesian and in some cases a third language as well.

The religion of the Minangkabau is mixed as they follow both their tradition of the adat, a philosophy derived from their original animistic beliefs—the belief that inanimate objects and natural phenomena have spirits—and the Islamic religion introduced to the region by missionaries and traders. The mix of Islam and an animistic religion is a little unorthodox, but it integrates well within their society. Minangkabau society is itself a little unusual because it is one of the world's largest matrilineal societies, meaning that property is inherited through the female lineage rather than the male bloodline.

Brief History

The Minangkabau people have inhabited West Sumatra for many centuries. The region was first settled by Indian immigrants during the second century CE. West Sumatra later became part of the Buddhist Srivijaya Empire, which held that part of the island country from the seventh to the thirteenth centuries. During the thirteenth century, the Malay Kingdom of the Minangkabau, which followed Hinduism, rose to power and ruled until the nineteenth century. The Minangkabau king converted to Islam during the sixteenth century as a result of contact with Muslim traders and Sufi missionaries. Shortly after the conversion, Western influence arrived when the Dutch began to establish their firm sway over the region. In the nineteenth century, the British temporarily took control of the island, but were soon kicked out after the Padri War.

The Padri War, which lasted from 1821 to 1837, was a civil war between the reformist Muslims, Padris, and the local Minangkabau chieftains who were aided by the Dutch. The Padris were part of a puritan sect of Islam that opposed the local mix of Islam and animism because followers did not adhere to a pure teaching of Islam. The local chiefs, whose authority was rooted in the adat, did not wish to jeopardize their power and fought against the Padris' conversion efforts. The Dutch were afraid of the influence that the Padris might have over the local peoples and helped the chieftains to fight against them, allowing them to extend their control over the region. The area that is now Indonesia was then known as the Dutch East Indies.

During World War II, Sumatra was taken over and occupied by the Japanese. After the war, when Japan surrendered and released its hold on occupied states, the Indonesian nationalists declared their independence from the Netherlands and established the Republic of Indonesia, which West Sumatra joined in 1950 as part of the province of Central Sumatra. After a coup in the 1960s and several changes to the territories (New Guinea and East Timor), Indonesia took on its modern form, with the Minangkabau as one of the largest ethnic groups in the country.

Topic Today

Despite changes in religion, rebellions, and influence from Western culture, the Minangkabau in the twenty-first century continue to follow their traditional system of matrilineal succession. Traditionally, the Minangkabau system is based on large family houses consisting of a head woman who presides over a household of her female relatives including her sisters and their daughters. Young boys live in the house until they are circumcised at the age of seven. The boys then move to the local mosque to live until they are married. Young men join their wives' families rather than following the Western standard of women joining their husbands' families. During the marriage ceremony, the woman collects the man from his household and takes him back to her own. If a husband and wife divorce, it is the husband that gathers his belongings and leaves the house.

Though the Minangkabau follow matrilineal succession, anthropologists and sociologists argue whether to actually call it a matriarchy, where women are in charge of decisions regarding family life and government and men hold very little power. Most anthropologists and sociologists believe that a genuine matriarchy in the context of Western ideals, where one gender has more power over the other, does not exist and never has. However, some anthropologists argue that because of the difference between Western and Asian ideals, the Minangkabau should be considered a matriarchy. For example, Dr. Peggy Reeves Sanday, who has extensively studied the Minangkabau while living among them, argues in her book entitled Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy that it should be considered a matriarchy because in West Sumatra men and women work in partnership for common goals. The power structure is not about competition, though women tend to have more control over the family life.

Whether the Minangkabau live in a true matriarchy is still up for debate by many scholars and anthropologists, depending on how they classify a matriarchy and how they classify the Minangkabau. Women hold much of the power in the household and family life, with regard to succession and inheritance, but the men still hold some power. Many of the Minangkabau men leave their homes to become educated before returning home to be married, while the women tend to stay closer to home, though they are educated as well. Both men and women hold positions of power within the government, providing somewhat equal representation to both genders. In the Minangkabau culture, men and women are truly more like partners sharing the responsibilities of life, than members of an unequal society in which one gender rules over the other.

The Minangkabau consider themselves to be matriarchal, and some anthropologists are in agreement on this description. Others are still skeptical about whether they are truly matriarchal, and no consensus has been reached on the subject.

Bibliography

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Benda-Beckman, Franz and Keebet von Benda-Beckmann. Political and Legal Transformations of an Indonesian Polity: The Nagari from Colonisation to Decentralisation. Cambridge U Press, 2013.

Blackwood, Evelyn. "Representing Women: The Politics of the Minangkabau Adat Writings." The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 60, no. 1, 2001, pp. 125-149. www.jstor.org/stable/2659507. Accessed 3 Feb. 2025.

Fraser, Jennifer. Gongs and Pop Songs: Sounding Minangkabau in Indonesia. Ohio U Press, 2015.

Hadler, Jeffrey. Muslims and Matriarchs: Cultural Resilience in Indonesia through Jihad and Colonialism. Cornell U Press, 2008.

"Indonesia." CIA World Factbook, 16 Jan. 2025, www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/indonesia/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2025. 

Jones, Gavin W. Muslim-Non-Muslim Marriage: Political and Cultural Contestations in Southeast Asia. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2009.

Lapidus, Ira M. A History of Islamic Societies. Cambridge U Press, 2014.

Sanday, Peggy Reeves. Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy. Cornell U Press, 2002.