ofthe SAME TREE

Chapter 3: Ethnicization of the Minangkabau
1. Kahn reminds us that it is important to determine when and why individuals
or groups decide it is necessary to make these decisions. Kahn, Constituting Minangkabau,
15. In the case of the Minangkabau, the contemporary records of the Dutch
East India Company have made it possible to answer the “when.” The “why,” however,
is more problematic and can only be inferred by a close reading of the circumstances
described in the records.
2. This twin concept is discussed in Kato, Matrilineality and Migration. See also
the classic formulation of these characteristics in Josselin de Jong, Minangkabau and
Negri Sembilan.
3. Taufik Abdullah in his writings has stressed that the interplay of adat and
Islam is a major feature of Minangkabau identity. Yet this has not often been cited as
a distinctive Minangkabau quality, and therefore it has not been used as a marker of
ethnic identity. For one of the earliest exposition of Taufik’s ideas on the subject, see
Taufik, “Adat and Islam.”
4. Marsden, History of Sumatra, 41.
5. Kapferer, Legends of People, 211.
6. Barendregt, “Representing.”
7. Robson, Desawarnana, 33.
8. Westenenk, “Opstellen II,” 261–2.
9. Berg, “Pril Majapahit I,” 501; “Pril Majapahit II,” 195.
10. Dobbin, Islamic Revivalism, 61–2.
11. Wolters, Fall of Srivijaya, 57–8, 75.
12. Casparis, “Kerajaan Malayu,” 6–9. De Casparis’ suggestion accords with a seventeenth-century
practice where the line of succession of the Minangkabau kings of
Pagaruyung followed the matrilineal pattern. Andaya, Kingdom of Johor, 329–32.
13. Casparis, “Kerajaan Malayu,” 9–10, 15, 17.
14. Coedès, Indianized States, 232.
15. Krom, Hindoe-Javaansche, 393–4; Kern, Verspreide Geschriften, vol. 7, 165–75.
One of the principal functions of Tantrism has always been the protection of the state.
Woodward, “Esoteric Buddhism,” 331.
16. In Sumatra there is still a belief in the sacred nature of sharpening knives.
Status was also measured by the number of rice mortars owned by an individual, and
the importance of rice mortars is still evident in funerary ceremonies. Reichle, “Violence
and Serenity,” 295–6.
17. Reichle, “Violence and Serenity,” 289.
18. Satyawati, “Archaeology and History,” 9–10.
19. Kern, Verspreide Geschriften, vol. 7, 174.
20. Krom, Hindoe-Javaansche, 394 fn 4.
21. Sjafiroeddin, “Pre-Islamic,” 44, 51.
22. Andaya, To Live as Brothers, 23–9, passim.
23. Krom, Hindoe-Javaansche, 393–4; Westenenk, “Opstellen II,” 261–2.
24. Casparis, “Sriwijaya and Malayu,” 246–7.
Notes to Pages 82–86
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