EV ELIEN W ILLEKE FLORIJ N A 0145263J A R2221 AY 2015 16 Sem 1 Assignment 1 Tutor: Chua Si Yang Tutorial group 01 BUILDING(S) CHOSEN: Minangkabau Minangkabau Housing Orig ins South East Asia’s diverse charact er is confirmed by it s great variet y of et nolinguisd c groups here are around 6000 .T ethnolinguisd c groups in the world of which about a 1000 can be found in South East Asia (Andaya 2008, 1). One of the main sea t rading rout es in South East Asia went through the St rait s of Melaka, the st rip of wat er bet ween the Malay Peninsula and the Sumat ra, one of the islands of current day Indonesia ommunid es living around the st rait s .C were able t o profit from this flow of seaborne commerce, and some small communid es joined larger ethnic groupings, whereas others det ached themselves from a larger ethnic idendt y t o form smaller and more effecdve unit s (Andaya 2008, 3). Locat ed on West ern Sumat ra (Figure 1), the Minangkabau are amongst those who det ached themselves around 500 AD (Bahauddin 2013, 311). Like the Bat ak and Acehnese ethnic groups, they were formerly Malayu and had t o idendfy cult ural differences t o erect ethnic boundaries (Andaya 2008, 4) It is import ant t o not e that in these . d mes, boundaries were a fluent concept and linked t o ethnic groups rather than nad ons he concept of nad ons .T came much lat er and result ed in the erecd on of boundaries through ethnic t errit ories. T hus, there are count ries that have muld ple ethnic groups, and there are ethnic groups which cross count ry boundaries At the d me, ethnic groups . were like radiad ng cent res of decreasing power that overlapped at the edges. At these edges, people and groups can claim muld ple ethnicid es depending on the circumst ances (Andaya 2008, 12). Anthropological research suggest s that Minangkabau is mainly from Malay race but has clear Hindu J avan and Bat ak influences in the bloodlines due t o colonizad on by Majapahit under Hindu J avan royald es, and Bat ak slaves (J oust ra, n.d., 98).
Figure 1 ap of Sumatra showing inangkabau territory .M M in light and dark olive (Kartapranata 2010)
Figure 2 ap of Negeri Sembilan alaysia (Tubs 2011) .M ,M , (Weltkarte.com 2015)
In earlier cent uries, the most effecdve and recognizable marker of Minangkabau was the ruler of Pagaruyung, the seat of the Minangkabau king of West ern Sumat ra (Andaya 2008, 82). Nowadays the Minangkabau cult ure is famous for it s mat rilineal social organizad on and the pracd ce of merant au, in which young men leave the homeland t o seek knowledge and fort une abroad. Minangkabau cult ure is however pard ally pat riarchal, as polid cal and religious ma ers are handled by male reladves (J oust ra, n.d., 107 108). T hese qualid es creat ed the ethnic boundaries se ng them apart from the Malayu he name Minangkabau was first mend oned in 1365, as “Manankabwa” in a Majapahit court poem .T that st at es a sequence of regions locat ed in Sumat ra (Andaya 2008, 83), (J oust ra, n d , 48) his area forms the current . . .T heart land of the Minangkabau he origin of the name is not clear, but it is most likely relat ed t o “menang kabau” .T meaning: the buffalo wins/ overcomes (J oust ra, n.d., 47). 1