Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Islamic Law in a Plural Context:The Struggle over Inheritance Law in Colonial West Sumatra

Islamic Law in a Plural Context:The Struggle over Inheritance Law in Colonial West Sumatra Abstract The paper deals with the historical dynamics of the struggle over inheritance law in West Sumatra under the colonial rule of the Dutch Indies. The Minangkabau in West Sumatra are an interesting example of legal pluralism in Muslim societies. Their adat (indigenous law and social organisation) of matrilineal heritage regulated kinship, group affiliation, inheritance of property, and succession to office. Since the sixteenth century they have been devout Muslims. Their history is characterised by dynamic transformations of the relationship between adat and Islam, and—since their incorporation into the colony of the Dutch East Indies in the early nineteenth century—with the state. The paper shows how these conflicts and negotiations produced different results in different arenas. The agreements reached in the political arena were usually different from the use of law in the decision-making processes of village and state courts, as were the actual practices of villagers in everyday property and inheritance affairs. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient Brill

Islamic Law in a Plural Context:The Struggle over Inheritance Law in Colonial West Sumatra

Loading next page...
 
/lp/brill/islamic-law-in-a-plural-context-the-struggle-over-inheritance-law-in-uX8Fk6sZ9W

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0022-4995
eISSN
1568-5209
DOI
10.1163/15685209-12341269
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Abstract The paper deals with the historical dynamics of the struggle over inheritance law in West Sumatra under the colonial rule of the Dutch Indies. The Minangkabau in West Sumatra are an interesting example of legal pluralism in Muslim societies. Their adat (indigenous law and social organisation) of matrilineal heritage regulated kinship, group affiliation, inheritance of property, and succession to office. Since the sixteenth century they have been devout Muslims. Their history is characterised by dynamic transformations of the relationship between adat and Islam, and—since their incorporation into the colony of the Dutch East Indies in the early nineteenth century—with the state. The paper shows how these conflicts and negotiations produced different results in different arenas. The agreements reached in the political arena were usually different from the use of law in the decision-making processes of village and state courts, as were the actual practices of villagers in everyday property and inheritance affairs.

Journal

Journal of the Economic and Social History of the OrientBrill

Published: Jan 1, 2012

Keywords: Islamic law; adat and Islam; inheritance; legal pluralism; Minangkabau; Dutch East Indies

References