A Matrilineal Society
While you may imagine that a conservative, strongly Muslim society would relegate women to the background, in Minangkabau society women play a very powerful role.
Traditional Minangkabau culture is matrilineal, that is family possessions and land are passed down from mother to daughter. Sons can only inherit from what their parents earn in their lifetime. Children take their clan name and identity from their mothers, so the children of a man who marries into another ethnic group are not considered Minangkabau and have no share in any ancestral homeland. If a man marries a fellow Minangkabau woman, he will normally, at least initially, live in her mother's house.
In rural areas he might, however, still work his own mother's land and have as much responsibility for the children of his sister as for his own. In a sense he is only ever a guest in his wife's home. If the marriage ends due to death or, all too common, divorce, the children remain with the maternal grandmother's family.
These features of society give women and children great protection but hinder strong marriages and are in tension with religious norms.
Traditionally things were even harder for the unmarried male. No longer having a place in his mother's house after puberty he would have lived with other young men in a surau (a building near the mosque) where he would receive religious and cultural education until he was old enough to go abroad and seek his fortune outside the village.
Traditions are changing but parents still commonly send young children away to religious boarding schools and many young people, both men and women, will travel abroad to make money and so bring honour to their families.
- Pray that the Lord would make himself known to Minangkabau women in their positions of influence.
Explore traditional Architecture
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