Women, Land and Genderrelationsinnegeri Sembilan

KyotoKyotoUniversity University Southeast Ast'an Stadies, Vol. 26, No. 2, September 1988 Women, Land and GenderRelationsinNegeri Preliminary Sembilan:Some Findings AzlzAH KAsslM* adet). That was when the matrilineal society was dependent on a peasant economy. I Introduction It is now more than sixteen years since This paper is an attempt to examine the the writer's previous fieldwork in Seri nature of female land hbldings in the matri- Menanti and since then a number ofchanges lineal Adat Perpatih society in Negeri have taken place. Of these the most rele- Sembilan and the implications of such vant as far as womeii's role is eoncerned ho]dings on male-female relationship within are the spread of education and the shift the househeld/family unit and the lineage in the economic base of Adat Perpatih group. The paper is based on fieldworki' society. The peasant economy, which was carried out by the writer throughout the dependent on rice cultlvation and rubber rnonths of October, November and Decem- tapping, has given way to one heayily de- ber 1986 in Mukim of Seri Menanti, in the pendent on wage employment and remit- Kuala Pilah district, and draws heavily from tance from urban areas. This shift affected the writer}s own experience as a'rnember the use, and in many cases led to disuse, of and living in an adut community until of ancestral land, especially rice fields. De- ' the early 1960s. pendence on ancestral land thus declined, The writer has elsewhere [Azizah Kassim and the economic value of this land also 1970] established that gender relations in fe11. If gender relations are influenced by Adat Perpatih society are tilted in favour women's control over rneans of production, of women: they control the means of sub- how does this new phenomenen affect their sistence production, especially rice fields position vis-a-vis men? Thi$ is the main and orchards, as well as homestead lands, problem addressed in this paper. which are ancestral property (lanah pusaka The fieldwork for this paper was carried out in ten traditiona12' villages (kampairg):3) * Jabatan Antropologi dan Sosiologi, Universiti "traditional Malaya, 59100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2) The term villages" is used here (Visiting Research Scholar, The Center for to differentiate them from newly formed vil- Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, lages or kamPung baharu, which are found in from March to September 1988) rural Negeri Sembilan and elsewhere in Pen- 1) The fieldwork was funded by the Universiti insular Malaysia, and from squatter villages Malaya through its Vete F Research fund, which are found in seme urban settings. "kg." with the help two research Kampung in Malay is abbreviated as and conducted of 3) asslstants. which form wi11 be used hereafter. 132 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University AzlzAH KASSIM: Women, Land and Gender Relations in Negeri Sembilan Kg. Taniung Sepam, Kg. Bukit Lintang, aspeets of the Adat and its people. Much Kg. Mertang, Kg. Merual, Kg. Padang of the writing points to the importance of Biawas, Kg. Umer, Kg. Seri Menanti, women within the matrilineal seciety: they Kg. Galau, Kg, Buyau and Kg. Sungai ensure its perpetuity, and to them is en- Layang. Six of these were the site of the trusted the ancestral land, the anchor of writer's previous fieldwork in 1969. Admin- the (traditional) Adat Perpatih economy and istratively,these villages come under five polity. Despite women's central position separate Village Development and Security within the adat ideology and secial organi- Cemmittees (1izwatankerasa Kemnjuan tian zation, few writers have ventured to examine 2reselaneatan Kampungt, known in short the adat from female perspectives and study as the of JKKK), i.e., JKKK Kg. Merual, women's status in the matrilineal context. Kg. Seri Menanti, Kg. Pulau, Kg. Buyau To date, works on women in Adat Perpatih and Kg. Mertang, with a tptal of 598 society are few and far between. Perhaps households and a of 2,357 population (see among the first to make a passing reference Section Two hundred households were M). to women in Negeri Sernbilan was M.G. interviewed, accounting fbr 33.4 ef percent Swift [1963: 267-286] in a brief paper on the total ofthe villages concerned. pepulation men and women in Malay society. Since As the focus of study is women, the ques- then few have followed his fbotsteps. Apart tionnaires were addressed to the housewives. from my own work on the position of However, discussions were also held with women in the district of Kuala Pilah IAzizah the menfolk to cross-check the women's Kassim 1970; 1974: 69-72; !976: 41-57; infbrmation and to find out their views of 1985: 44-53; 1986: 1-8] others who have male-female relationships in society. dealt with the same topic at some length are Asis Ujang [1975], Maila Stivens [1981, II Studies on Women in Adat Per- n.d., 1985] and M. G. Peletz [1987]. Stivens patih Society in Negeri Sembilan and Peletz did their fieldwork in the dis- Adat Perpatih society with its matrilineal trict of Rembau. Stivens concerns herself social organization has been extensively with female autonomy and women's land studied and written about, as evidenced by rights in the midst of capitalist develepment the impressive list of publications on it and agrarian change, while Peletz deals compiled recently [Tunku Noraidah T.A. with female heirship and autonomy. Asis Rahman 1984: 22-34]. The list is by no Ujang, who did his fieldwork in Kampung means complete. Nevertheless, it demon- Terusan, Kuala Pilah, examined the position strates the censistent interest ef many in of women from two perspectives: the Adat studying Adat Perpatih society over the Perpatih and Islam. last eight decades or so. Academics of If work on Adat Perpatih women is various inclinations and laymen alike have relatively lacking, it is because women's all contributed to the wide range of pub]i- studies itself is something new, which began cations now available, touching on difflerent to gain rnomentum in the United States and 133 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University Mta7i77utza 26#2e Europe only in the 1970s. In Malaysia, hectares, on which are scattered about sixty toe, women's studies began to take off only traditional villages of various sizes. Some in the last decade. Much of the existing of these villages are too smal1 (with twenty literature remained unpublished, and much to thirty households, for example) to be ef that which was published deals with oMcially recognized. For administrative women in relatien to urbanization and purposes, the District Office groups together industrializatien. It is the women in the several small adjoining villages and regards forma] economic sector, namely, the factory them as one, referring te them by the name workers, their migration process and their of the largest viliage in the grouping. A adaptation problem in the urban context good example is one of the villages under which have been the major focus of study, study, Kg. Merual. As far as the Kuala and significantly, these studies have been Pilah District othce is concerned, Kg. Merual done by women thernselves. Interest in the is an administrative unit, albeit the smallest study of rural women (including those in the one in the state administrative hierarchy, estates) began to take shape only in the with a ketua kampu?rg (viilage head). Kg. Iate 1970s and 1980s.`) , There is evidently Merual as an administrative unit comprises a dearth of serious work on rural women four villages, Kg. Merual, Kg. Bukit in Malaysia, especially from anthropological Lintang, Kg. Umor and Kg. Sungai perspectives, and it is hoped that this study Layang; and as far as the inhabitants of will way overcoming short- go some to this these karnpung are concerned, their villages cpmlng. are distinct from one other, each with a definite boundary, and its own separate III Seri Menanti and Its People: . commumty. A Profile The administrative centre of Seri Menanti The mukim (sub-district) of Seri Menanti is a small petty trading centre known locally is the traditional seat of the royal household as Pekan, i.e., Pekan Seri Menanti, where of Negeri Sembilan. Situated in the south the home (istana) of the royal household is central part of the state, it occupies a valley located. In the pre-independence period, fed by the now silting Muar river. This this royal enclave was no more than a new mukim and ten others together form the istana built in the 1920s, two rows of Kuala Pilah district (duerah); and Kuala dilapidated wooden shophouses with Pilah, along with the districts of Rembau, thatched roofs, a clinic (known then as "dispensary" Jelebu, Jempul, Seremban, Pert Dickson by the locals), a mesque, a and Tampin, constitutes the state of Negeri police depot attached to the istana, two ' Sembilan. primary schools (ene Malay medium and Seri Menanti covers an area of 7, 769. 971 the other English), an old wooden istana built in the eighteenth century and a couple 4) Fer a comprehensive account of works on of brick houses belonging to members of women in Malaysia, see Fan Kok Sim [1984: 234-312] Ariffin 93-100]. the royal farnily. There was no electricity, and Jamilah [1984: 134 NII-Electronic Library Service KyotoKyotoUniversity University AzlzAH KASslM: Wonien, Land ancl Gender Relationsin Negeri Sembilan Ro piped water supply, and no telephones, cent) of them are Malays, with a sprinkling except in the clinic, pelice post and the of Chinese and Indians. The latter twe royal households. ethnic categories are confined to the pekan, The post-independence period saw much especially Seri Menanti and Taajung Ipoh, physical development in the mukim.

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