© Kamla-Raj 2019 Ethno Med, 13(3): 131-137 (2019) PRINT: ISSN 0973-5070 ONLINE: ISSN 2456-6772 DOI: 10.31901/24566772.2019/13.03.587 Traditional Medicine in West Sumatra: Some General Features Alexander Stark Center for Language Studies and Generic Development, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Pengkalan Chepa, Malaysia E-mail: alexander @umk.edu.my KEYWORDS Dukun. Minangkabau. Traditional Etiology. Traditional Healing. ABSTRACT The Minangkabau is one of the largest matrilineal societies in the world. In this study, the different healing traditions prevalent in Minangkabau are described briefly. By looking at the different healing methods, the researcher offers another perspective on this society. Many publications regarding the Minangkabau focused mainly on matters regarding the social structure. The primary objective of this study is to explore and illustrate the traditional Minangkabau healing methods in all its facets. The research method consisted of fieldwork which included observation and open-ended interviews with traditional healers. It was discovered that there are three main types of traditional healers: One who focuses on Islamic healing methods, one who considers various forms of healing and one who acts as a medium. After analysing all these healing methods, gender-specific components and three-fold healing elements were identified. INTRODUCTION1 ies. The ethnomedical data could shed new light on the way of life in the village communities of The Minangkabau people live in West West Sumatra. It is very well possible that the Sumatra, forming one of the largest matrilineal healers and their healing methods revealed oth- societies in the world. Various researchers were er views regarding the Minangkabau society that fascinated by the fact that matrilineal and Islam- are different from those which were described ic elements co-exist. As a consequence, there by many other researchers. have been numerous publications about the (3) Another objective of this research is to Minangkabau society. In this study, the re- illustrate the healing methods and to introduce searcher looks into this society from another some healing plants that are widespread in the point of view, that is, from a description of the interior of West Sumatra. Such a brief overview traditional healing methods. Such an explora- might give an impression about the traditional tion can contribute to a better understanding of knowledge and background of the so-called folk this specific culture in West Sumatra. Further- taxonomies that help to categorize plants more, it is intended to stress the importance of (D’Andrade 2003). ethnomedical knowledge. Some medical disor- ders do not fit into the Western biomedical con- Literature cept, and so it is difficult for a doctor at a region- al health center to treat those medical disorders. The literature about the traditional Minangk- This paper can help to fill in the gap for medical abau healing methods is not very exhaustive. In practitioners to understand the local peculiar the colonial times, researchers like Kleiweg de belief system. Zwaan (1912) or Kreemer (1908) focused their re- search interest on the healing methods which were Objectives used by the dukun. The term ‘dukun’ refers to the traditional healer. For the sake of further elab- (1) In the field of Minangkabau studies, there orations, there is need to define the term ‘tradi- are only a few books and articles that focused tional medicine’: “Traditional medicine compris- on the topic of traditional Minangkabau medi- es knowledge systems that developed over gen- cine. Therefore, one objective of this research is erations within various societies before the era of to explore and illustrate the traditional healing modern medicine” (Ahmad et. al. 2015: 4). methods in West Sumatra. In the post-colonial era, some researchers (2) The researcher intends to offer a ‘new’ like Mitchell (1969) and Marzali (2003) began to perspective in the domain of Minangkabau stud- relate medical disorders with a unique social 132 ALEXANDER STARK structure. Marzali introduced the term Komple- ture is the cause for specific medical disorders. ks Minangkabau (Minangkabau complex) which Particularly Lajtai (2003) describes the role of stressed that the Minangkabau men are in a traditional healers in a brief way. Yunarti et al. ‘tense’ situation due to their position in a matri- (2014) offer an emic and etic view of the concept lineal society. Therefore, they are faced with of medical disorders. However, in this paper about stress and as a consequence they become sick. traditional healing in West Sumatra, the author Lajtai is one of the few authors who accen- intends to categorize the types of healers and tuated the fact that the healing methods of the illustrate their traditional healing methods in more Minangkabau dukun (Lajtai 2003) is worth de- detail. scribing. However, his explanations are quite brief. Nonetheless, it is remarkable that he em- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY phasized the importance of the traditional Mi- nangkabau medicine. Research Design The ‘newer’ literature focuses on more spe- cific issues. Some authors refer to it as the so- This study employed a qualitative research called Culture-Bound Syndromes (CBS). These design which consisted of observation and in- are disorders that originate in one region and depth interviews. The ‘ideal’ would be participant have their particular features. In Southeast Asia, observation, but that would mean being active as the most famous CBS is probably amok. In West a healer. In this research, it was not possible. The Sumatra, there are also CBS like sijundai which interviews were mainly unstructured because the is a kind of witchcraft and might affect some healers decided what they wanted to teach. When people. Authors like Almos and Pramono (2015) the researcher reached a certain level, some heal- gave brief descriptions of such medical disor- ers would inform him of a particular kind of knowl- ders in West Sumatra. Other writers like Stark edge. The researcher had no idea that such an and Yahaya (2015) described the medical disor- element exists. So gradually the knowledge about der of rongeh which refers to a tree that can be traditional healing methods increased. found in the jungle of West Sumatra, and if some- The researcher conducted the research in one one comes in contact with its gum, then he or village community in the interior of West Sumatra. she might be infected with a skin disease called Traditionally, the highlands were considered to be rongeh. the origin of the Minangkabau culture (Diradjo 2017). The climate and the geographical conditions The researcher focused on the healers in one village must be considered, looking at the medical dis- community plus their network. Sometimes, the pa- orders. Authors who considered that were Yunar- tients had to consult healers from other villages be- ti et al. (2014). They focused their research on cause specialists in some areas could not be found the West Sumatran districts of Agam and Tanah in the main village of this research setting. Datar. The healers were observed when they treat- Khairiah et al. (2017) provided a brief over- ed a patient. After that, the researcher inter- view of medicinal plants that can be found in viewed the healers in order to get a better under- one Minangkabau village community. However, standing of the traditional medicine. their article focused only on the botanical point The research took place between 2011 until of view. 2017. The research process was circular and the Not only did scientists write about the tradi- researcher did some fieldwork during the semes- tional Minangkabau medicine, some local heal- ter break. At the end, the interviews were tran- ers also did. One of these healers is Sabirin (2014). scribed and analyzed. The knowledge gap be- He is a healer who originates from West Sumatra tween the healers and the researcher gradually and published the method of traditional healing became smaller. while focusing more on Islamic healing meth- ods. In general, Islamic healing methods often OBSERVATIONS contain healing elements that were mentioned in the Qur’an and the narrations of Prophet Ethnographic Data Muhammad. From the literature review, it is evident that Here the traditional medicine in West Sumatra many researchers stress that the social struc- will be described from different angles. First, it is Ethno Med, 13(3): 131-137 (2019) TRADITIONAL MEDICINE IN WEST SUMATRA: SOME GENERAL FEATURES 133 focused on the healers, and afterward, it focused certain Surah of the Qur’an can help to find the on the etiology and healing methods. origin of the problem. For example, if the healer recites the Surah al Fatiha which is the first The Healers Surah of the Qur’an, then he or she knows that each word of it is related to a particular part of The first visible feature for a researcher is the body. The healer might recite it and move his the fact that different types of healers can be or her hand above the body of the patient. Sud- found on the highlands of West Sumatra. The denly, a strange feeling can arise which indi- different types of healers are as follow: cates that a certain part of the body is affected. (a) Islamic healers, (b) Traditional healers b) Another well-known method to detect the (dukun), and (c) Mediums (orang keturunan). origin of a specific disorder is to use divination. The Islamic healers refer to Islam. Two types This is usually done by the dukun. In this con- can be subsumed as Islamic healers, namely the text, it means that the healer recites a certain orthodox Islamic healer who refers only to the spell and then he or she can see particular pat- Qur’an and Sunnah as well as the Sufi healer terns which reveal the origin of the medical prob- who incorporates some esoteric knowledge.