The Impact of Colonialism on Pusaka Manuscript Collections in Kerinci

 

THE BRIEF period of Dutch colonisation of Kerinci (1903-1942) had a limited impact on the pusaka manuscripts. In the post-annexation period, Dutch colonial officers collected eight pusaka manuscripts, together with other indigenous regalia and ethnographic items, in order to provide ethnographic material from Kerinci to Batavia. 

In the early 20th century, efforts by Jacobson (1915), Westenenk (1922), and Voorhoeve (1941), shifted away from collecting, moving towards scholarly investigation through copying, photographying, and transliterating. In addition, the position of the depati as representatives of the colonial administration and their curiosity about manuscripts they could not read, led them to support this colonial research. The colonial authorities and agents, at the same time, recognised the adat institutions and followed the adat regulations of Kerinci society during their studies of manuscripts there. 

Compared to precolonial times, during which access to pusaka was limited to ritual contexts, the colonial era saw depati permitting their pusaka collections to be observed and researched as long as adat regulations were followed and the items were not removed from their customary keepers. This resilience of adat explains why the vast majority of Kerinci manuscripts remain preserved in their original context as pusaka until today.

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Hafiful Hadi Sunliensyar, "The Impact of Colonialism on Pusaka Manuscript Collections in Kerinci", Archipel, 110 (2025): 281-306.

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Islam Melayu di Jambi

 

DI DALAM masyarakat Melayu di Jambi, Islam punya peran yang sangat penting. Begitu masuk dan berkembang di Jambi, Islam dipeluk secara kuat oleh masyarakat Melayu. Seloko atau pepatah yang dipegangi adalah adat bersendi syarak, syarak bersendi kitabullah. Dengan seloko itu, Islam dan kemelayuan seperti dua sisi mata uang yang tidak terpisahkan dan tidak terbedakan.

Buku karya Pahmi Sy, Islam Melayu di Jambi: Silang Budaya dalam Masyarakat Peisan (Jambi: Sutha Press, 2025), membahas bagaimana peran Islam yang kuat tersebut di dalam masyarakat peisan Melayu. Melalui penelitian antropologis di sebuah desa di Jambi, peran tersebut digambarkan secara gamblang. Hal tampak antara lain dalam cara masyarakat Melayu bekerja atau terkait mata pencaharian mereka, relasi antara laki-laki dan perempuan, kepemimpinan dan politik, serta bagaimana masyarakat peisan Melayu merespons modernitas.

Buku ini mengingatkan pada argumen lama terkait silang budaya yang erat tersebut, yang diistilahkan dengan baik oleh Abdurrahman Wahid sebagai pribumisasi Islam. Islam di dalam masyarakat peisan Melayu mengalami pribumisasi yang sukses di dalam banyak aspek. Meskipun demikian, buku ini juga menyebut pergeseran-pergeseran yang terjadi, terutama dalam bidang politik dan kepemimpinan.

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Pahmi Sy, Islam Melayu di Jambi: Silang Budaya dalam Masyarakat Peisan (Jambi: Sutha Press, 2025).

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Catch ‘em When the Water is Low

 

FISHING AND wetlands have in many cases been essential facets of life but are often overlooked in archaeological and historical research. In this article, we focus on the floodplains of the Palembang and Jambi region of Sumatra, where both of these aspects are comprehensively entwined. The floodplain fisheries there are highly productive, and function in a rhythm with the hydrological cycle of the rivers. By combining the pre-existing archaeological, historical and ethnographic information with modern environmental data, we propose a longue durée hypothesis for their use in the past. We also examine how floodplains fishing may have contributed to the provisioning of Palembang and Jambi, and how it would have fit in with other aspects of Sumatran culture such as floodplain rice cultivation and overseas trade. This is achieved by linking the production schedules with the sailing seasons simulated with qtVlm navigation software.

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Wessa Perttola & Marko Kallio, "Catch ‘em When the Water is Low: Longue Durée Hypothesis on Floodplains Fishing and its Rhythm in the Palembang and Jambi Region of Sumatra", International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 53, 2 (2024): 478-498.

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Towards Transnational Agrarian Conflicts?

THE ARTICLE explores the spatial dimension of the contested renegotiation of society-nature relations in the context of the oil palm boom in Indonesia. Drawing on qualitative research as well as on concepts of political ecology, materialist state theory and literature on the transnationalization and internationalisation of the state, it argues that conflicts in the context of the oil palm boom cannot merely be conceptualised as local negotiation processes for access to land, but are increasingly transnational in character. Particularly, transnational actors such as oil palm companies and environmental protection organisations as well as transnational regulatory systems such as private sustainability and carbon standards are increasingly relevant in structuring local conflicts. To illustrate how these transnational mechanisms of contestation and conflict resolution operate, the article's empirical focus lies on conflicts over land in the Indonesian province of Jambi on the island of Sumatra. 

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Alina Brad & Jonas Hein, “Towards transnational agrarian conflicts? Global NGOs, transnational agrobusiness and local struggles for land on Sumatra”, New Political Economy, 28, 3 (2023): 452-467.

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Local Lineages in Kerinci

 

THE DISTRICT (kabupaten) of Kerinci lies on the western border of Jambi, neighbouring West Sumatra, and is now part of the province of Jambi. Previously it was incorporated into the Dutch colonial government’s province of Sumatra’s West Coast. Not knowing quite where to place Kerinci reflects an uncertainty as to which of its neighbours Kerinci, geographically isolated as it is, has the closest cultural and historical affinities. Among other puzzles thrown up by such a consideration is how to assess the structure and significance of lineages in Kerinci. Each Kerinci village has its own specific set of lineages. In north Kerinci, the area bordering West Sumatra, the lineages are matrilineal in terms of recruitment and seem to resemble their West Sumatran counterparts. However, the situation is complex. In order to provide a full ethnographic picture of the situation this article gives a detailed description of the lineage structure of one village, Pondok Tinggi, in central Kerinci. This description discusses the function and recruitment of office-holders within each lineage and their continuing significance in the political structuring of the community.

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C.W. Watson, “Local Lineages in Kerinci, Sumatra”, Indonesia and the Malay World, 48, 142 (2020): 379-396.

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