Atjeh adatrecht (Ter Haar account)

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tagsconcept, law, adatrecht, achehnese, ter-haar, rechtskring, territorial, gampong, 1939, 1950, colonial
aliasesAtjeh legal circle, rechtskring Atjeh, Atjehnese adatrecht, Atjeh adat law, Ter Haar Atjeh, rechtskring 1 Atjeh, Adatrecht van Atjeh

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The Atjeh adatrecht, as treated by B. ter Haar BzN in Beginselen en Stelsel van het Adatrecht (first ed. 1939; 4th ed. 1950), is the adatrecht (customary law) of the rechtskring Atjeh — the first of the nineteen legal circles (rechtskringen) into which Ter Haar divides the archipelago for the purposes of his systematic account. The rechtskring Atjeh comprises Groot-Atjeh, the Westkust of Atjeh, Singkel, and Simeuloet; it is placed first in Ter Haar’s overview of the legal circles, and its principal source is identified as Snouck Hurgronje’s De Atjehers (1893–1894).

The rechtskring Atjeh

In the Overzicht van de rechtskringen (overview of the legal circles) that closes the book, Ter Haar lists the Atjeh legal circle as the first of the nineteen:

  1. Atjeh (Groot-Atjeh, Westkust van Atjeh, Singkel, Simeuloet).
  2. Gajo-, Alas- en Bataklanden. …

The placement of Atjeh at the head of the list reflects the book’s ordering criterion — the legal circles in which the genealogical factor is strongest come first, and those in which the territorial factor works exclusively come last — combined with the geography of the archipelago, which places Atjeh at the northwestern extremity. The Atjeh legal circle stands at the territorial end of the spectrum: its village community, the gampong (with its meunasah), is cited by Ter Haar as a typical example of a territorial community in which the genealogical factor has no significance — alongside the Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese, and Balinese désa, the villages of the Malay region, and the negorijen of the Minahasa and Ambon.

The atjehse gampong (meunasah)

The Atjehnese village — the gampong, with its meunasah — is, in Ter Haar’s account, a community “in which the genealogical factor, the factor of genealogical connectedness of persons by virtue of common descent, has no significance.” Such communities are, he writes, “talrijk” (numerous) in the archipelago: “de javaanse, soendase, madoerese en balise désa, de atjehse gampong (meunasah), de dorpen in het maleise gebied en op Bangka en Belitoeng, een deel der streekgemeenschappen van Zuid-Sumatra, de dorps- en steekgemenschappen van Zuid-Celebes, de negorijen van de Minahasa en die van Ambon.” The gampong is thus placed by Ter Haar within the typology of Indonesian village communities as a territorial — not a genealogical — community, on a par with the désa of Java and the negorij of Ambon.

The sultanaat van Atjeh and the vorstensfeer

The sultanaat van Atjeh — the sultanate of Atjeh — is cited by Ter Haar as one of the central indigenous sultanates in which the “vernielend invloed” (destructive influence) of the central royal power worked on the communities around the royal residence. The destructive influence operated, Ter Haar writes, through the replacement of village heads (volkshoofden) by royal officials (vorstenbeambten), the taking of land into the royal hand, and the issuing of small apanages — the granting to officials or relatives of the right to appropriate the royal heffingen (levies) of a few families or pieces of communities, “welker grenzen niet worden in acht genomen” (whose boundaries are not respected). The sultanate of Atjeh is listed in this connection alongside the sultanates of Palembang, Djambi, the Oostkust-sultanaten, the powerful kingdoms of South Celebes (Bone, Gowa), Ternate and Tidore, Bali and Lombok, and the nagaragoeng of Java.

The vorsten en vorstentelgen in Atjeh — the princes and princely lineages of Atjeh — are likewise cited as forming the first group of persons living outside the village communities, within the vorstensfeer (princely sphere): “De vorsten en prijaji van Java; de vorsten en vorstentelgen in Atjeh, de atjehse groten in Padang, javaanse en inheemse adel in Palembang en Djambi, in het maleis gebied op Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, Ternate, Tidore, de Timorgroep, Bima en Soembawa, Bali en Lombok.” The atjehse groten in Padang — the Atjehnese grandees in Padang — are a notable addition: they indicate the presence of Atjehnese nobility in the west-coast city of Padang, a marker of the reach of the Atjehnese princely sphere beyond the borders of the sultanate itself.

The minangkabause koloniën ter Westkust van Atjeh

The Minangkabau colonies on the Westkust of Atjeh are cited by Ter Haar as a typical example of large-scale uitzwerming — the voluntary, large-group migration of Indonesians into areas inhabited by other peoples. “Ook zonder overheidsbemoeienis echter trekken indonesiërs in grote groepen elders heen,” Ter Haar writes. “De minangkabause koloniën ter Westkust van Atjeh, de toba-kolonie van 15.000 zielen in Tapanoeli (Sajoermatinggi), de boeginezen op Bali en Lombok, de bandjarezen in Indragiri enzovoorts.” The Minangkabau colonies on the Westkust of Atjeh are thus placed within the broader phenomenon of Indonesian colonisation — the settlement of communities of originally foreign peoples among an autochthonous population — and they are the Atjeh-specific instance of the broader Minangkabau diaspora across Sumatra.

Atjehnese adatrechtelijke instituties

Ter Haar cites several Atjehnese adat-law institutions as illustrations of general Indonesian legal types:

  • The djinamée — the Atjehnese huwelijksgift (marriage gift) — is cited as a typical example of a marriage payment that has become a validity requirement of the marriage, alongside the soenrang of South Celebes and the Muslim mas kawin.
  • The wang pemasoeqan — the Atjehnese entree — is cited as a typical example of the formal recognition-payment required of community-foreigners who would profit from the community’s beschikkingskring (sphere of disposal over land).
  • The sanbod-aanname (idjaab kaboel) — the Muslim-derived offer-and-acceptance formula incorporated into Atjehnese land-pledging and land-sale transactions — is cited as a typical example of the local coloring that adat-law transactions receive in particular legal circles.
  • The peungklēh — the Atjehnese uitzet (trousseau) given to marrying daughters — is cited as a species of toescheiding (allocation).
  • The maatschapjes tot het slachten van buffels in Atjeh — the Atjehnese partnerships for the slaughtering of buffaloes — are cited as a typical example of the voluntary associations formed for reciprocal services-and-goods exchange.

The sources

In his survey of the literature, Ter Haar identifies the principal source for the Atjeh legal circle as the work of Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, De Atjehers (1893–1894) — “dus van vóór den legger” (thus from before the [adatrecht] foundation) — which, “desalniettemin in dit verband niet mag ontbreken” (nevertheless, must not be absent in this connection). The work of J. J. Kreemer, Atjeh (1922–1923), is noted as bringing, “na Snouck Hurgronje en Van Vollenhoven geen nieuws” (after Snouck Hurgronje and Van Vollenhoven, no news). The Atjeh legal circle is thus one of the streken for which a full, whole-stoff-covering treatment of the adatrecht is available as part of a land-and-people description by a scholar not specifically trained in adatrecht.

Significance

For AcehWiki, the Atjeh adatrecht as treated by Ter Haar is significant as the central doctrinal statement of the place of Atjehnese adatrecht within the wider Indonesian legal landscape. Ter Haar’s account places the rechtskring Atjeh first among the nineteen legal circles of the archipelago, identifies the gampong as a territorial village community, cites the sultanaat van Atjeh as one of the central indigenous sultanates, and treats the Atjehnese adat-law institutions — the djinamée, the wang pemasoeqan, the sanbod-aanname, the peungklēh, the buffalo-slaughtering partnerships — as illustrations of general Indonesian legal types. The account is the principal systematic statement of the Atjehnese adatrecht in the colonial legal science of the late Netherlands Indies, and it is the source for the corpus’s entries on the individual Atjehnese adat-law institutions.

See Also

Source

Beginselen en Stelsel van het Adatrecht, door Mr. B. ter Haar Bzn. Vierde ongewijzigde druk. Groningen, Djakarta: J. B. Wolters, 1950. Pp. 17 (gampong), 29 (minangkabause koloniën), 51 (vorsten), 52 (sultanaat), 63 (wang pemasoeqan), 98, 100 (sanbod-aanname), 124 (buffalo-slaughtering partnerships), 148 (dubbelunilaterale trek), 168, 169, 178, 192 (djinamée), 171 (teruggeven van huwelijksgift), 192 (inkomsten van den man), 205 (peungklēh), 213 (voorkeur aan de dochter), 245–246 (sources), 256–257 (overzicht van de rechtskringen).

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