The keubeuë peunoelang (in Kreemer’s spelling; modern Acehnese keubeuë peunulang) — also referred to in Dutch sources as the “Atjehse bride buffalo” or “bride buffalo of Atjeh” — was the buffalo that the Acehnese bride received from her mother-in-law (schoonmoeder) as a marriage-gift, an animal held in high esteem comparable to the old Dutch bruidskoe (“bride cow”). The custom is recorded in Kreemer’s *De Karbouw* (p. 215) and is documented in Snouck Hurgronje’s *De Atjehers* (vol. I, p. 392).
The custom
The keubeuë peunoelang passage in *De Karbouw* (p. 215) reads:
“Een dergelijke karbouw, die de Atjehse bruid van haar schoonmoeder medekrijgt, is de keubeuë peunoelang een dier dat in hoge ere wordt gehouden, evenals de ‘bruidskoe’ eertijds te onzent.”
The structural elements of the custom are:
- Donor: the bride’s mother-in-law (schoonmoeder).
- Recipient: the Atjehse bride.
- Gift: a buffalo (karbouw), called keubeuë peunoelang.
- Status: the animal is held in high esteem (in hoge ere gehouden), comparable to the old Dutch bruidskoe (“bride cow”) — that is, a prized domestic animal given as a marriage-gift and held in special regard by the receiving household.
The keubeuë peunoelang is one of the documented instances of the integration of the buffalo into the Atjehnese marriage-cycle — a complex that also includes the *poewôê siê* first-year husband meat-obligation and the bride-price (bruidsschat) system in which buffaloes served as the principal unit of value. The fact that the bride receives the buffalo from her mother-in-law (rather than from her own family or from the groom) is significant: it documents the affinal direction of the gift as part of the wife’s integration into her husband’s household economy, and the high esteem in which the animal was held documents the symbolic weight of the buffalo as a marker of household prosperity and continuity.
Significance
The keubeuë peunoelang is significant for the encyclopedia of Aceh history as a documented instance of the integration of the buffalo into the Atjehnese marriage-cycle — specifically, as the marriage-gift from mother-in-law to bride, an animal held in high esteem comparable to the old Dutch bruidskoe. The custom is documented by Snouck Hurgronje in *De Atjehers* and re-cited in *De Karbouw* as one of the principal instances of the buffalo’s symbolic elaboration in Atjehnese village life. The custom is also one of the documents of the wider Atjehnese pattern in which the buffalo functioned not only as a working animal and a sacrificial victim but also as a marriage-gift and a marker of household prosperity — a pattern visible also in the *poewôê siê* first-year husband meat-obligation and in the bride-price system.
See Also
- Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje
- J. Kreemer
- Kreemer’s De Karbouw (1956)
- Snouck Hurgronje’s De Atjehers (1893-94)
- Pantang of the albino buffalo in Atjeh
- bruidsschat (Atjeh)
- geluksbuffel in Atjeh
- keubeuë djagat
- keubeuë
- poewôê siê
Source
De Karbouw — Zijn betekenis voor de volken van de Indonesische Archipel, by J. Kreemer (‘s-Gravenhage / Bandung: N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve, 1956), p. 215.
De Atjehers, by C. Snouck Hurgronje, 2 vols. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1893-94), vol. I, p. 392.