Peuteumbôn (in Kreemer’s spelling; modern Atjehnese peuteumbeun) is the Atjehnese custom of fattening water-buffaloes for the two great annual Islamic feast-days that fall immediately before and after the Vasten (the Ramadan fasting month) — accomplished by force-feeding the animals sugarcane and dew-moistened grass to the point of over-satiation, in the same manner that sick people and small children were fed. The custom is recorded in Kreemer’s *De Karbouw* ([[1956)]] (p. 59) and in his *Atjeh* (vol. I, pp. 497-498; vol. II, pp. 595, 628 nt. 3). The Gayo equivalent term is memantar.
The custom
The peuteumbôn passage in De Karbouw (p. 59) reads:
“De Atjehers laten de karbouwen, om ze op de beide grote, jaarlijkse feestdagen vóór en na het Vasten vet te krijgen (Atj. peuteumbôn, Gaj. memantar), gedurende enige tijd suikerriet en bedauwd gras eten. Het voedsel wordt dan, tot oververzadiging toe, in de mond van het dier geduwd, gelijk men ook wel bij zieken en kleine kinderen pleegt te doen. De kop van de karbouw is bij deze kunstbewerking, middels zijn neustouw opgetrokken (djhoeng).” The structural elements of the custom are:
- Occasion: the two great annual Islamic feast-days immediately before and after the Vasten (Ramadan fasting month). The first is presumably the pre-fast meal-festival, the second is Idul Fitri (the feast of fast-breaking at the close of Ramadan).
- Method: force-feeding the buffaloes with sugarcane (suikerriet) and dew-moistened grass (bedauwd gras) for some time before the feast-days.
- Technique: the food is pushed into the buffalo’s mouth to the point of over-satiation (tot oververzadiging toe), in the same manner that sick people and small children were fed — a parallel that frames the buffalo as a dependent, cared-for member of the household economy.
- Restraint: during the force-feeding, the buffalo’s head is pulled up by its nose-rope — the Atjehnese term for which is djhoeng.
Significance
Peuteumbôn is significant for the encyclopedia of Acheh history as a documented instance of the integration of the buffalo into the Islamic ritual calendar of Atjeh — the same calendar that also structures the *poewôê siê* first-year husband obligation, the *maq meugang* slaughter-days, and the teungkoe meunasah’s ritual slaughter fee-system. The custom pairs the buffalo with the human members of the household (the sick, the small children) in the technique of force-feeding, and pairs the buffalo with the Islamic feast-cycle in the timing of the fattening. The custom is documented in Kreemer’s *Atjeh* and re-cited in *De Karbouw*; the Gayo equivalent memantar documents the close cultural continuity between the Atjehnese and the Gayo on matters of buffalo-husbandry.
Sources
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. 59.
Atjèh, by J. Kreemer, vol. I (1922), pp. 497-498; vol. II (1923), pp. 595, 628 nt. 3.