The Jinamee (also spelled jinamec or jinamë) is the Achehnese term for the wedding gift or dowry given at marriage, an institution of central importance in Achehnese family law and adat. The term has two principal applications: (1) the janji jinamee — literally “the dowry period agreed on” — designating the period after marriage during which a wife remains a charge upon her parents rather than upon her husband; and (2) the ceremonial jinamee presented by a newly installed Sultan of Acheh to each of the three panglima sagi on the occasion of his accession, symbolising the metaphorical marriage-contract by which the sultan was joined to the federated dominions of Acheh proper. Both applications are described by C. Snouck Hurgronje in The Achehnese Vol. I.
The jinamee and its gradations
The jinamee (dowry) is seldom mentioned in the marriage contract, since it is in every case pretty closely defined by the adat. The jinamee for the daughters of princes of the blood (tuankus) amounts to 500 dollars, or according to the old-fashioned mode of expression, “a kati (1⅓ lb.) of gold” (sikaté meuëhi); for those of persons of distinction (ureuëng ulèë) such as uleebalangs, imeums, and others who are their equals in rank or wealth, 100 dollars or 4 bungkays of gold; for those of middle rank (ureu’eng peuteunggulan), such as keuchi’s, teungkus, wakis and the like, 50 dollars or 2 bungkays of gold; and for the lesser folk 25 dollars or 1 bungkay. He who marries a poor woman need only give one or two tahils or even less.
The janji jinamee period
The janji jinamee (literally “the dowry period agreed on”) is the Achehnese term for the period during which, after marriage, a wife remains a charge upon her parents rather than upon her husband. It is one of the most distinctive features of Achehnese family law and constitutes a remarkable departure from the Mohammedan law of marriage.
Length of the period
The length of the period depends on the amount of the dowry (jinamee), irrespective of whether it is in fact paid in full, or only half, or even not at all. For every bungkay of gold (25 dollars) of the marriage gift, the bride is made dependent for a full year on the support of her parents. The dowry is not infrequently — especially by persons of position — handed back after the conclusion of the contract; but this fiction does not affect the duration of the janji jinamee. All that the man gives her during this period is regarded as a free gift, even though these gifts are themselves to some extent regulated by the adat.
The husband’s gifts during the period
The presents which the husband is expected to give during the janji jinamee consist first of all in the monthly biaya of three or four dollars or more, which may be almost considered as boarding expenses for the ten to fifteen days in each month which the young man spends in the house of his wife. In the next place he has to “bring home meat” (puwoe sië) as it is called, at the two great Mohammedan feasts, and especially that at the end of the fasting month. In Acheh it is an established adat to form small societies for the slaughter of buffaloes before these feast-days, and the ancient custom required the young man to bring home to his wife a handsome share of the meat from the slaughter in his own gampong. This gift of meat gradually gave place to other gifts of a fixed value. Where the dowry amounts to one bungkay of gold, it is considered proper for the husband to present to his wife six dollars as a feast-gift the first time; on later occasions five dollars or so is sufficient. For a dowry of two bungkays, these feast-gifts may amount to eight or ten dollars. On the feast-days the husband also receives a return present from his wife — the first time a suit of clothes, which he proceeds forthwith to don; in later years his parents-in-law present him with a dollar or so by way of feast-gift.
Inheritance during the period
While the janji jinamee lasts, there subsists between the pair a peculiar relation which is entirely in conflict with Mohammedan law. This law allows unconditionally to the husband a certain definite portion of the goods of his wife on her decease, and vice versa. In Acheh this right of inheritance does not become effective till after the janji jinamee has ceased.
Should his wife die during this period, the husband in Acheh has the right to only one of two things: he either gets back half of the dowry, which sum is known as ha’ balee, or he waives this right and chooses rather to marry a sister or other near relative of the deceased. In the latter event the jinamee is mentioned at the marriage but never paid. Marriages of this kind are known as pulang balee. A wife who becomes a widow during the janji jinamee has just as little claim to her legitimate portion, but receives in its place a sum of money equal to half of her dowry, while in certain cases the walé of her husband offer her a suitor for her hand, preferably of the same family. It is only where the husband is very rich, and leaves behind him few relatives and those very distant ones, that the widow gets her proper share.
It is also understood that if a woman dies during the jinamee period, the expenses of the laying out of the dead body, the funeral feasts etc., must be borne by her parents, but propriety requires that the widower should politely request his parents-in-law to allow him to bear the cost of one of the kanduri feasts — as for instance that held on the seventh day after the death. Sometimes the father of the deceased privately warns his son-in-law not to expend too much money in this way, as any hopes he may cherish of a share in the subsequent distribution of property will be disappointed, and he will get no more than the ha’ balee. Yet often even in such cases the husband gives as costly a feast as he can.
The peungkleh ceremony
As soon as the year or years of the janji jinamee are over, the woman is committed to the sole charge of her husband. If she is an orphan, this is done without much formality, but with great ceremony if her father or mother be still living. The parents “put her forth” (peungkleh) in the presence of all the authorities of the gampong and other notabilities as witnesses, and mark the occasion by a public feast (kanduri) consecrated with prayers. In the set speech in which the father abandons all direct interference with the concerns of his daughter for the remainder of her married life, he sums up all that she has received from him, so that no unpleasantness may arise on any subsequent distribution of her property. Either he or another in his name delivers himself somewhat as follows: “The reason why I have summoned you hither, Teuku Keuchi’, Teungku and all ye elders, is that I have now ‘put forth’ my daughter N; be this known unto you all, O elders. What I have given her is as follows: a pair of anklets 6 bungkay in weight, one yō of rice land, a pair of earrings, this house and all its equipment. This is what I wished to inform you of, be it known unto you all.” The keuchi’ replies in the name of the assembled company: “We have heard it.”
The Sultan’s jinamee to the panglima sagi
In the sultanate-accession form of the institution, the jinamee was the ceremonial “wedding gift” presented by a newly installed Sultan of Acheh to each of the three panglima sagi on the occasion of his accession to the throne. By later tradition the sum had risen to $500 per chief, and its payment symbolised the metaphorical marriage-contract by which the sultan was joined to the federated dominions of Acheh proper. The transaction thus enacted, in ritual form, the principle that the three sagis (the XXII Mukims, XXVI Mukims and XXV Mukims) were the collective guardians of the sultanate and that the new sovereign took office as their “bridegroom.”
The metaphor of marriage between sultan and realm was no mere poetic flourish. As Snouck Hurgronje observes, the three guardians — the panglima sagi — did not long succeed in retaining the supremacy over the federate dominions which they had possessed when this metaphorical marriage-contract was first devised, yet the outward form of the institution survived. The bridegroom was required to pay to each of the chiefs a sum of five hundred dollars as a wedding gift (jinamec), and the payment constituted one of the visible signs that the new ruler acknowledged the protecting authority of the sagi confederations.
In later times the jinamee became intertwined with the reciprocal payment that a newly constituted panglima sagi was expected to make to the sultan for the letters patent with the ninefold seal confirming his appointment. Against the $500 received as jinamee, it became the established rule for a new panglima sagi to pay at least an equal sum to the sultan on receipt of his patent. The flow of ceremonial gift and counter-gift thus formalised the personal bond between sovereign and the three “guardians” of the realm, even as real power slipped away from the Dalam towards the sagi chiefs themselves.
The jinamee was thus one of the principal revenues accruing to the panglima sagi from their office, alongside the fines, fees and shares of inheritance that flowed through their hands. It belonged to the same order of ceremonial payments as the langgeh umong and the adat meulangga — institutions through which the relations of chiefs to one another and to their dependants were periodically reaffirmed. Together with the coronation of the sultan and the various installation of a new sultan rites, the jinamee marked out the sultanate as a federation in form as well as in fact, however nominal the sultan’s authority might have become in the closing decades of the nineteenth century.
Significance
The jinamee — whether in the form of the janji jinamee dowry period of Achehnese family law, or in the form of the Sultan’s ceremonial wedding gift to the three panglima sagi on his accession — is the central Achehnese institution through which the wedding-gift structures the relation between bridegroom and bride, sovereign and realm. In both applications the jinamee enacts, in ritual form, the principle that the new husband or new sovereign takes office by means of a gift that is also a contract: in the family-law form, a contract binding the wife’s parents to support her for a period proportional to the dowry; in the sultanate-accession form, a contract binding the new sultan to acknowledge the protecting authority of the three sagi confederations.
See Also
- Coronation of the Sultan
- Installation of a New Sultan
- Letters Patent with the Ninefold Seal
- Adat Meulangga
- Langgeh Umong
- Panglima Sagi
- XXII Mukims
- XXVI Mukims
- XXV Mukims
- Dalam
- Marriage in Acheh
- Fasting Month
- Kanduri
- Janjining Ratu
- Tueng Meunar
- Bale Meudeuhab
- ‘Iddah
Source
The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.