The musem peutie blang — the “closed” season for the rice-fields — was the period during which the access of cattle to the umongs or wet rice-fields was strictly forbidden by adat. It complemented the musem ludih blang or “open” season, in which everyone was free to graze his cattle on the umong lands and to fish in any umong, both with fish-traps and with the fishing-rod. The contrast between the two seasons was the foundation of the Achehnese system of common-right agriculture: in the open season the umongs were practically common land, while in the closed season they returned to the exclusive possession of their owners.
Fishing rights during the closed season
Even in the musem peutie blang, when the access of cattle to the rice-fields was so strictly forbidden, fishing with the rod on the umong of others was allowed, though the setting of fish-traps was not. The right of rod-and-line fishing was thus a permanent common right, surviving the closing of the fields. Fish-ponds (tambōk) made by the owner on his own land were excepted from this permission, and it was likewise forbidden to catch fish with any other implement than rod and line in neuheuns or weirs which others had constructed on the banks of creeks or rivers. Mortgaging of such ponds or staked enclosures seems not to have been customary, though they passed into the hands of others by sale and succession; it even occurred at times that a man sold his rice-field yet retained his ownership of the fish-pond he had made there.
Agricultural context
The musem peutie blang was the period in which the growing crop had to be protected from the depredations of cattle, and the prohibition upon grazing therefore corresponded to the actual needs of cultivation. Its observance was the duty of every owner, and its breach was punishable by the uleebalang. The season was thus at once an agricultural necessity and a legal institution, and the careful gradation of rights — closed to cattle, open to the rod, closed to the fish-trap — illustrated the precision with which the customary law of Acheh regulated the competing uses of the umong land.
Relation to the agricultural calendar
The musem peutie blang was one of the fixed points of the agricultural year, standing in contrast to the open season and forming the framework within which the operations of rice-culture — the tabu or broadcasting, the seuneulong or nursery-planting, the piiphon padi or commencement of planting-out — were carried on. The transition from one season to the other was itself a public event in the gampong, marked by the peusijue’ or “cooling” ceremonies that accompanied every important change in the agricultural routine.
See Also
- Musem ludih blang
- Musem piche kot blang
- Piiphon padi (Commencement of the padi)
- Tabu system of sowing padi
- Adat Meukuta Alam
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.