G. H. Niemann was a Dutch scholar of Indonesian languages and customs whose note on the post-childbirth “drying over the fire” custom — the Achehnese madepeng (or madapueng) — was published in the Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch Indië for 1892 (p. 36), and is cited by Snouck Hurgronje in The Achehnese in connection with this distinctive Achehnese practice.
The “drying over the fire” custom
In Acheh, as in much of the Indonesian Archipelago, the woman after childbirth is subjected to a prolonged period of roasting over a fire. As Snouck Hurgronje describes the practice, the woman, after being cleansed and treated with sundry oils, is laid upon a bench or platform (prataih). After she has recovered a little, an oven is placed beneath this platform, and in this oven a fire is kept up continually for forty-four days. The idea is that the almost insupportable heat and smoke will counteract the collection of damp in the woman’s body and assist in quickly restoring her figure to its former shape. During this period, the woman is said to be “engaged in drying herself over the fire” (madepeng), and is called ureueng didapu, i.e. “one that lies close to the hearth”. She suffers dreadfully under the process, tossing hither and thither to save her skin from being scorched; she is not allowed to quench her thirst with water, but must be content with a little tea and some sugar-cane and pineapple. Of late, Snouck Hurgronje notes, a less severe treatment of women after childbirth has begun to be adopted in imitation of the Javanese.
The Achehnese word madepeng is, as Snouck Hurgronje explains in a footnote, an abbreviated form derived from dadepeng with the addition of the inserted syllable eum. Dadepeng means “to dry over the fire” (transitive). The same footnote adds: “As to this custom cf. G. H. Niemann in the Bijdragen … for 1892, p. 36”.
Comparative significance
The Malay form of the custom — recorded in the translator’s note appended to the same passage — is somewhat milder: the Malays apply the “oven” only at intervals as a rule, and the intensity of the heat is gradually diminished. The wood used for fuel must contain no poison; the kind most generally employed is a variety of mangrove known in the Malay Peninsula as api-api, with kambutan wood also used occasionally. The Malays also have a curious pantang-rule as to the wood used for the oven: those who tend the fire must be most careful not to break the burning brands, as to do so would be likely to cause sickness to the child. Niemann’s note in the Bijdragen for 1892 thus forms part of the comparative apparatus by means of which the Achehnese custom — severe as it is — can be set beside the cognate Malay and Javanese usages, and shown to be one local form of an Archipelago-wide practice.
Relation to G. K. Niemann
A second scholar of the same name, G. K. Niemann, is cited separately by Snouck Hurgronje (Vol. I, p. 51) for his treatise “Bijdrage tot de kennis der verhouding van het Tjam tot de talen van Indonesië” in the Bijdragen for 1891. Whether the two Niemanns are related has not been documented, but they are clearly distinct persons, since their publications appear in successive years and on quite different subjects.
See Also
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.
G. H. Niemann was a Dutch scholar of Indonesian languages and customs whose note on the post-childbirth “drying over the fire” custom — the Achehnese madepeng (or madapueng) — was published in the Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch Indië for 1892 (p. 36), and is cited by Snouck Hurgronje in The Achehnese in connection with this distinctive Achehnese practice.
The “drying over the fire” custom
In Acheh, as in much of the Indonesian Archipelago, the woman after childbirth is subjected to a prolonged period of roasting over a fire. As Snouck Hurgronje describes the practice, the woman, after being cleansed and treated with sundry oils, is laid upon a bench or platform (prataih). After she has recovered a little, an oven is placed beneath this platform, and in this oven a fire is kept up continually for forty-four days. The idea is that the almost insupportable heat and smoke will counteract the collection of damp in the woman’s body and assist in quickly restoring her figure to its former shape. During this period, the woman is said to be “engaged in drying herself over the fire” (madepeng), and is called ureueng didapu, i.e. “one that lies close to the hearth”. She suffers dreadfully under the process, tossing hither and thither to save her skin from being scorched; she is not allowed to quench her thirst with water, but must be content with a little tea and some sugar-cane and pineapple. Of late, Snouck Hurgronje notes, a less severe treatment of women after childbirth has begun to be adopted in imitation of the Javanese.
The Achehnese word madepeng is, as Snouck Hurgronje explains in a footnote, an abbreviated form derived from dadepeng with the addition of the inserted syllable eum. Dadepeng means “to dry over the fire” (transitive). The same footnote adds: “As to this custom cf. G. H. Niemann in the Bijdragen … for 1892, p. 36”.
Comparative significance
The Malay form of the custom — recorded in the translator’s note appended to the same passage — is somewhat milder: the Malays apply the “oven” only at intervals as a rule, and the intensity of the heat is gradually diminished. The wood used for fuel must contain no poison; the kind most generally employed is a variety of mangrove known in the Malay Peninsula as api-api, with kambutan wood also used occasionally. The Malays also have a curious pantang-rule as to the wood used for the oven: those who tend the fire must be most careful not to break the burning brands, as to do so would be likely to cause sickness to the child. Niemann’s note in the Bijdragen for 1892 thus forms part of the comparative apparatus by means of which the Achehnese custom — severe as it is — can be set beside the cognate Malay and Javanese usages, and shown to be one local form of an Archipelago-wide practice.
Relation to G. K. Niemann
A second scholar of the same name, G. K. Niemann, is cited separately by Snouck Hurgronje (Vol. I, p. 51) for his treatise “Bijdrage tot de kennis der verhouding van het Tjam tot de talen van Indonesië” in the Bijdragen for 1891. Whether the two Niemanns are related has not been documented, but they are clearly distinct persons, since their publications appear in successive years and on quite different subjects.
See Also
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.