The Batak Pakpak — called by the Achehnese Bata’ Pakpak — are one of the four Batak sub-groups named in Vol. I of The Achehnese. They are listed alongside the Bata’ Kar’ee (Karo), the Bata’ Tuba and the Bata’ Maloyeng (Mandailing) in C. Snouck Hurgronje’s note on the Achehnese classification of the Batak race.
The Achehnese distinguish the Bata’ Kar’ee (Karo) as “the wildest and most vicious” of the Bataks, and “hence they apply this as a nickname of evil import to all Bata’s, including the Bata’ Pakpak, the Bata’ Tuba and the Bata’ Maloyeng.” The Pakpak thus share, in Achehnese usage, the contemptuous reputation of the Batak race as a whole, even though the more specific ascription of viciousness is made only of the Karo.
The Pakpak country — the modern Dairi region south-west of the Batak heartland and inland from the west-coast sultanates of Acheh — is one of the natural source-regions of the male Bataks who, “mostly imported from Singkel and Trumon,” reached Acheh as slaves. The west-coast trade routes by which Bataks were brought down to the Achehnese ports ran through or near the Pakpak country, so that its name figures naturally in the Achehnese taxonomy of Batak sub-groups.
Beyond this taxonomic mention, the Pakpak do not play a further part in Vol. I. Their inclusion in the list serves, however, to show that the Achehnese had a working knowledge of the internal divisions of the Batak world, and did not treat the Batak as a single undifferentiated mass — even though, in slang, they collapsed them all under the single opprobrious name of Bata’ Kar’ee.
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.