Waaliakum salam Wr Wb
Pak Mes, lai molah duduak di Palanta. Kok lai
baminaik Pak Mes menterjemahkan buku nantun, kok basobok ambo jo Katua Gebu
Minang nan baru Pak Fasli Jalal nak ambo sampaikan ka baliau. Karano Gebu
Minang lai adoh komitemen untuak manabikan buku tantang Minangkabau bagai.
Bahkan nan tadanga dek ambo Gebu Minang juo baminaik manabikan buku-buku karya
dosen-dosen asa Minangkabau khusus nan badomisili di Padang. Sayangkan banyak
dotor jo profesor, tapi karya dan bahapanilitian hanyo sabagai hiasan di ruang
kerja masiang-masiang. Baa agak hati lai satuju kito.
salam
Katik Batuah
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2001 1:20
AM
Subject: Re: [RantauNet] Tantang Karajaan
Minangkabau
Terima kasih atas informasi yang diberikan oleh Pak "Maifil Eka Putra"
tantang Karajaan Minangkabau karangan Jane Drakard Hardback berjudul A Kingdom
of Words. Saya sendiri sudah lama memiliki buku tersebut. Yang berminat bisa
pesan copynya. Sebaiknya buku tersebut diterjemahkan, tapi siapa bisa bantu
cari sponsor.
Mestika Zed, Pdg.
>
>Ruling despotically by the letter
>An academic treatise titled `A Kingdom of Words' bends over
backward to
>accomodate a trend
>
>By Bradley Winterton
>
>
>
>What the author of this strange book describes and struggles to
understand
>is a kingdom on the island of Sumatra (in modern Indonesia)
during the 17th
>and 18th centuries. It left no written records of a
chronological kind, and
>the evidence has had to be pieced together from fanciful,
myth-based texts,
>plus the accounts of the Dutch colonizers.
>
>Minangkabau was an important state, situated midway down the
west coast of
>the island. The kings, living in a mountainous interior far
away from the
>coastal settlements, reigned over their people without armies
to enforce
>their will. They were perceived as sacred beings, and ruled
largely by
>sending out elaborate letters. These letters, rhetorically
worded and
>lavishly illustrated, form the main object of the author's
study.
>
>Economic historians, and others trained in the materialist
Western
>tradition, have always seen court rituals and the like as mere
symbols,
>cover for a more ruthlessly physical exercise of power. Leaders
dazzled the
>ignorant populace with processions, but what they were really
doing was
>taking the people's wealth in taxes, collected by force if
necessary. But
>here is a kingdom, Drakard argues, where claims of magical
power were the
>beginning and end of all authority.
>
>This is not an easy book to read. It is awash with words like
"semiotic,"
>"syntagmatic"and "paradigmatic" (all three occurring in a
single sentence).
>But what it describes is curious indeed. The author's attitude
to her
>material, however, is even more intriguing.
>
>A typical Minangkabau royal letter would begin by establishing
the king's
>lineage, would then list his possessions, and end by issuing a
brief
>instruction, such as that the bearer be given safe passage.
>
>The lineage invariably claimed by the kings was one of direct
descent from
>Iskandar Zulkarnain, whose three sons were considered to have
fathered the
>dynasties of China, the Ottoman Empire, and Minangkabau
respectively.
>
>Among the magical objects the Minangkabau kings claimed to
possess were a
>crown that had belonged to Adam, a loom that moved of its own
accord, once
>every year, and wove a fabric that had existed since the
beginning of time,
>a sword that bore marks from a fight with a devil, a dagger
that resisted
>being sheathed, and a drum made from the skins of lice.
>
>The Dutch unsurprisingly looked on such things with a skeptical
eye. Though
>they were undoubtedly eager to lay their hands on the gold for
which
>Minangkabau was famous, they were also heirs to a national
tradition of
>tough-minded practicality that held all myths, and most
religions, as
>fanciful fabrications.
>
>But Jane Drakard leans over backward not to mock any of her
material, and to
>resist the obvious conclusion that such claims were put about
to deceive the
>gullible and ensure taxes, payable in gold, were handed over to
their
>sovereign.
>
>Emperors and kings worldwide have sought to impress their
subjects using
>very similar methods. So, there's really nothing unusual about
these royal
>Sumatrans. The populace may have been so extensively fooled by
their claims
>that little force was needed to maintain their hold on power,
but that's the
>only way they differ from the norm. For Jane Drakard to claim
otherwise
>suggests that she has been subjected to some very odd
ideological pressures.
>
>It is not, unfortunately, hard to see what these pressures
might have been.
>The particular preconceptions that apply in this case are that
the
>perceptions of colonizing powers were always wrong, that all
cultural
>assumptions have equal claims to truth, and that it's necessary
to listen to
>the voices of formerly oppressed peoples whose plight has
hitherto been
>overlooked.
>
>These aims and ambitions are eminently worthy, except when they
fly in the
>face of the facts. And the facts here are unmistakable -- that
the claims of
>these kings of old were as ridiculous as the Dutch considered
them to be.
>
>Moreover, it's doubtful if the modern descendants of the people
described in
>this book would be very grateful for such present-day
endorsements of the
>trickery of their former rulers.
>
>One other feature of the book is more than a little surprising.
Historians
>and modern travelers invariably point to the Minangkabau
people's
>matrilineal social structure. Bill Dalton, in his Indonesia
Handbook,
>credits them with being perhaps the world's largest matrilineal
society.
>Oddly, Jane Drakard makes no mention of this issue.
>
>Nevertheless, what remains of interest in this book is the
light it throws
>on the way words can be used, not only to educate and
enlighten, but to
>baffle and confuse. In societies where most people can't read,
books and
>elaborately penned letters can be objects of considerable
power.
>
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