INTRODUCTION

This chapter contributes to the discussion on how “interreligious marriages” (this term will refer to marriage between persons from different religions) challenge cultural boundaries, in this case, Minangkabau matrilineal-Islamic culture in West Sumatra, Indonesia. The Minangkabau are not only well known as the world's largest matrilineal society, but also as one that coexists amongst the mostly Islamic societies within Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world.

The Minangkabau saying, “Adat basandi syarak, syarak basandi Kitabullah” (Minangkabau customary laws are based on Islamic laws; the Islamic laws are based on the Holy Book — Al Qur'an), is a Minangkabau ideological aphorism that conveys how adat (a collective term for Minangkabau laws and customs) has been greatly influenced by Islam which came into Minangkabau society around the sixteenth century (Abdullah 1966; Dobbin 1974). The pluralism of the legal system in West Sumatran Minangkabau society displays this convergence of influences, consisting of adat law, Islamic law, and Indonesian national law. In Minangkabau daily life, quite often the implementation of these legal systems contradict one another, especially in relation to property and inheritance, and marriage matters.

In this chapter I will focus on how the Minangkabau who are in established interreligious marriages utilize the ambivalent roles of agents of change and defenders of the adat, to maximize the advantages that can be gained from their dualistic position in relation to both their rights and privileges as Minangkabau people. The chapter is based on fieldwork conducted between 2002 and 2005. Respondents quoted in this chapter have been given pseudonyms to protect their privacy. Consequently, the focus of the analysis is the Minangkabau people who, in their effort to legitimize their marriages, have had to undergo religious conversion. The main issue that this chapter will investigate is the success these subjects have achieved in remaking the adat so that their status could be culturally recognized thereby reconstructing what is considered Minangkabau identity and family.