Adat

This article is about Indonesian law. For the digital recording format, see ADAT.

Group of Minangkabau people in adat dress. 1895

Adat (Jawi: عادة) in Indonesian-Malay culture is the set of cultural norms, values, customs and practices found among specific ethnic groups in Indonesia, the southern Philippines and Malaysia. For instance pakaian adat, or adat clothes, refers to the traditional clothing of a specific people.

Adat include the set of local and traditional laws and dispute resolution systems by which society was regulated. In older Malay language, adat refers to the customary laws, the unwritten traditional code regulating social, political, and economical as well as maritime laws.

Two kinds of Malay adat laws were developed before the 15th century:

• Adat Perpateh was developed as a matrilineal kinship structure from early time by the Minangkabau people in Sumatra and Negri Sembilan.
• The office of the sea admiral or under Adat Temenggong originated bilaterally based on territorial social units. Both adat forms were significantly transformed by Islamic and later European legal systems during the later colonial times.
• During the inter-maritime contact prior to the 15th century, Chinese vessels (wooden junks) came and had established the basic draft form for the original development in the adat Temenggong maritime laws. The Malacca sultanate had the office of the sea admiral or the Office of the Temenggung.

Nowadays adat rules still are of legal relevance in some areas of Indonesia, especially in most Hindu villages in Bali, the Tenger area and in the region of Yogyakarta.

See also

• Urf

References

• The New Encyclopædia Britannica Vol 1 (15th edition) page 82 for quoted resources and further research on this topic

External links

• Paper on Adat