The article, based on the study of a wide scope of literature available on the Minangkabau of West Sumatra, Indonesia, as well as on the author’s own previous ethnographic research, describes the peculiar functional symbiosis of two cultural traditions: social organization based on the principals of matrilineal kinship and institutionalized male migration, viewed from both a structural and a historical perspective. It thus provides a summary of the current state of knowledge about the problem preliminary to further field research planned by the author beginning from July of this year, which will focus on new developments resulting from major socio-political changes in the Indonesian society in the last 10 years since the fall of the regime of President Suharto.
The article presents an ethnographic description of a cycle of marriage rituals as observed by the author in the Minangkabau village of Sulit Air, located in West Sumatra, Indonesia and provides an interpretation of what they tell us about the networks of matrilineal kinship that crisscross the community spanning from the village to the cities where its inhabitants migrate in search of economic betterment, especially some female techniques of maintenance of these networks.