Lembah Alas

In Alasland, the family which composes a household is the smallest kinship-structured unit. In everyday life, on the other hand, the household, which consists of kinsmen, adopted children, slaves, servants, and so forth, is the smallest political and social unit inside a village, although these days most households among the Alas consist of the nuclear family only. A family which constitutes a household is referred to as indung jabu; the term indung is equivalent to the Malay terms indung, indong, induk, or indok which mean ‘mother’, 'dam of animals', or 'base or home in certain games' (Echols et al. 1963:154; Wilkinson 1959:425); the term jabu means 'family' or 'lineage'. Even when a household is composed of a stem family, this family and household are also called indung jabu. If a household contains servants or slaves, however, these people are not recognized as members of the indung jabu. 1.   The Traditional Longhouse ...

The Alas, uRang Alas or kalak Alas, are an ethnic group who, for the most part, inhabit the Alas valley in the northern region of the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. In former days, the name was also spelled Allas (Marsden 1783:313; Radermacher 1781:8; Rosenberg 1854:464-5), but in 1908 the spelling of Alas was officially adopted by the Dutch government (Lijst 1806:8). The noun Alas refers to the people, to the land, and to the language itself. It is also used as an adjective: the Alas valley is called Lembah Alas, and Alasland is tanoh Alas. This term is used by other ethnic groups as well as by the Alas. There are several folk etymological views about the origin of the term Alas. Kreemer insists that this term originates from the name of a Batak chief who settled down in the Alas village of Batu Mbulan (1822:64; 1823:243-4). These days, however, no Alas whom I asked knows this tradition, and only a few Alas still believe the term Alas originates from the na...