Cambridge Studies in Law and Society: Political and Legal Transformations of an Indonesian Polity: The Nagari from Colonisation to Decentralisation

Political and Legal Transformations of an Indonesian Polity is a long-term study of the historical transformations of the Minangkabau polity of nagari, property relations and the ever-changing dynamic relationships between Minangkabau matrilineal adat law, Islamic law and state law. While the focus is on the period since the fall of President Suharto in 1998, the book charts a long history of political and legal transformations before and after Indonesia's independence, in which the continuities are as notable as the changes. It also throws light on the transnational processes through which legal and political ideas spread and acquire new meanings. The multi-temporal historical approach adopted is also relevant to the more general discussions of the relationship between anthropology and history, the creation of customary law, identity construction, and the anthropology of colonialism.

1. Towards an anthropological understanding of political and legal change; 2. The pre-colonial nagari; 3. Minangkabau under colonial government; 4. Japanese occupation, independence and postcolonial transformation until 1983; 5. Centralised government at its zenith; 6. Reformasi: constitutional reforms and regional autonomy; 7. Creating new nagari structures; 8. The return to the nagari: smooth transitions; 9. Uneasy transformations; 10. Governing the village; 11. New dynamics in property rights; 12. Never ending disputes; 13. Property law reconstituted - uncertainty perpetuated; 14. Old issues revisited: adat, Islam and Minangkabau identity politics; 15. Decentralisation, the transformation of the nagari and the dynamics of legal pluralism: some conclusions.