For Minang, a market is for more than just shopping

For Minang, a market is for more than just shopping

By Indra D. Himrat

JAKARTA (JP): When you shop in modern shopping centers you
simply have to pick up what you wish to buy and then pay at the
cash register. However, if you happen to go to a Minang market in
West Sumatra's rural areas, you will find that people will be
involved not only in bargaining for what they want to purchase
but also in discussing matters of interest related to their
village, their country or even the world.

For the Minang people, a market is not simply a place where
economic activities take place, but also an arena for social
interactions.

One of the most striking characteristics peculiar to Minang
markets is that women occupy a dominant position, reflecting the
matriarchal nature of the society. Women sell food, children's
clothes, woven cloths, earthen cooking pots, traditionally
processed salt from the coastal area of Pariaman and other items
traditionally made by housewives.

Each Minang market usually has its own specialty. The
Bukittinggi market, which used to be crowded every Wednesday and
Saturday, for example, is well-known for its ironwork made by
craftsmen from Sungai Pua area and also its woven cloth and
serabi, a local rice-flour pancake, usually sold by housewives.

The Kura Taji market in Pariaman, usually crowded on Mondays
and Thursdays, is famous for its ketupat gulai paku, rice cakes
boiled in rhombus-shaped packets of plaited young coconut leaves
eaten with a curry of edible fern, while the Pariaman market,
crowded every day, is noted for its supply of fresh fish, caught
by traditional fishermen and sold as far away as Riau province,
sale lauak, fish fried in a rice flour batter, and sate piaman,
small pieces of meat roasted on skewers. These dishes, served in
a manner peculiar to the place of their origin, will be a special
attraction to traditional markets in rural areas.

Sometimes, the festiveness of a market increases when sellers
of traditional medicine promote their wares in an attractive
manner or street musicians seek to make money by playing
traditional instruments and singing songs that appeal to young
and old alike. These activities often lure people from other
areas to visit a Minang market, a phenomenon increasing the
uniqueness of the gatherings.

Rural Minangs used to go to the market only once or twice a
week to find foods different from their usual dishes, an activity
locally known as mangganti salero. People of various social
strata would even come to the market only to have a meal and then
their regular food stalls.

So, the markets have become venues where people from various
circles meet. In this position, a market is a place assuming not
only economic but also social significance.

Some people, for example, go to local markets only to tell
their acquaintances or relatives about their planned parties or
exchange other information. Rumors will also circulate in markets
and market visitors will take these up as their topics of
conversation.

So, just go to a Minang market if you wish to know whether a
wedding party held by a certain family went with a bang or if you
want to find information about a certain lad who has left his
village because of violating a traditional norm or about the
success of a certain farmer or about a traditional marriage
procedure, or even about the reform drive now sweeping the
country.

All these information exchanges usually take place when people
eat, drink, conduct transactions or, in the case of male adults,
when they are having their hair cut. Housewives will be engaged
in these activities when they, for example, are in the process of
choosing cakes, vegetables or clothes they wish to buy. Being
involved in such information-exchanging activities renews and
strengthens social relations among these people.

Obviously, to the Minangs markets are economically, socially
and culturally important. One will need to go to the market
simply to meet a friend from another village and unbosom all
one's burdens when eating or drinking in a market food stall.

As a result, local people's economic standing should improve.
As most of the community members are agrarian and homogeneous,
markets have become quite inclusive. It is in this context that
the activities of rural people in the market assume significance
because these social activities will strengthen their existing
social relations.

It can be clearly seen, therefore, that the activities in
rural markets reflect the interrelationships between different
sociocultural activities.

Rural Minang markets are undoubtedly affected by the
sociocultural influences exerted by the Minang community.
Unfortunately, they have also been affected by modernizing
influences. Better communications have, in a way, destroyed the
harmonious order in rural Minang markets.