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.