Glossary
Some of the terms in this glossary may have evolved in meaning over time or varied across different regions. They are explained here in the context of their use in this book.
| Abdi | “Serves”; people who performed personal services to their chiefs and Sultans without anything in return. |
| Adat | Complex of customary law and practices, social behavioural guidelines and etiquettes in Indonesia. |
| Adat labuan | Docking tax in Aceh. |
| Admodiatie | Practice of negotiating the land rent in Java, between the colonial state and village chiefs and between the chiefs and the population. |
| Algemeene Secretarie | General Secretariat; the supporting office of the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. |
| Alifuru | Term used in colonial times for non-monotheist Indonesian peoples in the interiors of eastern Indonesian islands, nowadays referring to the indigenous peoples of interior Seram. |
| Alune | Overarching tribal group inhabiting the north-western part of West Seram. |
| Amfioensociëteit | Opium Society; public limited company established by voc officials in 1745 for opium trading (disbanded in 1794). |
| Amil | In Banten: religious village officials managing matters of marriage and divorce and the collection and administration of zakat. |
| Angguran | Desa services performed by permanently appointed (usually wealthy) villagers who in return were (partially) exempted from other corvée duties. |
| Assistant-Resident | Dutch colonial official, governor of an “Assistant-Residency” or sub-province below the level of Residency. |
| Baileo | Central “village house” in the Moluccas used for meetings of the Saniri. |
| Baku | Household or family chief in Banten. |
| Balai | Adat council of a nagari in West Sumatra consisting of the accumulated penghulu. |
| Batig slot | Profit shares of the cultivation system rendered to the Dutch treasury. |
| Bekel | Village chief or official in Java, assigned by the colonial state to organise corvée labour, desa services and tax collection. |
| Belasting- en Accountants Dienst | (Colonial) Tax and Accountancy Service. |
| Belasting op de bedrijfs- en andere inkomsten | “Tax on company- and other incomes”; income tax. |
| Binnenlands Bestuur | Interior Administration; European civil service in the Dutch East Indies |
| Blablag | Desa service for maintenance of desa roads, dams and bridges. |
| Blandong | Forestry service; the obligation of peasants in Java to collect firewood for chiefs and lords. |
| Buah gadang | (Sub-)lineages in Minangkabau society. |
| Buitengewesten | “Outer Territories”, term used in colonial times for the islands and regions outside of Java and Madura. |
| Bujang | “Bachelor”; landless dependents in a Javanese peasant household. |
| Bupati | Title for a high-ranking Javanese ruler (“Regent”). |
| Cacah | Household in Java, consisting of a family chief and of extended family and dependents, also used as administrative unit for taxable objects. |
| Cidako | Loin cloth worn in the Moluccas, especially on Seram. |
| Controleur | “Overseer”; fundamental Dutch colonial administrator overseeing a district, below the rank of Assistant-Resident. |
| Cultuurprocenten | “Cultivation percentages”; profit shares from the cultivation system paid out to European and indigenous officials. |
| Cultuurstelsel | Cultivation system. |
| Darat | The traditional heartlands of the Minangkabau realm in West Sumatra, distinct from the outside world or Rantau. |
| Dati | Social group on Ambon that held shared usufruct rights to cooperatively exploit specific lands; transformed into labour groups under voc rule. |
| Dayah | Islamic boarding schools in Aceh. |
| Demang | Title of a Javanese senior provincial official or district head, usually with special tax-collecting responsibilities. |
| Desa | Village, including the surrounding rice fields and lands. |
| Duiten / Duit[s] | Copper coins; money. |
| Dusun | Sagu garden in the Moluccas. |
| Extrawinstbelasting | Extra profit tax. |
| Gamel | Desa service to collect firewood and water for desa chiefs and officials. |
| Ganggam bantuek | Use rights to harta pusaka (see below). |
| Geschenk gaji | Salary gifts awarded to chiefs by the voc on Ambon. |
| Geucik (or keucik) | Village chief in Aceh. |
| Gogol | See sikep. |
| Golongan | Working group for labour services in Java. |
| Gondol | Tax or corvée liability in Java. |
| Gugur gungung | Labour service to perform emergency aid and repairs to infrastructure, for instance after a natural disaster. |
| Gundal | Desa service to accompany and assist desa chiefs and officials on (inspection) tours. |
| Gugur gunung | Special corvée services, traditionally levied by the Sunan in Java for emergency repairs to infrastructure after natural disasters. |
| Haji | Pilgrim; someone who has been on pilgrimage to Mecca (haj). |
| Hak | Right. |
| Hak balé | Laws applying to marital affairs in Aceh. |
| Hak milik | Right of exclusive ownership. |
| Hak praké | Laws applying to inheritance affairs in Aceh. |
| Hak ulayat | The usufruct rights of nagari over uncultivated wastelands. |
| Harta pencarian | Uninheritable lands reclaimed and owned by Minangkabau men until their death. |
| Harta pusaka | Communally held and used lands of Minangkabau families inherited in the female line in West Sumatra. |
| Heerendiensten | Corvée labour services. |
| Heerendienstleggers | Corvée labour service registers. |
| Heerendienstwegen | Corvée roads; roads constructed using government corvée services, sometimes also referred to as ‘grote post- en binnenwegen.’ |
| Hilir | Hills or inlands, mountainous regions. |
| Hongi | Annual expeditions in the Moluccas departing from Ambon in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries consisting of a fleet of indigenous rowing boats (kora-kora) to raid surrounding islands, burning down all “illegal” (non-Dutch sanctioned) clove trees. |
| Hoofdengeld | Head tax (lit. “head money”). |
| Huisgezin | Family; household – term used by the Dutch for several family units in Indonesia, including dati in Ambon and kaum in West Sumatra. |
| Indung pekerangan (or kuli karangkopek) | Term used in Central Java to indicate peasants who had half or minor use rights to rice fields and therefor were not fully liable to perform services and pay taxes. |
| Inheemse inlanders | Legal category to describe indigenous, “Indonesian” persons in the Dutch East Indies living in their place of origins and participating in local adat society, as opposed to “non-indigenous inlanders.” |
| Inheems | Indigenous or native to a given region. |
| Inlander | “Indigenous person”; Dutch sociolegal colonial term used for the group of indigenous “Indonesian” people in the Dutch East Indies. |
| Inlands Bestuur | Indigenous [Interior] Administration; the accumulated indigenous chiefs and rulers appointed as colonial administrators in the Dutch East Indies. |
| Inlandse burgers | “Indigenous citizens”; specific legal category of indigenous people, mardijkers and mestizos across Indonesia (in particular Ambon and North Sulawesi) who enjoyed specific rights and privileges. |
| Intiran | “Regular corvée services”, traditionally levied by the Sunan in Java for construction, repair and maintenance of infrastructure and major irrigation works. |
| Ipan | Genealogical social units in Seram. |
| Isi adat | Village taxes in West Sumatra. |
| Jago | Charismatic strongmen in rural Java who supposedly had spiritual powers and obtained an important role in village politics (lit. “rooster”). |
| Jagul | Replacement corvée labourers in Java; people who took over the corvée duties of other peasants who had ‘bought-off’ their services. |
| Jaksa | Indigenous public prosecutors in Java. |
| Jawi | Malay in Arabic script. |
| Kakean | Secret, religious masculine society in West Seram of the Patasiwa Hitam (see below) that coordinated various aspects of political and social life, including headhunting. |
| Kampung | Settlement, village; usually used in context of an urban environment, and sometimes referring to a specific ethnic community (Kampung Cina; Chinese kampung). |
| Kapitan | 1. Military leader (in Ambon). 2. “Captain”; headman or chief of usually urban Chinese, Arab or Malayan communities in cities across the Dutch East Indies. |
| Kaum | Lineage or clan in Minangkabau society. |
| Kepala | Chief. |
| Kepala dati | Dati chief. |
| Kepala nagari | Nagari chief; village head. |
| Kepala soa | Soa chief. |
| Keraton | Royal palace or court-capital of a Javanese ruler (can also mean “kingdom” or “realm”). |
| Kerja rodi | Term for forced coffee cultivation services in West Sumatra. |
| Kerja trop | Forced clove cultivation services on Ambon. |
| Knevelarij | Extortion and maltreatment (of indigenous people), for instance of peasants in Java during the cultivation system. |
| Kohieren | Tax registers. |
| Kongsi | Chinese extended business networks, partnerships or cooperations. |
| Koninklijke Pakketvaart-Maatschappij | Royal Packet Navigation Company; Dutch colonial shipping company in 1888–1966. |
| Korte Verklaring | “Short Declaration”; standardised model contract used by the Dutch to subject smaller states and their rulers in Indonesia; shorter version of the Lange Verklaring. |
| Kuli gundul | Landholding peasants (sikep) in Central Java who did not possess their own house and lived on the plot of another peasant, but who were nonetheless in possession of some land rights. |
| Kuli kenceng | Landholding peasants (sikep) in Central Java who had full use rights to rice fields and who were fully liable to perform services and pay taxes. |
| Kunduran | Communal labour, specific form of labour service to assist desa chiefs in maintaining their households. |
| Kuwu | Title for a village official or chief in Java. |
| Kwarto | Forced labour services in service of chiefs on Ambon. |
| Kyai | Honorific title for Mecca-trained Islamic scholars and leaders of pesantren. |
| Landraad | Regional colonial court. |
| Landschapskas | Local treasury of a colonial district or Residency. |
| Landskas | Central colonial treasury. |
| Lange Verklaring | “Long declaration”; standardised model contract used to subject indigenous rulers to the colonial state in the Dutch East Indies. |
| Laras | 1. In precolonial West Sumatra: nagari federations. 2. In colonial West Sumatra: sub-districts. |
| Lindung (or wong ngindung) | “Plot holders”; people in Java with smaller plots of land or who owned a house and yard on the land of other peasants. |
| Lumbung desa | Communal grain shed of villages for storing and lending out rice to stabilise the price and market of rice. |
| Luma inai | “Mother houses”, lineage or clan in interior nagari in Seram. |
| Lungguh | Services, or the right to levy services in Java. |
| Lurah | Title for village chiefs in Java. |
| Mamak kepala waris | Family chief in West Sumatra who acted as guardian of the kaum and its land and represented it to the outside world. |
| Mancanagara | Outer regions of the sphere of influence of the Sunan in Java, governed by semi-autonomous bupati. |
| Mantelgeld | Clothing allowance for nagari chiefs on Ambon. |
| Mantri | Minister; civil servant or official of an Indonesian ruler. |
| Mardijkers (mardika) | Specific ethnic group consisting of descendants of formerly enslaved people in the Dutch East Indies. |
| Marinyo | Assistants to the kepala soa on Ambon. |
| Mata rumah (or rumah tau) | Exogamous patrilineal family clans on Ambon, constituting the soa (see below). |
| Mauweng | Traditional priests on Seram. |
| Menumpang | Sharecroppers participating in a peasant household in Java (lit. “lodgers”). |
| Merantau | In West Sumatra:“to go beyond the darat”, i.e. to leave the traditional heartlands of the Minangkabau realm into the wider world to accumulate wealth. |
| Mukim | Community of various kampung organised around a mosque in Aceh. |
| Mupakat | Consensus or agreement, to be supposedly reached in inter-nagari meetings in West Sumatra. |
| Nagara agung | Core domain or crown regions of the Sunan in Java. |
| Nagari | Village or village state. |
| Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij (nhm) | Netherlands Trading Society; Dutch trading company established in 1824 that held exclusive rights to trade and shipping between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies during the era of the cultivation system. |
| Negorijman | “Nagari man”; indigenous person of local descent living in a nagari and taking part in traditional social life. |
| Njora | Wives of chiefs on Ambon. |
| Nusup | “Bachelor”; landless dependent in a Javanese peasant household.. |
| Ommelanden | “Surrounding lands” (around the city of Batavia). |
| Onderhoorigheden | “Dependencies.” |
| Opcenten | Surtaxes; increment levies levied by Dutch municipalities and colonial local governments as a percentage of specific taxes to their own benefit. |
| Orangkaya | Title in use across the Indonesian archipelago for specific chiefs or prominent figures (lit. “rich men”). E.g. in Aceh: wealthy merchants forming a powerful political class. |
| Overwinstbelasting | Excess profit tax. |
| Pacht | Pawning; revenue farming. |
| Pacumpleng | “Door tax”; an old, precolonial Javanese house tax. |
| Padi | Paddy; rice when harvested but uncooked. |
| Padri | Muslim clerics from West Sumatra returning from the haj who, influenced by Wahhabism, aimed to impose strict enforcement of Islamic law by overthrowing the old adat order in the late eighteenth to early nineteenth century. |
| Pajak (or pajeg) | Tax. |
| Pajak badan | “Body tax”; local term used for head tax in some parts of colonial Indonesia. |
| Pancen | Personal services performed by people for aristocrats in Java. |
| Pangkai | The right to establish and exploit a pepper garden in pre-colonial Aceh. |
| Panglima | “Commander”; high miliary commander and official, usually the commander of the army of a king or sultan. |
| Pangreh Praja | “Rulers of the realm”; Javanese term for the Indigenous [Interior] Administration or the Javanese administrative elite. |
| Pasisir | Coast or coastal regions (used in context of Javanese history specifically for the northern coast of Central Java). |
| Patalima | One of the two coinciding ancestral origination groups in Seram. |
| Patasiwa | The other coinciding ancestral origination group in Seram. |
| Patasiwa Hitam | “Black patasiwa”; part of the ancestral origination group in Seram that wore black tattoos and engaged in headhunting. |
| Patasiwa Putih | “White patasiwa”; part of the ancestral origination group in Seram that did not wear tattoos or engage in headhunting. |
| Patentrecht | Patent law or patent tax; Dutch tax, originally a contribution to gain a license to trade or exercise a specific profession, in colonial context translated as a two percent income tax. |
| Patih | “Prime minister” or chief deputy of a Javanese ruler. |
| Patuh | Apanage holders (or holding) of the Sunan in Java. |
| Pax Neerlandica | The epoch of (supposedly) peace and progress across the Indonesian archipelago after completion of Dutch expansion in and the full imposition of colonial authority and civil governance over the Indonesian archipelago. |
| Pela | Village networks or alliances of socioeconomic partnership in the Central Moluccas. |
| Penghulu | 1. In Java: Islamic officials who played an important role in marital affairs and taxes and who were absorbed into the colonial Indigenous Interior Administration. 2. In West Sumatra: family chiefs (of a buah gadang or kaum). |
| Perang sabil | Holy war (particularly of the Acehnese people against Dutch occupation). |
| Pesantren | Islamic boarding schools. |
| Peutuha pangkai | “Pangkai holders”; those who had rights to establish and exploit pepper gardens in Aceh. |
| Picul | Standardised weight measure comprising approximately 62 kg. |
| Posthouder | “Postholder”, lowest ranking colonial administrator in the Moluccas, particularly on Seram, usually of Indo-European descent. |
| Priyayi | Administrative elite of aristocratic officials from the Javanese nobility. |
| Pusaka | “Heirlooms”, important inherited regalia and objects; in West Sumatra specifically the inherited goods, titles and lands of families inherited in female line. |
| Pusaka eigendomsaktes | Ownership deeds issued by the colonial government in West Sumatra. |
| Raad van Indië | “Council of the Indies”; colonial advisory board of the government of the Dutch East Indies. |
| Raja | “King”; title for rulers of diverging stature and nature across the Indonesian archipelago. |
| Rantau | The peripheral (frontier) areas around and beyond the darat in Minangkabau society in West Sumatra. |
| Rapat | Meeting, discussion. |
| Ratu Adil | “Just King”; an anticipated messianic, rightful Islamic ruler who would arrive to bring peace, harmony and justice. |
| Regeeringsreglement | “Government Regulation”; colonial constitution stipulating the legal, political, administrative, socioeconomic and fiscal principles of the colonial state. |
| Regentenbond | Regent Federation; federation of indigenous chiefs, represented in the Volksraad. |
| Resident | Dutch colonial official, overseeing a Residency (province). |
| Ronde desa (or patrol desa) | Patrol services, usually at night, to guard the desa. |
| Rumah gadang | Traditional longhouse in West Sumatra. |
| Rumah tau | See mata rumah. |
| Sagi | Federations of mukim in Aceh. |
| Sagu (sago) | Starch extracted from the centre of sago palm stems, an important staple food in the Moluccas and Papua. |
| Sambatan | Specific type of labour service in Java to assist desa chiefs in maintenance of their households. |
| Saniri | Village councils in the Moluccas. |
| Saniri Tiga Air | “Council of the Three Rivers”; most important inter-nagari council in Seram. |
| Sarakarta | Deed of appointment such as for chiefs (uleebalang) and military officials (panglima) issued in Aceh by the Sultan. |
| Sawah | Paddy field; flooded parcel of arable land used for rice cultivation. |
| Sawah desa | Sawah held under rights belonging to the village community. |
| Sawah negara | Sawah held as property of the ruler or state. |
| Sawah pusaka (or sawah ganjaran) | Sawah individually held and inherited by peasants. |
| Sawah yasa | Individually reclaimed and owned sawah. |
| Schutterij | Citizen militia. |
| Sebuah perut | Household in Minangkabau, i.e. a mother with her daughters and their children, living in a traditional long-house. |
| Serayo | Local form of communal labour in West Sumatra transformed by the Dutch into corvée labour. |
| Sikep | “Servicemen”; landholding peasants in Java. |
| Soal | Specific social group or clan consisting of multiple, originally kinship related family groups on Ambon. |
| Suku | Tribe or ethnicity; in West Sumatra: matrilineal lineage groups or clans which shared a presumed common foremother. |
| Sunan (Susuhunan) | Javanese “emperor”, title for the rulers of Mataram. |
| Tanah | Land (soil). |
| Tanah bengkok | Salary fields for village administrators and rulers (especially in Java, mostly outside the nagara agung). |
| Tanah dati | Land held under shared rights of dati on Ambon. |
| Tarekat | Islamic brotherhoods. |
| Teungku | Title for Acehnese chiefs. |
| Tongkat | Staff or cane, awarded to chiefs (particularly in the Moluccas) as a symbol of authority. |
| Tuanku | Islamic teachers. |
| Tuanku laras | District chief in West Sumatra, appointed by the colonial government. |
| Uang adat | Specific form of customary village taxes in various parts of Indonesia. |
| Uang barah or uang hasil | Fixed salaries awarded by the voc to chiefs on Ambon for their participation in the clove monopoly. |
| Uang pitis | Tax of four percent of the value of harvested cloves levied by chiefs on Ambon. |
| Ulama | Islamic scholars; interpreters and transmitters of Islamic law, knowledge and doctrines. |
| Uleebalang | Originally warlords-cum-entrepreneurs in rural Aceh appointed by the Sultan, who evolved into territorial provincial rulers, later appointed by the colonial state as chiefs in the colonial administration. |
| Uli | Federative bonds or moieties in the Central Moluccas. |
| Verponding | Tax on land or immovable property, in colonial context levied over land not used for agricultural purposes. |
| Volkscredietwezen | “People’s Credit System”; system of local, government-sponsored banks set up by Dutch colonial authorities to control debt and enhance monetisation by lending money against favourable tariffs. |
| Volksraad | “People’s Council” of the Dutch East Indies, colonial pseudo-parliament established in 1918. |
| Vorstenlanden | “Principalities”; the four semi-independent Javanese principalities of Yogyakarta, Surakarta, Pakualam and Mangkunegaran in Central Java. |
| Vreemde Oosterlingen | “Foreign Orientals” (Foreign Asiatics); Dutch colonial legal term used for the sociolegal category of Asian people from outside the Indonesian archipelago, largely consisting of ethnic Chinese and Arabs. |
| Wasé | Import and export duties levied by the Sultan and uleebalang in Aceh. |
| Wasé jalan | Toll levied by uleebalang for use of roads. |
| Wasé lueng | Duty paid by peasants in Aceh for use of the irrigation networks of uleebalang. |
| Wasé sultan (wasé àm) | Import and export duties levied by (or in name of) the Sultan of Aceh. |
| Wayang | Indonesian puppet theatre. |
| Wedana | Javanese district official. |
| Wemale | Overarching tribal group inhabiting the south-eastern part of West and Central Seram. |
| Wingewest | “Area of profit”; term used by the Dutch to stress that colonial possessions were to benefit the mother country and be used to make profits. |
| Zakat | Islamic form of almsgiving or charitable contribution as a religious duty. |
| Zelfbesturend landschap | “Self-governing territory”; term used for the various semi-independent regions in Indonesia ruled by local indigenous rulers who had accepted Dutch supremacy by signing a contract with the Dutch, and who maintained a certain level of autonomy under Dutch supervision. |