Book Reviews

• Published in: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde Vol. 116; no. 3; p. 373
• Main Authors: Swellengrebel, J L, Belo, Jane, PE de Josselin de Jong, Gullick, J M, Djamour, Judith, Bosch, FDK, AJ Bernert Kempers, Uhlenbeck, E M, Verstraelen, MEJG, Capell, A, C Maxwell Churchward
• Format: Book Review
• Language: English
• Published: Leiden Koninklijke Brill NV 01.07.1960
• Subjects: Cultural anthropology; Dutch language; Interpersonal relations; Men; Oceanic languages; New York; Bali; United States > US
• ISSN: 0006-2294; 2213-4379

[...]one must also query the author's views on the relationship between lineage and office in Negri Sembilan itself: I should say the chieftainships were not the "basis of lineage status" (p. 74), as they were enmeshed, so to speak, in a whole hierarchical system of genealogically based authority. [...]the concept of baka (the recognition of a patrilineal element by the side of the predominating matrilineal one) also did not come into being because "a theory was developed to justify the inclination of office-holders to concentrate the transmis- 3 One might doubt whether it is justifiable to explain a Perak practice by referring to Minangkabau Negri Sembilan structure. From the middle 'thirties onwards, Indonesian kinship systems have been studied by anthropologists, principally Dutch, who were mainly interested in describing, and tracing the theoretical implications of, unilineal and double-descent structures, and the connubial relationships between descent groups of that type. Since the war, interest in this topic has not abated, but a new interest has been added, namely in kinship systems of the bilateral and ambilateral type. [...]we ought to mention the limitation which lies in the use of the term "Oceanic languages", which implies that Indonesia and the Philippines are not covered.