Janet Cartsen had the opportunity to visit Langkawi, some 30 kilometers off the coast from Malaysia, in 1988-1989. She studied the kinship (relationship) between people and noted that Malays in this region put their past behind and focus more on the present and future. These people do not tend to transfer the knowledge or experience of their ancestors to their children and grandchildren.
Their life is molded by the entourage they grow up in. During her fieldwork in a small village, Janet observed that these people could not even remember names and locations of their grandparents. Janet discovered that some of the villagers were not born on the island, and some had parents who were born in some other parts of the world.
In cases like these, there is no need to keep memories of ancestors who came from elsewhere. Janet was quite surprised by this exhibition of behavior because family name often shows status in the society that helps to make and maintain laws and customs.
Janet asked the villagers if they knew more about their neighbours and if they were early settlers of the island. To her surprise they all responded with a negative answer. They did not care who their neighbors were or where they came from. Even if they did, they did not find it entertaining enough to remember. According to Janet, this was ignorance at its best1
When questioned why their ancestors travelled all the way to Langkawi, most of inhabitants replied by saying that they have come to the island to find work and harvest the land. Janet established that the reason to migrate to Langkawi was more economical rather than social or political.
A person could adopt fishing as an occupation without investing anything and earn a living out of it. It is interesting to note that Janet discovered these people calling migrants as ‘bangsat’, which could be literally translated in Malay as a thief running from his past. Though they did not have much to hide, their main reason to migrate was the poverty stricken conditions they were in before.
Kinship was not built out of a certain pattern and people from diversified backgrounds came and settled in Langkawi. Some of the people came as little children with their parents and others came when they were young and married here to settle down on the island.
There were also some from the midlands who married someone from Langkawi and settled on the island. It was also a normal practice to adopt children and look after them as part of the family2
Janet discovered that the people of Langkawi lived like a family on the island. There was no social class and no one was richer or poorer than others. One reason behind this kinship was that most people admitted that they migrated to the island because of the extreme poverty. Their reasons to migrate were to survive and avoid situations that had faced before migration.
These people grew enough food for the survival of the islanders. There was no big landowner on the island to control them. They all were very similar to each another according to Janet. The people share similar myths about the island and its existence in terms of humans3
Food is a very important part of building kinship for the islanders. They dine together as a family and also send cooked rice to relatives living on the island. The example of a good kinship among these people is to marry, have children and become respected grandparents. They do not look at the success of their past rather focus more on the future of their grandchildren.
These people are also very welcoming and do not hesitate to build relationships with people belonging to different islands. Janet interviewed a woman, who said that her father came to visit the island when he was young and the people grew so fond of him that they would not let him go. He then married and settled there and had children who became a part of the community.
So, these people do not only count blood relationships, but also consider strangers as kin if they grow fond of them. People easily mix with one another and it is discouraged to draw differences among each other. People do have different designs of houses, but differences in taste are not promoted4
Janet thinks that forgetting is a part of a custom in Langkawi. People dress, eat, and bath not in the way their grandparents were used to do, but what their surroundings had taught them. Kinship is not build on family traditions simply because past ideas are not transmitted to the younger generation.
Kinship is made by keeping the present in mind with shared ideas, beliefs, and practices. Janet uses the term ‘collective forgetting’ to describe how collectively these people put their past behind and live for the present and future5
Astuti tried to discover the kinship between the people of Vezo based on biological inheritance and social learning. She followed the methodology known as the adoption task, which was used by psychologists to develop an understanding of the North American children. Asturi’s main purpose was to find out if Vezo adults had the capability to differentiate biological attributes from social learning.
She designed questionnaires to measure responses of the people. Her basic goal was to measure responsiveness by asking people what they thought a child would look like and how he would behave if he was adopted. She wanted to know from the people who the child would resemble, his biological father or the adopted one. Similarly, she also wanted to know who the child will behave like of the two.
A total of 77% showed a differentiated pattern in adults. A differentiated pattern suggests that a child’s biological attributes like hair, nose, hands, and feet etc. resemble his biological parents, while his behavior and learning is a reflection of his adopted parents6
Parents play a unique role in the upbringing of their children in Vezo. Once the semen is placed in the mother’s womb, it becomes the house of the child where he grows in the important early stages of his life. The father is thought to be responsible in producing the baby, while the mother is thought to be his protector.
People in Vezo are quite superstitious about their beliefs. They think that if a mother dislikes someone strongly then the baby produced will turn up to be like that disliked person. If a mother spends huge time thinking about someone while she is pregnant then the baby will develop features of the person that has surrounded thoughts of his mother.
Similarly, they believe in karma. What goes around comes back and hits you. If a mother mocked someone in her childhood then the child being born will develop the same deficiencies or disabilities that his mother once mocked. Because a child plays such a pivotal role in the lives of people living in Vezo, these superstitious beliefs are taken very seriously and in a way control the way people live there.
In Vezo, a parent does not lay the claim that his child looks like him. It is completely alright if he or she looks like a fisherman or the neighbour. Claiming that the child resembles a parent is considered inappropriate in Vezo. The children have a very exclusive relationship with their parents. The children belong to a wider community rather than just their parents.
The central aim in life there is to reach old age and be surrounded by many grandchildren. Parents usually do not assert their rights on children. Children, on the other hand, take the liberty to freely make themselves comfortable anywhere in the community.
A child could walk into his parent’s kitchen and eat what may please him. The word parents is just not restricted to biological mother and father, but also to mother’s sister, brother, cousins and father’s sister, brother, and cousins7.
So the word “parents” has a very wide meaning in Vezo. Children not only consider their biological parents, but also their relatives as parents. Astuti wanted to check this response through her study, and how it would affect the parents and children in future.
Astuti believes that children are more attached to their real parents, but to make them more independent and community oriented, they are detached from their parents to be a part of the broader kinship group. Children are encouraged to communicate with other family members when they are still toddlers rather than just receive affection from their parents.
Extended family members more frequently nurture them and try to build a relationship from the start. It is interesting to note that relatives try to put a belief in the child’s mind that they are their parents just like their real parents and they should turn to them in the moments of joy and sadness8
Astuti supports this effort of the Vezo people as she thinks that in this way the kinship between the communities gets stronger. She believes that as the child is not just restricted to the limited family of its father and mother, the community comes as a whole in upbringing him.
She refers to this community as a much ‘larger network’ where the central role is occupied by the child. It’s not only the little child that gets affection and an experience to learn from different people, but the family also communicates on a regular basis with others because of him. For a moment, if this tradition is pulled out of the Vezo community then the bond of togetherness will also seem to diminish.
Where so many family members had been pre-occupied because of a child, there will be less communication bound to take place in the future. The Vezo community is making the best of efforts according to Astuti to maintain the bond of togetherness.
As the adults in Vezo look to adopt more children, they have started to ignore the beliefs that a child must have particular characteristics of his biological parents like a pointed nose or brown eyes9.
Endnotes
Astuti, R, People of the Sea: Identity and Descent Among the Vezo of Madagascar, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995.
Carsten, J, After Kinship, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004. —. The Heat of the Hearth: The Process of Kinship in a Malay Fishing Community, Clarendon Press, Gloucestershire, 1997.
Gelman, SA, The Essential Child : Origins of Essentialism in Everyday Thought, Oxford University Press, New York, 2003.
Murrugarra, E, Migration and Poverty: Toward Better Opportunities for the Poor, World Bank Publications, Washington, 2011.
Footnotes
- Carsten, J, After Kinship, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004.
- Carsten, J, The Heat of the Hearth: The Process of Kinship in a Malay Fishing Community, Clarendon Press, Gloucestershire, 1997.
- Murrugarra, E, Migration and Poverty: Toward Better Opportunities for the Poor, World Bank Publications, Washington, 2011.
- Murrugarra, loc. cit.
- Carsten. J, The Heat of the Hearth: The Process of Kinship in a Malay Fishing Community, Clarendon Press, Gloucestershire, 1997.
- Astuti, R, People of the Sea: Identity and Descent Among the Vezo of Madagascar, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995.
- Gelman, SA, The Essential Child : Origins of Essentialism in Everyday Thought, Oxford University Press, New York, 2003.
- Astuti, loc. cit.
- Astuti, loc. cit.