マレー農村における屋敷地共住集団 : 20年間における変化とその意味

Abstract

Multihouseholdcompounds (yashikijikyoju shudan), a concept defined and given special attention to by Koichi Mizuno based on his findings in Northeast Thailand, are found in many places in Southeast Asia if the term is used loosely. In this paper, the term, multihouseholdcompound is applied to those found in Malay villages in Kelantan, though these should more properly be called kin-neighborhoods as their corporate character is obviously weaker. In Malay villages, multihouseholdcompounds were in earliertimes formed based on a bilateral residence rule in which one or more children, either male or female would stay in the compound of their parents. Changes in the multihouseholdcompounds in a Malay village were examined for the period of 20 years from 1971 to 1991. No remarkable change was found in the average number of the constituent households, though some compounds declined and others grew. A recent trend has been for more females to remain in the parental compound than males, reflecting the orientation toward independence among the males. The change in the composition of constituent households is not predictable : any household, including the parental one, may leave the compound, while children who had previously left the compound may return. Multihouseholdcompounds formed around a parental household in a newly opened settlement may differ from those in a later stage in showing a simple composition rather than the more complex and irregular one that inevitably arises later. The composition of multihouseholdcompounds may reflect the cultural image of the family and kinship maintained by the particular group of people. However, it is only a part of the whole image formed at a particular time and place.