The Practices of Adat (Custom) Inequality in Pakpak Destitute Women at Pegagan Julu VIII Village, Dairi, Indonesia

The aim of this study: This writing analyzed the incidence of practices of adat (custom) inequality in poor women at the social institution of Pakpak community at Pegagan Julu VIII Village.<br><br>The research used the qualitative-feminism method which emphasized on the process of research focusing on women as the research subjects. It digs up their life experience. The data were gathered by using FGD and conducting an in-depth interview and observation on women as the research subjects. The gathered data were analyzed by using the perspective of the Social Feminism theory.<br><br>The result of the research showed that Pakpak women were the important conservers and the doers of adat in their community. This reality was not straightly proportional to their authority to make any decisions in any adat activities or work due to patriarchal culture which prioritizes men, so that it makes women weak in a bargaining position. Consequently, most of the adat values and practices do not take the side of women at the family level and in the community so that they were marginalized in their access and control.<br><br>Poverty, undergone by women, will be severer by the adat burden, which has to be born by women. This situation will potentially cause them to be in double poverty and alienation from their own adat.


Introduction
Pakpak community is one of the ethnicities in Indonesia that has the values of local wisdom, such as adat istiadat (custom and tradition), which are closely related to the kinship system in the form of patrilineal system. The patrilineal kinship system in the Pakpak community is unilineal, which emphasizes kinship or consanguinity, based on the line of decent (ancestral line) from the father side (male). Patrilineal kinship is often defined as the origin of a father's clan, which is bequeathed to the son. Meanwhile, a daughter can inherit her father's clan but she cannot bequeath it to her children. Therefore, the origin of kinship is commonly related to the origin of a clan in men as it occurs in the Pakpak community [1][2][3][4].
Besides being characterized by patrilineal kinship, this ethnicity has varied geographical spreading regions, which constitute the background of suak diversity. Besides the geographical factor, historically this ethnicity is closely related to spreading regions of the Batak Pakpak community which is called, Tanoh Pakpak (Geographical area, which explains the origin of the Batak Pakpak ethnicity where they came from and dwelled). Berutu points out that the spreading region of the Pakpak ethnicity can be classified to five suak [5].
Referring to the spreading area of the Batak Pakpak community (Tanoh Pakpak), based on the five suak, the Batak Pakpak community at Pegagan Julu VIII Village is called Pegagan Batak Pakpak suak that dwells at Tanoh Pakpak Pegagan. The Pakpak community is an ethnicity, which has strong historic ties with a tradition, bequeathed by their ancestors from their old generation. The Pakpak Social sciences community in this village also firmly holds its custom and tradition. There are some sub-elements of Batak Pakpak tradition in this village, which are tightly held by the villagers, which they call as kerja or kerja-kerja (Pakpak dialect, meaning every adat activity which becomes the traditional culture of Pakpak ethnicty which refers to any important events such as childbirth, wedding parties, death, etc). In their daily life, this term is popularly known as having parties or ceremonies. The term, kerja or kerja-kerja is divided into two phrases: kerja baik (good work) and kerja njahat (bad work). Kerja baik means that a party or ceremony is held in joyous condition; for examples, wedding ceremonies, childbirths, commencing the year, entering a new house, etc. On the other hand, kerja njahat is concerned with grief. In the Pakpak dialect, the term, njahat can mean difficult or something, which has to be done; for example, mate ncayur ntua (funeral) mengokal tulang (digging out the bones of the deceased), and menutung tulang (burning up the bones of the deceased) [3,5].
In all adat ceremonies, either they are kerja baik or kerja njahat, which are organized in the Batak Pakpak community in this village, indicates the involvement of men and women, but in the kerja adat there is a significant difference in their respective role: men play more important role than that of women. Men become parsinabul or speakers while women are not allowed to be speakers. Men become the center of the ceremony as they lead and fully participate in it. In any decision making, men will decide while women play their role as the executors or the persons who carry out the decision. Women are positioned as the persons, who prepare the agenda, such as providing place, spreading plaited mats, providing other facilities, consumption, etc. During the ceremony, women usually take their seats at the back. They become serious listeners, and it is not uncommon that they carry their babies, breastfeed them or take care of their small children during the ceremony. The involvement of Pakpak women in any adat activities or in any significant traditional ceremonies shows the fact that they play a great role in as the group of people, who are potential as the adat conservers in their ethnicity. The involvement of women is so great in every activity or adat kerja-kerja even though they are positioned as adat 'workers', not as decision makers. This condition is very interesting to be analyzed in this study. Their significant role in conversing their custom and tradition is contrary to the reality that they are full of adat inequality which potentially discriminates their status in their community.
The reality of adat inequality in Pakpak women has been shown in various studies, which are more dominant by using the cultural point of view [6][7][8]. However, these studies have not revealed the life experience of the Pakpak women in the context of adat or custom, which is revealed from the feminism point of view, a study on women as the research subject. It means that a study on the life experience of women in the context of adat has not been presented from their experience or voice. Therefore, feminism method is an approach to understand how women give meaning and understanding about adat in their community.
The aim of this study: This writing analyzed the incidence of practices of adat (custom) inequality in poor women at the social institution of Pakpak community at Pegagan Julu VIII Village.

Material and Method
This research used qualitative feminism method with case study design. The issues, presented in this research, were about the practices of adat inequality toward women in their customary lives in families as the representation of domestic institution and adat institution as the representation of public institution of the Pakpak community. This research used the analysis of Socialist Feminism theory, which emphasizes the domination of patriarchal culture as the central structure that produces and re-produces the values of gender inequality toward women. Feminism research is a research method which presents women as the research subject. They are involved in every process of research and in finding out the objectives of the research [9,10].
The informants were Pakpak women, who had undergone the practice of adat inequality in family (domestic) institution and adat (public) institution in the Pakpak community. The selection of informants was based on the category/characteristics of age, marital status, education, livelihood, and dwelling place (in accordance with the characteristics of Pakpak families).
The research was conducted from January until October, 2018. The first stage was by determining the research informants by selecting a number of cases in the adat inequality, undergone by Original Research Article: full paper (2020), «EUREKA: Social and Humanities» Number 5

Social sciences
poor women from the result of FGD with woman communities in rural areas and from women empowerment bureau institutions in the level of sub-district. After developing the close relationship and mutual understanding, finally some women were willing to become the research informants. The data were gathered by using in-depth interviews and observation. The observational technique was done toward various women's activities of daily life, especially in making any decisions in the families and in any adat ceremonies. The interviews were made in the form of transcript, followed by categorizing the data and data reduction according to the research objectives. The gathered data were analyzed, based on the theories, followed by drawing a conclusion.
The next step was that all of the information, obtained from the informants, became varied and different information, so that more complete information could be obtained. This type of information was very important because it was in accordance with the demand of a research, which had a feminism perspective that revealed the diversity of women's life experience, constructed based on their perspective as the research subjects.

Result 1. Cases of Adat Inequality in Women
After having done a very long process through trust and rapport relationship, finally there were five women, who were willing to be research informants in this study. However, not all women with this type of case were willing to convey their life experience, which was related to the practices of adat inequality in families and in the adat institutions. It is understandable because as the Pakpak ethnicity, they really appreciate and respect the adat values, which had been bequeathed by their ancestors or their old generation. One other thing, which made some women reluctant to be the research informants, was because they had to maintain good reputation and dignity of their families; besides that, they were reluctant to be the research informants because they did not want to disclose the privacy of their families. Even though the research team was faced by the vested interest of some informants, finally good cooperation with the female informants, who empirically underwent inequality practices or customary marginalization, was successfully established. In concrete, the cases of the adat inequality in families were presented by three poor girls, and the adat inequality in the adat institutions was presented by the life experience of two destitute married women. The data on informants could be seen in following Table 1.

2. The Case of Adat Inequality in Women in the Family
The brief description of the three cases in this research explains the incidence of the practice of limiting the access and control toward inheritance and the rights to get education by women in their families. Each of these destitute women underwent discrimination in accessing to their inheritance and the opportunity to get formal education in their families, in which there is a customary rule, which states that inheritance is not prioritized for daughters because it is owned by sons.
The case of inequality in adat is more prominent by the practice or treatment, undergone by these destitute women. They admitted that they were not prioritized to access to inheritance because their families firmly obeyed the customary rules and did not dare to oppose it. Besides Original Research Article: full paper (2020), «EUREKA: Social and Humanities» Number 5 Social sciences that, poverty also played its role in distributing the incidence of marginalization in daughters' right to access to formal education. Consequently, parents tended to prioritize their sons to access to inheritance and formal education, which, of course, harmed daughters. This case was revealed by what was said by the informants that besides they were not allowed to get inheritance, they were also not prioritized to access to formal education. Another implication of the practice of the adat inequality is that a girl is directed by her parents to get a job in such a young age to support her family's economic condition and to help her brothers financially in formal education. Furthermore, it is said that a woman's social position tends to be subordinated and exploited due to the customary inequality. The subordination and exploitation are seen in a woman's objective condition, which is realized in various impacts. One of them is that a woman tends to be burdened by a heavier load of work than that of a man in the system of job description in a family. In consequence, she has to quit her school and work in such a young age in order to support her family's economy. When a family is poverty stricken, either directly or indirectly, a daughter has to get involved in carrying this burden by doing chores. A girl's role in getting a job and helping her family survive and financing her brothers to get higher education can be said as a "hidden exploitation". The practices of involving girls in working hard are considered as a mechanism or strategy of a family to survive from poverty. The reality that constitutes the background of exploiting women, who have to work in such a young age (school-aged children), confirms the assumption that she is "a family's dedicated servant," and a boy is "considered as a king." The idea, which positions a girl as a 'dedicated servant" and a boy as a "king," has constructed an unequal social position. Hierarchically, a man is positioned as a "central position" and an important one while a woman is positioned as a "marginal position" so that her existence is usually not taken into consideration in a family.
Inequality in the adat practice, undergone by women, is in accordance with their real life experience, found in the ideology of the role of gender, reflected in job description between men and women. The reality, reflected in the job description system in a family, has positioned a woman as a daughter, a married woman, or a mother, who has to carry heavier work load. The patrilineal system in the Pakpak community has constructed a patriarchal job description system by positioning women as domestic workers. Domestic work in the tradition or in adat norms is laid on a woman's shoulders; and, because of severe condition of poverty, she has to work very hard to maintain her family's economic condition. This heavier work load, which has to be laid upon her shoulders, has caused double burden for her in the system of job description, especially in doing chores as reproductive work and earning a living as a productive work. This situation is a very disadvantageous one and tends to be unfair, when a woman, who has to work hard in her productive work is not accompanied by men in reproductive work. Domestic work in the household sector is never handed over to men since it is prohibited by adat. Customary norms prohibit and even impose a sanction upon women, when their brother(s) (turang) or husbands (impal) do the jobs, which are the portion of women, as long as there are women in the house, who are able to do them. There are some phrases for a daughter, who lets her brother(s) or husband do women's jobs; she is called, ""kalak daberru oda dibetto adat (a girl who has no good manners) and "nda dipessaketken turangna" (no respect for her brother).
An adat value, which becomes a referential norm of decision making in a family, is reflected in other things, such as the life story of destitute women. If an adat norm firmly prohibits a man to do a reproductive work, a destitute woman, who does productive work (earning a living) is not prohibited by adat. It has to be admitted, that destitute women, on behalf of adat and poverty, are not related anymore to domestic work because they have to do their best in handling their poverty and strengthen their family's economic condition. The involvement of women in doing reproductive work and productive work is indicated that the adat (custom), directly and indirectly, deals with a double standard for women. Men are not allowed to do women's job, but women can or must (in the extreme viewpoint) do men's job.
Discriminative treatment, which comes from adat in women, who have their access to inheritance explains the practices of exploitation on the Pakpak women in families in oda terida (in hidden and disguised way), which is increasingly perpetuated through the role of adat. The Social sciences customary values, which place a man as the representative of adat and the leader in a family and community, position him as "a king". He is usually called in an adat family as tuanku (my king). Meanwhile, a woman has to obey and is always ready to do what is ordered by a man; in this position, she is usually called, jolmangku (my king).
In the context of adat, women are placed as the persons, who are always ready to sacrifice or be sacrificed in their families. They are not allowed to deny or oppose to men's orders. If they do not adhere to what has been ordered by men, they will be considered as the stereotype of daberru oda meradat (women who have no manners) or oda dibetto pesakepken dahollina (women who do not know how to respect men). An adat norm implies that when men do what has usually been done by women, they will have no dignity or their family's dignity will be vanished. The case was presented on the example of a girl, who quit school, stayed with her cousin in town, and got a job; it was considered as cedda ngo gelar keluarga mella daholli mengulaken kerejoen daberru (it is a disgrace for a family if men do women's job). In order to avoid such a stereotype, a woman, who undergoes adat inequality in her family, tends to keep silent, patient, yielded, and praying.

The Case of Adat Inequality in Women in the Adat Institution
The description of the case of the adat inequality in the adat institution is represented by 2 (two) cases, undergone by destitute women, who had been married. The case of adat inequality in destitute women came from discriminative treatment by the adat institution. In this case, women felt they did not get any support from the adat institution, when they attempted to fight for their inheritance. It seemed that the adat institution did not take the side of women and it did not give any support for them to struggle for their customary right in their families. This case described a woman, who asked for customary protection and support to settle a dispute in inheritance in her family.
This woman was in conflict with her brother, when she planned to live in a house, bequeathed by her parents and to cultivate the rice wet field, bequeathed by her family in order to survive. However, her effort to get justice or support from the adat institution was not realized. The adat council that mediated the dispute in inheritance between the two siblings firmly stated that women were not allowed by the adat rule to get a house, which is part of a legacy and also the other properties. If, for a certain reason (poverty), a woman has to live in her parents' inheritance house, it should be settle internally, by mengelek (requesting) to her brother(s) with the hope that her brother feels pity on her and allows her to live in that house.
In the case of destitute women in the adat institution, it showed that women tended to accept and yield to the treatment and the decision of the adat institution, which, in reality, did not take the side of them. The construction of patriarchal values has been instilled in the adat institution in the form of decision and action, which discriminate the rights of women to get adat protection and justice. Women's attitude toward accepting and being adhered to the adat decision, and, at the same time, explaining that the adat institution considers the practices of discrimination and marginalization toward women is the objective reality of their lives.
On the other hand, it can also be assumed, that women's attitude toward accepting marginalization treatment by the adat institution, as it was seen in the case of destitute women, cannot be separated from the construction of patriarchal values, which are believed by them. The values of paying homage to their turang (brothers) as kula-kula have an important role in bestowing blessing and approval in women's lives.
The idea and value, which have been attached to women to pay homage to their turang as their kula-kula, become the main reason for them to yield to everything, which has been decided by her turang. As girls, they have been taught to be submissive, obeying their parents' peda-peda (teaching of life or advice, which have become a cultural norm in the Pakpak community) to always be devoted and respect their turang. The feeling of respect and devotion in women is reflected in petalukan ukur (yielded) for the sake of prioritizing the education of their turang. Besides that, the petalukan ukur attitude of girls constitutes the background of their poverty, which causes the lack of money to send their brothers to school in poor families.
A destitute girl tends to accept double standard treatment. It is the obligation and responsibility of girls and children to take care of their parents, when they are sick, but the right on in-Social sciences heritance and education is prioritized to boys. The treatment of double standard is also reflected in the case of women in the adat institution. The existence of the double standard presents the attitude toward mengallo (objection to yielding) by women against the treatment of their turang, who do not appreciate their sacrifice and homage to their parents. Their objection to their brothers' arrogance occurs because they are not given the access to live in their house, which is part of a legacy of their parents.
Because of the attitude of their turang, who did not give them an access to live in their parents' house, they had to involve the adat institution in settling the internal problems in their families even though they finally realize that they, in this case, had to accept the reality that the adat institution never took the side of them and was never willing to protect their interest. Therefore, they only yielded and felt disappointed and had to be patient, accepting the decision of the adat institution, which clearly did not take the side of them, and never defended their interest. Destitute women, who have been marginalized in accessing to their family's inheritance, feel hurt by the attitude of their brothers, but they have to respect and have to be permissive in order to maintain family communication not to be broken off. This attitude has to be maintained by women in order to get pasu-pasu (Blessing. Men are considered as kula-kula, the persons, who have the privilege in giving pasu-pasu to their sisters) from their brothers. Most of the Pakpak destitute women believe that pasu-pasu from their brothers will give blessing, happiness, fortune, and all of goodness in their future lives.
The decision of the adat institution, which does not take the side of women is accepted by the destitute women with full of patience and submission. This submission is identified by their acceptance of all decisions, made by the adat institution. The adat council reminds that women are required to serrep (obey) and be faithful to the customary rules and suggests that they should always mengelek for the kindness of their turang in the hope that he will change his mind and calm down. The partiality of the adat institution concerning the problems of women has conditioned women with no choice to make. In this case, destitute women can only say yes to any decisions, made by the adat institution, and the climax of women's helplessness is indicated by the following statement: "...Pakpak woman like me, although I am treated very badly by my turang, I have to be patient. What I can do is praying because if I do not obey him, I will get calamity. What I plant will not grow, and one think, which makes me afraid is that my children (family) will not be successful. A woman has to respect her brother(s) because the pasu-pasu and prayer of my turang is the gate for the safety and the happiness of a woman... (Informant 4) In the context of the Pakpak cultural values, turang is paid homage, since they are kula-kula that will give "blessing", and they play their role as "sacred" in the life of a Batak Pakpak woman. In the patriarchal system, which is reflected in the adat values, the reality of poverty usually positions (destitute) women in a dilemmatic position. In this dilemmatic position, they are subject to vested interest between paying homage as anak berru (a group of relatives from the woman side. In the social system of Pakpak custom, which is called sulang silima, a woman side or her relatives are uder the hierarchy of the group of men's relatives) and opposing to exploitation (intentionally or not) from their brothers as their kula-kula. The destitute woman's adat inequality also occurs in other destitute women. In this case, she did not get any support from the adat institution, when she competed with a man to get the position as the Village Secretary. This woman's courage to participate in politics began, when she Original Research Article: full paper (2020), «EUREKA: Social and Humanities» Number 5 Social sciences was aware of her duty to advance her community's prosperity; besides that, she was also supported by an LSM (Non-Government Organization) of local women. Although she got support from the local woman organization, in the context of local institution in her village, she was completely ignored. Rejection came from the village institution and the adat institution. Their main reason for the rejection was that there was the assumption that it was man, who was appropriate to be a leader, including the village head (politics). In short, when this woman wanted to access to a strategic position in a village government, she was suggested by some adat leaders in the village to give up on her plan and withdraw even though she attempted to tell the adat leaders and the other public figures in the village that a woman can also be a leader. She even firmly argued that their opinion was out of date because today the change included the position of women in society. Nevertheless, the dialogue and the negotiation seemed futile because she was always rejected by the public figures and the adat leaders to access to political domain as a public and political figure in her community. This case confirms that an adat institution has the power and the structural influence to limit woman's political right in public domain. In other words, an adat institution tends to be reluctant to accept the existence of leadership by a woman in their village. This negative reaction by the village public figures and the adat leaders had made this woman frustrated. It seemed that she did not get any support from anyone in her village, so that she decided to withdraw. Her self-confidence and prowess to be the Village Secretary weakened even though there was still the support from the LSM. Various kinds of criticism had to be received by her as they are stated below: "Diakapkepantas ngo daberru memimpin masyarakat?Enggo umum di kalak Pakpaken mella daberru isapo ngo mengurus keluarga dekket sikedek-kedekna.Mella pe daberru boi kerejo sebatas mengurupi ekonomi keluargana. Oda boi daberru mengatur masyarakat oda lot aturannna daberru geut memimpin".
(Do you think that a woman is appropriate to lead people? In general, in the Batak Pakpak community, a woman has to stay at home, taking care of her family or work in the field, helping her husband. If a woman like me gets a job, the idea is only to help family's economy; she doesn't have any right to organize or lead people). (Informant 5) The description of the cases above, which implies the practices of adat inequality, undergone by destitute women, comes from the adat values, which become their life guidance. The adat values are the source of social order, which becomes the center of the sustainability of the people's daily life of the Pakpak ethnicity at Pegagan Julu VIII. As the cultural system and a social structure, the adat value, implemented by the Pakpak community, is stated in the form of an institution, an adat institution of sulangsilima (the term of Pakpak Adat Institution in the spread region of the Pakpak ethnicity. Every Pakpak clan has its own adat istitution).
The description of all cases of the practices of adat inequality, undergone by the Pakpak destitute women, is briefly seen in the following Table 2.

4. Reflection of the Socialist Feminism Theoretical Approach
The whole description of the cases of adat inequality, which marginalized destitute women in accessing to socio-economic resources in families and in communities, is explained in the Socialist Feminism framework. The implementation of Socialist Feminism theory, which presents the issue of women in the adat inequality, cannot be separated from the main thesis, the social system and social structure, which are called patriarchy [11,12]. In this case, adat or custom is the representation of a social system or structure which carries patriarchal power. The inequality in women in the adat is a phenomenon and structural reality, which come from patriarchy as re-conceptualization of the ideology and social system. In the context of theoretical analysis, inequality in women in the adat is the product of the patriarchal system, which has been taken for granted. In that kind of structure, there is an external and oppressive norm in the actors, either in the context of individuals or groups.
In this theory, it is also revealed, that the process or the mechanism of adat inequality in Batak Pakpak women in the social domestic-public institutions at Pegagan Julu VIII Village comes from a system and a structure. The realization of a system or a structure, which exploits women, is called as adat values, which at the same time, become "gender ideology containing patriarchy." In the context of family (dometic) institution, gender ideology is called as private patriarchy, and in the context of adat institution it is called as public patriarchy. These two types of patriarchy have constructed an asymmetric gender relation, which has the consequence by the existence of the practice or treatment of inequality in women, which comes from the adat values in the social institution of Batak Pakpak community.

Conclusion
With a case study, which presents the practices of adat inequality on women in the family institution and the adat institution of the Pakpak community at Pegagan Julu VIII Village by using the feminism point of view or woman's point of view, it could be concluded in the theoretical and empirical level. Theoretically, this study showed that the phenomena of inequality in the Pakpak women are caused by the role of the patriarchal system, which has penetrated to all social structures in the Pakpak community. This view is the main thesis, which is believed by the social structural feminists. This theoretical idea emphasizes that the patriarchal social system has been a given system in the Pakpak community, so that every individual or social actor is required to follow or subject to this system. In reality, however, the result of this study revealed that in the cases of adat inequality there were some actors, who showed their resistance against the injustice in women in the social system. However, this resistance attitude of the women in this case has not presented their potency as the actors of resistance, who are significantly able to change the adat inequality in their community. On the other hand, most of them, who underwent the cases, tended to place their position as the actors of hierarchical reproduction.
In the level of empirical study of these cases, it is explained, that women had the potency as the actors of adat inequality in their community. At the same time, this study showed a meaning process and women's understanding about an adat inequality as an objective reality in their lives. The concretization of this women's objective reality toward their adat is showed in the form of faithfulness and obedience to all practices of adat values, which tend to be partial, and which do not treat them equal to men.