Grandfather & grandson

In Mandailing, 'Grandfather' and 'Grandson' 

are 'brother-Sister'

By Edi Nasution

If observed habits of our ancestors, both based on the information obtained through the 'old literature' and look at the facts in the real in everyday life in the village - our hometown, they are rarely asked where someone with a question: "AHA DO MARGAMU" (what your clan name?) the people around him, but that they often ask is "ISE DO OMPUNGMU" (who is your grandfather), "ISE DO AMANGTUAMU" (who is the brother of the your father), "ISE DO LANGA AMU NA SABAGAS" ('anyone of you who live at home'), "ISE DO LANGA HOMU NA SAOMPUNG" (anyone you are a grandfather)  ?, and so on.

At first I thought this is a 'gaffe' given the existence of a 'trend' in the number of tribal comummunities (ethnic group) in North Sumatra which seems to prefer the "MARGA (CLAN)" (?). Tendency as it occurs primarily in 'pandaraman' (big cities as a colony Mandailing) which may be due to a "fairly competitive rivalry between the ethnic group  in North Sumatra so that the nomads tried to build a 'community'of each to 'benefit' together.

This is somewhat contradictory to the customs ('called adat') of our fathers at home in light of the "MANOPOT KAHANGGI" manners. In this case, it could be someone who is actually "A" surnamed (clan), but he "MANOPOT KAHANGGI" to a family "B" clan. This happens mainly because the marriage between the two people of different sexes (men and women) originating from different villages,  or because of the nuclear family moved to another village with a specific purpose so that the head of the family (the father) should be (mandatory) to implement "MANOPOT KAHANGGI" manners so that they can into the structure of society 'DALIAN NA TOLU' (social system) established in village that will (new) occupy it. This is where I see the persistence of the Mandailing old civilization scraps that every 'huta' (village) is autonomous and can not intervention 'huta' another .

So, in this connection, in line with the orientation of Mandailing cultural values​​, one important thing that I saw in identifying the existence of a person is the question "ISE DO OMPUNGMU", not a question of "AHA DO MARGAMU"! That is, each person Mandailing should make himself into a 'OMPUNG' (grandfather) in view of the great grandson (called 'PAOMPU'), instead of a father (called 'AMANG') is great in the eyes of their children. It probably is one of the cultural values ​​that may have started no longer understood by most people Mandailing themselves now, thus making culture and their civilization declined and where they may no longer have the figure of a great grandfather and feasible for be a role model. 

Gandoang. March 24, 2014

~o0o~