Hab Sol Vel Taan: Perkawinan Adat Etnis Kei, Maluku Tenggara

Abstract

Everybody has to pass a series of phases in his or her life’s cycle, which begins at the birth, even at the pregnancy, and ends at the death. The more important phase  one will enter, the more public ceremony one will be celebrate, because  the duties and the rights which he/she has to undertake. A marriage is one of the passing phases in a society. The marriage changes the status of a man or a woman to be a husband or a wife, and to be a father or a mother. Such a change has great impacts on the individual due to a series of network relationships which arises as consequences from the marriage, for instance in law-relationship.

This article deals with the traditional ideal marriage of ethnic Kei, wel known as Hab sol vel taan. This ethnic is a community who lives at the Kei islands, south east of Moluccas archipelago.  This kind of marriage is highly appreciated and expected by ethnic Kei, although I have to admit that that marriage is rarely taken place. There have been a lot of marriages among the Keies or between the Keies and other ethnics there are not complied with its ideal pattern, and cause a few theoretical problems. An analysis of the traditional ideal marriage of this ethnic shows that marriage is an expression of the communal relationship among the groups of Keies.