Minangkabau clans or suku are traditional kinship groups sharing a common surname and heritage and existing in a lineage based society prior to the fifth century. These clans are descended matrilineally which means clans are descended based on the female line.
History
According to the Tambo of the Minangkabau, the clans are grouped into several big groups or known as kalarehan. These main clan groups are Ketemanggungan group and Perpatih group. In the beginning, there were two clans in each system. So, there were four main clans. These clans are Koto and Piliang from the Ketemanggungan also Bodi and Caniago from Perpatih Nan Sabatang. Later, the system of Ketemanggungan system are called Koto-Piliang system and Perpatih system are called Bodi-Caniago system. The Koto-Piliang System and the Bodi-Caniago System developed differently. These systems formed their own governing system based on their ideologies. The Koto-Piliang are based on aristocracy while Bodi-Caniago are based on confederation. These clans' name are believed to have originated from Sanskrit. As well as, Koto originated from the wordkotta which means 'citadel', Piliang originated from the agglutination of the word phili which means 'to be chosen' and hyang which means 'god', which means 'the God's choice', Bodi originated from the word bodhi which means 'civilized' and Caniago originated from the agglutination of the word chana which means 'someone' and 'aga' which means 'valuable'. This is same for the other clans in Minangkabau that developed in the Buddhism era of Pagaruyung which Sanskrit was used widely as a liturgical language and culturaltitle along with Pali. Some clans' name were changed to adapt with the Islam after its arrival. Some of the new clans developed from the main clans due to differences in understanding and outlook in terms of customs. The new matrilineal clans also developed in Negeri Sembilan along with the Minangkabau migrantwaves from Pagaruyung to Negeri Sembilan circa 17th-18th century. Some of them were named by the place of origin of the migrant groups from Pagaruyung and other were named after the Minangkabau groups that intermarried with the Orang Asli, Malay, Javanese and Acehnese. Some clans may be determined by the Kings of the Pagaruyung. Now, no new clans are created.
