ORGANISASI KEKELUARGAAN MASYARAKAT CHAM DI MALAYSIA

This article examines the organisation of the familial system that is found among the Cham community in Malaysia. The Chams in Malaysia are descendants of the community found in Cambodia and Vietnam. Around 1975 following conflict and instability in Indochina, there was large scale migration into Malaysia. This article on the familial system is based on research conducted between February 2006 and September 2006 among the Cham community in Malaysia. The kinship system that developed among the Chams in Malaysia has similarities with the ‘Hawaiian oriented system’, a term first coined by Murdock in 1949, and which is practised by a major part of the population of Polynesia. The research based on the method of observation indicates there is a mixture of the usage of Cham, Khmer and Malay languages by the community. The research shows that the system of reference that is used to determine a person’s position in a family is influenced by the Khmer language, whereas the calling system still retains the usage of the Champa Malay language.