ABSTRACT
The historical study of peasant religion is notoriously difficult. In Minangkabau, as in other parts of the Indonesian archipelago, peasant culture rested on a substratum of animistic beliefs which were still flourishing in the nineteenth century. Other strata of society may have adopted the forms and beliefs of outside cults, but even these social groups - such as the royal family or artisan families - remained powerfully influenced by the prevailing animism of the society in which they lived.
