ABSTRACT
This article aims to examine the effects and essence of panai money (spending money given to a wife) in adat perkawinan Bugis (marriage customs) in Indragiri Hilir Regency. This area has a plural society, but there are many locations of the Bugis tribe who settled and colonized and then had their own customs for holding traditional ceremonies, especially panai money as a marriage custom. Is the panai money high only because it is based on an attitude of siri’ (self-respect), or does this Bugis community have a feodal-mindedness with only wealth (money oriented)? The high panai money is a necessity. The majority of the Bugis are reluctant to marry; even if they want to marry, they tend to take shortcuts, such as elopement, or seek from non-Bugis tribes. As a result, most of the girls of the Bugis tribe became spinsters; crimes occurred by taking other people's girls away, and committing unlawful acts by impregnating them. This happens because it maintains siri, and seeks maqa>s}id al-syari>ah but appears in another series with greater consequences. The research is carried out through the sociology of law, which consists of primary and secondary data using book references, direct interviews with the Bugis community, observation, and documentation methods in the triangulation corridor.
