Keywords
Customary marriage
Rural livelihoods
Legal response
Gowa
Abstract
This article examines how residents of a pseudonymous highland farming village in Gowa Regency respond to Law Number 16 of 2019, which sets the minimum marriage age for women and men at nineteen. The study asks why child marriage continues, how residents define readiness for marriage, and how village institutions manage marriages conducted before the statutory age. Using a qualitative ethnographic approach, fieldwork was conducted in March and September 2024 through participant observation and in-depth interviews with five married couples, village religious officials, local residents, and a teacher. The findings show that chronological age is not the main local measure of adulthood. Readiness is assessed through the ability to cultivate land, earn income, and assume family responsibilities. Children become involved in farming from an early age, may receive plots from their parents, and are consequently regarded as economically capable before reaching nineteen. Schooling is less valued than agricultural competence, while the village’s customary and religious institutions facilitate unregistered marriages locally called nikah adat and later assist couples in obtaining legal recognition through marriage validation proceedings. Residents describe marriage as a means of preventing premarital relations and cultivating responsibility, yet the data also reveal interrupted education, weak legal protection, rushed partner selection, and divorce risks. The article argues that the limited effect of the statutory age rule is not simply a matter of legal ignorance. It reflects a locally integrated system linking family, land, work, education, religion, and village authority. Effective prevention therefore requires dialogue with local institutions, continued schooling, livelihood alternatives, reproductive-health information, and accessible legal services rather than reliance on age regulation alone.
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