The introduction to this English translation of a selection from Van Vollenhoven's study of indigenous Indonesian law outlines the historical significance of his work, showing its background in the complex administrative and legal system of the Dutch East Indies, the trends in Dutch colonial legal and economic policy, and the development of adat law scholarship from the early 1900s onwards. The chapters chosen concentrate almost entirely on the adat law of some of the indigenous peoples of Indonesia.

This book describes and analyses Minahasan regional nationalism in the period up to 1942. Attention is given to precolonial antecedents, to the transformations brought about by compulsory coffee cultivation, Christian mission activity and Western education, to the role of local representative councils, to the privileged position which Minahasans came to occupy relative to other Indonesians within the colonial state, and to the ambiguous relationship between Minahasa and the Indonesian nationalist movement. Ideas and models drawn from the theoretical literature on nationalism are used throughout the study to illuminate the processes described. The concluding chapter also includes brief comparisons with other Indonesian regions and with the Philippines, together with an epilogue summarizing the developments of the Japanese occupation and the revolutionary period.