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let the evidence fit the crime: evidence, law, and “sociological truth” among the Dou Donggo
Author(s) -
JUST PETER
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1986.13.1.02a00030
Subject(s) - adjudication , settlement (finance) , law , sociology , order (exchange) , empirical evidence , criminology , political science , epistemology , philosophy , economics , finance , payment
Among the Dou Donggo (Eastern Sumbawa, Indonesia), evidentiary proceedings are not used as legal discovery procedures to find out “what happened.” In some cases conclusive, publicly known evidence is not sought or is ignored; in other cases evidence widely known to be false is admitted without dispute. Among the Dou Donggo, the truth represented by evidence is revealed to be a sociological, rather than a phenomenal, truth, and adjudication is concerned with a carefully engineered accommodation of both the interests of the community and the rights of individuals. The “dualistic epistemology” by which this is accomplished has important implications for the way in which norms, rules, and the moral order of society are structured in legal proceedings , [legal processes, dispute settlement, evidence, norms, customary law, Indonesia]