Webs of Power: Women, Kin, and Community in a Sumatran Village / Edition 1

by Evelyn Blackwood

Overview

Webs of Power offers a fresh perspective on women in Southeast Asia. Although the book focuses on one village, it provides vital insights into the gendered processes of post-coloniality. By exploring the contestations and accommodations being made in rural villages by both men and women, "Webs of Power" reveals the processes at the heart of globalization as well as the complexities of power that circulate between women and men in a rural peasant society.

Author Biography: Evelyn Blackwood is assistant professor in women's studies and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Purdue University.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2900847699116
Publication date:	01/12/2000
Pages:	249
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Evelyn Blackwood is assistant professor in women's studies and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Purdue University.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 1 Introduction: Matriliny, Gender, and Power Chapter 2 2 Village Currents in West Sumatra Chapter 3 3 Senior Women and Their Houses Chapter 4 4 National Discourses and Daughters’ Desires Chapter 5 5 Senior Women and Ceremonial Strategies Chapter 6 6 Ceremonial Practice and the Ideology of Rank Chapter 7 7 Controlling Labor, Controlling Kin: Village Farm Relations Chapter 8 8 The Politics of Power

Editorial Reviews

Students and scholars of Southeast Asia will find this to be an important contribution to the ongoing process of rethinking gender and power in the region.

Ethnos

Webs of Power is certainly a convincing study of matriliny in practice.

Royal Anthropological Institute Of Great Britain and Ireland

...Insights into the internal dynamics of power and the intertwining nature of 'domestic' and 'public' spheres of influence provides a fascinating story and analysis.

Development and Change - Ratna Saptari

Evelyn Blackwood's analysis of power among the Minangkabau goes far beyond previous works on gender and power by revealing the complex negotiations that occur among women—as well as between women and men—when people of different generations, ranks, and classes attribute meaning to their interactions. Webs of Power explores how people draw on multiple and conflicting discourses of inequality, such as Indonesian state visions of 'meritocracy,' 'traditional' Minangkabau privileges of rank, and moral claims of mutual support, to obtain others' help in furthering economic, political, and personal goals. Vivid examples illuminate what is at stake for individuals involved in household, kin, client, neighborly, and political relationships. Although focused on one Minangkabau village, the book imparts a rich sense of how ordinary people are coping with the dramatic political and economic changes occurring in Indonesia today.

Jane F. Collier

The book is detailed yet has a readable style. Recommended.

Choice Reviews

In this well-written and informative ethnography of a Minangkabau village in West Sumatra, Indonesia, Evelyn Blackwood offers a detailed picture of how social relationships centered on kinship and rank are negotiated, contested, and cemented through everyday practices. It is a valuable contribution to the growing literature on women in Indonesia and in Southeast Asia more broadly, as well as to the anthropological literature on kinship and matrilineal societies.

Journal of Asian Studies

The book makes a significant contribution to both gender studies and anthropology, for it is one of the few books that provides an empirical basis for the reality of women's social power. Webs of Power provides a very informative overview of the literature in both gender studies and anthropology while giving us an excellent summary of work not only in Minangkabau but in Southeast Asia more generally.

Peggy Reeves Sanday

The book is detailed yet has a readable style. Recommended.

Choice

The book is detailed yet has a readable style. Recommended.

CHOICE

In this well-written and informative ethnography of a Minangkabau village in West Sumatra, Indonesia, Evelyn Blackwood offers a detailed picture of how social relationships centered on kinship and rank are negotiated, contested, and cemented through everyday practices. It is a valuable contribution to the growing literature on women in Indonesia and in Southeast Asia more broadly, as well as to the anthropological literature on kinship and matrilineal societies.

Journal Of Asian Studies

...Insights into the internal dynamics of power and the intertwining nature of 'domestic' and 'public' spheres of influence provides a fascinating story and analysis.
— Ratna Saptari, International Institute of Social History

Development and Change