Women At The Center by Peggy Reeves Sanday
Life in a Modern Matriarchy
An ethnographic portrait of the Minangkabau of West Sumatra, a contemporary matrilineal society where women anchor lineage, property, and community life. Drawing on long-term fieldwork, it shows how adat (customary law), Islam, and market activity interweave to position mothers and maternal kin at the core of social organization, while men exercise complementary roles through migration, religious leadership, and village offices. Challenging Western notions of matriarchy as female dominance, it presents a model of gender complementarity and negotiated authority that adapts resiliently to modernization and global change.
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- Published
- 2002
- Nationality
- American
- Length
- Unknown
- Pages
- Unknown
- Original Language
- English
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