Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy - Tapa dura

"Women at the Center is an argument against the polarizations implicit in the old studies of power and gender. The Minangkabau, Sanday shows us, have thrown out polarity and subjugation and brought in a society modeled on 'conjugation.' What makes them so remarkable is that they are at once wholly, authentically matriarchal and also determinedly Islamic." --Women's Review of Books "This is an accessible study delivering vivid and personal descriptions of the importance of women to the everyday workings of Minang life." --Maila Stivens, University of Melbourne "The Australian Journal of Anthropology "

Contrary to the declarations of some anthropologists, matriarchies do exist. Peggy Reeves Sanday first went to West Sumatra in 1981, intrigued by reports that the matrilineal Minangkabau--one of the largest ethnic groups in Indonesia--label their society a matriarchy. Numbering some four million in West Sumatra, the Minangkabau are known in Indonesia for their literary flair, business acumen, and egalitarian, democratic relationships between men and women. Sanday uses her repeated visits to West Sumatra in the closing decades of the twentieth century as the basis for a new definition of matriarchy. From the vantage point of daily life in villages, especially one where she developed close personal ties, Sanday's narrative is centered on how the Minangkabau conceive of their world and think humans should behave, along with the practices and rituals they claim uphold their matriarchate. Women at the Center leaves the reader with a solid sense of the respect for women that permeates Minangkabau culture, and gives new life to the concept of matriarchy.