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Women At The Center: Life In A Modern Matriarchy
by Sanday, Peggy Reeves
About This Book
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. The author 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, the 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 matriarchaate. The book 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. With quotations from local poems & sayings, b&w photographs, bibliography, glossary and index.
* Actual charges are made in Singapore Dollars (SGD). SGD1.00 = US$0.72
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