Women at the Center
Peggy Reeves Sanday
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, ... Read more
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.
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About Peggy Reeves Sanday
Reviews for Women at the Center
Maila Stivens, University of Melbourne
The Australian Journal of Anthropology
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 ... Read more