Gender diversity in Indonesia: sexuality, Islam and queer selves

276 Pages·2010·3.247 MB·English

by  Sharyn Graham Davies

Gender Diversity in Indonesia
“Gender Diversity in Indonesia is a landmark work that combines careful ethnographic
research with cutting-edge gender theory . . . a profound contribution to a range of disciplines,
including anthropology, feminist theory, queer theory, and Southeast Asian Studies.”
Professor Tom Boellstorff, University of California, Irvine, USA
“. . . a wonderfully rich account that reveals the everyday lives of variously gendered individ-
uals, as well as their subjectivities and integration into and tensions with the larger society,
Islam and the nation-state. The material is original and without rival.”
Associate Professor Evelyn Blackwood, Purdue University, USA
“. . . an important contribution to sexuality/gender studies cross-culturally as well as more par-
ticularly to Southeast Asian studies, filling a gap in the limited literature on gender in
Indonesia.”
Associate Professor Peter Jackson, Australian National University
“. . . an original, critical contribution to both gender studies and Indonesian studies.”
Professor Saskia Wieringa, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
“Indonesia’s linguistic, ethnic and religious diversity, of which Indonesians are always proud,
is here given another dimension: gender. Gender Diversity in Indonesiais a joy to read.”
Dr Dédé Oetomo, GAYa NUSANTARA Foundation, Indonesia
Indonesia provides particularly interesting examples of gender diversity. Same-sex rela-
tions, transvestism and cross-gender behaviour have long been noted among a wide range of
Indonesian peoples. This book explores the nature of gender diversity in Indonesia, and with
the world’s largest Muslim population, it examines Islam in this context. Based on extensive
ethnographic research, it discusses in particular calalai– female-born individuals who iden-
tify as neither woman nor man; calabai– male-born individuals who also identify as neither
man nor woman; and bissu – an order of shamans who embody female and male elements.
The book examines the lives and roles of these variously gendered subjectivities in everyday
life, including in low-status and high-status rituals such as wedding ceremonies, fashion
parades, cultural festivals, Islamic recitations and shamanistic rituals. The book analyses the
place of such subjectives in relation to theories of gender, gender diversity and sexuality.
Sharyn Graham Davies is Associate Professor in the School of Languages and Social
Sciences at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. She has spent a number of
years living in Indonesia and has written extensively on gender and sexuality, including most
recently Challenging Gender Norms: Five Genders among Bugis in Indonesia, Thomson
Wadsworth, 2007.
Asian studies association of Australia
Women in Asia Series
Editor: Louise Edwards
(University of Technology Sydney)
Editorial Board:
Susan Blackburn (Monash University)
Vera Mackie (Melbourne University)
Anne McLaren (Melbourne University)
Mina Roces (University of New South Wales)
Andrea Whittaker (Melbourne University)
Mukkuvar Women Intimate Knowledge
Gender, hegemony and capitalist Women and their health in North-East
transformation in a South Indian fish- Thailand
ing community Andrea Whittaker
Kalpana Ram
Women in Asia
A World of Difference Tradition, modernity and
Islam and gender hierarchy in Turkey globalisation
Julie Marcus Louise Edwards and Mina Roces
(eds)
Purity and Communal Boundaries
Women and social change in a Violence against Women in Asian
Bangladeshi village Societies
Santi Rozario Gender inequality and technologies of
violence
Madonnas and Martyrs Lenore Manderson and Linda Rae
Militarism and violence in the Bennett (eds)
Philippines
Anne-Marie Hilsdon Women’s Employment in Japan
The experience of part-time workers
Masters and Managers Kaye Broadbent
A study of gender relations in urban
Java Chinese Women Living and
Norma Sullivan Working
Anne McLaren (ed)
Matriliny and Modernity
Sexual politics and social change in Abortion, Sin and the State in
rural Malaysia Thailand
Maila Stivens Andrea Whittaker
Sexual Violence and the Law in Gender, Islam, and Democracy in
Japan Indonesia
Catherine Burns Kathryn Robinson
Women, Islam and Modernity Young Women in Japan
Single women, sexuality and Transitions to adulthood
reproductive health in contemporary Kaori Okano
Indonesia
Linda Rae Bennett Sex, Love and Feminism in the Asia
Pacific
The Women’s Movement in A cross-cultural study of young
Post-Colonial Indonesia people’s attitudes
Elizabeth Martyn Chilla Bulbeck
Women and Work in Indonesia Gender, State and Social
Michele Ford and Lyn Parker (eds) Powerin Contemporary
Indonesia
Women and Union Activism in Asia Divorce and marriage law
Kaye Broadbent and Michele Ford (eds) KateO’Shaughnessy
Gender, Household, and State in Feminist Movements in
Post-Revolutionary Vietnam Contemporary Japan
Jayne Werner Laura Dales
Gender, Nation and State in Modern Women, Islam and Everyday Life
Japan Renegotiating polygamy in
Vera Mackie, Ulrike Woehr and Indonesia
Andrea Germer (eds) Nina Nurmila
Cambodian Women Gender Diversity in Indonesia
Childbirth and maternity in rural Sexuality, Islam and queer selves
Southeast Asia Sharyn Graham Davies
Elizabeth Hoban

Gender Diversity in
Indonesia
Sexuality, Islam and queer selves
Sharyn Graham Davies
First published 2010
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.
To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.
© 2010 Sharyn Graham Davies
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Davies, Sharyn Graham.
Gender diversity in Indonesia / Sharyn Graham Davies.
p. cm. – (Asian Studies Association of Australia Women in Asia series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Transgenderism – Indonesia. 2. Gender identity – Indonesia.
3. Sexual minorities – Indonesia. I. Title.
HQ77.95.I5D38 2010
306.7609598 – dc22
2009029111
ISBN 0-203-86095-0 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0-415-37569-X (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-86095-0 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-37569-6 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-86095-3 (ebk)
ForTom, Alfie and ana’kutampu, with love.

Contents
List of figures x
Series editor’s foreword xi
Preface xii
Acknowledgments xvi
1 Framing place and process 1
2 Contextualizing gender 16
3 Queer(y)ing transgender 39
4 Gendering the present past 58
5 Gendering life 87
6 Calalai subject positions 119
7 Calabai subject positions 138
8 Bissu subject positions 174
9 Conclusion 207
Glossary 214
Notes 217
Bibliography 219
Index 249