Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-bt4hw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-31T17:15:15.788Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Female Roles in Pre-colonial Southeast Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Anthony Reid
Anthony Reid
Affiliation:
Australian National University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Relations between the sexes are one of the areas in which a distinctive Southeast Asian pattern exists. Even the gradual strengthening of the influence of Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and Confucianism in their respective spheres over the last four centuries has by no means eliminated this common pattern of relatively high female autonomy and economic importance. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the region probably represented one extreme of human experience on these issues. It could not be said that women were equal to men, since there were very few areas in which they competed directly. Women had different functions from men, but these included transplanting and harvesting rice, weaving, and marketing. Their reproductive role gave them magical and ritual powers which it was difficult for men to match. These factors may explain why the value of daughters was never questioned in Southeast Asia as it was in China, India, and the Middle East; on the contrary, ‘the more daughters a man has, the richer he is’ (Galvão, 1544: 89; cf. Legazpi, 1569: 61).

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , July 1988 , pp. 629 - 645
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Andaya, L. Y., 1981. The Heritage of Arung Palakka. A History of South Sulawesi (Celebes) in the Seventeenth Century, The Hague, Nijhoff for KITLV.Google Scholar
Anderson, J. 1826. Mission to the East Coast of Sumatra in 1823, London. Reprinted Kuala Lumpur, 1971.Google Scholar
Aymonier, E. 1891. Les Tchames et Leurs Religions, Paris, Ernest Leroux.Google Scholar
Barbosa, D. 1518. The Book of Duarte Barbosa. An Account of the countries bordering on the Indian Ocean and their inhabitants, trans. Dames, M. Longworth, London, Hakluyt Society, 1918, 2 vols.Google Scholar
Barros, Joāo de, 1563. Da Asia, 4 Decada in 9 vols, Lisboa, Regia Officina, 1777, reprinted Lisboa, 1973.Google Scholar
Beaulieu, A. de, 1666. ‘Mémoires de Voyage aux Index Orientales du Général de Beaulieu, dressés par luy-mesme’, in Relations de divers voyages curieux, ed. Thévenot, Melch., Paris, vol. II.Google Scholar
Beeckman, D. 1718. A Voyage to and from the Island of Borneo in the East Indies, London. Reprinted London, 1973.Google Scholar
Bock, C. 1884. Temples and Elephants: the Narrative of a Journey of Exploration through Upper Siam and Lao, London, Sampson, Low, Marsten, Searle and Rivington.Google Scholar
Boserup, E. 1970. Woman's Role in Agricultural Development, London, Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Bowrey, T. 1680. A Geographical Account of Countries Round the Bay of Bengal, ed. Temple, R. C., Cambridge, Hakluyt Society, 1905.Google Scholar
Boxer, Codex, 1590A. ‘The manners, customs and beliefs of the Philippine inhabitants of long ago; being chapters of “A late 16th Century Manila Manuscript”’, trans. Carlos, Quirino and Mauro, Garcia, The Philippine Journal of Science 87, iv (1958), pp. 389–445.Google Scholar
Boxer, Codex, 1590B. ‘Berunai in the Boxer Codex’, trans. John, Carroll, JMBRAS, 55, ii (1982), pp. 2–16.Google Scholar
Brooke, J. 1848. Narrative of Events in Borneo and Celebes down to the Occupation of Labuan: from the Journals of J. Brooke…By Captain Rodney Mundy, 2 vols, London, John Murray.Google Scholar
Browne, J. 1616. Letter from Patani, 30 05 1616, in Letters Received from the East India Company from its Servants in the East, ed. Danvers, F. C. and Foster, W., London, 1896–1902, IV, pp. 106–8.Google Scholar
Cameron, J. 1865. Our Tropical Possessions in Malayan India, London, Smith, Elder and Co. Reprinted Kuala Lumpur, 1965.Google Scholar
Casparis, J. G. de, 1981. ‘Pour une histoire sociale de l'ancienne Java principalement au Xème s.’, Archipel 21, pp. 125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chirino, P. 1604. Relacion de las Islas Filipinas. The Philippines in 1600, trans. Echevarria, Ramón, Manila, Historical Conservation Society, 1969.Google Scholar
Chou, Ta Kuan, 1297. Mémoires sur les Coutumes du Cambodge de Tcheou Ta-Kouan, trans. Pelliot, Paul, Paris, Adrien Maisonneuve, 1951.Google Scholar
Coen, J. P. 1619. Letter to Heren XVII, 5 August 1619, pp. 445–95,Google Scholar
Jan Pietersz. Coen. Bescheiden Omtrent Zijn Bedrijf in Indiē, ed. Colenbrander, H. T., vol. I, s'-Gravenhage, Martinus Nijhoff, 1919.Google Scholar
Colin, F. 1663. Labor Evangelica (Madrid), trans. in The Philippine Islands 1493–1803, ed. Blair, E. H. and Robertson, J. A., Cleveland, 1903 [Henceforth Blair and Robertson], vol. 40, pp. 40–98.Google Scholar
Compostel, J. 1636. ‘Origineel daghregister van de voyagie, handel en resconter met ‘tschip d'Revengie naer Atchin’, in Algemene Rijksarchief, KA 1031 (vol. 1119).Google Scholar
Coolhaas, W. Ph. (ed.), 1960–1968. Generale Missiven van Gouverneurs-Generaal en Raden aan Heren XVII der verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, vols I-II, 's-Gravenhage, Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Cowan, H. K. J. 1938. ‘Bijdrage tot de kennis der geschiedenis van het rijk SamoedraPasé’, TBG 78, pp. 204–14.Google Scholar
Cox, H. 1821. Journal of a Residence in the Burmhan Empire, and more particularly at the Court of Amarapoorah, London, John Warren. Reprinted Gregg International, 1971.Google Scholar
Crawfurd, J. 1820. History of the Indian Archipelago, Edinburgh, A. Constable, 3 vols.Google Scholar
Dampier, W. 1697. A New Voyage Round the World, ed. SirGray, Albert, London, Argonaut Press, 1927.Google Scholar
Dampier, W. 1699. Voyages and Discoveries, ed. Wilkinson, C., London, Argonaut Press, 1931.Google Scholar
Davis, J. 1600. ‘The Voyage of Captaine John Davis to the Easterne India, Pilot in a Dutch Ship; written by himselfe’, in The Voyages and Works of John Davis the Navigator, ed. Markham, A. H., London, Hakluyt Society, 1880, pp. 129–89.Google Scholar
Diller, A. 1983. ‘The Thai Epic Romance: From Polysemy to Norm’, unpublished paper.Google Scholar
Djajadinigrat, Hoesein, 1913. Critische Beschouwing van de Sadjarah Banten, Haarlem, published dissertation.Google Scholar
Dobbin, Christine, 1983. Islamic Revivalism in a Changing Peasant Economy: Central Sumatra 1784–1847, London/Malmo, Curzon Press for Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies.Google Scholar
Earl, G. W. 1837. The Eastern Seas, or Voyages and Adventures in the Indian Archipelago in 1832–33–34, London, W. M. Allen. Reprinted Singapore, 1971.Google Scholar
Eredia, E. G. de, 1613. ‘Eredia's description of Malacca, Meridional India and Cathay’, trans. Mills, J. V. in JMBRAS 8, i (1931), pp. 11–84.Google Scholar
Finlayson, G. 1826. The Mission to Siam and Hué, the Capital of Cochin-China, in the Years 1821–2, London, John Murray.Google Scholar
Galvaō, A. 1544. A Treatise on the Moluccas (c. 1544), probably the preliminary version of Antonio Galvāo's lost História das Molucas, trans. Hubert, Jacobs S.J., Rome, Jesuit Historical Institute, 1971.Google Scholar
Gerini, G. E. 1905. ‘Historical Retrospect of Junkceylon Island’, JSS 2, ii, pp. 121–267.Google Scholar
Goens, Rijklof van. 1656. ‘De samenvattende geschriften’, in De Vijf Gezantschapsreizen van Rijklof van Goens naar het Hof van Mataram, 1648–1654, ed. de Graaf, H. J.. The Hague, Nijhoff for Linschoten-Vereniging, 1956, pp. 173–269.Google Scholar
Graaf, H. J. de, 1958. De Regering van Sultan Agung, Vorst van Mataram 1613–1645 en die van zijn voorganger Panembahan Séda-ing-Krapjak 1601–1613, 's-Gravenhage, Nijhoff for KITLV.Google Scholar
Hamilton, A. 1727. A New Account of the East Indies, Edinburgh, John Mosman, 2 Vols. Reprinted London, Argonaut Press, 1930.Google Scholar
Hikayat Patani: The Story of Patani, eds. Teeuw, A. and Wyatt, D. K., The Hague, KITLV, 1970, vol. I, pp. 68–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hwang, Chung, 1537. ‘Hai Yū (Words about the Sea)’, in Historical Notes on Indonesia and Malaya, Compiled from Chinese Sources, trans. Groeneveldt, W. P., Batavia, Bataviaasche Genootschap, 1880, pp. 126–8.Google Scholar
Ibn, Battuta M. 1354. Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa 1325–1354, trans. Gibb, H. A. R., London, Routledge, 1929.Google Scholar
Kumar, A. 1980. ‘Javanese Court Society and Politics in the Late Eighteenth Century: The Record of a Lady Soldier. Part I: The Religious, Social, and Economic Life of the Court’, Indonesia 29, pp. 1–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
La, Loubère S. de, 1691. A New Historical Relation of the Kingdom of Siam, London, Tho. Horne, 1693. Reprinted Kuala Lumpur, Oxford University Press, 1969.Google Scholar
Legazpi, , 1569. ‘Relation of the Filipinas Islands, and of the Character and Conditions of their Inhabitants’, July 1569, in Blair and Robertson, III, pp. 54–61.Google Scholar
Loeb, E. M. 1935. Sumatra. Its History and People, Vienna.Google Scholar
Lontara'-bilang Gowa: ‘Transcriptie van het dagboek der vorsten van Gowa en Tello, met vertaling en aanteekeningen’, trans. Ligtvoet, A., BKI IV, 4, 1880, pp. 1–259.Google Scholar
Lombard, Denys, and Claudine, Salmon, 1985. ‘Islam et Sinité’, Archipel 30, pp. 73–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Low, H. 1848. Sarawak: Its Inhabitants and Productions, London, Richard Bentley.Google Scholar
Ma, Huan, 1433. Ying-yai Sheng-lan. ‘The overall survey of the Ocean's Shores’, trans. Mills, J. V. G., Cambridge, Hakluyt Society, 1970.Google Scholar
Meilink-Roelofsz, M. A. P. 1962. Asian Trade and European Influence in the Indonesian Archipelago between 1500 and about 1630, The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Morga, A. de, 1609. Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, trans. Cummins, J. S., Cambridge, Hakluyt Society, 1971.Google Scholar
Mundy, Peter, 1667. The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia, 1609–1667, vol. III, ed. Temple, R. C.. London, Hakluyt Society, 1919.Google Scholar
Nagara-kertagama, 1365.Google Scholar
‘The Nagara-kertagama by Rakawi Prapanca of Majapahit, 1365 A.D.’, trans. Pigeaud, Theodore G. Th., in Java in the Fourteenth Century: A Study in Cultural History, vol. III, The Hague, Nijhoff for KITLV, 1960.Google Scholar
Nash, M. 1965. The Golden Road to Modernity: Village Life in Contemporary Burma, Chicago, University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Navarrete, D. 1676. The Travels and Controversies of Friar Domingo Navarette, 1618–1686, trans. Cummins, J. S., Cambridge, Hakluyt Society, 1962, 2 vols.Google Scholar
Neck, J. van, 1604. ‘Journaal van Jacob van Neck’, in De Vierde Schipvaart der Nederlanders naar Oost-Indië onder Jacob Wilkens en Jacob van Neck (1599–1604), ed. van Foreest, H. A. and de Booy, A., 2 vols, 's-Gravenhage, Linschoten-Vereeniging, I, pp. 166–233.Google Scholar
Nguyen, Khac Vien and Huu, Ngoc (eds), 1973. Anthologie de la Litterature Vietnamienne, Hanoi, Editions en Langues Etrangères, 2 vols.Google Scholar
Pallegoix, , Mgr, , 1854. Description du Royaume Thai ou Siam, Paris, 2 vols. Reprinted Farnborough, Gregg International, 1969.Google Scholar
Pigafetta, A. 1524. First Voyage around the World, Manila, Filipiniana Book Guild, 1969.Google Scholar
Pinto, F. M. 1614. The Voyages and Adventures of Ferdinand Mendes Pinto, the Portuguese, done into English by H. Cogan, with an introduction by A. Vambéry, London, T. F. Unwin, 1891.Google Scholar
Pires, T. 1515. The Suma Oriental of Tomé Pires, trans. Cortesāo, A., London, Hakluyt Society, 1944, 2 vols.Google Scholar
Plasencia, Fr. J. de, 1589. ‘Customs of the Tagalogs’, 21 10 1589, in Blair and Robertson, VII, pp. 173–85Google Scholar
Polanco, Fr. J. A. de, 1556. ‘Chronicon’, excerpted in Documenta Malucensia I, ed. Jacobs, H., Rome, IHSI, 1974, pp. 208–10.Google Scholar
Raffles, T. S. 1817. The History of Java, 2 vols, London, John Murray. Reprinted Kuala Lumpur, 1965, 1978.Google Scholar
Raniri, Nuru'd-din ar, c. 1644. Bustanu's-Salatin bab II, Fasal 13, ed. Iskandar, T., Kuala Lumpur, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1966.Google Scholar
Reid, A., 1979: ‘Trade and State Power in 16th and 17th Century Southeast Asia’, Proceedings of the 7th IAHA Conference, Bangkok, August 1977, Bangkok, International Association of Historians of Asia, 1979, pp. 391–419.Google Scholar
St John, S. 1862. Life in the Forests of the Far East, London, Smith, Elder and Co., 2 vols. Reprinted OUP, 1974.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schouten, J. 1636. ‘A Description of the Government, Might, Religion, Customs, Traffick, and other remarkable Affairs in the Kingdom of Siam’, trans. Manley, R., in A True Description of the Mighty Kingdoms of Japan and Siam, by Francis, Caron and Joost, Schouten, London, Robert Boulter, 1671, pp. 121–52.Google Scholar
Scott, E. 1606. ‘An exact discourse of the Subtleties, Fashions, Pollicies, Religion and Ceremonies of the East Indians, as well Chyneses as Javans, there abyding and dweling’, in The Voyage of Sir Henry Middleton to the Moluccas, ed. Sir Foster, William, London, Hakluyt Society, 1943, pp. 81–176.Google Scholar
Sejarah Goa. ed. Wolhoff, G. J. and Abdurrahim, , Makassar, Jajasan Kebudajaan Sulawesi Selatan dan Tenggara, n.d.Google Scholar
Sejarah, Melayu. ‘Sejarah Melayu or “Malay Annals”’, trans. Brown, C. C.. JMBRAS 25, ii–iii (1952).Google Scholar
Smith, G. The Dutch East India Company in the Kingdom of Ayutthaya, 1604–1694, Ph.D. Thesis, Northern Illinois University, Ann Arbor, University Microfilms.Google Scholar
Speelman, C. 1670. ‘De Handelsrelaties van het Makassaarse rijk volgens de Notitie van Cornelis Speelman uit 1670’, ed. Noorduyn, J., Nederlandse Historische Bronnen III, Amsterdam, Verloren for Nederlands Historisch Genootschap, 1983, pp. 96–121.Google Scholar
Stone, L. 1979. The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500–1800, New York, Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Sutton, A. 1984. ‘Who is the Pesindhēn?’ Indonesia 37, pp. 119–33.Google Scholar
Symes, M. 1827. An Account of an Embassy to the Kingdom of Ava in the year 1795, Edinburgh, Constable and Co., 2 vols.Google Scholar
‘Tweede, Boeck’, 1601. ‘Het Tweede Boeck, Journael oft Dagh-Register’, in De Tweede Schipvaart der Nederlanders naar Oost-Indiē onder Jacob Cornelisz van Neck en Wybrant Warwijck, 1598–1600, ed. Keuning, H., III, 's-Gravenhage, Nijhoff for LinschotenVereeniging, 1942, pp. 1–186.Google Scholar
Vliet, J. van, 1636. ‘Description of the Kingdom of Siam’, trans. van Ravenswaay, L. F., JSS 7 (1910), i.Google Scholar
Volkstelling 1930, Batavia, Department van Economische Zaken, 8 vols., 1931–1938.Google Scholar
Vollenhoven, C. van, 1981. Van Vollenhoven on Indonesian Adat Law. Selections from Het Adatrecht van Nederlandsch-Indiē, trans. Holleman, J. F., The Hague, Nijhoff for KITLV.Google Scholar
White, J. 1824. A Voyage to Cochin-China, London, Longman. Reprinted Kuala Lumpur, Oxford University Press, 1972.Google Scholar
Wonderaer, J. 1602. Letter from Tachem (Tatchim, Cochin-China), 5 04 1602, in De Vierde Schipvaart der Nederlanders naar Oost-Indië onder Jacob Wilkens en Jacob van Neck (1599–1604), eds. van Foreest, H. A. and de Booy, A., vol. II, 's-Gravenhage, Linschoten-Vereniging, 1981, pp. 67–91.Google Scholar
Wrigley, E. A. and Schofield, R. S., 1981. The Population History of England: A Reconstruction, London, Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Yu, L. 1978. ‘Law and Family in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Vietnam’, unpublished PhD Dissertation, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Zollinger, H. 1851. ‘The Island of Lombok’, JIAEA V, pp. 323–44.Google Scholar