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To Seek Their Own Living: The Women of Kelantan, Malaysia
| Article
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18667 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
8 / 1991 |
3,215 Words |
| Author
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Douglas Raybeck
Douglas Raybeck is an anthropologist who teaches at Hamilton
College in Clinton, New York. His research interests include
cognitive systems, psycholinguistics, and sociocultural
deviance. He has done extensive fieldwork in West Malaysia and
has written several articles on Kelantanese peasants. |
Women dominate the comparatively cool early morning hours of the village market as they buy, sell, visit, and gossip. They are outgoing, often boisterous, and occasionally argumentative. Many spend the morning hours acquiring an income that may be the major support of their families and obtaining information that will give them social leverage in their villages. Throughout the market, small dramas are played out, as women haggle with one another and with men over the price of goods bought and sold.
As noon approaches and the day grows hotter, many leave the market for home. They balance heavy burdens on their hands and begin walking, or they hire a local beca (a trishaw consisting of a bicycle frame and sidecar); some of the more affluent may even rent a taxi to transport their goods. Those who leave on foot joke with one another as they file along dusty village paths toward their homes and kin. Their vitality, dignity, and open manner communicate the social prominence of these women of Kelantan.
Worldwide, anthropologists have studied approximately four thousand cultures, and in no instance has women's status ever exceeded that of men; generally, it is markedly lower. There are, however, a limited number of societies where the standing of women, in one or more respects, is roughly comparable to that of men. These societies are a focus of interests for anthropologists and for others interested in the components of status and in gender roles. This is particularly so when the status of women seems to conflict with other elements of the culture, as is true in Kelantan, Malaysia.
Social scientists are still uncertain about the determinants of social status. While the factors that contribute to social status are numerous and complex, most would concur that access to and control of valued resources are among the most important contributors to social standing. To the extent that individuals can control resources, they can also control their own destinies. They are able to make decisions that have significant social and economic consequences. In most societies these individuals are almost invariably men; but in Kelantan, many of the important social participants, especially at the village level, are women.
Kelantanese women have active economic roles, participate in important family decisions, and are frequently household heads. At the same time they are, like virtually all Kelantanese, strongly Islamic, adhering to a religion that tends to favor male rights over those of women. Clearly, there are potential and actual conflicts
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