with Minangkabau women near Payakumbuh, West Sumatra, Indonesia, 1985
CV and Books
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with Minangkabau women near Payakumbuh, West Sumatra, Indonesia, 1985
For a Full Curriculum Vita, Please Click Here
For a fuller description of books listed below, please click here.
Praise
"Peggy Sanday has long been a dissenting voice in the debates about the universality of male dominance. This pioneering feminist anthropologist now gives substance to her arguments, redefining matriarchy and revealing the power of maternal symbols through an accessible ethnography of a famous matrilineal community." Lila Abu-Lughod. Anthropology and Women's Studies. Columbia University
"This fascinating, richly documented work is an invaluable contribution not only to anthropology but to a better understanding of human possibilities. It dispels the notion that society always has been and always will be male dominated. It shows that societies where women have power are not mirror images of patriarchy but societies where both women and men benefit from an ethos of peace and accommodation. The importance of these findings cannot be overemphasized in a world where relations based on domination rather than partnership threaten us, our children, and our future." Riane Eisler, Author of The Chalice and the Blade and The Power of Partnership
"The Minangkabau of Sumatra have long garnered academic and popular interest as a prominently matrilineal society; in fact, the largest and most stable in the world, according to Sanday (Univ. of Pennsylvania). In this important and useful ethnography, Sanday provides the closely observed, everyday details of how such a system works and considers the bases for Minangkabau cultural practices in founding origin myths and proverbs, conceptions of cosmological and village space, and key life cycle rituals. Sanday foregrounds this particular reading of Minangkabau culture in terms of the larger question of matriarchy. Her contribution lies in her sustained rejection of dualist models of gender and power--matriarchy as the mirror image of patriarchy--and in her sensitive treatment of how males uphold matrilineal adat (custom). Those in search of a thorough treatment of feminist and anthropological theories of gender and difference may be disappointed, while those looking for a clear and engaging treatment of gender in a matrilineal society will be rewarded. Likewise, those interested in the role of Islam may find this part of the book thin, but the inclusion of post-reformasi changes is welcome. Of interest to anthropologists, students of kinship, and area studies specialists; useful for undergraduate collections on cross-cultural gender issues." -- S. Ferzacca, University of Lethbridge, CHOICE, 2003.
For longer version of this report, visit www.asiasource.org/asip/sanday.cfm
Matriarchy and Islam Post 9/11:
A Report from Indonesia
Published in Anthropology News, Vol. 43, No. 9, Dec. 2002, page 7.
by Peggy Reeves Sanday
|
One of my passions as an anthropologist is to write ethnography that
speaks simultaneously to anthropology by building empirically grounded
conceptual frameworks and to the public by exploding outmoded Western
stereotypes. My recently published ethnography of the Minangkabau
presents a conceptual framework for rethinking matriarchy and challenges
the stereotype of Islam as universally subordinating women. Among the
largest and most modern of Indonesia' s ethnic groups (four million
in their home province West Sumatra and four million elsewhere) the
Minangkabau are well known in Indonesia for their "matriarchal"
social system and dedication to Islam.
The book, Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy (2002), focuses on a complex of customs called adat matriarchaat. These customs include matrilineal descent and women' s ceremonial roles. Adat matriarchaat is part of the pre-Islamic cultural tradition called adat Minangkabau. Because of the degree to which the Minangkabau tie adat to Islam in the modern period, I was challenged to explain how the supposedly patriarchal Islam came to be bound to a social system identified as matriarchal. [more-->] |
Report from Indonesia
October, 1998
by Peggy Reeves Sanday
| With a passion I had never heard in his voice, Hok, my Chinese hairdresser
of many years said: "Oh Bu, write about how it's safe here, not like CNN
says, people starving, looting, and robbing. We are losing tourism and
investment due to the belief that the situation in Jakarta applies to all
of Indonesia."
His plea was later echoed in the highland village where I have worked as an anthropologist studying the Minangkabau people nearly every year since l981. "Why does the Voice of America report that the situation in Indonesia is so bad?" one man asked. I arrived in Padang, the capital city of the province of West Sumatra, Indonesia on July 17, some two months after the May riots in Jakarta brought President Suharto's 35-year regime to a grinding halt. [more -->] |
an exhibition of ethnographic photos
taken over a period of 15 years in a West Sumatra village
All pictures included on this page and any related pages are licensed under a Creative Commons License.
The pictures can be used only with attribution and for noncommercial purposes.
opened September 13, 1997
at the
University of Pennsylvania Museum
of Archaeology and Anthropology
The
spirit of the circle
Music
and Dance of West Sumatra
Photographic Exhibition
by Edy Utama
All pictures included on this page and any related pages are licensed under a Creative Commons License.
The pictures can be used only with attribution and for noncommercial purposes.
To order, visit www.museum.upenn.edu/pblications
Praise
"Part research project, part personal journey, this work by Sanday (anthropology, Univ. of Pennsylvania)
enlivens indigenous creation narratives of Wolfe Creek meteor crater in Australia's Western Desert. Sanday's father,
American geologist Frank Reeves, documented the crater in 1947. The author's quest reminds readers that
understanding Aboriginal culture, its creation stories, and image making are difficult tasks.
Sanday located the crater's traditional owners and documented associated stories. Her journey expands on the
work of famed anthropologists Tindale and the Berndts, who first studied indigenous cultures of the desert.
The paintings Sanday commissioned from the crater stories' owners are vibrant records of Rainbow Serpent as it
traveled the desert creating the crater and surrounding country. Her work shows that the landscape is a
giant palimpsest forever etched with traces of ancestral activity." --CHOICE 2008. Recommended. General readers;
lower-division undergraduates.
Track of the Rainbow Serpent
Exhibition of Australian Aboriginal Paintings of the Wolfe Creek Crater
All paintings and photographs included on this page and any related pages are licensed under a Creative Commons License.
The paintings and photographs can be used only with attribution and for noncommercial purposes.
A Model for Public Interest Ethnography: The Conjunction of
Theory, Practice, Action, and Change in a Globalizing World (2008) Public Interest Anthropology: A Boasian Service-Learning Initiative,
Michigan Journal of Service Learning, Vol. 10, No. 3, Summer 2004. Public Interest Anthropology: A Model for Engaged Research (2004) Research
and Training Program Under Development at Penn
Defining
Public Interest Anthropology. Opening Statement. AAA Symposium, Defining a
Public Interest Anthropology. Dec. 3, l998. Philadelphia.
World Culture Initiative at University City High School in Philadelphia
A Public Interest Anthropology Course
Click here for more on Public
Interest Anthropology at Penn
Praise For The First Edition
"A powerful and important book."--Contemporary Psychology
"Sanday draws a chilling picture of fraternity society, its debasement of women and the way it creates a looking-glass world in which gang rape can be considered normal behavior and the pressure of group-think is powerful."--The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Very accessible...Sanday's book explores the vulnerability of college women, and of young men seeking to prove their manhood."--The Washington Post
"In her well-regarded text, Sanday points out how frequently athletes are involved in group sexual misconduct against women."--The New York Times
"An important book [that] should be read by everyone in higher education--faculty, administrators, and students."
--Contemporary Sociology
Anth 411 Anthropology of Sex and Gender, 1998. .
Anth 216/516 Public Interest Anthropology, 1998 .
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