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 individuals, 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 particularly 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 Indonesia is a joy to read."

Dr Dédé Oetomo, GAYa NUSANTARA Foundation, Indonesia

Indonesia provides particularly interesting examples of gender diversity. Same-sex relations, transvestism and cross-gender behaviour have long been noted amongst 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 identify 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 roles of these variously gendered subjectivities in everyday rituals, both low-status and high-status, such as wedding ceremonies, fashion parades, cultural festivals, Islamic recitations and shamanistic rituals. The book analyses the place of such intersexed identities in relation to theories of gender, gender diversity and sexuality.

"[A] comprehensive study of gender diversity in Indonesia... the book is an excellent, ethnographically thick and deep description of structures, discourses, negotiations and experiences of gender in Bugis South Sulawesi. The author's careful consideration of a whole range of aspects, frames and spaces relating to gender shows the complexity of the subject positions and the creativity of the people who live those positions... Graham Davies sets out to 'contribute to knowledge about gender' and she certainly succeeds."- Dr. Karin Klenke, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Georg-August University, Germany

"In this rich exploration of sexuality, gender, and queer subject positioning among the Bugis of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, Sharyn Graham Davies...offers a fascinating discussion of the intersections of Islamic thought and practice with Bugis gender diversity... [the book] would be an excellent addition to upper-level undergraduate and graduate classrooms in gender and sexuality studies." -Leslie Dwyer, American Anthropologist