essay
Warriors and weavers: a study of gender relations among the Iban of Sarawak
Female and male in Borneo : contributions and challenges to gender studies • 1 • Published In 1991 • Pages: 231-270
By: Mashman, Valerie.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
The male prestige system is discussed in the historical context of headhunting in order '…to determine whether it is 'exclusively male' and to analyze women's relationship to this male prestige system'…(p. 233). Further discussion focuses on the significance of weaving as a complementary index of prestige for women. Gender construction is then examined from a different perspective that may be more appropriate in the light of the more 'traditional' values indicated as part of the prestige system mentioned above. In this analysis two complementary categories derived from the organization of space in the longhouse are examined. These categories represent the RUAI or veranda, and the BILIK or family room, identified respectively with the male and female gender. Mashman concludes that while men assume dominance in formal power and public life in Iban society, they always remain on the fringe of longhouse life, for it is the women, with their ritual expertise and specialized knowledge of rice cultivation, who are central to the longhouse as a point of stability in Iban consciousness (p. 263).
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Ethos
- Cereal agriculture
- Woven and other interworked fabrics
- Dwellings
- Division of labor by gender
- Travel
- Status, role, and prestige
- Gender status
- Instigation of war
- Aftermath of combat
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Iban
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 1995
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Asia
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Southeast Asia
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- no date
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- not specified
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Sarawak, Malaysia
- NotesAdditional notes
- Valerie Mashman
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-270)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 91072229
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Ibans (Bornean people)