Webs of Power《My Book Review on Webs of Power》

Blackwood’s ethnography can be seen as a text which practice one of the three “alternative perspectives” (1979:190): sex-role system. She focuses on the gender and power relations in Minangkabau a matrilineal society in Indonesia and argues that “the Minangkabau case has always disturbed universalistic assumptions about women’s place in the world” (1999:9). Instead of deeming kinship as “genealogical grid” (1979:195) she sees kinship in Minangkabau as a “matrix of matrilineal practices” (1999:17) through which people negotiate their identity situate themselves in webs of power and perform their power and authority. Blackwood emphasizes the importance of “everyday practice” (1999:16) of kinship throughout her book. In other words kinship should no longer be deemed as static and stable social structure which provides social rules that enact from generation to generation rather it is a historically contingent “flexible idiom” (1999:16) through which people entail their closeness rank and authority. In Minangkabau context women exercise their power in household in the lineage in ceremonial life in landownership and in agricultural production through everyday practices such as the matrilineal practices of land and house ownership the practices of matrilocal residence the practice of mother-daughter relationship the ceremonial practice the control of agricultural production and so on. In a word it is through everyday practice that people perform their kinship. It is through this practice of kinship that women especially the senior women control the dynamics of authority at the village level lineage and clan level. It is also through this practice that women constitute and reconstitute their social life. That is to say practice is not only the signifier of kinship but also an expression of power through which people negotiate their identities. As Blackwood argues in her book “social identities bestow certain claims entitlements and rights to individuals and groups which in turn privilege or disadvantage them in everyday practice”. (1999:14) In this sense “the control over social identities which are based on socially constructed differences form the nexus of power in rural communities.”

The “complexities of power” (1999:41) is another theme in Blackwood’s ethnography. In her ethnography Blackwood challenges the conventional understanding of power. She argues against the narrow definition of power which emphasizes the individuals who occupy formal positions in politics and religion such as mayor in the village and head of the clan. Blackwood emphasizes the “political nature of women’s action in domestic groups” (1979:190). That is to say women have access to material resources and at the same time they control over social relations that are necessary for productive activities. She demonstrates that senior women operate their power in different level: the clan level the lineal level and the village level. They exercise their power not only on households but also in public domain. In addition the dynamics of authority and power is not driven by multiple factors such as adat gender rank and title at the same time.

Furthermore because kinship can no longer be seen as a private and static domain which is separated from political power it should be understood in the relation with nation state and historical changes. Blackwood notes that men’s authority at the village level is substantiated by the state during the colonial and post-colonial period. She argues that instead of being taken over by colonial policy the local people maintain an “alternative hegemonies” (1999:5) through which people frame their lives. She also notices that the tension between mother and daughter is due to the influence of the “state and capitalist discourse about individualism and nuclear families” (1999:107).