Islam, Law, and Equality in Indonesia
An Anthropology of Public Reasoning

This book looks at how Muslims in Indonesia struggle to reconcile radically different sets of social norms and laws.

John R. Bowen (Author)

9780521531894, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 29 May 2003

306 pages, 1 map 6 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.41 kg

'The latest volume of Bowen's Gayo trilogy is superb anthropology.' Rezensionen

In Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country, Muslims struggle to reconcile radically different sets of social norms and laws, including those derived from Islam, local social norms, and contemporary ideas about gender equality and rule of law. In this study, John Bowen explores this struggle, through archival and ethnographic research in villages and courtrooms of the Aceh Province, Sumatra, and through interviews with national religious and legal figures. He analyses the social frameworks for disputes about land, inheritance, marriage, divorce, Islamic History and, more broadly, about the relationships between the state and Islam, and between Muslims and non-Muslims. The book speaks to debates carried out in all societies about how people can live together with their deep differences in values and ways of life. It will be welcomed by scholars and students across the social sciences, particularly those interested in anthropology, cultural sociology and political theory.

Part I. Village Repertoires: 1. Law, religion and pluralism
2. Adat's local inequalities
3. Remapping Adat
Part II. Reasoning Legally through Scripture: 4. The contours of the courts
5. The judicial history of 'consensus'
6. The poisoned gift
7. Historicizing scripture, justifying equality
Part III. Governing Muslims through Family: 8. Whose word is law?
9. Gender equality in the family?
10. Justifying religious boundaries
11. Public reasoning across cultural pluralism.

Subject Areas: Islamic law [LAFS], Political science & theory [JPA], Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Gender studies, gender groups [JFSJ]