Christianity, Colonization, and Gender Relations in North Sumatra

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Christianity, Colonization, and Gender Relations in North Sumatra is written by Sita T. van Bemmelen and published by BRILL. It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 9004345752 (ISBN 10) and 9789004345751 (ISBN 13).

In this book Sita van Bemmelen offers an account of changes in Toba Batak society (Sumatra, Indonesia) due to Christianity and Dutch colonial rule (1861-1942) with a focus on customs and customary law related to the life cycle and gender relations. The first part, a historical ethnography, describes them as they existed at the onset of colonial rule. The second part zooms in on the negotiations between the Toba Batak elite, the missionaries of the German Rhenish Mission and colonial administrators about these customs showing the evolving views on desirable modernity of each contestant. The pillars of the Toba patrilineal kinship system were challenged, but alterations changed the way it was reproduced and gender relations for ever.