Indonesia seems to have many different ethnic groups. We only had a chance to cover Javanese families in detail. I don't know if Nancy mentioned this in her lecture, but are all Indonesian ethnic groups matrifocal? Also, do you think there are a lot of differences between each group?

I found this lecture to be very interesting. Someone mentioned earlier in class today that the females being dominant is not something that came out of a feminist movement. It's something that is just a part of Indonesian culture. I guess I'm just used to hearing about a large feminist movement in other cultures' histories and not hearing as much about matriarchal (is this the correct word?) societies. I'm glad that we had the chance to listen to this lecture after hearing about Korean/Chinese/Japanese cultures which place more importance on the role of males.

I just found it interesting that there were elected female presidents. When I think of Asia I think of such differentitation between sexes and the belittling of the feminine.

Also, it seemed that a "feminist movement" was not even something that Inndonesia needed, because it wasn't an argument or a struggle, more of an "I am ma. You are woman. We are different. O.K. I am woman. You are man. We are different. O.K." Both valued Nietehr judged. Although, as Prof. Cooper talked about, with industrialization and contact with the West a feminist movement was needed and created, but I got the impression that it was not a giant step backwards, but a renegotiation with the modern world- sort of along the lines of ,"Believe what you want, but believe something" they seem to espouse with their multiple religions. I really like the idea of difference without disagreement and strong beliefs without conflict. Perhaps I am just romatacizing what I heard.
DEAN