Taboo and Descent in the Articulation of Gender Relations: An Eastern Indonesian Case

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn the Lio region of Flores Island patrilineal groups coexist with taboos on animals and plants inherited through females, a combination previously interpreted as reflecting a system of double unilineal descent. Drawing on ethnography from the Lio district of Mego, maternal taboos are shown to accompany similar prohibitions conceived as a property of patriclans, most of which, however, are incumbent not on male clansmen but on their wives. As is further demonstrated, both sorts of taboo reflect ideas about female bodies and blood, particularly as women and their children are transformed through marriage into members of patrilineal groups dominated by men. Also discussed is whether variability in the way taboos are currently inherited in Mego may reflect recent social change, and how matrilineally inherited Lio prohibitions can be seen as an instance of complementary female and male principles equally operative in the social life of other eastern Indonesian societies.