Music-Making, Ritual, and Gender in a Southeast Asian Hill Society

This article will explore the ways in which music-making and gender differences mutually shape one another in a hill society in island Southeast Asia. The questions raised have to do with the role music-making plays in producing or subverting gender-based hierarchies of prestige and authority: Does music support or threaten predominant ideas about gender? How does it shape the way in which women and men experience sexual hierarchy? Can music-making itself be a form of sexual politics? These issues are especially intriguing in light of our understanding of music and gender in the island region. AsJane Atkinson and Shelly Errington note, gender has not stood out as a dominant theme or problem in the Southeast Asian archipelago, a place where social hierarchy usually rests on principles of seniority and spiritual potency and where sexual antagonism appears muted (1990). As for music, the dominant traditions in the region-and particularly those of the hill societies-are often traditions of sacred music performed in the context of ritual. A look at case materials from Southeast Asian hill communities should shed fresh light on music-making, ritual, social hierarchy, and gender ideology in small-scale societies known for their relative egalitarian outlook and their nonstratified (or minimally stratified) social order (cf. Feld 1984, Roseman 1984)