Phases of Cross-cultural Understanding in Gender Analyses of Southeast Asian Societies

Anthropologists Who study cultures other than their own are always bound by the cultural frames of their own. This article follows the developmental phases of research on gender in Southeast Asian societies by western and Japanese anthropologists who tend to seek a congruent ideology behind the set of observed behavior. Southeast Asia has been known for its relatively egalitarian gender practice based on bilateral kinship. At the same time, it perplexes anthropologists by the widely spread ideology espousing male spiritual superiority. Buddhism and Islam, both arrived in Southeast Asia in the twelfth century or later, are found much less gender-biased than anthropologists' expectations. It is rather an indigenous gender ideology far older than these world religions in the area that promotes male spiritual superiority. The cultural foundation that maintains egalitarian gender practice in co-existence with the male ideology is sought in “bilaterality” in human relations which enable individuals, men and women alike, to pursuit personal interests free from group constraints