I
am an socio-cultural anthropologist who conducts research on
the matrilineal Minangkabau of West Sumatra, Indonesia and studies
female same-sex relations outside the West. My publications
include work on Native American female two-spirits and tombois
in Indonesia as well as several articles on gender, kinship,
and political economy in rural West Sumatra. I am conducting
on-going research on historical and contemporary alternative
genders and sexualities in Indonesia, focusing on tombois in
West Sumatra. Part of this project examines the impact of state,
Islamic and transnational lesbian and gay processes on the development
of queer subjectivities, with reference to Indonesia and Southeast
Asia more generally.
I edited The Many Faces of Homosexuality: Anthropology
and Homosexual Behavior (1986) and with Saskia E. Wieringa co-edited
Female Desires: Same-sex Relations and Transgender Practices
Across Cultures(Columbia University Press 1999). My monograph
on the Minangkabau is entitled Webs of Power: Women, Kin and
Community in a Sumatran Village (Rowman and Littlefield 2000).
Edited by Saskia Wieringa, Evelyn Blackwood and Abha Bhaiya. This exciting new anthology is now available through Palgrave Macmillan Publishers. Awarded the 2007 Ruth Benedict Prize for an anthology by the Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists in recognition of distinguished scholarship on a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender topic.