Islam, Law, and Equality in Indonesia

John R. Bowen is Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor in Arts and Sciences, Professor of Anthropology, and Chair of the Program in Social Thought and Analysis at Washington University, St Louis. He is the author of Sumatran Politics and Poetics (1991), Muslims through Discourse (1993), Religions through Practice, 2nd edition (2001), and the co-editor of Critical Comparisons in Politics and Culture (Cambridge, 1999).

• Part I. Village Repertoires: 1. Law, religion and pluralism; 2. Adat's local inequalities; 3. Remapping Adat; Part II. Reasoning Legally through Scripture: 4. The contours of the courts; 5. The judicial history of 'consensus'; 6. The poisoned gift; 7. Historicizing scripture, justifying equality; Part III. Governing Muslims through Family: 8. Whose word is law?; 9. Gender equality in the family?; 10. Justifying religious boundaries; 11. Public reasoning across cultural pluralism.

'… John Bowen has presented one of the most comprehensive studies of the workings of legal pluralism in Indonesia … impressive. This is indeed a book that should be read by all interested in the origins, processes and consequences of legal pluralism in Indonesia and the problems of gender equality and justice.' Asian Anthropology