The Construction and Reconstruction of Gender and Identity through Food in Indonesia

Abstract

This study examines how the construction of gender and identity have been transformed for Indonesian men and women especially since the Independence in 1945. The extent and characteristics of these changes are examined through the medium of food in Indonesia. Food can be an indicator of a transformation of culinary culture as well as an indicator of social change. A significant focus of this study investigates how food reflects the ways in which the roles and values of Indonesians have evolved in response to the interaction of ‘outside’ power (e.g., cosmopolitanism, globalization, Westernization and Arabization) with ‘inside’ influences (e.g., ethnic acculturation, inter-island/regional migration and urbanization). Food cannot be separated from gender and identity as they are intertwined in people’s daily lived reality. As such, the values associated with masculinity and femininity shift in accordance with food, food preparation, eating manners, food taboos, gendered food, and gendered food traditions. The role of Indonesian women in preparing food in the kitchen has been regarded as important for social order and may signify the hierarchies of identities: generational, gendered, or class. Indonesian society changed dramatically during the Old Order Era (1945-1966), the New Order Era (1966-1998), and the “Reformation” (1998) to the present day. Economic reforms and the emergence of a new middle class have fostered a consumption-based modern lifestyle for many Indonesians which is markedly different from the traditional self-restraint vis-a-vis food. The traditional gender and identity constructs of modern Indonesians have been transformed accordingly. The Construction and Reconstruction of Gender and Identity through Food in Indonesia