Gender, Social Structure, Regionalism - Book Report/Review Example

New religions arrived in the region, economic upheavals occurred, changing configurations of state control were introduced, society began to be impacted by European lifestyles and their behavior was adopted. The author has covered the social history of Southeast Asia women in seven chapters, besides providing lucid introduction and conclusion. The chapters are Women and Southeast Asia, Early Modernity, Sources, and Women’s History, Women and Religious Change, Women and Economic Change, States, Subjects, and Households, Women, Courts, and Class, and Being Female in "Early Modern" Southeast Asia.

Many examples from Burmese, Malay, Philippine, Thai and Vietnamese societies have been elucidated. The views articulated and the details given thus become noticeable and research-worthy part of women’s world history. The author challenges the issues of Southeast Asia taking into consideration the twin factors of topography and geo-cultural zone and builds further arguments about the issue of gender construction and describes how that issue varies from region to region. Women in these regions play important roles in their assigned areas like indigenous ritual.

She also deals with economic and social issues and the growth in slavery on the position of women. Southeast Asia includes 11 countries. Much cultural and linguistic diversity exists in these states and the position of women is relatively favorable. Kinship works through the twin lines, paternal and maternal. Daughter has the appropriate status in the society and she is not considered as a financial burden. The practice of bride price was widely prevalent. The married couple often lived near wife’s parents.

Women labored hard assisting the male fraternity in the agricultural sector and they were actively involved in the local market operations. As time rolled by, with the change in the political system, centralized states came into existence and missionaries made