Christianity, Colonization, and Gender Relations in North Sumatra

This is a very readable, well-researched study on the Batak land. I learned three different things for my various levels of interest:

- general interest: chapter 6 is especially Illuminating as it deals with the ‘encroachment' into the Batak land by the Padri and shortly after, the missionaries, who bring with them the colonial might. As an Indonesian I know Sisingamaraja is a national hero but I had never learned why he was one. What was his motive of fighting against the Dutch, and was it really just the Dutch or Christianity? The author noted that it may not be easy for Batak scholars to accept that Sisingamaraja also fought against Christianity, given that modern day Batak population are Christians themselves.

(On a related note, the plight of early day Batak Christians would lend their story well to a Shusaku Endo's Silence style of religious persecution story.)

- academic interest: the Batak mission built schools, but it was often hard to convince people to send their children to school. There's one note about how the missionaries in the early days had to hold a feast with a water buffalo slaughter before the local chiefs deigned to send just four boys to be educated in their school.


- personal interest: I learned about the Batak creation myth.. which sadly lacks dragons. It does revolve around marriages, which befits the book's really major theme: gender relations. (And this is how I learned about “magigi” and “mahilolong”.) if my academic interest had been on gender/marriages in Indonesian culture this book is definitely an invaluable resource.