Book review: Elite Malay polygamy: Wives, wealth and woes in Malaysia By Miriam Koktvedgaard Zeitzen
Book review: Elite Malay polygamy: Wives, wealth and woes in Malaysia By Miriam Koktvedgaard Zeitzen
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书评：马来精英一夫多妻制：马来西亚的妻子、财富和困境 作者：Miriam Koktvedgaard Zeitzen
DOI：
10.1017/s0022463422000704
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发表时间：
2022
影响因子：
0.6
通讯作者：
Nurul Huda Mohd. Razif
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Curioni Arianna;Voinov Pavel;Allritz Matthias;Wolf Thomas;Call Josep;Knoblich G?nther;Voinov Pavel;Yoko Hayami;Nurul Huda Mohd. Razif;Nurul Huda Mohd. Razif
《马来精英一夫多妻制》（Elite Malay Polygamy）是马来西亚城市精英中的一种一夫多妻制，伊斯兰家庭法（IFL）允许穆斯林男子一次最多娶四个妻子。在这里，已婚男性拥有MBA的地位（“已婚但可用”）--这让本书中的17位精英马来女性感到非常担忧，她们必须克服“一夫多妻制的焦虑”（第1页），同时她们的生活以各种方式被一夫多妻制颠覆。本书按主题分为15章，每一章都涉及马来一夫多妻制的一个重要方面。故事“（第一章）合理化了这本书的组织沿着”叙事主题“，以反映对话者所经历的”支离破碎、不连续的叙事“，以及这些叙事与作者在该领域的关系（第26页）。《精英》（第二章）提供了后殖民马来西亚马来城市精英崛起的经济和历史背景，他们越来越多地采用一夫多妻制作为城市地位的象征。《丈夫》（第六章）和《妻子》（第七章）解释了为什么丈夫会娶更多的妻子，为什么女人为了爱、陪伴和生孩子而进入一夫多妻制的婚姻。“共同妻子”（第9章）、“子女”（第11章）、“家庭”（第12章）和“竞争对手”（第13章）展示了马来一夫多妻制家庭中配偶、共同妻子和父母与子女之间亲属关系的复杂形成和消除。《秘密》（第4章）、《责备》（第5章）、《欲望》（第8章）和《魔法》（第14章）描述了引导一夫多妻生活的黑暗潮流，经常导致悲剧性的结局，《离婚》（第15章）对此进行了阐述。Koktvedgaard Zeitzen的主要论点之一是，一夫多妻制“绝不是现代生活或现代性的对立面”（第39页）;相反，它是当代马来西亚现代城市精英身份的定义标志之一。这是令人信服地提出了一夫多妻制的复苏定位在千年之交的一个快速的社会，宗教和经济变革的马来西亚，沉淀了新的马来城市精英的崛起。这些猩猩卡亚巴鲁（暴发户）拥护一夫多妻制，将其视为炫耀财富的炫耀性消费行为。他们有经济能力结婚并维持多个妻子，这表明他们已经“达到了一种地位水平，使一夫多妻制成为一种可取的精英标志”（第39页）。因此，通过实行一种传统上与贵族有关的婚姻形式（第96页），马来男子在战略上“发出成为统治阶级一部分或加强其地位的愿望”（第40页）。在20世纪80年代的伊斯兰复兴运动之后，一夫多妻制也卷入了民族宗教身份的政治，成为马来人和穆斯林身份的明显标志（第244页）。这些论点将社会经济发展和宗教政治条件联系在一起，为现代马来西亚一夫多妻制的复兴奠定了基础。他们也解释了为什么马来人
Elite Malay polygamy is an account of polygamy among the Malay urban elite of Malaysia, where Islamic Family Law (IFL) enactments allow Muslim men to marry up to four wives at a time. Here, married men hold the status of MBA (‘married but available’)—a cause of great apprehension for the 17 elite Malay women featured in this book, who must navigate their ‘polygamous anxieties’(p. 1) while their lives are upended by polygamy in various ways.The book is divided thematically into 15 chapters, each addressing an important aspect of Malay polygamy.‘Stories’(chapter 1) rationalises the organisation of this book along ‘narrative themes’ to reflect the ‘fragmentary, discontinuous narratives’ the interlocutors have lived, and the way these were related to the author in the field (p. 26).‘Elites’(chapter 2) provides the economic and historical context to the rise of the Malay urban elite in postcolonial Malaysia, who increasingly adopt polygamy as an urban status symbol.‘Husbands’(chapter 6) and ‘Wives’(chapter 7) explain the perceived rationale for why husbands would marry additional wives, and why women enter a polygamous union for love, companionship, and to have children.‘Co-wives’(chapter 9),‘Children’(chapter 11),‘Families’(chapter 12), and ‘Rivals’(chapter 13) demonstrate the complex making and undoing of kinship between spouses, co-wives, and between parents and children in Malay polygamous families.‘Secrets’(chapter 4),‘Blame’(chapter 5),‘Desires’(chapter 8), and ‘Magic’(chapter 14) describe the dark currents directing the course of polygamous life, often resulting in tragic ends elaborated in ‘Divorce’(chapter 15). One of the main thrusts of Koktvedgaard Zeitzen’s argument is that polygamy is ‘by no means antithetical to modern life or modernity’(p. 39); rather, it is one of the defining markers of modern urban elite identity in contemporary Malaysia. This is convincingly presented by positioning the resurgence of polygamy at the turn of the millennium—a time of rapid social, religious, and economic change in Malaysia that precipitated the rise of the new Malay urban elite. These orang kaya baru (the nouveaux riches) embrace polygamy as an act of conspicuous consumption to demonstrate their wealth. Their financial ability to marry and maintain multiple wives indicates that they have ‘reached a status level that makes polygamy desirable as a sign of being elite’(p. 39). By practising a form of marriage traditionally associated with the aristocracy (p. 96), Malay men are therefore strategically ‘signal [ing] aspirations to be part of or strengthen their positioning in the ruling classes’(p. 40). In the wake of the Islamic revivalist movement of the 1980s, polygamy also became embroiled in the politics of ethnoreligious identity, becoming a visible marker of Malay and Muslim identity (p. 244). These arguments link together the socioeconomic developments and religio-political conditions germinal for the resurgence in polygamy in modern-day Malaysia. They also explain why Malay men would