WOMEN, LAND, AND LABOR - NEGOTIATING CLIENTAGE AND KINSHIP IN A MINANGKABAU PEASANT COMMUNITY

One of the central dynamics shaping agrarian change, and one seldom hi ghlighted, is the structure and ideology of kinship and clientage in p easant communities. This article examines the importance of kin ties i n the maintenance of nonwage labor relationships in a wet-rice farming community in West Sumatra, Indonesia. In this village patron-client t ies are primarily organized on the basis of matrilineal kin ties throu gh and between women. Elite women and their client kin are both bound to and invested in a complex relation of land, labor, and obligations that supports the continued interdependence of landlord/tenant and hel ps keep agricultural wage labor from becoming the dominant relation of production in the village.