‘A diploma and a descendant!’ Premarital sexuality, education and politics among Dani university students in North Sulawesi, Indonesia

Abstract

In Indonesia, the notion of ‘study first’ (kuliah dulu) pressures young adults to refrain from sex and delay marriage until they finish tertiary education. Recent scholarship has viewed choices to abstain from sex as evidence of the potency of values of modernisation, Islamic culture and the contemporary importance of moral and social order. By looking at how Dani university students from Papua, the country's easternmost province, view premarital sex and pregnancy while studying in North Sulawesi, this article shows that the moral regulation of reproductive and educational aspirations invokes defensive reactions among indigenous men and women experiencing stigma and discrimination from local Indonesians. Qualitative interview results and case studies of pregnancy offer insights into the ways that indigenous men and women respond to racial stigma with a political interpretation of sexuality and pregnancy by arguing that education and reproductive achievements make vital contributions to indigenous agendas. In particular, practices of unofficial ‘marriage’ supported men's and women's need to defend themselves against stigmatisation, and enabled some women to feel positive about premarital pregnancies.

Keywords:

• premarital sexuality
• premarital pregnancy
• education
• political conditions
• Papua, Indonesia

Acknowledgement

Sam Ratulangi University in North Sulawesi facilitated my doctoral research, while the Indonesian Institute of Sciences approved my research permit. I am grateful to Lynn McIntyre, Leslie Butt, and Krista Rondeau as well as anonymous reviewers who provided excellent comments on this article. I thank my informants in North Sulawesi and Papua for allowing me to share their words and experiences.

Notes

1. Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation. About 55% of its 220 million people are Javanese, and approximately 94% of ethnic Javanese are Muslim (Smith-Hefner 2006, p. 144)

2. Funding for the fieldwork was provided by the Department of Anthropology, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (now College of the Asia Pacific), Australian National University.

3. All names in the paper are pseudonyms chosen by informants.

4. For example, a number of students had lived through what is generally referred to as the Wamena Incident just prior to departing for university in North Sulawesi in 2000. Published accounts suggest that an Indonesian military special forces unit broke up a peaceful, legal demonstration in Wamena by opening fire on the crowd, killing an indigenous man. Military and police forces attacked protestors and then incited conflict by hiding in the homes of Indonesian settlers, which were then attacked by Dani men seeking revenge who killed a number of settlers. Students recalled feelings of terror and outrage as they hid from soldiers and sheltered elderly people and young children from the violence, describing the day as a ‘battle’ (perang).