Frontiers, Sovereignty, and Marital Tactics: Comparisons from the Borneo Highlands and the Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore Growth Triangle

Abstract

This article considers transnational relationships between men and women from two Southeast Asian border zones, the Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak, Malaysia, and the Indonesian island of Batam, part of the growth triangle that connects Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. It expands on Aihwa Ong's discussion of ‘graduated zones of sovereignty’ by examining how social relations are being reconfigured along these two international frontiers in the context of changing economic processes and state practices. The case studies, and the comparison between them, illustrate how men in Malaysia and Singapore, who are increasingly marginalised in the globalising economy, become involved with Indonesian women from the other side of the border in order to reproduce patriarchal structures that are connected to ‘traditional’ family forms.