"In Women at the Center Sanday uses her repeated visits to West Sumatra in the closing decades of the twentieth century as the basis for a new definition of matriarchy. From the vantage point of daily life in villages, especially one where she developed close personal ties, Sanday's narrative centers on how the Minangkabau conceive of their world and think humans should behave, along with the practices and rituals they claim uphold their matriarchate."--BOOK JACKET.