GenderpropertyandtheAutonomythesisinSoutheast_Asia教程.pdf

The Journal of Asian Studies Vol. 67, No. 1 (February) 2008: 43–72. © 2008 Association of Asian Studies Inc. doi: 10.1017/S0021911808000028 Gender, Property, and the “Autonomy Thesis” in Southeast Asia: The Endowment of Local Succession in Early Modern Vietnam NHUNG TUYET TRAN The claim that Vietnamese inheritance patterns were bilateral and indicative of wider patterns of Southeast Asian women’s autonomy or Vietnamese protona- tional uniqueness reflect major themes in the historiography on Vietnam. Past scholarship suggests that lawmakers of the Lê (1427–1783) and Mạc (1527–60) dynasties codified bilateral succession practices, attesting to the rela- tive autonomy that Vietnamese women shared with their Southeast Asian counterparts. This essay challenges the claims of bilateralism and argues that Lê dynasty law, local custom, and legal practice preserved the principles of patri- lineal succession. Though the language and adjudication of the law limited daughters’ succession rights, ironically, these restrictions on their private rights enabled women to carve out spaces of authority in village economic and religious life. To avoid the transfer of their property to male relatives, some women instead transferred property to local institutions in order to lay claim over their personal property and to ensure the maintenance of their ancestral rites in perpetuity. In effect, rather than a system that elevated women’s status, the property regime served as a site of contestation in which women could claim large economic and religious roles in local settings. ISTORIANS OF SOUTHEAST ASIA often assert that the region’s cultures conferred Himportant roles on