ABSTRACT
It’s evening, just before the Islamic magrib prayer, and I am sitting in the local meeting hall (baruga, B) watching children practise for an upcoming festival. It’s an adat festival and it will include Bugis songs and dances and Islamic recitations. A flute (suling) is playing and its sound is mesmerizing. Someone is also playing a small guitar (kecapi, B) and someone else a drum (gendang). Fatilah just took a break from teaching and came and sat with me. Fatilah is around 30, I guess, and s/he’s considered an expert on dance and festival performances. Hir break wasn’t long because the festival is in two nights’ time, but it was long enough for a quick chat. We started talking about women, men and calabai and I commented that in many ways calabai are just like women (persis wanita). ‘Take you, for instance, Fatilah,’ I declared, ‘you’re just like a woman. You’re wearing a skirt, a blouse, and your hair is tied up in a bun. You’re wearing face powder and lipstick. Your voice is very feminine and you move in a very feminine way. What I’m wondering is why calabai don’t attempt to be exactly like women? I mean, women don’t hang around (bergaul) with men like you do. But you socialize in men’s areas all the time. I mean, if calabai are, well, women, you know, then don’t they have to act exactly like women?’
