Introduction

This chapter demonstrates that communities have a high degree of interest in ensuring that the marriages in their sphere adhere to dominant understandings of religious morality. Anthropologists, including ethnographers of Indonesia, have long held a fascination with marriage. In Indonesia, the preoccupation with marriage and kinship can be linked in part to the colonial project and the ultimate quest for racial superiority. The chapter outlines the concept of the marital continuum and how this enables us to view marriage from a new angle. It considers what a project of modernity might look like at the local level in western Lombok, where the utilisation of state-based Marriage Law remains low. The chapter highlights how state-based attempts to recast female legal subjectivities via the Marriage Law intersect with ideas of female agency, especially within the context of Islam. In rural Sasak society, women are typically considered ready to enter the marital continuum at around 15 or 16 years of age.