Marriage, Sexuality and Reproduction: The Myth and the Reality of La Galigo Epic (1)

Prof. Nurul Ilmi Idrus, Ph.D

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Introduction

This paper is derived from my ethnographic fieldwork in South Sulawesi which focuses on marriage. It not only analyzes the ideal marriage of the Bugis, but also how sexuality and reproduction is regulated within marriage based on the La Galigo epic (and other manucript) and their significance to the everyday life of the Bugis. 

I argue in this paper that any discussion of  Bugis marriage, sexuality and reproduction require a local understanding of Bugis indigenous ideas  which reflects in this epic (and other manuscript) to counter-argue the argument which neglects the significance of the content of manuscripts  to the reality of life of the Bugis. This paper was inspired by my ethnographic data and Murata’s discussion of marriage and Chinese cosmology in relation to Islamic cosmology, the aspect which stimulates my discussion of marriage, sexuality and reproduction.

Marriage:  Chinese and Islamic Cosmology

In her book The Tao of Islam, Murata (1998), a Japanese scholar, elucidates the meanings of ‘unity’ and ‘dualism’ in the relationship between men and women. In a chapter entitled ‘Macrocosmic Marriage,’ Murata discusses the relationship between the sky and the earth[1] which is an analogy for the relationship between yang and yin, a man and a woman, a husband and a wife. In analysing the relationship between men and women, however, Murata reveals her liberal thought by not indicating that the sky/man and the earth/woman analogy is based on the top/down position of the sky and the earth. She bases her argument on Chinese cosmology which describes the universe in the frame of yang and yin, emphasising ‘harmony and equilibrium.’ Murata applies her argument to an analysis of the Qur’an and Hadith, through which she denotes an understanding of Islam concerning men and women as giving them ‘complementary functions.’ A verse in the Qur’an (Adz-dza-ri-yat: 49) states that ‘everything is created in pairs.’ This suggests that the existence of one has no meaning without the presence of the other. In other words, husband and wife are two-in-one.

Significantly, the Islamic scholar, Ibn Al-‘Arabi (as cited by Murata, 1998:197) suggests that God created the sky and the earth as a set of supra-formal provisions and as a sign of God’s creations. God created ‘the earth as the wife’ and ‘the sky as the husband.’ The sky reveals the vision from God to the earth just as a man transmits his sperm in the body of a woman through sexual intercourse. In addition, Murata states:

Because of her beauty and kindness, the sky is deeply in love with the earth. The sky is married to the earth not because it is his duty, but because the sky intended to achieve enjoyment and happiness (Murata 1992:197).[2]

In this account, Murata tries to make sense, in terms of the Islamic cosmology, of the complementary relationship between men and women and sky and earth, and the consequences of this relationship.

Thus, in this sense I try to make sense in terms of the significance between Murata’s discussion of cosmological marriage and how this is related to Bugis cosmology in order to understand how this cosmology, as documented in the La Galigo epic,  is reflected on the marriage preference, idealised sexual position in sexual intercourse and its connection to  local understanding of reproduction.

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