PART ONE - DEPARTURE

Summary

In Eastern Indonesia gender is an important category that stratifies social groups. Women's access to mobility is influenced by their position in social relations. I begin by situating myself in the research project and then locating the Eastern Indonesian women in the geographical, economic and political situations of East Nusa Tenggara. Women's travel represents efforts to negotiate their position in spatial and social relations. Such representation does not change the dominant discourse of social categories or boundaries, however it does open a new space for women's shifting roles.