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Paper short abstract:

Focussing on ‘mixed marriages’ that bridge religious, cultural and ethnic differences in Penang, this paper explores how negotiations of divergence between individuals, generations, families, and communities reflects and informs wider social transformations in Malaysia.

Paper long abstract:

How do individuals and their social universes come together and/or diverge in marriage? And how do ethical understandings about marriage bridge the familial and the political? This paper considers marriage in the context of social changes in Malaysia over the last 40 years. In part, this is a story about transforming patterns of employment and urbanisation, of shifting gender ideologies, and of palpable tensions between Islam and feminism. We could see these changes as encapsulated in marriage. As an exceptionally diverse locale – culturally, religiously and ethnically - where ‘mixed marriages’ are said to occur more frequently today than in the past, Penang offers a unique perspective on the congruence between marital and social futures. To some degree, all marriage could be said to entail processes of mixing and distinction that enable both stability and innovation. What can narratives and experiences of marriage and conjugality in Penang tell us about such processes? Focussing on religious and ethnic differences in marriage, the paper will explore how the negotiation of divergence between individuals, generations, families, and communities reflects and informs wider transformations over several decades in Malaysia. I suggest that marriage and conjugality offer new ways to grasp how intimate worlds may envision and shape social futures.