Girls’ Bodies as a Site of Reform: The Roman Catholic Boarding Schools in Flores, Colonial Indonesia, c.1880s–1940s

Abstract

In the final quarter of the nineteenth century, Roman Catholic women religious opened two boarding schools for girls in Flores in the Dutch East Indies. Because the Roman Catholic mission on Flores quickly created alliances with local elite families, Roman Catholic boarding school education became a prestigious asset for local boys and girls alike. Roman Catholic missionaries in Flores were extremely critical of local cultural practices concerning marriage and encouraged unions between young men and women who were educated at the boarding schools. These graduates were expected to form families based on a model of Christian companionate marriage. This chapter argues that everyday educational practice at the girls’ schools hinged on a conception of indigenous girls’ bodies as a site of moral reform. Girls were subjected to a disciplinary regime that focused heavily on religious instruction and domestic labour. Religious sisters paid much attention to the outward appearance of their pupils, such as their hair and clothing. This scrutiny was underwritten by Roman Catholic doctrine as well as racial thinking. Local girls and their families, however, did not always accept the strict disciplinary regime at the schools and sometimes actively resisted it.