vrouwenwegen (English: “women’s paths (old Gayo footpaths)”) is a term or concept described in Jongejan’s Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu in relation to Aceh. Old footpaths to Gajo-land, so difficult that the Bireuën-Meureudu connection was called ‘de weg van een vrouw, die water gaat scheppen’ (the way of a woman going to draw water).

Translation

women’s paths (old Gayo footpaths)

Description

Old footpaths to Gajo-land, so difficult that the Bireuën-Meureudu connection was called ‘de weg van een vrouw, die water gaat scheppen’ (the way of a woman going to draw water). Snouck Hurgronje’s ‘Het Gajoland en zijne bewoners’ enumerates dozens of these women’s paths. Replaced by the 1913 Gajoweg.

Significance

The term vrouwenwegen is recorded by Jongejan as part of the cultural, administrative, or institutional vocabulary of Aceh.

See Also

Source

Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu, by J. Jongejans, Oud-Resident van het Gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, with a foreword by Dr. H. Colijn (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 47, 70.