My apologies David, I usually try not to write in the way in which I speak, as I realise that much of my normal patois would be totally incomprehensible to most speakers of the English language. That one just slipped by me.
I'm not so sure that the idea of "pakem" existed in old Jawa. I feel that a lot of the nit-picking categorisation that goes on with the keris possibly did not begin to occur until after the resurgence of Javanism that occurred during the Kartosuro era.Twenty years ago I would have thought that this had reached its peak during the 1920's and 1930's, but I would have been wrong. It seems to me that more pigeon holes get added every day.
How much this contributes towards the understanding of the keris, I am as yet uncertain.
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