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Old 7th December 2010, 02:26 AM   #37
David
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Nova Scotia
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I hope you understand, Jean, that i have no "horse in this race", so to speak. I am just trying to sort out fact from conjecture and get a better grasp on the keris culture of Toraja and what it means. I also never intended that you be the only one to answer all my questions. They are not directed specifically at you, but at the community here as a whole, so i do indeed hope that others here can fill in the spaces when our own personal knowledge and research has run dry.
It seems obvious that the Torajan culture has its own specific take on the keris. As we know, in most Indonesian cultures the keris is, among other things, a symbol of manhood and lineage and is for the most part the provence of the men in the society. Patrems exist in these cultures, but they seem the exception, not the rule. From what i can see in these photos and videos it is quite the opposite story in Toraja. Toraja does not have a patriarchal society. Unlike other areas of Indonesia lineage is bilateral, so children inherit from both sides of the family. Women own property just as men do.
Even once the keris become a ceremonial weapon in Java i believe it would still be worn by a warrior because of the everything else it means within that society. It is possible that the keris was never a true weapon in Toraja, but then i would imagine that it came into their culture somewhat late on the general timeline of keris history. As for your question about the status level of the 3 old warriors, it may well be so that they are "commoners". Of course, in most areas with keris culture the keris has trickled down to commoner status level. Every man, even a commoner, would strive to own a keris. Then we must ask if this is not the case in Toraja, who was Marco's keris made for, because it certainly does not seem to be made on the level of quality and materials that would be worthy of a noble. I would think that if it were not made for a commoner, if only nobles in Toraja own keris, then Marco's most likely was intended for the tourist market. Yours, being of a higher quality with gold seems more likely to have had a different intention.
I don't know how you can tell what kind of keris the girls are carrying in the wedding video. The women in the dance video seem to be carrying props, not real keris at all. The keris in the funeral rituals look real enough, but it's impossible to tell without handling them. But these are real ceremonies in these videos even if they are open to the public. They are, unfortunately, all we have to rely on for now for a look at the current state of keris culture in Toraja.
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