I think all the people who have responded to my initial post were thinking keris in any case, David, so the thread has been keris orientated from day one.
I was not thinking keris when I framed the questions, but the framing of the questions was driven by keris. I find that when I start to think about something in depth my thoughts run off into different directions and explore the factors that contribute to the core.
Collecting is a behaviour pattern that seems to be driven by the environment and experience of the collector, as well as inherited factors. Here in Oz we have bird called a bower bird that collects blue coloured things to build a bower in which he dances as part of the mating ritual. So collecting is not even a wholly human behaviour pattern.
We often learn more about a core issue by moving away from that core issue and considering it from a distance with the benefit of seemingly unrelated matters. You have mentioned that your keris interest has taken you into areas that might at first glance seem not to be related to an increase in information about keris, and from these apparently unrelated areas you have gained considerable knowledge that applies to the keris itself, this in turn has contributed to your enjoyment gained from acquiring keris. Not really all that dissimilar from my own experience.
To my mind, discussion of the keris embraces all those factors which touch, or are touched by, the keris. Discussion of the collecting of keris embraces all those matters which provide a better understanding of the act of collection.
One of the things about our discussions here in this Forum that disappoints me very considerably is the repetition of questions related to matters of identification. It is very seldom that I encounter a question, or any discussion, of the genuinely important and relevant matters that surround the keris. The nature of the questions and the discussion could be seen as an indication of the level of interest that the questioners have in the subject, and this in turn could be seen as an indicator of how much genuine study has been carried out in order to improve the level of knowledge. Is this a product of environment or is it an indicator of human nature, as suggested by Jussi? I don't know, but I do know that for a truly interested person there is an enormous amount of information available that can contribute to an understanding of the keris, if that is desired.
But perhaps it is not. I had a friend of 50 years who has now sadly passed, who had a wonderful collection of all sorts of eastern edged weapons, including a very nice collection of keris. He knew virtually nothing about the societal and anthropological aspects of his collecting, and he seldom discriminated on the basis of quality, but he did build a very large collection, and he got an immense amount of satisfaction from that collection. His interest was purely in the acquisition of the objects.
It could be that this behaviour pattern is the driver for a majority of collectors:- the pure act of collection.
Perhaps I'm no different. As I remarked previously, my collecting has now moved from collecting the object to collecting information that relates to the object. I still buy the occasional keris for myself, but I am now driven by different motivating factors and I'd sooner spend a couple of K on acquiring some smidgen of information that relates to the keris than on acquiring another keris.
So David, yes, we can restrict our discussion to keris related collecting, but this restriction can act as a lens that can be used to focus on what triggered my initial questions. Either way, I'm getting an education --- perhaps we all are.
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