Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

Boedhi Adhitya · 26th July 2006, 05:12 AM

Thank you very much for your kind comments, Mr. Maisey. I have to admit that my English has not improve further than spelling A, B, C,

About the 'ububan' we discuss, it is certainly correct, as you describe. I choose to use 'hand-powered blower' to describe 'the things' belongs to Jogja Court because it is not a traditional 'ububan' style bellow as you describe, but an european-made bellow, likes a very big squirrel-cage blower, but powered by a single-hand. You just have to turn the pedal in circular motion. Technological improvement, I believe

A little bit to add, IMHO, 'ububan' is a javanese word. A non-javanese Indonesian would not understand the meaning easily. Believe me, because I myself is not a Javanese. It was the keris which push me to learn Javanese language, because all described in Javanese, not to mention if you meet some 'ningrat' (royal families), they may use the 'kromo' which make my head dizzy

'landasan' has general meaning in Indonesia, just like 'base' in English. It cannot translated exactly to 'anvil', unless you add a comment/context. Without context, it might means anything, likes 'landasan pesawat terbang' (runway). On the contrary, 'anvil' and 'paron' are a single word which directly describe 'the thing', that is a block of iron where the smith use to forge the iron. Any other meaning of 'anvil' and 'paron' may need a comment/context.

The reasons why I emphasize on this 'wording case' because some philosopher argue that the knowledges of someones or even a culture reflected from the words they have to describe a things. If they don't have a single word to describe 'the thing', than it is very likely that they don't familiar or even know 'the thing'. (please don't ask me the name of philosopher

)

Thus, IMHO, Indonesian culture in general, doesn't familiar with iron processing technology. You cannot just go to Jakarta and meet the peoples there and asking "Do you know the meaning of Besalen, Ububan, or Paron ?" Most of them see paron only on Roadrunner and Coyote Cartoon, but may only describe 'the thing' as 'a big-black-heavy-iron block where the smith forge the iron' or 'a big-black-seems heavy-block that crack the Coyote head', but not 'landasan' as most dictionary entries may describe

26th July 2006, 05:12 AM	#27
Boedhi Adhitya Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 103	Thank you very much for your kind comments, Mr. Maisey. I have to admit that my English has not improve further than spelling A, B, C, About the 'ububan' we discuss, it is certainly correct, as you describe. I choose to use 'hand-powered blower' to describe 'the things' belongs to Jogja Court because it is not a traditional 'ububan' style bellow as you describe, but an european-made bellow, likes a very big squirrel-cage blower, but powered by a single-hand. You just have to turn the pedal in circular motion. Technological improvement, I believe A little bit to add, IMHO, 'ububan' is a javanese word. A non-javanese Indonesian would not understand the meaning easily. Believe me, because I myself is not a Javanese. It was the keris which push me to learn Javanese language, because all described in Javanese, not to mention if you meet some 'ningrat' (royal families), they may use the 'kromo' which make my head dizzy 'landasan' has general meaning in Indonesia, just like 'base' in English. It cannot translated exactly to 'anvil', unless you add a comment/context. Without context, it might means anything, likes 'landasan pesawat terbang' (runway). On the contrary, 'anvil' and 'paron' are a single word which directly describe 'the thing', that is a block of iron where the smith use to forge the iron. Any other meaning of 'anvil' and 'paron' may need a comment/context. The reasons why I emphasize on this 'wording case' because some philosopher argue that the knowledges of someones or even a culture reflected from the words they have to describe a things. If they don't have a single word to describe 'the thing', than it is very likely that they don't familiar or even know 'the thing'. (please don't ask me the name of philosopher ) Thus, IMHO, Indonesian culture in general, doesn't familiar with iron processing technology. You cannot just go to Jakarta and meet the peoples there and asking "Do you know the meaning of Besalen, Ububan, or Paron ?" Most of them see paron only on Roadrunner and Coyote Cartoon, but may only describe 'the thing' as 'a big-black-heavy-iron block where the smith forge the iron' or 'a big-black-seems heavy-block that crack the Coyote head', but not 'landasan' as most dictionary entries may describe Last edited by Boedhi Adhitya; 26th July 2006 at 06:25 AM.