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Old 18th August 2018, 10:26 PM   #1
A. G. Maisey
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Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 6,700
Default Culture & Perception

I just stumbled across this:-

http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2...ection=science

I am guessing, but I imagine a very large number students of the keris would have been aware of the core matter of this study, what I find interesting is that academia has created a new discipline to study something that has been obvious to so many people for so long.

I truly do love the way in which academia functions, it seems as if there are boundless possibilities for career advancement:- too many people in front of you in your own speciality? no problem, create a new one.

But seriously, one of the recurring things that come up for discussion in this Forum is the old tangguh system of classification. I doubt that anything about keris study confuses people as much as this system does. In this article that I have linked to, you will recognise very easily the clear reasons why people from Western Cultures, and/or people who have been educated in a way that tends towards a Western Cultural pattern have very great difficulty in coming to terms with the variables that we encounter when we immerse ourselves in tangguh --- or even when we just stick our collective toe into the tangguh pond to test the water.

Put very, very simply:- if one is not Javanese, or is unable to understand the way in which Javanese people understand the world, one has very little possibility of understanding the tangguh system of keris classification --- let alone the keris itself.
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