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Old 18th December 2018, 01:58 AM   #48
Anthony G.
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Join Date: Mar 2018
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Quote:
Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey
An interesting series of comments Kai.

I most sincerely suggest that your "scientific approaches" have somewhere between very limited and no usefulness at all in providing assistance in gaining an understanding of the keris, if that is the objective of the exercise.

Each society that has adopted the keris as a part of that society's culture has given the keris an understanding that is somewhat at variance with other understandings of the keris.

However, each society owns its own understanding.

We can study, and with time and dedication learn, the way in which any particular society may understand the keris, and since the keris is an integral part of any society where it exists, this societally based study is really the only valid way in which to approach keris study, if we wish to understand the keris as it is understood in the society where it exists.

If we do not wish to understand the keris as it is understood by the people who bear it, but rather as an item that is divorced from its context, then the "scientific approach" could well have a place --- but then we need to ask ourselves just exactly what it is that we are studying.

The belief system that supports the keris in Jawa and in Bali is only one belief system amongst many others that constitute the fabric of these two societies. I have mentioned Jawa & Bali, because these two societies are the generative societies of the keris. If we are to ever understand the keris , it is here that we must begin, and we must begin with an understanding of these two societies. That understanding must incorporate a thorough understanding of the ways in which the people in these societies see the world around them.

We cannot ever hope to understand the keris as an item taken out of its society, we must recognise that the people of any society own the culture that governs that society, so the people of a society that has the keris as one of their cultural icons own the way in which that keris should be understood.

I see our role as students of the keris to understand the belief systems that are the weft of a keris bearing society, one of the strands of belief is the system or systems that provides the society with a way in which to understand the keris. We do not necessarily need to subscribe to that belief system, but we do need to understand it if we are ever going to understand the way in which the keris is understood by the people who own it.

If we do not adopt this approach we are in danger of becoming no more than "stamp collectors".

Very well said!
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