This morning my wife and I visited the friend I mentioned in post # 38.
I asked her why it was that when we see pictures of Toraja gatherings and a keris is present, it is now almost always with a woman, rather than with a man.
Does this mean that for Toraja people the keris is not now a male symbol and if so, was it ever a male symbol for Toraja people?
I did not know it before this morning, but apparently this woman comes from minor royalty, so I am assuming, I hope correctly, that what she has told me has some element of accuracy in it.
The full conversation used a couple of hours and we were given lots and lots of irrelevant information, but the essence of her answer in respect of keris was this:-
1) In times past, perhaps in her great grandparent's time, the keris was identified with men, because men were the hunters and the warriors.
2) In the present day the keris is recognized as a part of cultural inheritance, but it is no longer the specific preserve of men, no longer associated directly with men, but where it is an heirloom, a pusaka, it is associated with the family. Within a family it might fall to a man, or to his wife to look after the keris, and if it is worn, it is mostly worn by the woman as a dress ornament that is associated with culture. Nothing more.
3) In her own family, and in most other families that she knows, the last two generations have not passed on any of the knowledge of culture and family history. She is of the opinion that WWII destroyed the continuation of culture and that independence and the entry to modern times helped, because the old people saw that the younger generations were not interested in what had come before, so they did not try to teach them, but if a question was asked, only then would they answer.
4) As things stand right now, the only people who truly understand the culture are specialists and people in universities. In a normal family the family keris has become just an ornament that is used sometimes in traditional dress.
This woman has lived in Australia for about 20 years, but she spends three months every year back with her family in Torajaland. She appears to be completely in touch with the present day situation there.
She knew absolutely nothing of the esoteric side of the keris as it applies in Jawa and Bali
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