Michael, I have seen my servant filling in time carving floral designs into the handle of a spoon. The people we are talking about just don't think or act the way you and I do.
Why are the couple of examples you have of things that appear to be tools, ornamented?
I don't know.
I could hypothesise a dozen reasons, but the only way it is possible to know is to have been there when it was done.Maybe a possible reason could be that coconuts are only cut once in a while, so you don't really wear the tool out, it will last for a long time, thus any ornamentation is not lost after a season or two of work, as would be the case with an arit. An arit strikes tens of thousands of cuts: a knife used to cut coconuts or bananas cuts a few times and is then put away.
In Central Jawa there is a plaque of wood that is hung from a waist belt and is used to hold a coconut cutting knife. These plaques are sometimes just plain wood, but sometimes they are highly and elegantly ornamented. The plaque itself is just a simple wooden plaque, but the ornamentation can sometimes be quite fine.
Arits and celurits both come in different sizes and shapes suited to different purposes, from pruning ornamental trees and bushes, to splitting wood for firewood.
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