The basics of keris understanding?

[Jussi M.]

Originally Posted by David

OK, this analogy might be a bit of a stretch, but it is entertaining:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=J4oKXagF3IE
Like Kai i find myself a bit of an alien from space in the keris world. I am fascinated by it, and read and study and try to understand it, but being so outside of the culture as i am it is difficult to know whether or not i truly grasp the finer details of what i am studying. But like the pope in the Monty Python sketch, "i may not know art, but i know what i like". The only problem with this attitude is that in the context of keris culture what i like could well be absolutely wrong.

What i am personally trying to understand is what is "correct" for, say, a Jawa keris from the Javanese perspective or a Bali keris from the Balinese perspective and so forth. I would be more than happy to put forth a list of things that i find important or not about keris, but it will certainly be skewed towards my decidedly Western perspective. This could make for very interesting discussion, but i am not sure it is the information that Jussi is seeking.

The Pythons are awesome

To answer your question regarding the information I am seeking for, well, maybe we should first decide what we mean by "understanding" on this context? - I guess we all can lay down our personal reference points regarding how we judge something as a worthy keris or not for our own collections but that is just subjective opinion, "nothing" else. So, I guess I am looking for information that helps me to better understand "what is "correct" for, say, a Jawa keris from the Javanese perspective or a Bali keris from the Balinese perspective and so forth", as you put it. Alan has suggested that we could began from the perspective of art, I think that is as a good point to start as any?

Best,

J