Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Tradition, Ritual, And Art Of The Baliatn; The Conceptualization Of Philosophy And The Manifestation Of Spirituality Among The Dayak Kanayatn, Yudhistira Oscar Olendo, Jagad Aditya Dewantara, Efriani Efriani

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

Rapid globalization has slowly eroded the survival of the Baliatn ritual of the Dayak Kanayatn. Nowadays, the locals only rarely perform this ritual which is a manifestation of their culture. This study describes the Baliatn ritual pointing out it is pregnant with the meaningful philosophy of the ancestors. This tradition sets out the relationship between the people and nature; an example of gratitude and spirituality in this modern era. It also discusses the importance of cultural conceptualization through philosophy, art, and spirituality. Importantly, the Baliatn is an expression of the Dayak Kanayatn idea of how to live and appreciate life. …

Wim Van Den Doel, Snouck; Het Volkomen Geleerdenleven Van Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, Dick Van Der Meij

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

No abstract provided.

Belang And Kabata Banda; The Significance Of Nature In The "Adat" Practices In The Banda Islands, Joëlla Van Donkersgoed, Muhammad Farid

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

As an island community, the culture of the Bandanese is closely linked to their natural maritime environment. Not only is fishery the main source of income for many Bandanese, their cultural practices also include the creation of traditional boats and songs which tie the people, their environment and history together. These boats, locally referred to as belang or kora-kora, feature symbolic decorations and take part in an annual competition in which competing villages chant about their oral stories, known as kabata. Before this performance, various sacred locations, keramat, are honoured and a ceremony is held at the traditional house in …

Primates And Birds Of Sabulungan; Roles Of Animals In Sculptures, Shamanic Songs And Dances, And The Belief System Of Traditional Mentawaians, Juniator Tulius, Linda Burman-Hall

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

Mentawaians sing ritual songs enshrined in archaic texts referring to particular primates and birds, while ritual and traditional dances imitate how gibbons, sea eagles, and other animals live in the natural world. Mentawaians craft sculptures of endemic primates and unique birds. The bilou gibbon ape and various other animals also symbolize specific sacred knowledge within the sabulungan spiritual belief system and traditional cosmology of Mentawai society. Although some do succeed in surviving, many older traditions have faded away. Among the traditions which continue intact, this report aims to examine the roles of primates and birds across the arts and in …

Surviving The Influenza; The Use Of Traditional Medicines To Combat The Spanish Flu In Colonial Indonesia, 1918-1919, Ravando Ravando

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1919 was widely regarded as the deadliest in modern history, claiming more lives than World War I. Colonial Indonesia was not spared. Several scholars have estimated that around 1.5 to 4.37 million people in the colony perished, making the death rate one of the highest in Asia. In the midst of the chaos and confusion caused by the pandemic, many people in colonial Indonesia turned to traditional medicines, particularly the poorer members of society who were inexperienced in Western medicine. Herbal treatment was considered a viable option for those who frequently faced discrimination when visiting …

Creative Lifeworld In Geriana Kauh Village; Intertwining Of Culture And Nature During The Pandemics In Bali, Lg. Saraswati Putri

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

This research is an attempt to delve into understanding the process of creative imagination of the sacred which is revealed in the intertwining of culture and nature in Geriana Kauh, Karangasem, Bali. This study aims to investigate the relationship between the individual, the social and ecology, as well as the transformation of individual consciousness into a collective awareness sharing a communal reality. This qualitative research is developed by incorporating theoretical analysis and formulating field data collected in the traditional Village of Geriana Kauh, as the villagers resort to their cultural resources to deal with the cosmological imbalances caused by pandemics. …

Honey-Bees, Court Ladies, And Beekeeping In Java Before 1500 Ce, Jiří Jákl

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

People have been interacting with bees in the Indo-Malay world for thousands of years. Though the practice of robbing bees of honey and wax is relatively well-documented, we know very little about the early history of beekeeping in Southeast Asia. In this study I will use Old Javanese evidence to demonstrate that providing honey bees with artificial cavities was a practice known in Java at least by the twelfth century CE, several centuries earlier than suggested by the historians of beekeeping. In the second part of my contribution I will discuss in detail an intriguing passage in the Sumanasāntaka, a …

Journeys And Metaphors; Some Preliminary Observations About The Natural World Of Seashore And Forested Mountains In Epic Kakawin, Peter Worsley

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

In earlier publications I have argued that ancient Javanese poets imagined the world to be one marked by distinctions between a social world consisting of palace (kaḍatwan) and countryside (thāni-ḍusun) and a wilderness of seashores and forested mountains (pasir-wukir). The social world was characterized by the presence of an effective royal authority; the wilderness by its absence. A distinction was also drawn between this world inhabited by human beings and a world in which gods, ancestral spirits, and other divine beings dwelt (kedewatan). Journeys through these landscapes are an enduring interest in the narrative literature in the literary tradition of …

“The Wandering Poet”; Depictions On Ancient Javanese Relief Panels, Lydia Kieven

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

A bstract There are about 60 panels with narrative reliefs from the area of Trowulan in East Java depicting mountains, rivers, bridges, trees, fields, dwellings, pendopo, and palaces. A male figure wearing a cap-like headdress accompanied by a little panakawan-like figure, walks along a cobbled path through a beautiful landscape. The figures are carved in the simple style of East Javanese reliefs on Majapahit temples. The predominance of nature, in amazing detail, is unusual compared to other narrative temple reliefs. The exact provenance is difficult to determine. The artefacts are scattered in museums all over the world: the majority in …

Language Distribution And Variation In The Urban Area; A Case Study In Depok, A Socio-Dialectological Perspective, Sri Munawarah

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

No abstract provided.

The Colonial Legacy Of Mooi Indië And The Captive Mind In The Environmental Policy Of Citarum Harum, Chabib Duta Hapsoro, Aulia Ibrahim Yeru

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

Mooi Indië paintings represented the orientalist-colonial imagination of the picturesque Netherlands East Indies, with the obfuscation of the social realities on the ground and the silencing of the adverse effects of colonial capitalism. This article discusses the colonial legacy of Mooi Indië paintings on contemporary environmental policy in Indonesia, with a case study of the policy of the Citarum Harum Taskforce. This Taskforce was formed in 2018 and marked the national government’s attempt to rehabilitate the Citarum after it was declared one of the most polluted rivers in the world. It provides an analysis of several Mooi Indië paintings which …

On The Nature Of Botanical Gardens; Decolonial Aesthesis In Indonesian Contemporary Art, Sadiah Boonstra

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

This article examines decolonial approaches to the nature of botanical gardens in Indonesia in the artworks of nine artists featured in the exhibition On the nature of botanical gardens: contemporary Indonesian perspective at Framer Framed, Amsterdam in 2020. Zico Albaiquini, Arahmaiani, Ade Darmawan, Edwin, Samuel Indratma, Lifepatch, Ipeh Nur, Elia Nurvista, and Sinta Tantra presented works which confronted the coloniality of botanical gardens. This article provides a historical reading of the content matter of the artworks presented from a decolonial standpoint as conceptualized by Aníbal Quijano, Walter Mignolo, and María Lugones. The article will demonstrate that the artists have applied …

Animals In Javanese Manuscript Illustrations, Dick Van Der Meij

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

Most Javanese manuscript illustrations of narrative poems and (pseudo)-historical chronicles (babad) depict only one part of the natural world: animals. Animals are portrayed in relation to the characters in the text they illustrate. Some illustrated Javanese manuscripts are discussed below in relation to the way in which they illustrate the natural world: these are the fictive narrative poems Serat Selarasa, Serat Panji Jayakusuma, Serat Asmarasupi, Serat Jayalengkara Wulang, and Serat Damar Wulan, and the poetic (pseudo)-historical chronicle Babad Perang Demak. It appears from the illustrations in the manuscripts discussed that in the narrative poems the wayang style is preferred and …

Loving Nature, Praising The Creator; The Visualizations Of The Natural World In The Islamic Magazine Pandji Masjarakat, Muhammad Yuanda Zara

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

This study examines previously unexplored visual representations of the natural world published in Pandji Masjarakat magazine in 1960. Known at the time as the most popular Islamic magazine in Indonesia, this publication not only discussed Islamic teachings as hitherto understood, but also provided ample space for the publication of drawings, paintings, and photographs of the natural world. This study argues that the visualizations of the natural world in Pandji Masjarakat were aimed at providing its Muslim readers all over Indonesia and in the wider Malay world with guidance on how to see the natural world and people’s place in it …

Mount Merapi In Drawings And Paintings; A Dynamic Reflection Of Nature, 1800-1930, Ghamal Satya Mohammad

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

Mount Merapi in Central Java is one of the world’s most studied volcanoes. The frequent eruptions of this volcano and the densely populated areas on its slopes make Merapi particularly important to scholars of the natural and social sciences. Considerable attention has been devoted to contemporary aspects of this volcano, including research into forecasting and monitoring possible volcanic activity and eruptions. However, research investigating artistic representations of Merapi in a historical context, particularly local artworks referring to how people responded to a natural hazard such as a volcanic eruption, is still rare. In this paper, I explore how artists in …

Matters Of Perspective; Local Visual Expertise And Natural History Drawings In Java, 1820-1850, Andreas Weber, Sylvia Van Zanen

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

This essay examines how local draughtsmen using their visual expertise shaped natural historical knowledge production in colonial Indonesia in the early nineteenth century. The persons at the core of this essay are Tsing Wang Ho and Pieter van Oort, both draughtsmen who worked for the Natuurkundige Commissie voor Nederlandsch-Indië (Committee of Natural History of the Netherlands Indies). By zooming in on the Committee’s fieldwork in Java in the 1830s, this essay highlights that producing scientific drawings of animals and plants was a challenging endeavour. Despite detailed instructions from Europe and the logistical support of the colonial government in Batavia, the …

The Tropics And The East-Central European Gaze; The Natural World Of Southeast Asia In Polish And Serbian Travel Writings, Tomasz Ewertowski

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

The article analyses representations of the natural world in Indonesia and mainland Southeast Asia in a corpus of Polish and Serbian travel writings for the period between the opening of the Suez Canal (1869) and the outbreak of the First World War (1914). The research is based on travel writings by twenty Polish and Serbian authors, who visited Southeast Asia during the period 1869-1914. Scrutinizing a corpus of such narratives should contribute to the study of perceptions of Southeast Asia, especially among travellers from very diverse backgrounds. The theoretical and conceptual framework of the article draws on works by other …

In Memoriam H.E. Harimurti Kridalaksana (Kph Martanegara), Felicia N. Utorodewo

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

No abstract provided.

In Memoriam Clara Brakel-Papenhuyzen, Els Bogaerts

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

No abstract provided.

Preface, Susi Moeimam

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

No abstract provided.

Anton Stolwijk (2021), "Aceh; Kisah Datang Dan Terusirnya Belanda Dan Jejak Yang Ditinggalkan", Moch Nur Ichwan

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

No abstract provided.

The Netherlands-Indies; Rethinking Post-Colonial Recognition From A Multi-Voiced Perspective, Nicole L. Immler

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

In the communication of pain, language matters. Telling someone to feel pain is not just a description of one’s pain, it is – as philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein informs us – also asking for recognition of that pain. This requires a shared language which communicates it. Do we need a new language which can communicate and recognize the pain of the colonial past more effectively? Commencing with the recent apology for waging “a colonial war” in Indonesia by the Dutch prime minister, this article suggests an intervention in post-colonial recognition politics by exploring the idea of the multi-voicedness. Multi-voicedness …

Objects Of Belonging And Displacement; Artefacts And European Migrants From Colonial Indonesia In Colonial And Post-Colonial Times, Caroline Drieënhuizen

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

As colonial Indonesia never was intended to be a “settler colony”, many Dutch citizens spent only a certain period of their lives there before returning to the Netherlands. However, there were also Europeans, many with Asian-European roots, who had called the colony home for generations and were forced to leave that home after 1945.

All these different types of colonial migrants were displaced and maintained, built and reinforced their relations with the country (whether it was the colony or the “motherland”) they had left. This transnationalism (or, as I argue here, imperial orientation) took shape not only legally or relationally …

Transnational Connections; Diasporic (Re)Turns To Indonesia, Jorien Van Beukering

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

In the twentieth century, decolonization sparked mass migration movements across the globe as former settlers left newly independent colonies for the former imperial metropole or a new country altogether. In the following decades, postcolonial migrants made new homes and created communities in their hostlands. Eventually, some travelled back to their country of origin, the former colony. Indisch Dutch returns to Indonesia are not uncommon and, although some members of the first generation visited Indonesia as tourists, accounts of (re)turns by the second and third generation are rare. To form a clearer picture of the transnational connections between Indonesia and the …

Introduction Exploring Transnationalism, Fridus Steijlen

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

No abstract provided.

Searching Transnational Relations Between Moluccans In The Netherlands And The Moluccas, Fridus Steijlen

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

This article deals with the transnational relations between Moluccans in the Netherlands and the Moluccas. Former Moluccan colonial soldiers and their families were forced to go to the Netherlands because of political developments in Indonesia after the transfer of sovereignty in 1949. They hoped to return soon to an independent South Moluccan Republic but, more than seventy years later, they still live in the Netherlands. This article first describes how and why Moluccans came to the Netherlands and began to build a community. At the very beginning, the foundations for a transnational relationship were laid through village-based organizations and political …

Ronit Ricci (2019), "Banishment And Belonging; Exile And Diaspora In Sarandib, Lanka, And Ceylon", Achmad Sunjayadi

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

No abstract provided.

Where Is Home? Changing Conceptions Of The Homeland In The Surinamese-Javanese Diaspora, Rosemarijn Hoefte, Hariëtte Mingoen

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

In 1890 the first Javanese indentured labourers arrived in Suriname to work on the colony’s plantations. In total almost 30,000 indentured and free immigrants arrived in this small Caribbean colony. Fifty years later, at the end of the migration period, they formed more than one fifth of the population. Consequently, they constituted a substantial community which had to adapt to a different socio-cultural environment but, at the same time, managed to keep in touch with their homeland. The Javanese thus shaped their own cultural expressions and traditions in Suriname.

We attempt to analyse the processes of identity formation, adaptation, and …

Indonesian Political Exiles In The Netherlands After 1965; Postcolonial Nationalists In An Era Of Transnationalism, David T. Hill

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

This article presents brief life stories of select Indonesians who were forced into exile by the Suharto regime after the 1965 National Tragedy in Indonesia. It focuses on staunch nationalist exiles who were rendered stateless by the self-proclaimed “New Order“ for refusing to accept the overthrow of President Sukarno and declare loyalty to the military regime. Faced with a life in exile, they sought refuge in the former colonial nation of the Netherlands. After exploring a brief history of exile in the bilateral relationship, it explores the choices made by select individuals who moved to the Netherlands from a variety …

Three Generations Later; Examining Transnationalism, Cultural Preservation, And Transgenerational Trauma In United States Indo Population, Jamie D. Stern

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

This paper examines the relationship between transnationalism, cultural preservation, and transgenerational trauma in the United States (US) Indo population. The information being analysed was compiled by the author from two separate surveys which took place between 2012 and 2021. This data was initially intended to act as a census for the scattered US Indo community however the salient information necessitated that the census be ongoing and that another survey be developed to measure effects of lingering trauma which has been passed down generationally. The two surveys invited Indos from around the globe to participate in data collection, which led to …