Organizer and Chair: Barbara Watson Andaya, University of Hawai'i
Mass Media and the Development of a "Superstar" Ethos in Sundanese
Wayang Golek of West Java, Indonesia
Andrew N. Weintraub, University of California, Berkeley
This paper investigates the role of the mass media, particularly television, in the production and consumption of wayang golek, the Sundanese rod-puppet theatre of West Java, Indonesia. The paper focuses on the city of Bandung, home to the most influential wayang golek troupes, and the center for the mass mediation of Sundanese performing arts. The national radio and television stations, the largest music recording studios, the major publishing presses, and many privately owned local radio stations are located in this city. Given the scope of such mass mediations, Bandung is a hegemonic force for the production of wayang golek throughout the Sundanese-speaking region of West Java. This paper offers an examination of debates surrounding the production of television broadcasts of wayang golek. Data is based on interviews with producers, artists, officials, and consumers, as well as a review and analysis of popular press articles and government reports gathered during sixteen months of field work in West Java, 1994-95. Comparison of live and mass-mediated performances reveals distinctly different performance contexts, forms, and cultural determinations. For example, television has circumscribed wayang golek as a cultural practice by creating a small select group of privileged artists (which I refer to as "superstars") that dominate a large and diverse field of performers. In order to illustrate the practical and aesthetic differences among these divergent cultural contexts, the presentation will include videotaped examples from television broadcasts and live performances.
State-Culture and Political Gravity: Exploring the Upland-Lowland Divide in
Mainland Southeast Asia
Hjorleifur R. Jonsson, Cornell University
The division of diverse "tribal" groups in the highlands and more culturally uniform state populations in the lowlands has been a major feature of the social landscape in the region, as related by anthropologists. From the perspective of state-populations, the forested hinterlands were the home of wild animals, evil spirits, and barbarian peoples; beyond the glory of civilization. If this sense of space was shared by uplanders, then they clearly lost out. But uplanders' accounts draw on a different set of premises, where lowlanders appear to be the ones who lost out. There is no indication that the politics of space concerned either side attempting to take over the domain of the other, while both sides appear to have reproduced the divide in various ways.
I explore the upland-lowland divide as a "structure of the long run" and relate it to a range of notions about rank; the denial of rank among foragers, the open-rank systems of horticulturists, and the closed-rank schemes postulated by state-culture. I discuss the historical specificity of these schemes by juxtaposing them with the current situation, where bounded nation-states take over all the areas within their borders, and relate ideological reformulations that are emerging with this spatial restructuring of the region.
Performance, Ritual, and Meaning in Northern Thai Temple Festivals
Pamela A. Myers-Moro, Illinois Wesleyan University
Based on research in Chiangmai province, January-April l995, this paper considers the relationship between performance, ritual, and meaning by exploring drum-and-gong ensemble music and the dance it accompanies in Northern Thai celebrations of temple building and renovation, poi luang. Building upon prior work on Southeast Asian musical meaning and ritual (Becker and Becker 1981, Wong and Lysloff 1991), I locate meaning in the correspondence of musical structure and cosmology, but also explore performance, emphasizing the position of music-making and dancing within the ritual process.
After initial descriptions of tung noong music and faun lep dancing, I
consider the symbolic function of each within the poi luang and related temple
festivals. The meanings of both expressive forms are multi-layered, multi-faceted, but
always rooted in their ritual association. As key components in poi luang
processions, tung noong and faun lep create ritual-they turn festival guests
into celebrants, emphasize sacred space and time-and in turn acquire the meanings of the
ritual itself. A subsidiary concern throughout the paper is the diminishing place of the
oboe-like nae within the musical ensemble. This musical instrument is rarely
performed with the ensemble today, a change which effectively removes the
"melody" from the music. Yet by considering its meaning and symbolic function,
and its actual performance at festivals, tung noong music need not be viewed as
being in a state of decay or degeneration.
The Game of Hui: An Economic Analysis of Private Financial Arrangements in
Vietnam
Trien T. Nguyen, University of Waterloo
Hui is a popular form of private financial arrangement in Vietnam, similar to the Chinese concept of mutual-aid societies, which provides outlets for both credit demands and investment opportunities. Due to the lack of a fully-developed formal financial sector in the economy, typical financial institutions such as commercial banks, stock brokerages, investment houses, credit unions, or savings and loans associations, have not been usually available to many average Vietnamese households. Consequently, for centuries, Vietnamese households, rural villagers and city dwellers alike, have resorted to Hui as an alternative to local "loan sharks" or investment banks for their financial needs. Because of the locality aspect of the Hui game and the risk involved in putting up money for loans in exchange for interest earned, people are hardly willing to engage in a Hui game with total strangers. A brief account of Hui practices in rural Vietnam has been given in classic works such as James Hendry's "The Small World of Khánh Hâu" and Gerald Hickey's "Village in Vietnam." This paper provides a formal analysis of the Hui game within the framework of modern economic theory. Economic concepts such as efficiencies of the game, optimal bidding strategies, and characterizations of the solution for players are defined. Numerical computer simulations of the game have been obtained and their implications are discussed. The role of Hui in the development of a modern financial sector in the economy is also explored.