Jathilan Dance: Experiencing the Spirits

yelling, crawling and rolling. Later, they begin to show some animal-like behavior: hissing, roaring and moving on all fours. This is my fieldwork. The place is Java, the Special Region of Yogyakarta. Pawang is a kind of ritual specialist believed to be capable of controlling animals, spirits, and other invisible forces. But more commonly, or so it seems, pawangs apply their powers in controlling possession or inducing and then ending the state of trance during jathilan dance. This dance is the focus of my attention. And this research is my second shot at trying to have an academic career. I came a long way: from the field as abstract as the history of Western philosophy and the land as distant as Russia. Running away from minimal wages, long teaching hours, and impossibly high expectations about presenting and publishing, I found my new passion as far away from the notions of enlightened modernity or cynical postmodernity as possible.

TFS in Bahasa Indonesia: Arkeologi Praktis di Kalimantan

“Penelitian arkeologi bukan penelitian tunggal. Penelitian arkeologi harus ditunjang oleh penelitian disiplin ilmu yang terkait seperti antropologi, bahasa, seni, geografi, biologi, geologi, dan sebagainya agar hasil penelitiannya komprehensif dan bermanfaat untuk memahami khazanah perkembangan sejarah kebudayaan dan kehidupan manusia, mendorong cinta akan warisan budaya, serta memahami hubungan erat antara manusia dan alam dalam upaya preservasi alam dan warisan budaya.” – Vida Kusmartono Podcast kali … Continue reading TFS in Bahasa Indonesia: Arkeologi Praktis di Kalimantan