Robert Wessing
Biographic Data
| ID | 3637535 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Robert Wessing |
| GIVEN NAMES | Robert |
| FAMILY NAME | Wessing |
| SIGNATURE | WESSING R |
| AFFILIATIONS | 1. [email protected] |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 35 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 91 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1974 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
The Maiden in the Forest: Reflections on Some Southeast Asian Tales
This article is an exploration of various Southeast Asian stories with a focus on Central and East Java and Sunda (West Java). Although on the face of it these tales concern things as different as the origin of rice agriculture and the rise of princely lines and kingdoms, the paper highlights common though not-emphasized elements in them, especially the forest, raising the question why these elements are so persistently there-but-not-emphasized, …
Nyai Rara Kidul. The Antecedents of a Cosmopolitan Queen
Anthropos , Seite 371 - 394
When the Tutelary Spirit Objected: Conflict and Possession among the Using of East Java, Indonesia
This article discusses a case of possession in East Java that took place in the context of an important customary ritual, the seblang dance. In the course of this ritual, villagers meet their obligations to the spirits of fertility that allowed them to use the land on which their village and fields are located. Considerable stress was caused by a potential dancer who, perhaps for religious reasons, declined to dance although she had been specific…
The Javanese Suffix –(N)e: Some social aspects
While in most instances the use of the Javanese ‘possessive’ suffix –(n)e in the East Javanese regency of Jember conforms to descriptions of it in textbooks on Javanese, one particular usage, in connection with among others titles and kinship terms, obeys not only grammatical rules but also reflects social concerns such as relative age, status, and other hierarchical notions that inform Javanese society. This social aspect of the use of the suffi…
Pangeran Dakar’s error: A narration of the events leading to the fall of the Sultanate of Bantén
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Osing Agricultural Spirit-Medium
In the past communities in East Java coordinated their agricultural activities, including fulfilling the people’s ritual obligations to the tutelary spirit charged with maintaining the fertility of the community’s lands. The person in charge of this was the community’s founder or one of his/her descendants, the member of the line that first entered into a relationship of obligations with the spirit-owner of the village’s lands. In the past fifty …
Tarumanagara: What's in a name
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Porous boundaries: Addressing calamities in East Java, Indonesia
Social constructions of reality must account for adversity and calamities. In East Java this is commonly done with reference to the spirit world and to God, with only occasional appeals to modern science. Rather than being a uniform phenomenon, adversity can be conceptualized as happening on the individual, the household, the community, and the state levels. Explanations similarly vary from specific individual offences, to communal household or c…
Dislodged tales: Javanese goddesses and spirits on the silver screen
Indonesian films and television shows often feature popularly though only superficially known figures from Javanese mythology, including the Goddess of the Southern Ocean Nyai Roro Kidul and her counterpart the Queen of the Snakes Nyi Blorong. In this study I examine the effects of placing the stories about these entities in 'media space' (Sen and Hill 2000:199), thus removing them from the local context that in the past infused them with its tru…
Tending the Spirit’s Shrine: Kanekes and Pajajaran in West Java
Les gens de Kanekes, connus également sous le nom de Baduy, à Banten (Java Ouest), de par leur association historique avec l’ancien royaume soundanais de Pajajaran, se considèrent comme les gardiens du sanctuaire de cet Etat, qui confère au roi son pouvoir et son autorité. Cet article suggère que, de ce fait, ils se sont efforcés de préserver la pureté rituelle de leur territoire. Il examine diverses théories anciennes à ce sujet et les confronte…
From Cosmogony to Exorcism in a Javanese Genesis. The Spilt Seed, Stephen C. Headley: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, xiv+250 p
A cosmology is at basis a description of a perception of order, and one basic idea of the cosmology of the Javanese is that as long as this order is maintained, all will be well, on both the levels of society and the individual. Yet, the Javanese realize that things can and do go awry and that everyone thus may need to have things put right. The ritual used to attempt this is a ruwatan (exorcism), which in its common form involves the presentatio…
Telling the Landscape: Place and Meaning in Sunda (West Java)
In West Java, hamlets are defined by locally significant spirit entities and the tales associated with them, both positive and negative. Indeed, the places where these spirits are localized bear witness to the truth of the tales, which in turn change what would otherwise be a rock, cave, or grave into a spiritually significant object. Through knowledge of them and participation in rituals associated with them, the people of the hamlets become def…
A dance of life; The Seblang of Banyuwangi, Indonesia
A Princess from Sunda: Some Aspects of Nyai Roro Kidul
This article examines the roots of Nyai Roro Kidul as a princess from West Java who for various reasons was cast out from her parental palace to meet her fate as the Spirit Queen of the Indian Ocean and future consort of Senapati (the sixteenth-century founder of the Muslim state of Mataram) and his successors. In the process it addresses questions of Nyai Roro Kidul's sexuality and her mythological roots in South, Southeast, and East Asia, as we…
Shadows of Empire: Colonial Discourse and Javanese Tales
Shadows of Empire explores Javanese shadow theater as a staging area for negotiations between colonial power and indigenous traditions. Charting the shifting boundaries between myth and history in Javanese Mahabharata and Ramayana tales, Laurie J. Sears reveals what happens when these stories move from village performances and palace manuscripts into colonial texts and nationalist journals and, most recently, comic books and novels. Historical, a…
Nyai Roro Kidul in Puger: Local Applications of a Myth
Robert Wessing This paper explores the position of Nyai Roro Kidul in the local pantheon of ancestral and other spirits in the fishing village of Puger on the south coast of East Java. It notes how the spirit queen serves as an explanation of the perils faced by fishers in the dangerous Indian Ocean currents and her connection with various aspects of their daily lives. The paper also maps specific locations of spirits within Puger, sorting them i…
Death at the Building Site: Construction Sacrifice in Southeast Asia
The Magic Crocodile and Other Folktales from Indonesia
Rumours of Sorcery at an Indonesian University
Recently the Indonesian press has paid increased attention to reports or rumours of the use of sorcery by various people in order to gain or to hold onto official positions, or to influence others who hold such positions. This paper examines rumours concerning these practices in an Indonesian university, considering them both in the context of Javanese cosmological and magical beliefs, and within the social and economic realities of the universit…
Human sacrifice at Prambanan
While the discovery of a human skeleton is nothing extraordinary in Indo nesian archaeology, that of one in the central area of the famous Hindu temple complex of Candi Prambanan in Central Java, which dates from the first half of the ninth century A.D., does call for an explanation. Such explanations as have been put forward up to now have all been unsatis factory. Although an explanation in terms of human sacrifice was sug gested at the time, t…
The Last Tiger in East Java: Symbolic Continuity in Ecological Change
The present paper examines beliefs about tigers in East Java, Indonesia. There, as elsewhere in Southeast Asia, the tiger serves as a symbol, functioning especially as a complement to shamans and ancestral spirits. The tiger also acts as a symbol of nature, though not of uncontrolled nature - the animal guards the order of both the jungle and the village, and serves as an agent of the supernatural beings that own the forest. The Javan tiger's num…
Understanding Witchcraft and Sorcery in Southeast Asia
Ten papers from a September 1989 symposium, Manipulation of Mystical Agency and Explanations of Personal Misfortune, held in Kent, England, and an introduction to the collection. Anthropologists describe the witches and sorcerers they have met in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sumatra, and elsewhere
In the Realm of the Diamond Queen: Marginality in an Out-of-the-Way Place
PrefaceOpening: In the Realm of the Diamond Queen3Pt. 1Politics of the Periphery391Marginal Fictions512Government Headhunters723Family Planning104Pt. 2A Science of Travel1214Leadership Landscapes1275Conditions of Living1546On the Boundary of the Skin178Pt. 3Riding the Horse of Gaps2077Alien Romance2138Riding, Writing2309The History of the World253Reprise285Notes303References Cited311Index335
Bangatowa, Patogu and Gaddhungan: Perceptions of the Tiger among the Madurese
This paper analyses the symbolic aspects of the tiger as perceived by the Madurese, both on Madura and in East Java. It focuses on people's relationship with the environment and the supernatural world as well as the way the tiger as symbol has adapted to both the progress of Islam and to the modern world in general
A Change in the Forest: Myth and History in West Java
The demarcation of boundaries is an important feature of the Sundanese social and geographical landscape. Markers indicating the limits of territories, ceremonial areas and the like abound. Linguistic markers indicate interpersonal social boundaries. Boundaries are generally regarded as places of danger and various supernatural entities are said to guard those between any two spheres in general. On Java generally, regularly recurring anniversarie…
A Princess from Sunda: Some Aspects of Nyai Roro Kidul
This article examines the roots of Nyai Roro Kidul as a princess from West Java who for various reasons was cast out from her parental palace to meet her fate as the Spirit Queen of the Indian Ocean and future consort of Senapati (the sixteenth-century founder of the Muslim state of Mataram) and his successors. In the process it addresses questions of Nyai Roro Kidul's sexuality and her mythological roots in South, Southeast, and East Asia, as we…
Language Levels in Sundanese
Rumours of Sorcery at an Indonesian University
Recently the Indonesian press has paid increased attention to reports or rumours of the use of sorcery by various people in order to gain or to hold onto official positions, or to influence others who hold such positions. This paper examines rumours concerning these practices in an Indonesian university, considering them both in the context of Javanese cosmological and magical beliefs, and within the social and economic realities of the universit…
Death at the Building Site: Construction Sacrifice in Southeast Asia
Porous boundaries: Addressing calamities in East Java, Indonesia
Social constructions of reality must account for adversity and calamities. In East Java this is commonly done with reference to the spirit world and to God, with only occasional appeals to modern science. Rather than being a uniform phenomenon, adversity can be conceptualized as happening on the individual, the household, the community, and the state levels. Explanations similarly vary from specific individual offences, to communal household or c…
Spirits of the Earth and Spirits of the Water: Chthonic Forces in the Mountains of West Java
The Gunongan in Banda Aceh, Indonesia: Agni's Fire in Allah's Paradise
Wessing Robert. The Gunongan in Banda Aceh, Indonesia: Agni's Fire in Allah's Paradise ?. In: Archipel, volume 35, 1988. pp. 157-194
A dance of life; The Seblang of Banyuwangi, Indonesia
The Last Tiger in East Java: Symbolic Continuity in Ecological Change
The present paper examines beliefs about tigers in East Java, Indonesia. There, as elsewhere in Southeast Asia, the tiger serves as a symbol, functioning especially as a complement to shamans and ancestral spirits. The tiger also acts as a symbol of nature, though not of uncontrolled nature - the animal guards the order of both the jungle and the village, and serves as an agent of the supernatural beings that own the forest. The Javan tiger's num…
The Position of the Baduj in the Larger West Javanese Society
Dislodged tales: Javanese goddesses and spirits on the silver screen
Indonesian films and television shows often feature popularly though only superficially known figures from Javanese mythology, including the Goddess of the Southern Ocean Nyai Roro Kidul and her counterpart the Queen of the Snakes Nyi Blorong. In this study I examine the effects of placing the stories about these entities in 'media space' (Sen and Hill 2000:199), thus removing them from the local context that in the past infused them with its tru…
A tiger in the heart: The Javanese rampok macan
Introduction Over the years, mentions of a Javanese ceremony called rampok macan have appeared occasionally in the literature, the most recent references being those in Nieuwenhuys and Jaquet 1980 and Nieuwenhuys 1984 and 1988, and in a comment on these by Kousbroek (1984). These, however, are only the latest in a long series of references to this ceremony, which ceased to be performed in the early decades of the twentieth century. As far as the …
Human sacrifice at Prambanan
While the discovery of a human skeleton is nothing extraordinary in Indo nesian archaeology, that of one in the central area of the famous Hindu temple complex of Candi Prambanan in Central Java, which dates from the first half of the ninth century A.D., does call for an explanation. Such explanations as have been put forward up to now have all been unsatis factory. Although an explanation in terms of human sacrifice was sug gested at the time, t…
A Change in the Forest: Myth and History in West Java
The demarcation of boundaries is an important feature of the Sundanese social and geographical landscape. Markers indicating the limits of territories, ceremonial areas and the like abound. Linguistic markers indicate interpersonal social boundaries. Boundaries are generally regarded as places of danger and various supernatural entities are said to guard those between any two spheres in general. On Java generally, regularly recurring anniversarie…
An Enclosure in the Garden of Love
In a recent article I looked at the Gunongan (Plate 1) in Banda Aceh, Indonesia in the context of both the stories surrounding this structure and its symbolism. Space did not permit an analysis of a second structure, the kandang (enclosure) that stands slightly to the north of the Gunongan . In this paper therefore I will take a closer look at the kandang and some of the stories surrounding it
Sri and Sedana and Sita and Rama: Myths of Fertility and Generation
The Soul of Ambiguity: The Tiger in Southeast Asia
Nyai Rara Kidul. The Antecedents of a Cosmopolitan Queen
Anthropos , Seite 371 - 394
When the Tutelary Spirit Objected: Conflict and Possession among the Using of East Java, Indonesia
This article discusses a case of possession in East Java that took place in the context of an important customary ritual, the seblang dance. In the course of this ritual, villagers meet their obligations to the spirits of fertility that allowed them to use the land on which their village and fields are located. Considerable stress was caused by a potential dancer who, perhaps for religious reasons, declined to dance although she had been specific…
Pangeran Dakar’s error: A narration of the events leading to the fall of the Sultanate of Bantén
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Tarumanagara: What's in a name
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Nyai Roro Kidul in Puger: Local Applications of a Myth
Robert Wessing This paper explores the position of Nyai Roro Kidul in the local pantheon of ancestral and other spirits in the fishing village of Puger on the south coast of East Java. It notes how the spirit queen serves as an explanation of the perils faced by fishers in the dangerous Indian Ocean currents and her connection with various aspects of their daily lives. The paper also maps specific locations of spirits within Puger, sorting them i…
Electing a Lurah in West Java, Indonesia: Stability and Change
Language Levels in Sundanese
The Position of the Baduj in the Larger West Javanese Society
Electing a Lurah in West Java, Indonesia: Stability and Change
Spirits of the Earth and Spirits of the Water: Chthonic Forces in the Mountains of West Java
The Soul of Ambiguity: The Tiger in Southeast Asia
The Gunongan in Banda Aceh, Indonesia: Agni's Fire in Allah's Paradise
Wessing Robert. The Gunongan in Banda Aceh, Indonesia: Agni's Fire in Allah's Paradise ?. In: Archipel, volume 35, 1988. pp. 157-194
Duality. Cosmos, the Yearbook of the Traditional Cosmology Society, Volume 1, 1985
Sri and Sedana and Sita and Rama: Myths of Fertility and Generation
An Enclosure in the Garden of Love
In a recent article I looked at the Gunongan (Plate 1) in Banda Aceh, Indonesia in the context of both the stories surrounding this structure and its symbolism. Space did not permit an analysis of a second structure, the kandang (enclosure) that stands slightly to the north of the Gunongan . In this paper therefore I will take a closer look at the kandang and some of the stories surrounding it
A tiger in the heart: The Javanese rampok macan
Introduction Over the years, mentions of a Javanese ceremony called rampok macan have appeared occasionally in the literature, the most recent references being those in Nieuwenhuys and Jaquet 1980 and Nieuwenhuys 1984 and 1988, and in a comment on these by Kousbroek (1984). These, however, are only the latest in a long series of references to this ceremony, which ceased to be performed in the early decades of the twentieth century. As far as the …
A Change in the Forest: Myth and History in West Java
The demarcation of boundaries is an important feature of the Sundanese social and geographical landscape. Markers indicating the limits of territories, ceremonial areas and the like abound. Linguistic markers indicate interpersonal social boundaries. Boundaries are generally regarded as places of danger and various supernatural entities are said to guard those between any two spheres in general. On Java generally, regularly recurring anniversarie…
In the Realm of the Diamond Queen: Marginality in an Out-of-the-Way Place
PrefaceOpening: In the Realm of the Diamond Queen3Pt. 1Politics of the Periphery391Marginal Fictions512Government Headhunters723Family Planning104Pt. 2A Science of Travel1214Leadership Landscapes1275Conditions of Living1546On the Boundary of the Skin178Pt. 3Riding the Horse of Gaps2077Alien Romance2138Riding, Writing2309The History of the World253Reprise285Notes303References Cited311Index335
Bangatowa, Patogu and Gaddhungan: Perceptions of the Tiger among the Madurese
This paper analyses the symbolic aspects of the tiger as perceived by the Madurese, both on Madura and in East Java. It focuses on people's relationship with the environment and the supernatural world as well as the way the tiger as symbol has adapted to both the progress of Islam and to the modern world in general
The Last Tiger in East Java: Symbolic Continuity in Ecological Change
The present paper examines beliefs about tigers in East Java, Indonesia. There, as elsewhere in Southeast Asia, the tiger serves as a symbol, functioning especially as a complement to shamans and ancestral spirits. The tiger also acts as a symbol of nature, though not of uncontrolled nature - the animal guards the order of both the jungle and the village, and serves as an agent of the supernatural beings that own the forest. The Javan tiger's num…
Understanding Witchcraft and Sorcery in Southeast Asia
Ten papers from a September 1989 symposium, Manipulation of Mystical Agency and Explanations of Personal Misfortune, held in Kent, England, and an introduction to the collection. Anthropologists describe the witches and sorcerers they have met in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sumatra, and elsewhere
The Magic Crocodile and Other Folktales from Indonesia
Rumours of Sorcery at an Indonesian University
Recently the Indonesian press has paid increased attention to reports or rumours of the use of sorcery by various people in order to gain or to hold onto official positions, or to influence others who hold such positions. This paper examines rumours concerning these practices in an Indonesian university, considering them both in the context of Javanese cosmological and magical beliefs, and within the social and economic realities of the universit…
Human sacrifice at Prambanan
While the discovery of a human skeleton is nothing extraordinary in Indo nesian archaeology, that of one in the central area of the famous Hindu temple complex of Candi Prambanan in Central Java, which dates from the first half of the ninth century A.D., does call for an explanation. Such explanations as have been put forward up to now have all been unsatis factory. Although an explanation in terms of human sacrifice was sug gested at the time, t…
A Princess from Sunda: Some Aspects of Nyai Roro Kidul
This article examines the roots of Nyai Roro Kidul as a princess from West Java who for various reasons was cast out from her parental palace to meet her fate as the Spirit Queen of the Indian Ocean and future consort of Senapati (the sixteenth-century founder of the Muslim state of Mataram) and his successors. In the process it addresses questions of Nyai Roro Kidul's sexuality and her mythological roots in South, Southeast, and East Asia, as we…
Shadows of Empire: Colonial Discourse and Javanese Tales
Shadows of Empire explores Javanese shadow theater as a staging area for negotiations between colonial power and indigenous traditions. Charting the shifting boundaries between myth and history in Javanese Mahabharata and Ramayana tales, Laurie J. Sears reveals what happens when these stories move from village performances and palace manuscripts into colonial texts and nationalist journals and, most recently, comic books and novels. Historical, a…
Nyai Roro Kidul in Puger: Local Applications of a Myth
Robert Wessing This paper explores the position of Nyai Roro Kidul in the local pantheon of ancestral and other spirits in the fishing village of Puger on the south coast of East Java. It notes how the spirit queen serves as an explanation of the perils faced by fishers in the dangerous Indian Ocean currents and her connection with various aspects of their daily lives. The paper also maps specific locations of spirits within Puger, sorting them i…
Death at the Building Site: Construction Sacrifice in Southeast Asia
A dance of life; The Seblang of Banyuwangi, Indonesia
Telling the Landscape: Place and Meaning in Sunda (West Java)
In West Java, hamlets are defined by locally significant spirit entities and the tales associated with them, both positive and negative. Indeed, the places where these spirits are localized bear witness to the truth of the tales, which in turn change what would otherwise be a rock, cave, or grave into a spiritually significant object. Through knowledge of them and participation in rituals associated with them, the people of the hamlets become def…
From Cosmogony to Exorcism in a Javanese Genesis. The Spilt Seed, Stephen C. Headley: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, xiv+250 p
A cosmology is at basis a description of a perception of order, and one basic idea of the cosmology of the Javanese is that as long as this order is maintained, all will be well, on both the levels of society and the individual. Yet, the Javanese realize that things can and do go awry and that everyone thus may need to have things put right. The ritual used to attempt this is a ruwatan (exorcism), which in its common form involves the presentatio…
History (26 works) · Asian Studies and History (24 works) · History (17 works) · Art (16 works) · Philosophy (16 works) · Geography (13 works) · Archaeology (12 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Linguistics (9 works)