| Jaranan: The Horse Dance and Trance in East Java [With CDROM] Contributor(s): Van Groenendael, Clara (Author) |
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ISBN: 9067183067 ISBN-13: 9789067183062 Publisher: Brill OUR PRICE: $69.35 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: January 2008 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Customs & Traditions - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - General - Social Science | Human Geography |
| Dewey: 793.319 |
| Series: Verhandelingen Van Het Koninklijk Instituut Voor Taal-, Land |
| Physical Information: 0.8" H x 6.2" W x 9.3" (1.15 lbs) 308 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The dramatic genre of the horse dance (jaranan) is part of an age-old Javanese tradition displaying wide local and regional variations. A striking feature of the performances of the majority of horse dance groups is the appearance of trance dancers. These are used as a means of establishing contact with the spirits of the ancestors, who continue to play an important part in the lives of their descendants as moral beacons in the solution of problems and the fulfillment of wishes. As a consequence of the modernization of society in almost every aspect of life, vigorously propagated as it was by the Suharto regime in the period 1966-1998, the trance in horse dancing has been strongly discouraged as an anachronism. This has prompted a search for new ways of preserving this dramatic genre for future generations. The way the administration of Kediri and a number of local horse dance companies set about solving this problem constitutes a dominant theme of this book. To bring the phenomenon of the horse dance in Java into sharper focus, a brief account is given of its history, as well as a description of the great variety of horse dance groups of and a range of aspects of this genre. |