GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Fundamental to the thinking of Indonesian peoples was the conviction that the family that provided the bride was ritually superior to that of the groom. In surrendering its daughter or sister, it had given the bridegroom and his family something that cannot be repaid, no matter how high the bride price: fertility and the prospect of future progeny. In several traditional societies in Indonesia, this idea led to the rule that the “flow of life” accompanying the bride could never be reversed. The subsequent generations of a group who acted as wife-givers could never receive a bride from the descendants of their former wife-takers but had to take wives from a third group—a rule which led to a circular network of alliances enhancing the internal cohesion of society. To be sure, this form of blessing was much less frequently expressed in art. One sees it in jewelry, the ceremonial wedding costume, and the textiles that furnish the wedding chamber.
Textiles are created by women, and it is in textiles—above all, in the splendid patterns produced in the ikat technique—that the power of the female blessing is reflected. Among the Dayak, for example, headhunting trophies were required to be wrapped in cloth made by women of the tribe if they were to provide the community with the desired benefits [1988.124.McD and 1983.131]. Fabrics were of greatest importance at weddings. For example, in eastern Indonesia, the bride price was made up not only of masculine, “hot” goods like gold and weapons but also of imported fabrics from India, associated with male booty owing to their foreign place of origin. In exchange, the bride brought to the marriage locally woven textiles, regarded as “cool” and associated with fertility.
Comparison with practices in the extreme west of the archipelago reflects a basic similarity among Indonesian cultures. On Mentawai, a dagger like the one in Dallas [2002.12.A-B] was an indispensable component of the bride price, and to this day the precious goods thought of as "male" and presented to the bride's family among the Batak in Sumatra are referred to as piso (dagger). There, too, the bride's "female" contribution consists mainly of locally woven fabrics called ulos, which are meant to bring fertility and permanence to the marriage.
Adapted from
Reimar Schefold, " Art and Its Themes in Indonesian Tribal Traditions," in Eyes of the Ancestors: The Arts of Island Southeast Asia at the Dallas Museum of Art, Reimar Schefold, ed. in collaboration with Steven Alpert (Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2013), 17-27.
NOTES
This note was in JBG notebooks left for trash at the time of her departure from DMA in Spet 2017. When sorting the notes and confirming content was already represented in an active CC, this note did not appear to already exist in one of the D3C shared notebooks for the online colleciton. It relies on the same author/pages as the Themes in Traditional Indonesian Arts but appears to have pulled different information.
At this point I am "resurrecting" the note and placing it into the Cultures and Traditions notebook with the most basic tags: Jeelan, incomplete, Arts of Pacific Islands. (EAS, 1/16/2018)
If it is not possible to complete this note and link to objects, then it can be trashed at the end of project.
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WEB RESOURCES
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set operator as or
apply to objects where number equals 1988.124.McD
apply to objects where number equals 1983.131
apply to objects where number equals 2002.12.A-B
Category
rules_operator
OR
General Description
Fundamental to the thinking of Indonesian peoples was the conviction that the family that provided the bride was ritually superior to that of the groom. In surrendering its daughter or sister, it had given the bridegroom and his family something that cannot be repaid, no matter how high the bride price: fertility and the prospect of future progeny. In several traditional societies in Indonesia, this idea led to the rule that the “flow of life” accompanying the bride could never be reversed. The subsequent generations of a group who acted as wife-givers could never receive a bride from the descendants of their former wife-takers but had to take wives from a third group—a rule which led to a circular network of alliances enhancing the internal cohesion of society. To be sure, this form of blessing was much less frequently expressed in art. One sees it in jewelry, the ceremonial wedding costume, and the textiles that furnish the wedding chamber.
Textiles are created by women, and it is in textiles—above all, in the splendid patterns produced in the ikat technique—that the power of the female blessing is reflected. Among the Dayak, for example, headhunting trophies were required to be wrapped in cloth made by women of the tribe if they were to provide the community with the desired benefits [1988.124.McD and 1983.131]. Fabrics were of greatest importance at weddings. For example, in eastern Indonesia, the bride price was made up not only of masculine, “hot” goods like gold and weapons but also of imported fabrics from India, associated with male booty owing to their foreign place of origin. In exchange, the bride brought to the marriage locally woven textiles, regarded as “cool” and associated with fertility.
Comparison with practices in the extreme west of the archipelago reflects a basic similarity among Indonesian cultures. On Mentawai, a dagger like the one in Dallas [2002.12.A-B] was an indispensable component of the bride price, and to this day the precious goods thought of as "male" and presented to the bride's family among the Batak in Sumatra are referred to as piso (dagger). There, too, the bride's "female" contribution consists mainly of locally woven fabrics called ulos, which are meant to bring fertility and permanence to the marriage.
Adapted from
Reimar Schefold, " Art and Its Themes in Indonesian Tribal Traditions," in Eyes of the Ancestors: The Arts of Island Southeast Asia at the Dallas Museum of Art, Reimar Schefold, ed. in collaboration with Steven Alpert (Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2013), 17-27.
Fun Facts
Archival Resources
Web Resources
Notes
This note was in JBG notebooks left for trash at the time of her departure from DMA in Spet 2017. When sorting the notes and confirming content was already represented in an active CC, this note did not appear to already exist in one of the D3C shared notebooks for the online colleciton. It relies on the same author/pages as the Themes in Traditional Indonesian Arts but appears to have pulled different information.
At this point I am "resurrecting" the note and placing it into the Cultures and Traditions notebook with the most basic tags: Jeelan, incomplete, Arts of Pacific Islands. (EAS, 1/16/2018)
If it is not possible to complete this note and link to objects, then it can be trashed at the end of project.
rules
Apply To
Objects
number
Equals
1988.124.McD
Apply To
Objects
number
Equals
1983.131
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Objects
number
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2002.12.A-B
source file
cultures_and_traditions-0024.xml.nores