Wayang Puppet Research Articles

Reinventing the Visuals of Surakarta Style Wayang Purwa: Wayang Creation of Superhero and Anime Characters

Wayang is defined as a performing art that uses Wayang puppets made of leather. As an artefact, Wayang stands as a symbol that connects various cultures throughout the archipelago. However, even though Wayang has succeeded in adapting to the modern era, the reality that is happening now is that Wayang as one of the Indonesian traditional arts is increasingly losing its audience. This article explores the idea of reinventing the visual elements of Wayang Purwa in Wayang creations with superhero and anime characters. This research uses a qualitative descriptive research method with the ATUMICS approach to see the strongest visual elements that are maintained. Research data was collected through literature study, observation, and in-depth interviews with the craftsmen and puppeteers of Wayang Kulit Purwa. Data analysis was carried out using the stages of data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The idea of reinvention provides an opportunity to produce works of art such as Wayang creations so that they can adapt to modernity. The result shows that in reinventing Wayang Purwa into Wayang creations based on superhero and anime characters, the changes occur in utility, concept and shape, while technique, materials and icons are maintained. Thus, this article concludes that in reinventing a cultural artefact, not all elements are changed. There are important elements that are needed to be maintained in order for the modern reinvention to retain the identity posed by the traditional cultural artefact.

Penggunaan media boneka wayang untuk meningkatkan keterampilan menyimak peserta didik kelas iv sekolah dasar

<span class="s14"><span class="bumpedFont20">This study aims to improve the listening skills of the fourth grade students of SD Negeri Krikilan 1 Kalijambe. This research is</span></span><span class="s14"><span class="bumpedFont20"> a Classroom Action Research (CAR) with a qualitative descriptive research method. The data sources for this study were fourth grade teachers, fourth grade students, and fourth grade Indonesian language learning activities at SD Negeri Krikilan 1 Kalijambe</span></span><span class="s14"><span class="bumpedFont20">. Data collection techniques are carried out by observation, interviews, documentation, and tests.</span></span><span class="s14"><span class="bumpedFont20"> </span></span><span class="s14"><span class="bumpedFont20">The data validity test technique used is source triangulation and technique triangulation. The data analysis technique used is Miles and Huberman's interactive data analysis model such as data collection, data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conc</span></span><span class="s14"><span class="bumpedFont20">lusions. The result of this classroom action research is that there is an increase in the listening skills of the fourth graders of SD Negeri Krikilan 1 Kalijambe in each cycle. This research was conducted in 3 (three) cycles.</span></span><span class="s14"><span class="bumpedFont20"> </span></span><span class="s14"><span class="bumpedFont20">The results of cycle I on the</span></span><span class="s14"><span class="bumpedFont20"> evaluation activities of listening to folklore with classical completeness were achieved at 22.72%. In cycle II, classical completeness increased by 72.72%. And experienced another increase in cycle III that is equal to 81.81%. But in cycle III there were</span></span><span class="s14"><span class="bumpedFont20"> 4 students who could not reach the predetermined KKM score. While the results of the first cycle of listening to folklore post test activities were 40.90%. In cycle II, classical completeness increased to 50% and increased again in cycle III to 86.36%. Th</span></span><span class="s14"><span class="bumpedFont20">e conclusion from this study is that the use of wayang puppet media can improve the listening skills of the people in class IV SD Negeri Krikilan 1 Kalijambe Sragen in the 2022/2023 academic year.</span></span>

Towards Re-enchantment of the Wayang Puppet Theatre: Puppeteers as Agents of Morality in the Contemporary Indonesian Society

Towards Re-enchantment of the Wayang Puppet Theatre: Puppeteers as Agents of Morality in the Contemporary Indonesian Society

Tinjauan Awal Naskah Sujarah Penatah (Sejarah Penatah Wayang): Naratif, Kreativitas, dan Legitimasi

The names of wayang puppet makers or penatah (in Javanese) are well known among puppetry aficionados in Indonesia, but little tends to be known about their biographies. It is as if their personalities are overwhelmed by the greatness of their art work. In Yogyakarta’s wayang tradition, a number of names such Resapenatas, Maraguna, Kertiwanda, Prawirasucitra, Prayitnawiguna and Bundhu are very well known. All are considered great wayang makers or artists, with distinct aesthetic styles, but almost all details of their lives are unknown. The only substantial written text to concern penatah is a manuscript titled Sujarah Panatah (A History of Wayang Carvers)written in the early 20th century in Yogyakarta. Tales about carverstake the form of wayang plays. In one play, Ki Mangunwiguna teaches his son how to make a wayang based on prior exemplars. The author of the text tries to connect factual stories and myths about the gods. As in babad stories about kings of yore, wayang makers are presented as if they are also not just ordinary people. This is a means to establish their legitimacy. They are chosen, because they are able to communicate with gods. Alongside the text are wayang-style illustrations, supplementing the creativity of the narrative. This paper will consider the factual basis and validity of stories collected in the Sujarah Penatah, the way the text understands the origins of creativity and its mode for legitimising wayang makers and the continuity of their craft.

Filosofi Gunungan dalam Pagelaran Wayang Kulit Ditinjau dari Perspektif Islam

This study examines the Gunungn philosophy in the implementation of wayang kuliuit in terms of an Islamic perspective. This type of research is qualitative research which describes data using a series of sentences. The method used in this research is descriptive method. The results of this study show that in Islam, the sentence of shahadah is the key to Heaven towards the salvation of the world and the hereafter. A Muslim must adhere to the principles of Islamic teachings to be successful in life. In wayang, new Islamic values are built, not changing standard stories. Walisongo created a new character in the Mahabarata and Ramayana stories with an Islamic social vision through the behavior of the punakawan. Wayang kulit introduces Islam through wayang displays with religious values inserted after adopting the Mahabharata and Ramayan books from India. To follow the story, the audience must recognize the important characters. Wayang kulit is different from other wayang puppets and is popular in Indonesia because it is considered a rich cultural heritage that continues to grow.

Flashback of the Wayang Puppet Wali Songo Media Period and Its Relevance in Modern Life

Puppet as a medium of da'wah is the result of an initiative carried out by Sunan Kalijaga. Sunan Kalijaga is one of the Wali Songo members. By using wayang media, Wali Songo introduced Islam and invited people to convert to Islam voluntarily. The purpose of this study was to collect various information regarding the use of wayang as a medium of da'wah in the Walisongo era and its relevance in modern times. The method used in this research is a literature study; information is obtained and collected from several studies and existing literature. The result of the discussion is that wayang in the Wali Songo era was used as a propaganda medium to introduce Islam. However, the times have changed to modern times; the use of wayang is not only focused as a medium of da'wah but also for public entertainment.

Adaptation of Sukuh Temple Reliefs in the Garudeya Wayang Performance

This paper describes the adaptation of the reliefs of Sukuh Temple in the Garudeya wayang performance. At Sukuh Temple, relief visualizing the character of Garudeya in the form of a half-human eagle was found. Garudeya figure has the urgency of teaching national values to the people of Indonesia. This character represents the spirit of the struggle to be free from slavery.The problems studied are: (1) how is the depiction of the Garudeya relief on Sukuh Temple; (2) how is the process of verbal adaptation and visual adaptation of the relief of Sukuh Temple in the form of the Garudeya wayang performance; and (3) how is the form of the Garudeya wayang performance as an amplifier of temple tourism objects and teaching of national values. This problem will be studied with the adaptation theory of Linda Hutcheon. The method used was literature study, interview and observation. In addition, applying the method of artistic creation with exploration, creation, and presentation.The results showed that first, the Garudeya relief at Sukuh Temple depicts a Garuda with open wings gripping two snakes and a Garuda in a flying position, the left foot gripping the tortoise while the right leg was gripping the Elephant. The relief of Garudeya has the meaning to release, namely the liberation of Dewi Winata from the slavery of Dewi Kadru. Second, the process of adapting the Garudeya relief into a Garudeya wayang performance was through two aspects, namely the verbal and visual aspects. Verbal adaptation was indicated from the process of preparing the wayang play script. The visual adaptation was known for the process of making wayang puppets and the presentation of the Garudeya wayang performance. Third, the form of the Garudeya wayang performance was a solid parade that is performed around the Sukuh Temple to attract tourists. The content of the philosophical values of the Garudeya story provides the teaching of national values and character for the community. Keywords : relief; Sukuh Temple; Garudeya; wayang performance; tourism; national value DOI: 10.7176/ADS/102-02 Publication date: October 31 st 2022

Visual Adaptation: From Comics to Superhero Creation of Wayang

This article discusses the fusion and blending of the concept of wayang as a traditional culture with comics and films as products of contemporary culture that gave birth to new wayang creations with sources adapted from “Avenger” superhero characters. The making of wayang avenger is to maintain the art of craftsmanship in wayang kulit, namely considering the existence of attributes in traditional wayang with the necessary adjustments to the Avenger superhero outfit. Revealing the results of research on the Avenger Creation Wayang is very important because it can explain the process of changing the shape, appearance and addition of wayang attributes as a manifestation of adaptation to traditional wayang puppets, namely wayang kulit purwa. This article attempts to provide descriptive and interpretive explanations of the visual adaptation process by the creator in the formation of wayang avenger. The approach in this study uses Erwin Panofsky’s iconographic approach with the support of art structure theory and vehicle transfer. The result is the presence of Wayang Kreasi Avenger as a form of fusion between traditional culture and contemporary culture. This development shows the love of the community for the potential of influencing traditional cultural heritage and the interaction with the potential of contemporary culture which is very strong, giving rise to the idea of adaptation as a reflection of the environment and its social structure.

From web 1.0 to web 4.0: the digital heritage platforms for UNESCO’s heritage properties in Indonesia

<p>The advent of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has had and is having a major impact on Indonesian cultural resource management, and on the safeguarding methods of its tangible and intangible cultural heritages. Despite varied levels and visible gaps between rural and urban regions in terms of technology usage, innovative initiatives have been created, which correspond to the needs and expectations of a technology-savvy public. As a starting point, a number of public institutions dealing with tangible cultural heritage (e.g. museums, palaces, temples, World Heritage Sites (WHS)) do use innovative digital tools in order to communicate to various audiences, as well as to enrich visitors’ experience, especially taking into consideration young generations. This paper will firstly examine the role of ICTs in intangible cultural heritage (ICH) (e.g. Batik, Wayang puppet theatre, etc.); secondly, the authors will explain how ICTs can help to communicate and promote the values, history, and significances of ICH products, both for locals and tourists, with the goal of raising awareness on cultural identity. However, the knowledge of ICH still requires contacts with its own communities and is vulnerable, as it can be exposed to excessive cultural commoditization through e-platforms. This study aims at giving an overview and some examples of digital interventions for cultural heritage communication implemented by various stakeholders in Indonesia. In addition, this paper analyses to what extent a participatory approach engaging local communities, academics, private sectors, NGOs and the government, can ensure higher levels of effectiveness and efficiency, hence supporting the conservation of UNESCO tangible/ICH in Indonesia. This paper aims at: (1) presenting the development of digital heritage platforms in Indonesia; (2) providing a grid of analysis of digital heritage knowledge platforms dedicated to UNESCO tangible and ICH in forms of websites and mobile apps.</p><p>Highlights:</p><ul><li><p>Providing a map of the online presence of UNESCO World Heritage Sites (WHSs) in Indonesia by analysing 180 webpages in English and Indonesian languages.</p></li><li><p>Identifying several types of digital heritage websites in Indonesia based on the set of categories.</p></li><li><p>Classifying a map of 312 mobile apps dealing with UNESCO WHSs and Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in Indonesia, which were retrieved from Android and iOS platforms.</p></li></ul>

Development of touristic village and creative industry in improving social welfare at Wukirsari Village, Imogiri, Bantul District

The purpose of this study is to find out the role of development of touristic village and creative industry in improving social welfare on Wukirsari Village, Special Region of Yogyakarta Province (DIY Province). This research used qualitative and descriptive method. The data conveys that the development of touristic village and creative industry in Wukirsari Village brings out positive impact to its social welfare. The development consists of various productions; leather wayang puppet with tatah sungging, wedang uwuh traditional drink, bamboo crafts, and natural-dye batik. In addition, the village has distinct potentials to become a touristic village. Those distinct potentials are originated from its cultural resource, the Mataram kings’ burial ground. The obstacles regarding this research were the coaching of better-quality touristic village development and creative industry people management in order to become a competitive travel destination.

Wayang and its Doubles: Javanese Puppet Theatre, Television and the Internet by Jan Mrázek

Reviewed by: Wayang and its Doubles: Javanese Puppet Theatre, Television and the Internet by Jan Mrázek Made Mantle Hood Wayang and its Doubles: Javanese Puppet Theatre, Television and the Internet. By Jan Mrázek. Singapore: NUS Press, 2019, xiv, 349 pp, list of illustrations, index. ISBN 978-981-4722-95-7. The title of Jan Mrázek’s monograph, Wayang and its Doubles: Javanese Puppet Theatre, Television and the Internet, conjures up the disturbing notion that modern media may be drastically altering traditional wayang. Indeed the stability and continuity of this puppet theatre has long been portrayed in academia as an enduring reflection of a timeless Central Javanese culture and society. The thought of television supplanting traditional wayang or YouTube replacing village performances is menacing. But as Mrázek quickly clarifies in the first few pages of this volume, television has, for decades, been just as intimately woven into the fabric of storytelling as its shadow puppet counterpart. As the subsequent chapters reveal in a compelling analysis underpinned by decades of research, television has developed an intertwined but contentious relationship with wayang, ultimately becoming its doppelganger. This book is a relevant read for students and academics of ethnomusicology, cultural studies, media and technology who are interested in changes and tensions in performance between tradition, modernity and media. The book interrogates a ‘difficult marriage’ between televised and live wayang puppet shows through provocative discussions surrounding performance aesthetics, audience experiences, and contested powerplays between superstar dhalang puppeteers and ‘big wig’ television producers. The strength of this work stems from its analytical lens: its combination of media and technology theories from the likes of James Siegel, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Jacques Derrida among others who, through the author’s clever use of a metaphorical coffee shop, ‘localize their thoughts’ through dialogue with Javanese theorists, audiences and practitioners. The hypothetical conversations are the author’s creative way to present narrative where no single top-down theory dominates and instead the ‘actuality of wayang and television invade, interrupt and check the discussion’ throughout much of the volume. The book situates wayang’s evolving contexts, mutating spaces, malleable timeframes, and social movements in relation to television and the internet. It makes a valuable contribution to expanding how we think about media’s influence on traditional performing arts. It will be an asset to graduate student seminars in ethnomusicology, cultural studies, theatre and other disciplines where live and virtual performances are increasingly enmeshed in a dialectic framework. The five chapters of the book cover the history of wayang and television from 1995 to the present but avoid chronology in favour of presenting multiple viewpoints and contradictory experiences in people’s pasts and presents. Chapter One, ‘Bright, Fast, Funny and Sexy: Wayang in a World with Television’ demonstrates how, over the past three decades, wayang has been hurdled into a rapidly modernizing Indonesia transforming itself to be more like television. By attempting to present wayang for television, many dhalang puppeteers have intentionally sought the lucrative visibility and power that goes with audience reviews, ratings, sponsorship and most importantly, revenue generation for media corporations. But the chapter concludes that the feeling that television and wayang are incompatible has grown. Prominent senior puppeteers such as Ki Anom Soeroto admit that they have not [End Page 237] found the right way to present wayang on television and the marriage between the two is fraught with problems. Chapter Two, ‘A Marriage Full of Conflicts: Television’s Production of Authentic-but-Entertaining Wayang’ zeroes in on mainstream productions and how producers have exploited shadow puppet plays. Wayang’s image has been appropriated for market appeal and ratings marketed as authentic performance culture and valuable nostalgia with commercial breaks. Even pirated video recordings of televised wayang broadcasts screened at traditional celebrations have been embraced in cultural practice. Conflicts are highlighted by a ‘creativity-killing frustration’ felt among televised wayang’s many stakeholders. Some of the issues lurking behind television and wayang screens include divergent agendas about programming, misinterpretations between artist agents and wayang performers, unsatisfactory artistic compromises, and glaring cultural divisions between Jakarta-centric and Central Javanese worldviews. This chapter in particular is useful because it brings the reader up close...

Triadic Interplay: A Model of Transforming Literature into Wayang Theatre

Dramatic literature (be it in the form of a poem, poetry, prose, verse, play, epic, or other narrative reservoir listed below under Literary References) typically creates the most extensive public awareness when it is transformed into multiple aesthetic expressions and performed into theatre. While putting a play on stage may be well known as mise en scene, this article introduces triadic creative interplay (trisandi) within form-plot-character, a model to transform literature into a wayang puppet show. Literature modifies the name of the puppetry according to the narrative source, for example: Wayang Ramayana, Wayang Parwa/Mahabharata, and even Wayang Greek Myth when the show recounts a story based on Greek mythology. If the literature is transformed into plot, it becomes the story, theme, drama, and social message of the wayang puppet show. Finally, when literature manifests into dramatic characters, the protagonist’s and antagonist’s actions are modified according to the dramatic motive of the piece. The dalang puppet master uses their creativity to conceptualise the chronological transformation of literature into wayang puppetry in three stages. (1) Before the show: creativity in plot guides the dalang to convert narrative literature into a play, select, create or originate a story. (2) During the presentation: the dalang transforms literature into word play / pun, narrative lines, sung and dialogues, social commentary and criticism. (3) After the show: literature guides the dalang to bridge the material realm into the spiritual realm, to transform spiritual norms into ritual mantra, to transform regular water into holy water, and so forth.  

Putting on a show; Collecting, exhibiting and performing wayang at the Tropenmuseum from colonial times until the present

The Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam has a rich history in collecting, exhibiting, and presenting wayang performances. This paper traces this history of collection, exhibition, and performance practice of wayang at the Colonial Institute, from 1950 known as Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from colonial times until the present. It demonstrates the entanglement of colonial and postcolonial power structures, collection, and exhibition legacies of the colonial past. The paper will show that from the moment wayang puppets entered the museum’s collection there has been continuous interaction between collecting and exhibition practices and performance practices. The emphasis on tangible elements of performance practice in collection and exhibition practices contributed to a dominant and static understanding of wayang.

Wayang Robot with Gamelan Music Pattern Recognition

[abstFig src='/00290001/13.jpg' width='245' text='Wayang robot' ] This paper proposes a way to protect endangered wayang puppet theater, an intangible cultural heritage from Indonesia, by turning a robot into a puppeteer successor. We developed a seven degrees-of-freedom (DOF) manipulator to actuate the sticks attached to the wayang puppet body and hands. The robot can imitate 8 distinct human puppeteer’s manipulations. Furthermore, we developed a gamelan music pattern recognition, towards a robot that can perform based on the gamelan music. In the offline experiment, we extracted energy (time domain), spectral rolloff, 13 Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs), and the harmonic ratio from 5 s long clips, every 0.025 s, with a window length of 1 s, for a total of 2576 features. Two classifiers (3 layers feed-forward neural network (FNN) and multi-class Support Vector Machine (SVM)) were compared. The SVM classifier outperformed the FNN classifier with a recognition rate of 96.4% for identifying the three different gamelan music patterns.

Special Issue on Robot Audition Technologies

Robot audition, the ability of a robot to listen to several things at once with its own “ears,” is crucial to the improvement of interactions and symbiosis between humans and robots. Since robot audition was originally proposed and has been pioneered by Japanese research groups, this special issue on robot audition technologies of the Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics covers a wide collection of advanced topics studied mainly in Japan. Specifically, two consecutive JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) on robot audition (PI: Hiroshi G. Okuno) from 2007 to 2017, JST Japan-France Research Cooperative Program on binaural listening for humanoids (PI: Hiroshi G. Okuno and Patrick Danès) from 2009 to 2013, and the ImPACT Tough Robotics Challenge (PM: Prof. Satoshi Tadokoro) on extreme audition for search and rescue robots since 2015 have contributed to the promotion of robot audition research, and most of the papers in this issue are the outcome of these projects. Robot audition was surveyed in the special issue on robot audition in the Journal of Robotic Society of Japan, Vol.28, No.1 (2011) and in our IEEE ICASSP-2015 paper. This issue covers the most recent topics in robot audition, except for human-robot interactions, which was covered by many papers appearing in Advanced Robotics as well as other journals and international conferences, including IEEE IROS. This issue consists of twenty-three papers accepted through peer reviews. They are classified into four categories: signal processing, music and pet robots, search and rescue robots, and monitoring animal acoustics in natural habitats. In signal processing for robot audition, Nakadai, Okuno, et al. report on HARK open source software for robot audition, Takeda, et al. develop noise-robust MUSIC-sound source localization (SSL), and Yalta, et al. use deep learning for SSL. Odo, et al. develop active SSL by moving artificial pinnae, and Youssef, et al. propose binaural SSL for an immobile or mobile talker. Suzuki, Otsuka, et al. evaluate the influence of six impulse-response-measuring signals on MUSIC-based SSL, Sekiguchi, et al. give an optimal allocation of distributed microphone arrays for sound source separation, and Tanabe, et al. develop 3D SSL by using a microphone array and LiDAR. Nakadai and Koiwa present audio-visual automatic speech recognition, and Nakadai, Tezuka, et al. suppress ego-noise, that is, noise generated by the robot itself. In music and pet robots, Ohkita, et al. propose audio-visual beat tracking for a robot to dance with a human dancer, and Tomo, et al. develop a robot that operates a wayang puppet, an Indonesian world cultural heritage, by recognizing emotion in Gamelan music. Suzuki, Takahashi, et al. develop a pet robot that approaches a sound source. In search and rescue robots, Hoshiba, et al. implement real-time SSL with a microphone array installed on a multicopter UAV, and Ishiki, et al. design a microphone array for multicopters. Ohata, et al. detect a sound source with a multicopter microphone array, and Sugiyama, et al. identify detected acoustic events through a combination of signal processing and deep learning. Bando, et al. enhance the human-voice online and offline for a hose-shaped rescue robot with a microphone array. In monitoring animal acoustics in natural habitats, Suzuki, Matsubayashi, et al. design and implement HARKBird, Matsubayashi, et al. report on the experience of monitoring birds with HARKBird, and Kojima, et al. use a spatial-cue-based probabilistic model to analyze the songs of birds singing in their natural habitat. Aihara, et al. analyze a chorus of frogs with dozens of sound-to-light conversion device Firefly, the design and analysis of which is reported on by Mizumoto, et al. The editors and authors hope that this special issue will promote the further evolution of robot audition technologies in a diversity of applications.

Contemporary Wayang in Global Contexts

Traditional norms and values stood in the way of radical experimentation with the form of wayang until Indonesia's postcolonial era. The same impediments did not exist for colonial European artists. Edward Gordon Craig formulated his theories of the ūber-marionette with reference to wayang, while Richard Teschner adapted wayang puppets for his unique Viennese puppet theatre. This initial encounter of Europe with wayang articulated a pattern of colonial exploitation: Asian products were alienated from their producers and transported to Europe stripped of direct connections to the people and conditions from which they arose. The 1960s ushered in a new era of intercultural communication. A major influx of Indonesian puppetry came to the United States when a generation of budding American puppet artists received direct tuition from Indonesian puppet masters at California summer schools in the early 1970s. Many subsequently went to Java and Bali themselves for lengthy periods of wayang study and apprenticeship. Some of these artists crossed traditional Indonesian puppets forms with other modes of practice to create complex hybrids. Much of the most interesting contemporary wayang work today is taking place along transnational axes. Wayang has been embraced by international artists and companies in order to tell idiosyncratic myths and celebrate the sacred and the ethereal.

Power plays: wayang golek puppet theater of West Java

Power plays: wayang golek puppet theater of West Java

Jon Koplo

This essay examines the tragi-comical fictional episodes and accompanying cartoons, Ah... tenane (Oh... really), in the local newspaper, SOLOPOS. The daily lives of the fictional characters in these episodes were played out against a background of the violent mass student demonstrations and the May 1998 riots in Solo, Central Java. Within the newspaper, the characters provide a face to the crowd and give a voice to the silent majority. Their role is reminiscent of that played by the punakawan, or clowns in traditional wayang puppet theatre, who provide relief from the main narrative, fooling around while their masters are serious. This essay compares these fictional episodes both to wayang and to comic strips in other Indonesian newspapers, commenting on the changing identities of the characters, the depiction of race and gender and the interaction of fact and fiction.

Mediating modernity in Bali

This essay explores the mediation of modernity in Bali through wayang puppet theatre and political cartoons. The representational practices of puppeteer and political cartoonist provide revealing comparisons of 'traditional' and 'modern' forms of mediation. Through these agents of popular culture and local critical discourse, the paper traces the interface between the monologic aspects of globalization and modernity - the expansion of capital and the rhetoric of progress - and the heteroglossic and carnivalesque preferences of the two popular genres. In this context, it pursues a particularly Bakhtinian interest in the relationship between elite and mass cultures at a crossroad of globalizing cultural and political forces. At another level, the paper points to theoretical problems raised by these mediating traditions for the analytic practices of ethnography and cultural studies.

Wayang Puppets: Carving, Colouring, Symbolism

Wayang Puppets: Carving, Colouring, Symbolism