KNOWLEDGE TRANSMISSION AND THE FAMILY IN TRADITIONAL JAVANESE PERFORMING ARTS

Abstract

This thesis examines knowledge transmission and acquisition in Central Javanese gamelan music, wayang puppetry and dance. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork among performing artists in the city of Surakarta (Solo) and its surrounding districts, this thesis shows how performing arts teaching and learning takes place through the generations of a large artist family, and examines the roles of family and heredity in the creation of artists. Students learn Javanese performing arts through a range of processes which can involve traditional beliefs, interpersonal relationships, learning through performing or by ear, and using books and electronic media. Changes including the shift to school-based education and the political unrest of the 1960s, along with other factors such as time, money and lifestyle have deeply affected performing arts knowledge transmission among Javanese. This thesis explains how, despite such drastic change, traditional performing arts continue to thrive in Java today.