On the 4th of October 1562, the Polish princess Catherine Jagiellon married the Swedish prince and duke of Finland Johan Vasa. Leaving Poland, Catherine Jagiellon was equipped with a very rich dowry and followed by an entourage of nearly 50 people. The objective of this study is to investigate the objects and people surrounding the newly wedded 16th century princess and asses if the document mirrors the complex cultural interactions of the early modern world. The analysis of the inventory is carried out using two theoretical approaches: material culture and culture transfer. The study is constructed in two parts. The first part focuses on the analysis of the sections of the inventory following the order of the document. If possible, the objects are mapped, their history is traced through the sources, their appearance and function are discussed. The examination of the members of the court is also carried out. With the deepened analysis of the inventory as a basis, the second part of the study is dedicated to the search of culture hybridization markers in described artefacts, people, practices as well as the language of the document itself. With the result of this investigation, the author is able to pinpoint the complex international cultural processes that were occurring in an early modern world.

This dissertation examines an Indonesian-North American version of an evolving, transnational and hybrid multimedia art form which has come about through forty years of adaptations made by cross-culturally located artists in creative conversation with Indonesian performers involved in the Javanese and Balinese forms of musical theatre known as wayang. Wayang theatre employs puppets and other components including gamelan music (Indonesian percussion instruments, drums, flutes, strings and vocals). Given this complexity, there are many possibilities for variations, changes, and hybridization. In this research project, I analyze aspects of this hybrid performance by analyzing select Indonesian-North American wayang performances, as case studies. In order to isolate complex changes and various adaptations of wayang performances in the North American setting, I also analyze and contextualize a hybridization of Javanese and Balinese wayang performances. As a performance art form, wayang has always been changing historically—at some points more quickly and dramatically than at other periods of time, thus resisting firm categorization that would provide a baseline for comparison. I have developed the wahiyang theoretical framework as an analytical tool to identify the influence of North American culture on the wayang performances in my case studies. I argue that new genre of wayang is emerging, creating a hybridized form that I call wahiyang gaya NA. This process has progressed to the point that wahiyang gaya NA can be said to represent a new genre of multimedia world art, which combines elements of local and global artistic practises, making the form even more flexible and adaptable than its original forms in Indonesia. The gradual spread and popularization of wayang in North America has definite historical contexts, namely the early 19th-to-mid 20th century conjunction of decolonization and Third World nationalism, with the more recent decades’ layering of multiculturalism and push towards conscious cultural responses to economic globalization. This developing continuum of new hybrid forms spans a spectrum of cultural inclusion and expansion of wayang and new components. At times these may be seen as wayang influence upon Western performance practice; at other times an entire Indonesian wayang production with additional elements added from Western music, theater, and other disciplines may be presented. These developments signify an enhanced and expanded exchange of cultural products between the nations of the world, taking place in an expanded space for dialogue between the artists of the developed and developing countries. I will show, using case studies, how this process has produced and is producing a new branch of wayang as part of a continuum of hybridized wayang forms. By examining selected performance collaborations that have taken place over the last 40 years, I will provide a detailed analysis, which for the first time, lays out the components that constitute the variation of wayang art performance that has developed in response to geographical and cultural contexts of the Pacific Northwest of USA and Westcoast Canada. / Graduate / 2018-04-12 / 0377, 0357, 0465 / sutrisno@uvic.ca