Thesis (doctoral)--Tübingen, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 186-214).

No description available.

This thesis seeks to examine the ways that the success of the Dutch Empire at the turn of the twentieth century was represented and celebrated in the photographic albums of Dutch sugar industrialists in Java. It aims to show how the photographic practices that developed in the colony in parallel with its industrialisation informed the ways that the colony was imagined in the metropolis and the colony. Whether social portraiture, topographic studies or depictions of industrial machinery and infrastructure, the photographs of the sugar industry were part and parcel of a topical vernacular tradition that generated distinct visual themes in the development of popular photographic genres, and which reflected the cultural hybridity and social stratification of the local sugar world. This analysis is pursued through close reading of the photographic albums of the Pietermaat-Soesman family from the Kalibagor sugar factory in Java. These albums exemplify how the family albums of sugar industrialists retained the familiarity and cult value of the family album whilst illustrating the values and attitudes of the colonial industry and society. What is more, the Pietermaat-Soesman albums underline the significance of the albums' materiality; their story is not only one of images, but also a story of objects. I specifically pay attention to the role of photographers and commercial photo studios in the formulation of the pictorial commonplace of the sugar industry. It is the collaboration between sugar industrialists and colony-based photographers that reveals the social necessity, ideological constraints, pictorial conventions and cultural idioms of colonial industry and society in the Dutch East Indies. Largely understudied in both the Dutch and Indonesian histories of photography, this material, I argue, may problematise the ideological premises of ‘colonial' photography.

This Thesis deals with the cultural encounter between Islam and Javanese culture as represented by the slametan ritual. The major purposes of this thesis are threefold; (1) to give a brief account of the historical backdrop of the encounter between Islam and the Javanese tradition; (2) to discuss the ongoing dispute among scholars over whether the slametan is animistic, syncretistic or Islamic; and (3) to provide a new perspective on the slametan ritual based upon textual (religious) and contextual (socio-cultural) analysis. / The hypothesis underlying this work is that the slametan is a prototype of syncretistic ritual, the representative of Islamic elements---as its core---on the one hand, and local traditions---as its periphery---on the other. This work will argue against the theory of the slametan developed both by Geertz and Woodward. The first scholar sees the slametan from a socio-cultural perspective only, while the latter views it on an Islamic theological basis. The current writer argues that one should employ a holistic perspective to see the slametan comprehensively; both from "inside" (religious perspective) and "outside" (cultural perspective).

Professional Javanese gamelan musicians and the way they think about and make music have been extensively studied by ethnomusicologists. This thesis shifts the analytical focus to the experience and practice of players in 'gamelan associations' for whom music is neither their primary occupation nor main source of income. It addresses two issues: firstly, who are these musicians and what does their way of playing and conceiving of music tell us about gamelan, and secondly, what opportunities and benefits does participation in these groups afford them. The first section sets out the details and context of fourteen gamelan associations in Surakarta. It examines local terminology for different forms of musicianship, their practice in relation to factors such as recompense for playing, ability, repertoire, and training, and discusses the combination of rehearsal and social gathering which I claim is fundamental to these groups. I argue that, whilst there is significant diversity among gamelan associations and their members, they represent a unified category of musicians distinct from those who are officially employed to play and that the specific benefits they obtain from playing derive from this non-professional status. The second section sets out these benefits in five chapters, relating respectively to gamelan's implication in discourses of community at local and state level, expressions of cultural ownership, the display and negotiation of personal authority, access to power, and the production of public sound. I argue that these connections mean that participation in gamelan associations is not simply recreational but a potentially powerful way for Solonese people to create meaning and influence for themselves amidst the competing models of modernity and rapid political change of contemporary Indonesia.

No description available.

Our paleotsunami surveys of the southern Java coast led to the discovery of five imbricate coastal boulder fields near Pacitan, Indonesia that may date to the mid-to-late 19th century or prior and two similar fields at Pantai Papuma and Pantai Pasir Putih that were tsunami-emplaced during the 1994 7.9 Mw event in East Java. Estimated ages for the fields near Pacitan are based on historical records and radiocarbon analyses of coral boulders. The largest imbricated boulders in fields near Pacitan and in East Java are similar in size (approximately 3 m^3) and are primarily composed of platy beachrock dislodged from the intertidal platform during one or several unusually powerful wave impactions. Hydrodynamic wave height reconstructions of the accumulations near Pacitan indicate the boulders were likely tsunami rather than storm-wave emplaced, as the size of the storm waves needed to do so is not viable. We evaluate the boulders as an inverse problem, using their reconstructed wave heights and ComMIT tsunami modeling to suggest a minimum 8.4 Mw earthquake necessary to dislodge and emplace the largest boulders near Pacitan assuming they were all deposited during the same tsunami event and that the rupture source was located along the Java Trench south of Pacitan. A combined analysis of historical records of Java earthquakes and plate motion measurements indicates a seismic gap with >25 m of slip deficit along the Java Trench. A 1000-1500 km rupture along the subduction interface of this segment is capable of producing a 9.0-9.3 Mw megathrust earthquake and a giant tsunami. However, evidence for past megathrust earthquake events along the this trench remains elusive. We use epicenter independent tsunami modelling to estimate wave heights and inundation along East Java in the event that the trench were to fully rupture. By translocating ComMIT slip parameters of Japan's 2011 9.1 Mw event along the trench offshore East Java, we demonstrate possible wave heights in excess of 20 m at various locations along its southern coasts. Approximately 300,000-500,000 people in low-lying coastal communities on the southern coasts of East Java could be directly affected. We recommend at-risk communities practice the "20/20/20 principle" of tsunami hazard awareness and evacuation.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 367-399).