From Cosmogony to Exorcism in a Javanese Genesis: The Spilt Seed

by Stephen C. Headley

Overview

In 1925, the influential Dutch anthropologist W. H. Rassers questioned the relationship of myth to ritual, taking as his case study the Javanese myth of the birth of the man-eating demon Kala. This myth, and its re-enactment, shed light on the social morphology and became immediately the subject of debate among students of Javanese culture. In this enticing work, Stephen C. Headley translates and studies ritual and myth in their variant forms, expanding upon Rassers' general proposition that the movement from cosmogony to exorcism discovers fundamental social forms that circulate values in Javanese society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198234234
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/05/2001
Series:	Oxford Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)