Transcript
Page 1: Field Notes on Making  Wajangs  [Shadow Puppets]

Field Notes on Making Wajangs [Shadow Puppets]

Mead and Bateson’s field trip to study the

Balinese of Indonesia and the Iatmul of

Papua New Guinea from 1936—1939

was a landmark in the history of visual anthropology.

Page 2: Field Notes on Making  Wajangs  [Shadow Puppets]

Field Notes on Making Wajangs [Shadow Puppets]

They took approximately 35,000

photographs, hundreds of feet of motion picture film, and

copious field notes. In this sequence they

recorded the work of an artist making wajangs

or shadow puppets.

Page 3: Field Notes on Making  Wajangs  [Shadow Puppets]

Field Notes on Making Wajangs [Shadow Puppets]

This page of field notes provides

background information about the artist, I Wara

of Negara.

At the top of the page Mead has indicated that there are “LEICAS” (photographs), “CINE” (motion picture film), and “MK TEXT” (notes made by their Balinese

secretary, Madé Kaler) for this event.

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Page 5: Field Notes on Making  Wajangs  [Shadow Puppets]

Field Notes on Making Wajangs [Shadow Puppets]Mead and Bateson worked out a precise system for recording field data in Bali. They would

synchronize their watches along with their Balinese

secretary and record the time of each action minute by

minute, providing a written description of the event and

noting when photographs (“LEICAS” or “L”) and

motion picture film (“CINE”) was taken.

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Page 7: Field Notes on Making  Wajangs  [Shadow Puppets]
Page 8: Field Notes on Making  Wajangs  [Shadow Puppets]

Field Notes on Making Wajangs Shadow Puppets

This is a description of the final stages in

creating a wajang. Throughout the

description, Mead notes the various words associated with the process.

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Page 10: Field Notes on Making  Wajangs  [Shadow Puppets]

Field Notes on Making Wajangs Shadow Puppets

Mead and Bateson’s Balinese secretary, Madé

Kaler, recorded descriptive material

about an event or story in the Balinese language.

In this text, he notes the various tools used by

I Wara in the process of making a wajang.

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Page 12: Field Notes on Making  Wajangs  [Shadow Puppets]

Field Notes on Making Wajangs Shadow Puppets

Madé Kaler provides a drawing of each

tool used by I Wara in making a wajang.

The numbers for each drawing

correspond to the names of the various

tools listed on the previous page of

text.

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Page 14: Field Notes on Making  Wajangs  [Shadow Puppets]

Field Notes on Making Wajangs Shadow Puppets

These notes indicate the source of Mead’s

information as well as the existence of

photographs and motion picture film for

particular events or objects. She also notes

some of the purposes for the collection she is

acquiring.

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Page 16: Field Notes on Making  Wajangs  [Shadow Puppets]

Field Notes on Making Wajangs [Shadow Puppets]

Mead’s notes often include a summary of

descriptive material related to an event under

study. In these notes, she provides information

about the “dalangs”or shadow play experts, and

lists other supporting material accumulated on

this topic.

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Field Notes on Making Wajangs [Shadow Puppets]

She includes accounts of wajang

performances in which plots and

conversations were recorded, as well as

sets of children’s drawings using wajang figures.

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Field Notes on Making Wajangs [Shadow Puppets]

Page 19: Field Notes on Making  Wajangs  [Shadow Puppets]

Field Notes on Making Wajangs [Shadow Puppets]

Page 20: Field Notes on Making  Wajangs  [Shadow Puppets]

Field Notes on Making Wajangs [Shadow Puppets]

All of the photographs and a large selection of the field

notes from this field trip have been digitized and are

available online in the Manuscript Reading Room.


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