New Book

[David]

I was listening to NPR this morning and they were interviewing Maya Soetoro-Ng, Barack Obama's half-sister, about the publishing of their deceased mother's disertation on village craft in Indonesia, Surviving Against the Odds: Village Industry in Indonesia. I knew that S. Ann Dunham (Obama's mom) had spent much time in Jawa, but i had no idea that this was part of her work. The daughter mentioned on the radio interview that she saw many types of beautiful craft while with her mom in Djogyakarta, but by far her favorite thing was the forging of the keris.
From the publishers page:

President Barack Obama’s mother, S. Ann Dunham, was an economic anthropologist and rural development consultant who worked in several countries including Indonesia. Dunham received her doctorate in 1992. She died in 1995, at the age of 52, before having the opportunity to revise her dissertation for publication, as she had planned. Dunham’s dissertation adviser Alice G. Dewey and her fellow graduate student Nancy I. Cooper undertook the revisions at the request of Dunham’s daughter, Maya Soetoro-Ng. The result is Surviving against the Odds, a book based on Dunham’s research over a period of fourteen years among the rural metalworkers of Java, the island home to nearly half Indonesia’s population. Surviving against the Odds reflects Dunham’s commitment to helping small-scale village industries survive; her pragmatic, non-ideological approach to research and problem solving; and her impressive command of history, economic data, and development policy. Along with photographs of Dunham, the book includes many pictures taken by her in Indonesia.
After Dunham married Lolo Soetoro in 1967, she and her six-year-old son, Barack Obama, moved from Hawai‘i to Soetoro’s home in Jakarta, where Maya Soetoro was born three years later. Barack returned to Hawai‘i to attend school in 1971. Dedicated to Dunham’s mother Madelyn, her adviser Alice, and “Barack and Maya, who seldom complained when their mother was in the field,” Surviving against the Odds centers on the metalworking industries in the Javanese village of Kajar. Focusing attention on the small rural industries overlooked by many scholars, Dunham argued that wet-rice cultivation was not the only viable economic activity in rural Southeast Asia.

Certainly sounds like a read worth investigating.

[Moshah]

What we might have is a post-independence / kamardikan keris industries, being told from perhaps another perspective. The author might not be a collector nor in love with keris, instead she was fascinated with the industry, which by then is one of a rural economic activities. If that is so, I expect the esoteric aspect of the keris-making will be mentioned less.

Also worth knowing is how big the industries are by then. Does most village has its own besalen?

As you said, David, it might worth checking.

BTW, do you think Obama should have interests in keris?

He might have a short spell of living in the Indonesia, but most of us did not even lived there, isn't it?

[David]

Moshah, there is really no doubt that this is not a book writing from the perspective of a keris collector or even someone in love with keris. Dunham's expertise is economical anthropology so i also doubt there will be any real mention of the esoteric qualities of the keris, though i do expect there to be mention of the present keris industry. Understanding all aspects of Indonesian culture can only serve to increase our understanding of the keris, so i believe this would be a valuable read even if there were no mention of keris. But since much of her time was spent with metal workers i am fairly confident the keris will receive a good mention here.
Given his mother's work and the fact the Obama spent a fair amount of time in Jawa i would imagine that the President is well aware of the keris. I don't know if it is a particular interest to him or not.