Small krises from Sumatra

[A. G. Maisey]

My understanding of the keris as the possession of a woman is that in times past they were given to women of high rank so that the woman could protect herself and her honour if the palace were to be overrun by attackers.

If she was unable to prevent violation, she had the option of suicide.

Don't forget that in old Javanese thought a woman had no existence if her husband died. This thought continued in Bali up until recent times.

In fact, with many women who retain traditional modes of thought in Jawa even today, once her husband has died, she herself no longer has a life.

There are very solid societal reasons for this pattern of thought.

I cannot answer your question Jean, but possibly we could begin by trying to determine if it was established practice for women in Sumatran ruling hierarchies to carry keris.

I've had more than a few of these little Sumatran keris myself, and my feeling about them was that they were invariably recent keris, ie, within the last 100-150 years or so, and represented keris that had been scaled down to permit convenient or concealed carry. Even though small, any of these keris that I have had were perfectly able to be used by a man. This is an uninformed opinion, I have no special knowledge upon which to base this opinion.