A sociological and anthropological question

[Rick]

Hi Antonio ,

Question 1
What is the real driving force behind your interest in swords? Was it initially based on an adult interest for ethnography and anthropology or was it originally based on and evolution from childhood or adolescent fantasy?

Evolution from childhood .
My Father's navy sword always fascinated me .
My first sword was a toy Prince Valiant sword and shield set .
I think I spent most of my childhood playing 'war' with wooden swords or toy guns .

Question 2
Is your particular interest in ethnographic weapons based on any specific reason?
a. such as being a national of the country from where those weapons are originated?
b. if not, what particular reasons are behind your attraction?

I 'blame' Nordhoff and Hall , Joseph Conrad , and my antecedents for my interest in ethnographic weapons ; one (Kenneth French Anderson) was a missionary who disappeared into Mindanao in 1898 ; the other was Harrison Smith a botanist who used to write for the National Geographic about S.E. Asia in the early 1900's . Harrison finally wound up in Tahiti where he became close friends with Nordhoff and Hall . He is remembered in Tahiti by a botanical garden named for him there .

(edit) I must add that by my first marriage edged weapons had faded ; they were re-awakened by my second Wife on my 50th birthday !
She bought me a nice Del Tin two hander to get me back in touch with my inner child .
God bless her .

Question 3
In some tribes of Africa, smiths are outcasts that live outside the village.
They are uncircumcised, therefore they posses both the masculine and the feminine, symbolically having the entirety which confers them, as in the Congo culture, the necessary protection to work iron, a product of Mother Earth's womb extraction.

> This is interesting as my Son is a glassblower by avocation and he is as Nature made him .

This being said, some shapes may have a magical connotation. And I am referring specifically to the Kris, be it Indonesian, Malay or Philippino.
My question is divided into the following:

does the snake preside over its shape?

>It is said that the keris or kris are naga-esque symbols , the straight blade representing the snake sleeping or inactive and the waved form represents the awakened or active naga .

if that is true, does it mean to confer speed or just magic or some other meaning .

>unsure about this

what is the meaning of the word kris?

>other than the name given this cultural artifact I would not know .