Music of the Baduy People of Western Java: Singing Is a Medicineby Wim van Zanten (review)

Music of the Baduy People of Western Java: Singing Is a Medicine is the culmination of ethnomusicological field research between 1976 and 2016 and shows the depth long-term engagement provides when tracking indigenous music. Van Zanten gives thick description; makes careful, critical review of prior research (including his own); and is forthright about this work’s limitations. For those interested in the performing arts of the reclusive Baduy people of West Java this is the strongest publication in the field. For anyone doing scholarship on indigenous arts in politically fraught contexts, the choices van Zanten makes provide a case study in fieldwork quandaries and ethics.

The challenge of writing on the Baduy is clear. This minority group of 12,000 from Kanekes in upland West Java sees itself as perpetuating the legacy of the ancestors who refused Islamization when the last Sundanese kingdom, Pajajaran, converted to the Islam in 1579. The Baduy maintain, as best they can, indigenous belief and lifestyle in their highland enclave, practicing what they now call Agama Sunda Wiwitan (Original Sundanese Religion) which honors the rice goddess Dewi Asri and other deities. The mixture of indigenous rural ritual and Hindu-Buddhist belief weaves arts into yearly agricultural and life cycle events. Baduy are also known for the protection of their sacred forest, which has drawn contemporary ecological attention. The group continues slash-and-burn rice cultivation, as opposed to the Muslim Sundanese of West Java who use of sawah (wet rice paddies). The pressures of maintaining a life that requires an abundance of land (so that the forest can regenerate) as Baduy population has grown exponentially threatens their culture.

The Baduy adherence to their local system led by their religious leaders (puun) sets them apart from the other Sundanese. The strategy of the group has been separation—keeping the outside world from entering the “inner Baduy” area for more than a glancing visit and barring most foreigners from entering at all. For a buffer with the world, they have the “outer Baduy” who follow some of the traditional practices but also break tradition by riding in cars, using electricity, marrying Muslims, and other forbidden innovations.

For the thirty-four million Sundanese Muslims, the ways of this group are an unending source of fascination—Kanekes is envisioned as a living museum of Sundanese heritage. The Sundanese who surround them become the Baduy’s hungry audience for contemporary cultural tourism, but also the group that threatens Baduy autonomy, viewing them as underdeveloped and kafir (infidels). The Baduy have yet to get their religion formally recognized on their national ID cards in a country where monotheism has become mandatory. Van Zanten explores these political and social conundrums and notes the difficulty of maintaining tradition as new media encroach.

Van Zanten builds our background by detailing references to music in pre-Islamic Sundanese literature, writings by foreigners beginning in 1822, and Indonesian research reports post-independence. He then gives chapters on ritual music, tonal systems, storytelling, song as entertainment, and instrumental music. He eventually details the implications of the recognition of anklung (shaken bamboo instrument performance) as Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) under the UNESCO 2003 convention.

The arts of the strictest segment of the Baduy include pantun story-singing to zither (kecapi); anklung music with songs and processional dance (ngalage) for rice cultivation rites and festivities; singing susualan (riddle songs); and playing simple instruments (rice pounding block, jaw’s harp, bowed lute, and flutes). The less observant outer Baduy also enjoy keromong (gamelan) with female singers sharing susualan lyrics that focus on love and advice. Van Zanten discusses the limited dance (topeng, baksa) he found, usually featuring male relatives honoring children undergoing circumcisions. The text is replete with additional materials: maps, fifty-nine photos, and thirty-two tables, with a like number of...