Meaning and power in a Southeast Asian realm . By Shelly Errington. pp. xiv, 322, 6 pl., 2 maps. Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1989. US $35.00.

Abstract

course highly pertinent to theoretical discussions in contemporary anthropology. It will not, however, be considered here, since it is by its contribution to understanding Islam in Java rather than by comments on its general methodology that the book will be judged. The case against Geertz that Woodward politely makes is devastating, so much so that it causes our previous acceptance of Geertz's ideas to appear embarrassingly naive. Did we really believe in those neat divisions, santri, orthodox, pious Muslim, and abangan, animistic, nominal Muslim? The answer is of course that a lot of us did, because Geertz wrote so persuasively and authoritatively, with such obvious good sense. Even when his ideas did come in for a severe scrutiny, we tended to play down the criticisms. Now after Woodward's convincing demonstration that the religious set of practices and beliefs, which Geertz mistook as indicating only minimal adherence to Islam on the part of the abangan, is in fact profoundly imbued with Muslim ideas and principles which have developed in a line of direct continuity of Muslim Sufi traditions, we must rethink our position. The demonstration is conducted by a painstaking and meticulous analysis of texts — the neglect of texts is something Geertz is taken to task for and ritual performances which are found to be significant and important in Yogyakarta. The latter has in the eyes of scholars, particularly since the spread of Geertz's influential ideas, been associated with that Hindu-Javanese set of beliefs and practices which in the Indonesian context are considered to be most remote from orthodox Islam. To show, then, as Woodward dramatically does, that the intellectual pedigree of court ritual, the regular pilgrimages to ancestral graves, the critical historical texts and even the wayang shadow play itself, is traceable not to Hindu-Javanese beliefs, but to Islamic traditions is an extraordinary tour deforce, far-ranging in its scope and breathtaking in its assertions. Of course a critique such as Woodward's invites, and, indeed, from its tone would appear to welcome, critical response. There is not the space here to dwell on the details that such responses might take. The philologists will argue over the interpretation of the crucial textual passages; the historians may quarrel about the weight attached to certain events; and the anthropologists are certain to ask questions about the status and persuasion of Woodward's informants and their analysis of ritual symbolism. That is as it should be. For the moment, however, the account given here, so conscientiously fashioned from the materials of both anthropological and historical studies, must surely supersede anything else we have outside Indonesia as an introduction to understanding Islam in central Java.