Health, healing and the quest for wellbeing in Ponorogo Regency, East Java

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)This thesis draws on diverse documentary sources and ethnographic research to look at the importance of place and ethos in the constitution of historical processes and contemporary cultural practices concerned with health and healing. Through an analysis of the interrelationships of morbidity, conceptual frameworks, behaviour, morality, therapeutic modalities, and socioeconomic and religious transformation, the thesis elucidates how people in Ponorogo deal with illness and misfortune in their quest for wellbeing. The regency of Ponorogo is located in the southwest corner of the province of East Java. Its most identifiable symbol is the barong tiger mask which is the main character in Reog Ponorogo performances. An exploration of the area’s extensive archaeological, historical and narrative resources reveals the ongoing dialogue with wider Java, and how the celebration of strength and physical prowess in the performance of reog enacts a distinctive rural ethos and local identity. Reog, therefore, lends itself to de Certeau’s everyday practices of arts of “operating” and “practice”. Strength and stamina are important for the livelihoods of people in Ponorogo, the majority of whom depend on physical labour. A somatic culture and skilful aesthetic inform the search for wellbeing and the use of therapeutic resources. In rural Java biomedical services predominantly dispense pharmaceuticals. Their reputation for fast relief, together with the coincidence of patterns of morbidity, constrained economic resources, problems of access, and the historical and contemporary use of other therapeutic agents forms a local ecology of care in which the use of pharmaceuticals has been incorporated into existing regimens of prevention, protection, cure and maintenance. This local ecology also includes folk practitioners who offer a diverse range of services which are encompassed by the dynamic concept of slamet (wellbeing). While socioeconomic change has enabled them to take advantage of changing aspirations, the moral framework of religious transformation has meant that practitioners have had to modify their services to maintain their legitimacy. In contemporary Ponorogo topography plays a significant role in the exacerbation of socioeconomic difference and health inequalities. The latter part of the thesis focuses on the dry limestone highlands of the regency’s borders. Lack of infrastructure, difficult terrain, and resource-poor environments characterise the chronic poverty of these regions. Ecology and the realities of living in small, geographically-isolated communities contribute to a distinctive ethos which places emphasis on social harmony and conflict avoidance. Extended analysis of a community killing of suspected sorcerers not only illustrates the multidimensional and contextual understanding of wellbeing, but also articulates with the increasing importance placed on the morality of folk practitioners in contemporary Java. The final chapter revisits and integrates the main themes of the thesis in a concluding discussion of lowland and highland contrasts and connections, and how the dynamic concept of slamet is able to adapt to and incorporate change