Willem Huibert Rassers

De Josselin de Jong then further outlines how, according to Rassers, the mythical material which, together with the shadow-theatre, came to Java in the Hinduistic culture, was transformed according to the fixed schema of the Javanese Pandji romance; the heroes and heroines of the Mahabharata became actors too in the 8 G. W. LOCHER Javanese drama, manifestations of the Javanese ancestral couple. [...]he briefly sums up how, in his study on the origin of the Javanese theatre, Rassers argued that we have in this theatre a certain continuation of men's house rites, which occur among many peoples and in which the novices are initiated in clear sight of the men from the community who are involved, whereas the women are allowed to know of this only from at a distance and somewhat vaguely. First of all he sums up what has been written on the subject; he then raises additional problems which have arisen in the description and interpretation of the relevant data; subsequently he sets out the results of his own research with regard to these, problems, and finally raises and briefly discusses several questions following from his own interpretation. [...]we do in fact encounter a very marked tendency in Rassers to suppose social structures in periods which belonged to the past, but whose matching conceptual system was in many aspects still to survive in later times. Because of this reserve and the reputation of having a "weak health" there was much hesitation in appointing him as Director of the National Museum of Ethnography.