Network analysis shows previously unreported features of Javanese traditional theatre
#DH2018, Mexico City
Miguel Escobar Varela (@miguelJogja) and Andrew Schauf
National University of Singapore
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versión en Español: miguelescobar.com/dh2018/es.html
Wayang has been part of Java for more than a thousand years.
Background image: Balitung inscription, year 907
Image credit: Gunawan Kartapranata
Network analysis of wayang kulit stories
- We built a digital repository of storylines from an authoritative list (Purwadi, 2000)
- We constructed a weighted, undirected co-occurence network of characters at the adegan (scene) level
- Characters as nodes, edge between two characters means they appear together in at least one scene
- Edge weight indicates the number of scenes in which both characters appear
Figure 1. Network visualization of correlations between wayang kulit characters at the scene level.
The network at first glance
-
Ubiquitous characteristics of real-life social networks (Carrington, Scott, and Wasserman 2005; Knoke and Yang 2008):
- High heterogeneity
- Low clustering coefficient (0.863)
- Low average shortest path (0.86)
Figure 2. Log-log plot of stories per character in the wayang network. The solid lines represent the actual distribution and the dashed line the theoretical power-law distributions.
Unexpected findings
Finding #1. Although the percentage of Javanese and Indian characters is comparable, Javanese characters have disproportionately lower degrees.
| Percentage | Average Weighted Degree | |
|---|---|---|
| Indian Characters | 53% | 153.47 |
| Javanese Characters | 47% | 73.36 |
Table 1. Comparison of Indian and Javanese characters
Figure 3. The different characters according to their weighted degree. The x axis is in an exponential scale (factor = 0.3). Black circles are Javanese, white are Indian and gray are Javanese Punokawan.
Finding #2. Characters with lower degrees are interchangeable in performance, high degree characters are not.
Figure 4. The different characters according to their weighted degree. The x axis is in an exponential scale (factor = 0.3). Black circles are those where puppet interchange is permissible and white circles are those where it is not.
Interactive online portal
https://villaorlado.github.io/wayangnetworks/html/Conclusions
- We hope to contribute a Southeast Asian case study to the growing area of network analysis of drama.
- We hope to show how network analysis can contribute to the study of wayang kulit.
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