Javanese Women in Old Literature Text: Literature Ethnography Study

The focus of this research is Javanese women in the old literary text, a literary ethnography study. The problems to be answered are how is the description of Javanese women in old Javanese literary texts? What is the role and their social economic status? The method used is ethnography, with the technique of note taking notes. The data sources of this study are: old Javanese literary text, informant, and document. The ethnographic method examines behaviour that takes place within specific social situations, including behaviour that is shaped and constrained by these situations, plus people’s understanding and interpretation of their experiences. From the results of the analysis it can be concluded that Javanese women in the old literary text are in two positions, which are confined in the house because of the hegemony of the power of men in concubine, parameswari (first lady) and free positions in women traders and farmers. Women from the lower classes enjoy this confined condition. Javanese women of ordinary class have a strategic social and economic role, which are ready to be abandoned by men (divorced), but Javanese priyayi women (the king's wife and relatives in the palace) are precisely described otherwise, although they can also be proud of themselves because they become royal families. Their role is supported by the family they are from.