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Playing with Piety the Phenomenon of Indonesian Muslim Dolls

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Playing with Piety the Phenomenon of Indonesian Muslim Dolls A. Budiyanto Playing with Piety The Phenomenon of Indonesian Muslim Dolls A. BUDIYANTO Universitas Gadjah Mada AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY A. Budiyanto is a Ph.D. student at the Indonesian Consortium of Religious Studies at Universitas Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. This paper is part of preliminary research for his dissertation entitled “Framing Piety, Visualizing Islam–Visuality and Identity in the Age of Consumption amongst Indonesian Muslims.” Budiyanto received his M.A. from the Center for Religious and Cross Cultural Studies. The author can be reached at [email protected]. Introduction: Muslim Dolls as Religious conflicting opinions among Islamic authorities Visual Culture regarding dolls—but these parents also had pragmatic Muslim dolls are a new phenomenon within concerns regarding the safety, educational value, and affordability of toys. Toy makers developed creative contemporary popular Islamic culture, particularly in strategies in order to take these concerns into account. Indonesia. While most contemporary Indonesian Isla- mist movements like Salafism (neo-Wahabism) are Muslim dolls and other popular “Islamic”imagery in deeply influenced by transnational Islamist ideologies popular culture—such as busana Muslim (Islamic and thus reject any figures of humans,1 moderate Sa- clothes), Islamic stickers, Islamic music performances, lafists often allow children to play with dolls. This ac- among others—represent a huge material database for ceptance is based on the Hhadits that spoke about “religious visual culture.” Currently, there are various Aisyah, the youngest wife of the Prophet, playing with a scholars engaged with contemporary Islamic visual type of doll when she was about nine years old. culture in Indonesia: Budiyanto (2006) and Lukens- Despite this acceptance, many conservatives still argue Bull (2005) have written about Islamic stickers, while that Aisyah’s doll was not precisely a human-shaped Carla Jones (2007) and Nuraini Juliastuti (2003) have doll. examined Muslim clothing. Most of these scholars have Muslim dolls emerged in Indonesia in 2005, soon utilized various media and cultural studies theories and after the reformation era2 when Islamic movements methods in their study of Islamic visual culture. In re- cent decades, as Brent Plate (2002) notes, religious emerged more prominently in public spheres, marking scholars have shifted away from “verbal-textual” a modern turn in the evolution of Islamic movements. doctrines toward the visual and material artifacts con- Along with this transition into modernity, members of 3 various Muslim organizations that married and built stituting religious “practice.” David Morgan (2000) families began to consider secular toys for their chil- similarly observes visual imagery’s significance in religious practices: dren’s entertainment, particularly dolls. Not only were Muslim parents concerned about whether toys were or [T]he new study of religious visual culture begins were not Islamic in nature—a crucial point considering with the assumption that visual artifacts should not Volume 9, Spring 2009! 3 Indonesian Muslim Dolls be segregated from the experience of ceremony, lims’s reception and interpretation of the specifically education, commerce or prayer. Visual practices Indonesian character of these Islamic dolls. help fabricate the worlds in which people live and therefore present a promising way of deepening our 4 understanding of how religions work. Barbie: A Story of the Globalized Both Morgan and Plate stress the significance of vis- ’Secular’ Doll ual imagery, not only as a component of performances, The birth of the modern doll is represented by the rituals, and ceremonies, but also for understanding production of a global phenomenon known as Barbie. these practices themselves. Barbie was created in 1959 by Ruth Handler, and is, in Beyond contributing to and serving as a lens through many ways, an icon of Western consumerism, celebrat- which to analyze rituals, religious visual imagery can ing Western aristocratic and bourgeois values and serve as a point of departure into discourses relating to lifestyles. To those living in the non-Western world, broader social issues and contexts. Plate states that this ideal of a modern, high-class lifestyle has long visual culture offers: been an obsession, but it is also frequently critiqued for eroding traditional cultural values.8 As an emblem an attempt to talk about the visual components that of Western modernity, Barbie’s image sparks such are imbedded in everyday life [and] is engaged ambivalence (see Figure 1). with the production and the reception of visual objects, the makers and the viewers. And in this Despite critiques of Barbie, she can be found in mode of analysis, gender, sex, race, nationality, countries around the world, just as bourgeois values religion, family, and other forces of identification and lifestyles are not exclusive to Western civilization. come to play a vital role in the construction of the way we look and are looked at. These components Yet, the imagery of wealth, elegance, and fantasy that of identity affect the way images are produced and Barbie embodies can be traced in history: for instance, reproduced, and how such images are viewed, and fantastic affluence characterizes many epic stories of by whom.5 princes and princesses that exist in various civilizations These social concerns provide fruitful ground for around the world. This affluence is present in the research, as the majority of the scholarship about Islamic tale of One Thousand and One Nights, the Islamic arts tends to focus on the “fine arts’”such as adventures of Prince Panji of Java, or in any folklore calligraphy and architecture, including Plate’s own from China, India, Japan, and in other countries and books on religious visual culture. This paper will ana- historical civilizations. lyze the phenomenon of Indonesian Muslim dolls as an Acknowledging her international appeal, makers of expression of religious visual culture and scrutinize Barbie have attempted to fuse, and possibly appropri- popular Islamic materialist culture by taking into ac- ate non-Western cultures, by creating special edition count Plate’s “field of vision,” a comprehensive ana- dolls whose clothing and packaging adhere to stereo- lytical methodology for examining the visual compo- typed national images (see Image 1). These questions nents in the Indonesian community. 6 Additionally, I about Barbie’s international appeal and cultural adapt- explore some of the religious and social issues that ability are important to consider as popular culture arise when considering Muslim dolls as visual culture becomes increasingly global. Pierre Bourdieu’s notion in Indonesia, focusing particularly on the ways of the habitus helps illustrate the complications that religious transnationalism and globalization impact arise at sites of cultural intersection. “A set of durable this phenomenon. Specifically, I will examine the va- practices, values, and dispositions which is both rieties of religious transnationalism7 that have influ- structured and structuring,” the habitus represents the enced the emergence of the Muslim doll in Indonesia. “context in which we understand the world and acquire Through these issues, I will note the waves of globali- beliefs, values and knowledge through practice.”9 We zation—or, flows of religious, social, and economic might therefore understand Barbie’s status as an icon Figure 1. (right) content through increasingly connected agents from of bourgeois culture as an effect of cultural practices of Sumatera Barbie, around the world—that are exposed by the Islamic doll the West. Yet, as a global commodity, Barbie’s popu- courtesy phenomenon. Lastly, I will consider Indonesian Mus- larity threatens to export Western values and sensibili- Sage Evans ties into global culture. This global culture can be 4! EXPLORATIONS a graduate student journal of southeast asian studies A. Budiyanto understood as threatening to an Indonesian Muslim nificantly from the ideal world of Islamic norms and who is characterized by practices that are influenced by values.10 his or her own habitus (e.g. Islamic culture). This cultural intersection between West and non-West that Transnational Islamic Piety for the global capitalism helps produce—we see this particularly with Mattel’s global marketing strategi- Modern World es—can place differing cultural practices into conflict. Markets and politics are two sides of one coin: they are inseparable and infused with cultural values and In Barbie Culture, Mary F. Rogers recognizes the practices. For instance, the conflicts in the Middle East Muslim world’s anxiety over the cultural intrusion that seem to have no certain solution because of continuous Barbie represents, suggesting that Barbie can alienate fighting for natural resources, political interests, and many around the world, as her image reflects racism, religious pride and honor. Each of these conflicts in- sexism, consumerism, and materialism. For many termingles and overlaps with other conflicts whose Muslims, Barbie’s world is perceived as a kind of “fan- origins are not precisely known. Islam has historically tasy of consumption,” a world that is far from the real- been a highly political religion, a source of ideologies ity most girls face. Barbie idealizes white skin, light deeply rooted in the Middle East, and continuously hair, blue eyes, a thin body-shape, Western concep- evolving concomitantly with developments in modern tions of
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