ABSTRACT
Javanese genders are ranked in a hierarchy on the basis of a concept of potency which is the preserve of men. Material from urban Java, however, does not support the view that women are inferior, and presents different interpretations of female capacities from village data, capacities which are culturally highly valued, as data from a study of performance in the Sultan's palace at Yogyakarta and the place of gender6 as it figures in characterisation and representation will show. Written and visual references to all manner of performing arts in the courts of Java are found from the the tenth century onwards. Court patronage of performance is long-established practice, which has continued through the rise and fall of kingdoms and the Islamicisation of what became the central Javanese dynasty in the sixteenth century. In Yogyakarta the ethos of performance has been militaristic and more accessible to males, who were required to represent both male and female roles in the dance drama.
