Abstract
Traditional performing arts along the northern coast of Java often place female performers at the complex intersection of spiritual sacredness, patriarchal control, and modern economic commodification. This study aims to analyze the social realities, gender power dynamics, and cultural transformations represented in Ahmad Tohari's novel Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk (RDP) in direct comparison with the empirical practices of Donbret and Sintren arts in Eretan, Indramayu. Utilizing a sociology of literature framework combined with feminist culture and political economy theories, this research investigates the persistence of animistic beliefs, mechanisms of patriarchal hegemony, and the erosion of sacredness due to commercialization. Data were collected through textual hermeneutics, in-depth ethnographic field observations, interviews with local cultural custodians, and socio-structural analytical methods. The findings reveal that while both the literary text and the living traditions share an ancestral lineage in animistic rituals where the female body functions as a sacred medium for ancestral spirits (indang), contemporary socio-economic pressures have significantly altered these structures. The sacred status of female performers is systematically degraded into an object of eroticism, saweran transactions, and male control. This paper emphasizes the vulnerability of traditional female-centered performing arts amidst societal transformation and commercialization.
