Bamboo craft as living knowledge: an ethnography of ecology, skill, and livelihood among the Kasepuhan of Sirnaresmi, West Java

This article presents an ethnography of bamboo craft as living knowledge among the Kasepuhan of Sirnaresmi, West Java. Based on participant observation, informal conversations, and interviews with artisans, elders, and community members, it argues that bamboo is not merely a raw material but a culturally mediated substance through which people learn ecological knowledge, skill, restraint, and social obligation. The findings show that craft knowledge is transmitted through observation, participation, repetition, and embodied apprenticeship within households and communal work rather than through formal instruction. Bamboo objects materialize relations among humans, land, ancestors, and customary authority, while also opening selective pathways toward livelihood and the creative economy. Economic transformation is negotiated through customary values that limit extraction, preserve symbolic meanings, and maintain ecological responsibility. By foregrounding bamboo's social life, this article contributes to anthropological debates on craft, Indigenous knowledge, material culture, and sustainable livelihoods in Southeast Asian communities.