(Ethnography) Performance As Progress: The Discourse and Discontents of Tourism-based Development in Bali, Indonesia

Wayang Kulit

Performance as Progress: 

The Discourse and Discontents of Tourism-based Development in Bali

Clay Porter

Introduction

Imagine the Spirit of Bali

You are miles away from home, walking the beaches of tropical Bali.  The warm waters of the Indian Ocean flow beneath your feet as the rising sun reveals early morning fishermen making their offerings, and asking for the blessings of the gods and goddesses. Imagine: the sea, the fishermen, the sea life and you, as each a part of the sacred whole that is the Balinese “consciousness”.  What the people refer to as Desa Mewacara, or the Spirit of Bali, is a glimpse into the lives of the people and social force which defines their normality.  Imagine you are in this place, where rice is eaten as the primary food three times a day, and visualize that the goddess, Dewi Sri, who insures the rice crop, is waiting for you to make daily offerings of thanks.  Then imagine that similar offering have been made daily by your parents, cousins, grandparents, great, great grandparents and ancestors for thousands of years.  This is the Desa Mewacara; everywhere you look there is this common theme, it is portrayed on fabric or painted in black and white checks or stripes, as a reminder of the constant struggle between “good” and “evil.  The battle which the Balinese feel will never be fully resolved. 

Understand the Peoples’ Reality 

      The economy associated with tourism in Ubud, Bali has resulted in the transformation, development, and amplification of various aspects of traditional society. For example, the tourism-based economy is built upon the promotion of an image of Balinese life: the performing and material arts and a nostalgic village setting combining agriculture and ritual activity. Yet this ‘authenticity’ is a farce as it inevitably reflects the desires of the government controlled, tourism-based economy from which the ‘authenticity’ is profitable to start. For instance, the Anti Pornography Law in Indonesia has suppressed the tradition of bare breasted dancers. 

In August 2009, the Jakarta Post reported: “In somewhat unusual circumstances, two beautiful North Sulawesi women wearing skirts slit all the way up to their waists and low cut white silk tops performed a traditional dance in front of the nine-member Constitutional Court on Thursday, as part of a legal challenge against the Anti-Pornography Law” (Camelia 2009). Yet while the government seeks to “conserve” its people from certain sexual material; Bali is thick with child abuse and prostitution. Many young Indonesians are illegally married off at eleven or twelve years old, often resulting in the girls being forced into prostitution on Bali's streets. The US National Institutes of Heath estimates eighty percent of 150 women serve tourists clients in the Kuta tourist area as sex workers (Thorpe 1994). Mothers who are unable to provide basic sustenance for their children enter this cycle illicit sex working and poverty. Girls married off by parents in hopes that their children will be able to survive inevitably find sustenance in low-wage or illegitimate markets.  Many hotels, including the International brand Hard Rock Kuta, tolerate questionable extra persons being allowed into guests’ rooms, which perpetuates and possibly endorses the problem (Austin 2001).

Tourism has transformed the economic stage of this way of life from a subsistence society based in agriculture, to a people dependent upon providing goods and services to tourists. This evolution of development has had a range of effects upon the marketed-representation of society; each aspect, upon which the tourism-based economy relies, is affected by these transformations differently. For example, while the market-driven economy has made it possible for traditional arts to become profitable, it has the subak, rice-field industry. Female gender depictions in the performing and material arts of Balinese are made a commodity and sold to promote the tourism sector.  This is interpreted as a profitable component of Balinese development. Conversely, the increase of plastic-waste and rapid decline in rice-field agriculture is considered marginalization, remnants of a previous way of life replaced by a new economic system. Access to water and land has become subject to the insatiable expansion of tourism-based development, however; this relationship between the individual and the tourist is less visible in terms of daily ritual activity. 

Despite Balinese resistance to the direct commoditization of religious ceremonies, they recognize their religion’s role as a tourist attraction. For Appadurai, “commodities are things with a particular type of social potential…they are distinguishable from “products”, “objects”, “goods”, “artifacts” and other types of things, but only in certain respects and from a certain point of view” (Appadurai 1986, 6). Kopytoff defines a commodity as a thing with a value that can be exchanged for a counterpart which in the immediate context has an equivalent value. The counterpart is also a commodity at the exchange (Kopytoff 1986:68). For example, you will not see a direct link between ritual activity and tourism-based socio-economic development in Bali; but you will see that ceremonies, and the temples where they take place, have been subject to massive transformations which initiate profit and stimulate market growth. Although many Balinese are not made aware of temple changes that occurred in the past, the change is visible and constant in the present. Many local temples are, and have been, under construction; for example, idols have been removed over the years leaving only throne-like statuary in ritual arenas. The people of Bali have remained apolitical throughout the historical struggle between polytheistic Hindu Balinese and monotheistic Muslim Javanese. Today the Constitution of Indonesia states clearly the nationally mandated belief in one Almighty God (1989). 

MacRae expressed that what the people know as 'Balinese culture' is built on images of the island as a place apart from the troubles of the world, a place of natural beauty, artistic creativity, spectacular dance and ritual performance (1997). These images have roots in political expediencies of the Dutch colonial state in the aftermath of their bloody invasion of Bali a century ago, and have flourished and developed in close symbiotic relationship with the world tourism industry since. The identity of society and sacred rituals date back thousands of years, yet their role and meaning in society is linked to the historical and complex development of Bali’s tourism-based economy.  The isolation and conservation of traditional gender roles limits the human capacity of females in terms of sustainability and well-being. This power over women is enabled and limited by access to vital resources including: English language, land, and “cultural knowledge”.  

Bali and Development:

The Literature

An Image of Bali 

Bali from the Indonesian perspective is only a small island, some 2,100 square miles in area (Sastrio 2009). In this tiny island, Hinduism has survived to the present day. Bali's establishment as a Hindu enclave dates from the time the Javanese Hindu Kingdom of  Majapahit, in the face of Islam, virtually evacuated Java to the neighboring island, taking with them their art, literature and music as well as their religion and rituals (Sastrio 2009). The caste system in Bali derives from the caste system in India (Eiseman 1989).  “Adoption of the Indian caste system linked the old Balinese title system to Hinduism, which was desirable, especially from the gentry's point of view” (Murni’s). The divine king cult, status rivalry and competitive display are represented as “the driving force of Balinese life” (Geertz 1980, 120). 

The Hindus believe that underlying a person's body, personality, mind and memories there is something else; “it never dies, it is never exhausted, it is without limit of awareness and bliss” (Fabry 1975). This is known as the Spirit of Bali, Desa Mewacara, or Balinese consciousness.  This is central to Hinduism belief that we will all go through a series of rebirths or reincarnations with the goal of eventually achieving nirvana. Eventual freedom from this cycle depends on our karma. Negative actions during our present life result in bad karma, which ultimately results in a lower reincarnation. Conversely if our deeds and actions in this life are considered genuinely good we will be reincarnated with a higher level and will become a step closer to eventual freedom from death and rebirth. Keep in mind that the higher the social status (caste), the easier it is to be pious and focus on achieving nirvana. 

Balinese society is a communal one; a person (man or woman) belongs to their family, clan, caste, and the village as a whole.  Religion permeates all aspects of life; each stage of individual existence is marked by ceremonies and rituals. Cummings (1990) writes that in fact the first stage ceremony of life takes place at the third month of pregnancy when a series of offerings is made at home and at the village’s river or spring to ensure the well-being of the baby. When the child reaches puberty his teeth are filed to produce an aesthetically pleasing straight line; crooked fangs are reminiscent of the ghastly grimaces of witches and demons (Cummings 1990).

Balinese society is held together by a sense of collective responsibility (Warren 1993). The notion of spiritual uncleanness (sebel) is one of the central pillars of Balinese religions (Sastrio 2009). Contact with death, a woman during menstruation, physical deformity, sexual intercourse, insanity and sexual perversion can all be source of spiritual uncleanness under certain circumstances (Warren 1993). This state of being results in individual exclusion from the collective resources of society; public temples, ritual spaces, water sources, and political process are among that which can result from an individual’s uncleanness.  For instance, to present offerings in the temple during menstruation considered irreverent, an insult to the gods and their displeasure falls not only on the transgressor, but on the community as a whole. This collective responsibility produces considerable pressure on the individual to conform to traditional values and customs (Sastrio 2009).

As the world has changed over time, the Balinese have individually and collectively responded to such environmental, spiritual, and social transformations. If we imagine the Desa Mewacara as a force that exists within the individual, and within society as “unseen”; then we can imagine Balinese “culture” to be that which is “seen”, or “real” to those not “within the Spirit.” Changes within the “Spirit” reflect changes within the “culture.” For example, the Spirit of Bali, as originally a personification of the peoples’ life force, represented female sexuality and the flow of irrigation to sustain agriculture; the goddess of the rice field became the defining nature of Balinese Desa Mewacara. Changes within the outside world, such as the expansion and proliferation of Hinduism, shifted the role of Dewi Sri, the goddess of Bali, to a minor deity and replaced her matriarchal power with the supremacy of the traditional Hindu gods (Poffenberger and Zurbuchen 1979). The “unseen” spirit of Bali shifted from a feminine life force to a masculine life force as reflected in changes of the “seen” world.  The increased interactions between Indian and Indonesian traders affected the gender association with the primary deity. For example, the king-god cults of ancient India and the sociopolitical construct linking local leaders to divine gods transformed much of the archipelago (Geertz 1980). 

If the term culture is defined as a system of meaning used by an individual to conceptualize the world around a collective of individuals as the source of the meanings and norms within the larger social unit; then it can be posed that this system is dynamic and changes only insofar as an individual perceives behavioral changes within the collective.  This said, the “spirit of Bali” is a system of meaning used by an individual to conceptualize the self within the world around them. This is “seen” and “unseen” in terms of generational changes in the individual. The younger generations see a world much different from that of their parents, with new realities and opportunities (Goldschmidt 1986). 

The culture of the Balinese people may change as the environment changes, but the ‘spirit’ of the people may remain the same. The culture of Bali is the ‘seen’ world; socioeconomic, religious, and political processes reflect this. Changes in nature, economics, politics, social structure, and religious practice occur as a result of changes within the Balinese individuals’ “spirit”, which is the ‘unseen’ world. This is the world where the gods and goddess actively participate in the ‘seen’ world.  This interaction between man and gods occurs through individual and collective Balinese spirit, forever joining the two worlds and consciousnesses.  As the culture of Bali changes over time, so does the spirit of Bali. New goals are set, as the each generation seeks harmony within an ever-changing society, and sometimes the means of attaining these goals are quite different from the ways of the older generations (Goldschmidt 1986). Over time, this generation of individuals, with a unique means of balancing the “spirit of Bali” within the changing culture of Bali, a result of the particular environment in which they were reared, produces yet another younger generation, and so on as this process of change  is perpetual. 

Selling the Image 

      In his essay “Cultural Tourism”, Michel Picard (1990) introduces his argument with a commonly known phrase of the Balinese: "In the temple we ask for a blessing, and at a hotel we ask for money...It’s a ritual dance to ask the gods for a lot of tourists.” Like Goldschmidt (1986), Picard (1990) notes that “culture”, or the Balinese attempt to retain long standing religious traditions, is Bali's defining feature as tourist destination. Balinese culture is renowned for its dynamic resilience. The Balinese have been readily praised for their ability to borrow whatever foreign influence suits them while nevertheless maintaining their identity over the centuries. Picard (1990) reveals there is no dearth of observers to claim that the Balinese have adjusted to the tourist invasion of their island just as in the past—taking advantage of the appeal of their cultural traditions to foreign visitors without sacrificing their own values on the altar of monetary profit. The following quotation should suffice as an example of such an established conviction: 

The Balinese seem to be coping with the tourist invasion as well as they have coped with others, that is, they are taking what they want, but they are not allowing themselves to be any the less Balinese. This appears to have been the stories throughout Bali’s history, outside cultures  have come, perhaps as conquerors, perhaps only as visitors and traders, but Balinese society and culture have remained distinctive, accepting outward forms, but molding them to its own different purposes (A. Forge1977, 5-6). 

      Conclusions drawn in 1973 by the American anthropologist Philip McKean from his study of the impact of tourism on Balinese culture support this argument. Challenging the charge of corruption commonly laid against tourism by foreign intellectuals, McKean, for his part, is interested in the capacity of the Balinese to reap the fruits of tourism and turn them to their advantage. In his eyes, the coming of tourists to their island indeed provides the Balinese with an opportunity to preserve their social fabric while revitalizing their cultural traditions: 

In short and perhaps most dramatically stated, the traditions of Bali will prosper in direct proportion to the success of the tourist industry. Far from destroying, ruining, or "spoiling" the culture of Bali. I am arguing here that the advent and increase of tourists is likely to fortify and foster the arts: dance, music, architecture, carving and painting (P. F. McKean1973, p 1). 

To support his point, McKean makes use of the conception of culture as "performance" propounded by Milton Singer in 1972. McKean sees the various manifestations of Balinese culture as “cultural performances," which distinguish between various audiences—namely the gods, the Balinese, and the tourists. In his opinion, the belief that a divine audience is present at performances intended for the Balinese Hindus acts as a guarantee for the preservation of traditional values. Conversely, performances designed for visitors have a commercial purpose and lacks religious meaning. Still these performances do not lack value in that they are geared towards a tourism-based market.  In this respect the presence of tourists does not diminish the importance or quality of performances otherwise intended for divine and Balinese audiences, as these shows help to improve their presentation. The benefits of tourist, or commercialized, performances are twofold.  First, there are monetary gains from commercial shows (Picard 1990).  Second, in performing for tourists the participants are able to practice more than might otherwise be possible.  As a result traditional performances provide a sense of authenticity to tourist shows, while tourist performances contribute to the quality of genuine religious ceremonies 

Image and Reality 

      In Bali the people have a sense of a very universal spirit within Hinduism. They call it Desa Mawacara that is desa (place), patra (condition), kala (time).  Together these three concepts make up a system of meaning to which the Balinese give life. Despite past experience with Dutch-colonialism and now market-driven tourism, the Balinese people have maintained the balance between their ‘spirit’ and their ‘society’. The Balinese view this dichotomy as existing in harmony between the ‘seen’ and ‘unseen’ world, regardless of routine changes and the intrusion of other alien social norms. The Balinese way of life is always below the surface.  Lifestyle, education, and technology may change, but the people of Bali are always seeking harmony within the current circumstances, as the ‘seen’ world is always subject to change while the unseen is not.  However, does this universal spirit of Desa Mawacara remain in the hearts of Balinese the same despite external forces at work?  

Gender Roles and Identity 

      In March 2000, the newly-established Balinese cultural magazine Sarad devoted its third issue to female gender roles in an article tilted “Who Says Balinese Women are Oppressed?” (Creese). A month later another new magazine, Bali Lain, also focused its second issue on women, with its main feature article entitled “Not Women’s Fate” (Creese 2000). Both publications presented themselves as being concerned with ‘”Balinese culture,” and the simultaneous appearance of two magazines devoted exclusively to gender issues underlines this central importance. 

Sarad and Bali Lain magazines represent concentrated versions of the coverage of women’s issues more generally in the daily press since the fall of Suharto, and are indicators of the focus of Balinese media attention on women’s issues in the context of cultural identity formation (Creese 2000). “Sarad, more culturally conservative than Bali Lain, was particularly concerned in its special issue with refuting any suggestion that Balinese women suffered systematic cultural oppression by demonstrating the open and democratic nature of Balinese culture, at least if viewed in its own terms” (Creese 2000). 

Bali Lain, on the other hand, hinted at other possibilities and choices for Balinese women, although such choices generally require women to reinterpret repressive cultural practices in Bali and seek alternatives in national, and occasionally international, feminist models and arguments (Creese 2000).  Women have often sought social and religious solace within Hinduism by respecting the dogmatic preconceptions of ritual uncleanness, especially during menstruation and regards to sexual activity. Still decades of economic and social injustice have created an environment whereby the women of Bali have reinterpreted their sought comfort in Hinduism. Today the identity of women is partially rooted in prostitution as a means of economic survival. Females are considered commodities; “…value is both embodied in commodities and created by economic exchange” (Appadurai 1986, 3). For Marx, the value of any given commodity is determined by the social relations of its production. The exchange system alienates the user, in this case the tourist, from the production or goods, Balinese women and thus endows the product or commodity with fetish like power different from the “items” true value (Normark 2009).

In a counter argument, Kopytoff asserts that power attributed to a commodity after production is the result of singularization which is the opposite of commoditization (Kopytoff 1986, 83).  Singularization, in this context, can be understood as the “setting aside” of a thing, which in turn makes it more valuable. This process can take many forms. For example, women have become singularized as they have been marked as “endangered”. Relatively speaking, the tourism-based economy creates the social desire to revitalize the traditional nature of Balinese women so as to conserve the cultural image. This in turn establishes the role of women as reflecting exceptional value only by virtue of the rarity and “exotic” nature these traditional female gender roles are exchangeable in the associated tourism market. 

The place of women in Balinese social, academic, and political discourse impacts the “cultural” image that from which the tourism-based market is reliant.  Today the Balinese people are subject to Economic Recovery and Structural Adjustment Programs (ERSAP) that directly links social development to tourism-based economics. In a case study of secondary education reform, the Improving Educational Quality Project noted that ERSAP-funded Local Content Curriculum (LCC) is structured so as make the connection between education and tourism:  

For example, the Bali province offers English as LCC in primary school at the 5th-grade level (English is officially taught in 7th grade as a national core subject). This is an example showing that each province implements LCC based on their needs and interests. Bali is interested in earning money through tourism, so teaching English to their children is required for the primary school level (Acedo 2002).

            Although the LCC program does not limit the access females have to learn English language; the social and religious pressure along with economic disparity results often in the reduction in females attending primary or secondary schools. In stead, the image of females in Bali is made commodity and exchanged as an item of material and performing art value. 

Ritual Image

Most Balinese, according to MacRae, have until recently believed deeply in a view of their island as a haven of unique peace and tranquility in a world apparently racked by disorder, conflict and violence (2009). Their own uniquely privileged position they see as blessings bestowed on them by the gods of Bali, which are in turn a result of their own unique devotion to the correct forms of ritual. This belief in ritual causation is perhaps related to their distrust of human political endeavor, and this distrust has emerged in locals' recovery efforts in a post-bomb Bali. These efforts have focused on restoring spiritual balance through ritual purification ceremonies, which reinforce an inherently apolitical Balinese self-image (MacRae 2009). From this it is possible to see links between global activity and local adaptation. Religion (ritual), socioeconomics (Bali-bomb and recovery), and ritual practice (female gender roles) are related in that, females are subject to maintaining and assisting the correct flow of rituals. Said village purification rituals are only necessary insofar as global process create such a need. Below, a story of Balinese cockfights reveals how ritual meaning and social discourse are connected.

In “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight”, Geertz drew observations and conclusions about the role of Balinese cockfighting in society as he understood the relationship during his fieldwork conducted in 1958. Geertz speaks from the first person perspective, clearly providing the reader a sense of how he got involved in the project from the beginning. He describes a police raid of a cockfight where he was in attendance, and how he subsequently managed to win the trust of the villagers he wanted to study by responding to the police in the same manner as the locals. Despite being an essential part of the “Balinese way of life” or “Spirit of Bali”, cock-fighting was and is deemed backward by the Indonesian government and therefore illegal. In Geertz’ experience the police raided the event, suddenly and without warning. As everyone ran in different directions, the Geertz’ instinctively did the same. After the dust settled and the police left, Geertz and his wife were accepted by the otherwise private Balinese community. Running from the police together with the villagers was, it seems, a sure sign of solidarity and good intentions.

The relationship between the individual, the cockfight, and the broader context of Balinese society reveals that meaning only exists in discourse insofar as the meaning is reinforced by a collective with somewhat concrete folkways. That is, the nature of Balinese cockfights is determined by the power individuals have in enforcing what is considered normal for this social practice.  According to Durkheim, the desires and self-interests of human beings can only be held in check by forces that originate outside of the individual (1984). As noted earlier, Agama Hindu (Balinese Hinduism) supports the belief of external realities; the “unseen” or “Spirit” of Bali. Durkheim characterizes this external force as a collective conscience, a common social bond that is expressed by the ideas, values, norms, beliefs, and ideologies of a culture. Geertz observes symbolic culture as the “model” for empirical reality; like Durkheim, his reality is in a dual sense. That is, it has the aspects of being a "model of" and "model for" reality. A model of, in the sense that it helps people apprehend what is the nature of true reality by providing the graspable depiction of that reality and a model for, in the sense that it also has the functions of determining people's actions by providing the blueprints of how things ought to be conducted. This point is particularly important, for it touches on the same issue of the identity discourse between social institutions and actions.

It is important to note that most of this story was an interpretation and summary of what Balinese cockfighting “means” in terms of how the people define it, and how that definition fits into the larger context of Balinese society. This is something that straightforward observation and subsequent communication cannot provide. For example, if Geertz was to report on Balinese cockfighting as a news media outlet reports illegalities today, the story would have been reduced to a piece just about a police raid of gamblers involved in cockfighting. It is only through Geertz’s method that the thick webs of symbolism can be broken down and ‘real’ meaning deduced. From his observation, Geertz, explains that it is not just cocks that are fighting, but men. He saw a pattern of meaningful symbols, by which the Balinese metaphorically passed along knowledge of life and expressed their attitudes toward existence. "In the cockfight, men and beast, good and evil, ego and id, the creative power of aroused masculinity and the destructive power of loosened animalistic fuse in a bloody drama of hatred, cruelty, violence, and death" (Geertz 1958, 442) More succinctly, the cockfight cannot be analyzed from the perspective of one coherent set of meanings, but rather from a complex interplay of diverse meanings that concern the Balinese. Complex meaning such as this can only be understood through “thick description”.  

Describing the Image 

      Thick Description is used to describe and define the aim of interpretive anthropology. It can be broken down as follows: Social Anthropology, or the study of culture is based on ethnography. An ethnography is a written or film documentation resulting from the study of people in a given location. Culture, if it can even be defined, is, in turn, based on the symbols that guide community behavior. Symbols obtain meaning from the role which they play in the patterned behavior of social life. Thus in order to understand the symbolic meaning of a given interaction, the surrounding motivations and moods of the environment must be discerned. "The slaughter in the cock ring is not a depiction of how things literally are among men, but, what is almost worse, of how, from a particular angle, they imaginatively are" (Geertz 1958, 446). The central claim is that the cockfights “function, if you want to call it that, is interpretive; it is a Balinese reading of Balinese experience, a story they tell themselves about themselves" (Geertz 1958, 448). You must observe and interpret experience with the same preconceived notions of society as the actors whose situation you are experiencing. 

By analyzing culture, the result is Geertz’s "thick description"; an analysis of a culture which details "what the natives think they are up to." Thick description is an interpretation of what the people are thinking made by an outsider who cannot think like a native. Thick description is made possible by anthropological theory (Hammerstedt 1973). He reveals the role of the ethnographer as developing a theory within the context of analyzed description in two critical levels: describing what happens and describing the intention behind the action. The symbolic meaning of a given action is dependent upon the perspective motivation and feelings around the situation. This is developed by looking at both the society as a whole, operating because of the sum of its parts while also examining the parts as integral individual components of the whole. 

It is most important to note that by distinguishing between culture and parts of culture, Geertz is revealing his understanding of culture to be something fixed and measurable. With this theory anthropologists might only examine micro-dimensions of societies such as kinship systems, clan structures or legal systems insofar as these micro-dimensions comprise the interconnected patterns of ideas that manifest a collective whole or “culture”.  Thick description still provides for a thorough understanding of social situations yet we must note that culture or is not static and that we’re merely observing the moment and the moment will pass.  Similarly, however, the moments we observe may be very important and that moment, though passing, may play into what is to come for centuries. Geertz is like Durkheim in distinguishing between social life and inner meaning. “It is not without reason, therefore, that man feels himself to be double: he actually is double… In brief, this duality corresponds to the double existence that we lead concurrently; the one purely individual and rooted in our organisms, the other social and nothing but an extension of society” (Durkheim [1914] 1973, 162). 

Geertz describes social life as existing in a dual state and arising from a double source. Here the image of collective consciousness is as intrinsic as is the division of labor.  The most important characteristic shared between Durkheim and Geertz, is a shared understanding that cultural patterns exist in extrinsic realities. By “extrinsic” Geertz notes that the source of knowledge that derives from the cultural constructs of the people is different than the innate characteristics of human beings as a whole. What is important to see is that this pattern of symbolic meaning is the “model” for empirical reality, in a dual sense. From here the Bali model should be understood as the relationship between patterned ritual change and tourism-based economic disparity. For example, religion, morality, myth, and other mores have the capacity to act as blueprints within the individual and thus manifest in the collective. This collective representation is then marketed in a tourism-based economy so that it reflects the social commoditization and singularization of the image.  

Dividing the Image

Now to understand how commoditization, meaning, and purpose are linked, we again reflect upon Geertz, who theorized that religion is distinctively a part of the cultural system.  “Culture”, in this case the religious part of the larger social whole, is the commodity in Bali, it is critical to recall Geertz’s assertion that culture and religion are congruent.  “Religion is a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic” (Geertz 1973,  90) Again, like Durkheim, Geertz insinuates that humankind is dualistic in nature. The implication is that the measurable differs from the contextual and lies in a conceptual world of symbolic meaning. This has been similarly expressed by Durkheim; “There are in each of us…two consciences: one which is common to our group in its entirety…the other, on the contrary, represents that in us which is personal and distinct, that which makes us an individual” (1933, 129). It is apparent that what Geertz claims about the ‘nature’ of the Balinese and the hidden meanings of the cockfights stem from Durkheim insofar as cockfighting is a metaphor between perceived social condition and ritual meaning. One is reflected in society and the other represents that which is within us and is subject to society. Both Geertz and Durkheim explain how this inner awareness “is identifiable through the power of external coercion which it exerts or is capable of exerting upon individuals” (Durkheim1982, 56). The “Spirit of Bali” can be understood as this inner nature; historically fixed as an object of measurable understanding. Geertz reveals his observations of the cockfight in a thickly descriptive analysis: 

Drawing on almost every level of Balinese experience, it bring together themes - animal savagery, male narcissism, opponent gambling, status rivalry, mass excitement, blood sacrifice - whose main connection is their involvement with rage and the fear of rage, and binding them into a set of rules which at once contains them and allows them play, builds a symbolic structure in which, over and over again, the reality of their inner affiliation can be intelligibly felt" (pp. 449-50). 

What connects Geertz to Durkheim most strongly is both of these scientists have addressed the conception of “power”. The relationship between social norms and the individual’s perception of normality is discussed at length; each finding similar patterns within social institutions that employ symbolic meaning rooted in ritual purpose. Durkheim reveals this as “sui generis” (Latin); he defines social facts as having a meaning of their own. Geertz responds with a similar observation: 

Unlike genes, and other non-symbolic information sources, which are only models for, not models of, culture patterns have an intrinsic double aspect: they give meaning, that is, objective conceptual form, to social and psychological reality both by shaping themselves to it and by shaping it to themselves (p. 93). 

Both Durkheim and Geertz make it clear that social life is rooted in ritual. Both assert that ritual takes roots in society and that meaning is limited to acceptance within the collective. Durkheim reveals that all religions divide social life into two spheres, the “sacred” and the “profane.” There is nothing essential about a particular object that makes it sacred. An object becomes sacred only when the community invests it with that meaning. Thus the cockfight that the Geertz’ witnessed had meaning that existed in the ritual “sacred” world and purpose in the “profane” secular world. The individual relies on innate cultural knowledge to guide actions determined acceptable or appropriate by the collective, while members of the collective are doing the same. In short, Geertz is presenting the cockfight as a form of interpretations of life the Balinese have created for themselves, displayed in a manner so that these interpretations are in fact accessible to their own members. Further, these interpretations are not restricted to what is seen as real, but how things are in the imaginative sense. This is known as “cultural knowledge” and is often an object of subjection to the Balinese.  

The Image Today 

In the village of Ubud, I was engulfed within the Spirit of Bali and was shown that Bali, Indonesia is not the “paradise” image too often painted in our society’s historical memory. With a tourist industry that dates back over many decades, the island has become very much a mainstream destination, offering all the comforts and facilities of the West, all against a backdrop of massive environmental, social and spiritual deprivation. 

As consumer capitalism and bourgeois social structures manifest within the already historically exploited Island and its enduring social caste system; it is evident that Bali is only a paradise to those who have the capacity to function within the confines of its current socioeconomic and political schemes. Indonesia, the geopolitical archipelago that encompasses Bali, is one of the world’s wealthiest nations and is a member of the G20. This group was established in 1999, in the wake of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, to bring together major advanced and emerging economies to stabilize the global financial market (G20 2009). As of 2009 the population of Indonesia has reached over 240 million and despite the wealth of the nation as a whole, millions of Indonesians live below the poverty line while the ruling class and government of Jakarta continuously seek foreign aid from global financial intuitions and international markets (CIA). According to Australia’s Agency for International Development (AusAID), “poverty in Indonesia is heavily concentrated among those with little or no formal education. A major program in basic education is being implemented to assist the creation of a well-resourced mainstream education system” (AusAID 2009).

Such education models appear throughout Indonesia as a part of a larger act of socialization to produce a population that has the capacity for sustainability in neoliberal society.  “The Province of Bali and the World Bank” meeting minutes clearly depicts that the development of society is linked to the proliferation of the economy.  World Bank representative’s state:

There was universal agreement that additional education, training, and skills diversification of the local work force is critical to Bali’s economic development. Dr. Djisman, the forum moderator, pointed out the significant educational disparity amongst Bali’s work force; Bali’s rates of illiteracy and of university graduates are both above the national average. Mr. GDE Weda Arjawa, of the Bali Exports and Handicrafts Association (ASEPHI Bali), suggested that additional training programs be established with curricula specifically designed to meet the needs of key industries in Bali (Richards 2003).

Neo-liberalism determines a new authenticity where society feels powerless and reverts inward so as to make sense of a shifting socio-political environment.  Existence is therefore defined by the majority; the reality of the minority is shaped into that of the majority so as function within the social constructions of a contractual neo-liberal society.  A pragmatic reality shaped by economic and socio-institutional development where individuality supersedes interdependency.  This is due to the further separation of people from social bonds vital in the expressive design of indigenous culture.  Through socialization and education, these contractual norms become internalized in the consciousness of the individual and expressed via the collective (Durkheim 1995, 87).  Thus the culture of Indonesia is shaped so as to construct a neoliberal system whereby the individual is a passive actor at the whim of the collective.  This characteristic of neo-liberalism is the premise in debating whether this global ideological flow is alleviating social and economic indigence or catalyzing it.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Free Trade Agreement has prolonged neo-liberal dogma since its foundation on August 8, 1967, and has been a major focus of Indonesia's regional international relations (Chong 2006). ASEAN was established on August 8, 1967 in Bangkok by the five original Member Countries:  Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. The ASEAN Declaration states: Single space below.

The aims and purposes of the Association are: (1) to accelerate economic growth, social progress and development in the region and (2) to promote regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law in the relationship among countries in the region and adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter (ASEAN ADMIN. 1967). 

Both UN policy and ASEAN declaration embed themselves in neo-liberal thought surmising that governments must principally function to provide the infrastructure to advance the rule of law with reverence to property rights and contracts. Most significantly, the shift is from a sacred world grounded in culture, to a contract world based on economics. This agreement made way for opportunistic institutions to mushroom their ability to explore the possibilities of investment and development. Indonesia is known traditionally as one of the most nationalistic countries in Southeast Asia, not only due its abundance of natural resources, but also because of historical struggle against imperialism. 

Although ASEAN has existed for over three decades, it has as yet to make any progress in further promoting Southeast Asian regionalism. This was mainly due to initial social and political apathy towards this new structural relationship. Initially the signing of the trade agreement was met with little opposition. At the time Indonesian foreign economic policy was seen as an exclusive affair of the government and military under President Suharto. Suharto was President of Indonesia for over 30 years (Schwarz 1997). During his time in power Indonesia did advance economically, but in many ways the Indonesian people were held at a lower living standard as compared to generations passed and those of today (Schwarz 1997). Although during the Communist government of Suharto the price of rice and petrol decrease; the economic stability of the nation relied solely upon the actions of a diminutive government.   

After the fall of Suharto, the Republic of Indonesia emerged with the global assistance of the international community and the associated economic structures thereof. Today, the neo-liberal government of Indonesia relied upon the financial assistance of World Bank and Agencies for International Development. In order to meet the fiscal demands of said economic agreements, Indonesia relies upon the monetary reward of Bali as an internationally developed tourism region. For example, the image of Bali from which the tourism-based economy relies is an export industry of the international community. The World Bank funded a range of tourism-based development projects including the Nusa Dua Resort in Bali which cost over $14.3 million US dollars (Mitchell 1997). The role of the Indonesian government in its current neoliberal form has created a society in Bali whereby the cycle of debt established by various development agencies binds the individual to the global community through tourism-based solidarity. Wealthy nations import both physical products and enjoy the image of Bali promoted by tourism-based development.  Recent developments within the region depict a picture where many Indonesian state and non-state actors have become conscious proprietors promoting the rise of nongovernmental organizations, civil society organizations advancing economic development, and agencies for international development (AID) programs. The neo-liberal principles which lead to the signing of the ASEAN free-trade agreement gave rise to a plethora of organizations operating within Indonesian society and functioning simultaneously external from its people. 

Spokeperson for the Street Parliament Alliance (APJ), Lalu Hilman Afriandi, stated: “In the last five years, the government has been busy seeking foreign loans. Up to August 2009, our debt had reached US$160.64 billion and each year it has added hundreds of trillion rupiah into the state budget. This policy is not only a burden to the state budget, but also an opening for foreign interests that seek the implementation of neoliberal policies, such as privatization, trade liberalization, bank deregulation, and liberalization of education." Lalu Hilman explained that what has been happening is that debt is being used to pay debt, creating a vicious circle where debt feeds on itself. As the Indonesian government seeks aid from international development agencies, the people of Bali become trapped in a cycle of debt which forces reliance upon the tourism-based economy from which the development assistance was used. For example, environmental disasters and the subsequent socioeconomic devastation thereof are met with the open arms of development agencies which seek to provide assistance to the people in the form of tourism-based development.

On December 26, 2004, a massive earthquake jolted the shores of Indonesia. Within hours tsunami waves virtually obliterated coastal regions, killing thousands. “Indeed, to many Indonesians volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, droughts, wildfires, famines and floods signal immanent changes in human and metaphysical powers that be” (Forshee 2006, 2). In Indonesia natural disasters often portent the fall of a national or local regime; such catastrophes proceeded the fall of ancient kings in Sumatra, Java and Bali as well as the more recent deaths of President Surkano in 1965 and President Suharto in 1998 (Forshee 2006, 5). “Thus geology (and all of nature) reinforces belief systems on Indonesian societies,” conveys Jill Forshee, a cultural Anthropologist at the Center for Southeast Asia Studies, University of California. 

Subsequent to the tsunami, the entire archipelago became a profound opportunity for development and governmental aid organizations to penetrate and mushroom their ability to redevelop and restructure society. Over the past years, neo-liberal development projects associated with urbanism and tourism projects have created long periods of social and economic insatiability, punctuated by short bursts of rapid change (Forshee 2006). The result was fundamental shifts in the Indonesian people’s thoughts and actions; specifically, the tsunami junction generated the systematic exploitation of a geological catastrophe. Subsequently, the United Nations World Tourism Organization selected Bali for a pilot project to develop environmentally friendly tourism. Bali Governor I Made Mangku Pastika expressed hope that the nomination would strengthen the island’s reputation as an environmentally friendly tourist destination. He said he hoped tourists who visited Bali would be those who appreciated the preservation of the natural environment and culture (The Jakarta Globe 2009). It is clear that the role of the government is to facilitate the proliferation of tourism-based development and create an environment whereby global financial institutions and businesses can interact according to their own neoliberal dogma. As stated by World Bank officials during a meeting which discussed the privatization of tourism-based development,”…it is part of the government’s role to create a market friendly business environment” (Richards 2003). 

How Indonesians perceive and understand this development is vital in the interpretation of its pragmatism. “Humans are pragmatic actors who continually must adjust their behavior to the actions of other actors” (Blumer 1969). These actions are adjusted as they are interpreted, that is, to denote them culturally and treat the actions and those who perform them as symbolic objects given cultural meaning (Garfinkel 1967). Different societies observe similar social phenomena diversely and participants act upon these situations based on the meaning found within the phenomenon. Seemingly, active participants in this social phenomenon constructed a world upon a culturally understood experience. Cultural knowledge is important in understanding how a society interprets experiences; it is acquired knowledge people collect through shared familiarity and understanding. The tsunami functioned as an event prognosticative of social change.  Change came in the form of development projects leading to a period of economic boom and rapid urbanization. Change, however, was followed by substantial hardship when modernization and neo-liberal development forced people out of both jobs and homes. Neo-liberal development disintegrated culture from society and wired a conduit for social instability. We can also infer that this disorder arose from the shaping reality of Indonesia. Humans are not passive, conforming participants of socialization and thus to attempt to act so as to proliferate neo-liberalism in a world that finds different meaning within neo-liberal relationships, is to create for social chaos. 

Rice and Technological Change

Cultural change in Bali is closely linked to tourism, and a substantial amount of literature has emerged decrying the alleged threat posed by this industry to traditional society. Hitchcock (2000), however, takes issue with the view that tourism may be likened to a game of billiards, in which the moving ball (tourism) acts upon an inert ball (the local culture). Hitchcock maintains that this approach treats indigenous culture as uniform, passive, and inert and he has argued that international tourism neither destroys nor conserves local culture. Instead, tourism is caught up in an ongoing experience of cultural invention, in which a globally linked, tourism-based economy is but a part of a wider process of cultural change. For example, the dominance of the physical environment by tourism is paralleled by an apparent dominance of the local economy.

The first peoples to arrive on the island of Bali are believed to have migrated from China in 2500 BCE and manifested a highly developed society in around 300 BCE. By that time rice was being grown using a complex irrigation system known as subak.  The Indonesian government proposed Bali's subak traditional agricultural system be considered for the World Heritage List, for exemplifying effective water usage and management (Widiadana 2009).  These irrigation cooperatives are responsible for the allocation of water resources and maintenance of irrigation networks, for coordinating planting, and for insuring that all religious rituals to insure good harvests are performed.  The water from a single subak dam may be divided into dozens and even hundreds of channels to irrigate the rice-field (sawah). In determining the many issues involved in wet-rice cultivation group votes are taken. Each subak member has one vote regardless of the size of his holdings. Generally, all subak leaders are elected by group decision. Thus, for the entire peasant farmer’s expertise in using his environment for wet- rice, without the subak to coordinate activities it is unlikely that the sawah system could ever have reached its current level of pervasiveness, efficiency, and productivity.  Subak is not only a farming system; it also embraces tradition and religion in its practice. Within the subak system, Balinese farmers regulate their water usage for irrigating their rice paddies and plantations in a fair and effective way. 

There are a few studies that help to illuminate some localized economic patterns operating in Bali. In Ketut Sudhana Astika’s recent study of a small sample of farmers identified village-level economic changes resulting from the adoption of new rice technology. His studies of wet-rice agriculture, especially as practiced in Bali, notes “it is far too complex and requires too much regulation, particularly in coordinating use of irrigating systems, for one farmer to practice alone or even in conjunction with a few others” (Poffenberger 1980). This he notes is the result of a highly specialized form of social and economic associations that have evolved over the centuries to coordinate the maximal usage of the environment for the growing of wet rice.

It is here that the concept of “power” reveals the role of the Indonesian government in catalyzing cultural change. “Culture is not a power, something to which social events, behaviors, institutions, or processes can be causally attributed; it is a context, something within which they can be intelligibly--that is, thickly, described”  (Geertz 1973, 14).  It is clear that if we are to understand the complex nature of traditional and changing village economic patterns we must look for theories within the village itself. While the new rice is proving considerably more susceptible to water and climatic variation than traditional strains, the new agricultural system seems to have resulted in an increasing incidence of certain disease- and insect-related problems. Over thousands of years the system of irrigated rice was developed. The rules governing this system became embedded in the sacred and profane worlds. The system is threatened by alien technologies which are of a new form of environmental adaptation created somewhere else and applied without a study of the pre-existing system of production. 

In the 1960s, The International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines began what they called The Green Revolution. Supposed to increase rice harvests, a new variety of rice was forced on the Indonesians in the hope that this new variety would help to feed its growing population (Terrie 2001). The Indonesian government became an enthusiastic proponent of the Green Revolution.  Unfortunately this began a series of problems with pests (Terrie 2001). Since fallow periods were not part of the Green Revolution’s plan and the temple was no longer in charge of the irrigation patterns, a domino effect ensued. Although the government thought it was helping the people, it looked like a typical case of bureaucratic “if it ain’t broke, let’s tamper with it” (Terrie 2001). However, they had not understood the importance of the temples and their position in the irrigation/pest control patterns. Chalking the temples up to “ritual without content”, the government continued on the downward spiral of continuing the Green Revolution’s plan (Terrie 2001). It is not only a new technology in the form of seeds and fertilizers, but a new way of learning about the environment which centers science and marginalizes local learning.  This has shifted the center of decision making from the local farmer and community to the nation-state. The shift moved from indigenous knowledge to world “knowledge” unfamiliar with the peculiarities of Balinese wet-rice growing. It is precisely the irony of this contradiction between the striking development through tourism and an equally striking tradition of cultural conservation upon which tourism is based.

Culture and Development 

Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals (Wilde 1868). This quote depicts the origins of this essays discussion as it reveals that the mental construct of what has been historically noted as Balinese culture or Balinese way of life is in fact illusory. Not all Balinese, as it has been claimed from my discussion on the Spirit of Bali, think in the same way and thus there is not just one bounded ‘Balinese’ culture. Geertz was not merely reading a text over the shoulders of his informants, he was constructing one himself. What kind of homogenous culture could I possibly find in a place where local gamblers, Javanese prostitutes and traveling men from tourist friendly hotels assemble temporarily? The cockfight that Geertz describes is not only vastly different than those of today; but his understanding of religion as a cultural system is simply inept. It is not religion or ritual meaning that binds individuals in unseen solidarity, that is, culture. The cockfights of today bring together people who are not primarily bound together by a shared system of values, but rather they are people engaged in an illicit economic system. We might therefore think of the cockfighting ring as a kind of ‘contact zone’ (Pratt 1992) where people who have been historically separated come together, usually in contexts of inequality and subordination. The cockfight is therefore best understood as an event in which strategies for survival and illicit desires converge in the shadows of a tourism-based economy and the subsequent lack of opportunity. It is certainly a place where meaning and discourse is taking place between individuals, but in a context structured by emergent forms of inequality and facilitated by a transnational border regime that has no clear geographical boundaries (Lindqui 2001). Despite these differences between Geertz’s Balinese cockfights and Bali today, and between my perspective and Geertz’s – the illegality of the cockfight has remained constant. What the ethnography of the cockfight suggests, is that opening the black box of illegality can reveal structures of meaning and power that lead us to critical perspectives regarding marginalized people in the contemporary world. 

Geertz indicates that the Balinese people would not associate with foreigners such as himself and his wife until his response to the illegal activity of cockfighting elicited the same response from Geertz as the Balinese public.  Like the locals, when the police arrived on the scene Geertz ran from the games despite knowing that he would not have suffered consequences for the activities that were ongoing in the same manner as a local.  In the modern day it is commonplace for the Balinese to interact with foreigners if for no other reason then the livelihood of the Bali community depends on the tourism income. This is not to be mistaken, however; with the Balinese dedication to their cultural norms and mores.  As an example, to benefit from the tourism industry the Bali people perform nightly ceremonies for tourists, intentionally lacking the meaning and symbolisms indicative of their religiosity and connecting them with their Hindu heritage.  Rather, though similar to actual ceremonies, these “tourist rituals” have been adapted to entertain a crowd.  These ceremonies lack the authentic nature of those reserved for locals.  Therefore, while Geertz had a difficult time getting the people of Bali to accept his presence on the island, I face the difficulty of overcoming the local distance and expectations of “experience'” sought by tourists.

Often people go and see things that are real and valuable. Conversely, these experiences are real and valuable because people go and see them. The system of going to see certain sights educates and perpetuates a social system. MacCannell (2003) employs Durkheim’s “Elementary Forms of the Religious Life” to argue that tourism is a religion that helps us to understand and reinforce social values. MacCannell also employs Marx’s “alienation,” the process by which workers (or everyone) become smaller and smaller “mechanisms” in the economic system that separates us from utility. Basically then the person that is a mere mechanism in modern society takes part in tourism as a ritual act to get a glimpse of the authenticity, the values that underpin society as a whole. I follow his theory by expanding on it to reflect both the tourists and the individual Balinese. The meaning behind the actions of both local and foreign actors is ritualistically secular as the two are bound by mechanical solidarity and socio-religious contextualization. Therefore, the question concerns not so much the "impact" of international tourism upon Balinese culture, but rather the significance of the term "Balinese culture" and how it relates to an individual’s ability to function within their own society.

This "culture," expressed in art and religion, is what is promoted in tourist literature. Art and religion is what tourists come to see and what has been accepted by the Balinese as a definition of what is important in their society. It can be said that the way of life of Bali will prosper in direct proportion to the success of the tourist industry. 

While it may come as a shock, even to me, my argument here is that tourism is far from destroying the culture of the Balinese people.  Rather, I am asserting that the tourists provide the Balinese with an opportunity to preserve their social fabric while revitalizing their cultural traditions.  My interest is in the collective capacity of the Balinese to reap the fruits of tourism and use them to their advantage. Tourism is likely to fortify and foster the development of “culture” that is art, dance, music, architecture, carving and painting.  Perhaps a shift in focus toward the people who are passive spectators to the cultural changes brought by tourism is necessary. These are the Balinese who do not play a role in cultural rituals, who operate outside the utility of the tourist industry, resulting in limited capabilities. It is this population of Balinese with whom I have concern; it is their human potential that is restricted by changes in the social fabric. 

Gender and Development 

“The women do all the work while men go to cock fights” is the image of Balinese society seen by the outsider and there is some truth in it. The cockfighting is seldom held nowadays maybe once in a month or two, but the Balinese women are still a hard worker. Balinese women are independent women, tough and hard working. The household duties that are entrusted to the women are exhausting and need a lot of patience such as taking care of the households, preparing the religious offering, taking care of the children, managing the budgets and working in the rice field or office. Balinese women are the backbone of Balinese society and culture. In other societies, men are the ones involved in trade but in Bali, the buying and selling activity is the privilege of women. When you visit a Balinese traditional market, you are entering a women’s kingdom. 

Sastrio (1993) claimed that women in Bali had been forgotten in the development process and cited many examples to support such a conclusion. But legally, the Government of Indonesia had made efforts to ensure the equity of women and men within Pancasila (the philosophical foundation of Indonesia's democracy), the 1945 Constitution, as well as the Guideline of State Policy.  In addition, the Government of Indonesia had ratified the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1984 under Act no. 7/1984, providing a mandate for equality for men and women, and demanding justice for all people( Sastrio 1993).

This endorsement of a supportive climate for women and their multiple roles in Indonesia, in theory of course, has the implications that there should be: (1) no discrimination between women's and men's participation in development; (2) fewer constraints which limit women's active participation in  development; and (3) a growing awareness that women need to enhance their capabilities and potential. Unfortunately, for most Balinese women, this legal effort is still far away from the reality. Meanwhile the increasing economic growth (through the growth of tourism development) and the steady decline in the agricultural sector, some  socio-cultural values, norms, and laws regulating the relationships among women, men and their family have changed (Sastrio 1993). So, from the Balinese women gender point of view, women are not yet equal participants in the decisions and activities which relate to their communities, or in terms of their access to, and control over, resources and information.  There is also growing evidence (Kindon1995) that the existing socio-cultural, political and economic climate does not always support women's full and equal participation in development. Even in reality, gender-blind or gender-biased values, attitudes, information and development mechanisms continue to disadvantage women (and men) in their efforts to participate in equal and meaning full ways in significant decisions affecting the lives of their communities.

Based on this phenomenon, there are at least three crucial questions can be raised and should be answered by the Balinese women.  All of them are about their shifting role (if there are) caused by the rapid development of tourist industry in Bali.

First, how do the Balinese women respond to the situation created by the rapid development of tourist industry in Bali? Remember that in the last two decades the number of Balinese women who involved in the tourist industry has grown in a steady pace and this situation forced them to work at least 40 hours a week while maintaining the socio-religious traditions of the family (Sastrio 1993). 

Second, how would this situation affect the main responsibility of Balinese women for maintaining harmony in their family while the contact with the outside world due to high exposure with people of different cultural background are getting bigger and bigger?

Third,  how could this situation affect the roles of  women in enchanting the teaching of moral and religious values to their children, meanwhile the general feeling of Balinese to  tourist-related jobs are not highly respected (Sastrio 1993)? Hidden women versus public men and public women versus hidden men will be a central issue for the Balinese society in the future if they (especially the Balinese women) fail in answering and anticipating these questions properly.

Development as Freedom  

People are the real wealth of nations. Indeed, the basic purpose of development is to enlarge human freedoms. The process of development can expand human potential by expanding the choices that people have, allowing them to live full and creative lives. The people are both the beneficiaries of such development and the agents of the progress and change that bring about the desired social change. This process requires the potential to benefit all individuals equitably and build on the participation of each of them. This approach to development—human development—has been advocated by every Human Development Report since the first in 1990, (HDR 2004 p 127). 

We have problematized the identity of the native people who became a small part of the object of the tourist paradise (which is really the beaches and exotic nature of Bali, with or without the people – it’s the “imagined nostalgia” (Appadurai) of a different time and place in human history where our realities are forgotten), caught as they are in the paradoxical predicament of encouraging tourism as a route to economic development but realizing at the same time that tourists want to see “undeveloped primitive peoples” .Tourists come from the outside to see the exotic; from the inside, tourism is viewed as modernization. 

Bali has been billed as one of the world’s top spiritual tourism destinations, but its potential has yet to be fully tapped, a seminar heard Saturday. Wayan Wijayasa, an industry observer from the Denpasar Tourism Academy, said the fact was, spiritual tourism was already blooming in Bali. “A simple example is the fact there are more and more hotels offering yoga classes. More and more tourists are coming to Bali to deepen their spirituality, although we do not have the detailed figures yet,” he said. Wijayasa, who has a master’s degree in tourism focusing on yoga, was speaking at the seminar being held at the Ashram Gandhi Puri Sevagram in Klungkung (Erviani 2010). The seminar was part of the ongoing International Bali-India Yoga Festival, which runs until Tuesday. He said the untapped potential to develop such tourism came mainly from Western countries, whose citizens were keen to learn Eastern philosophy, especially yoga (Erviani 2010). Citing from a study conducted by US researcher Hodge, he said there were 16.5 million adults in the United States alone who practiced yoga. “If only 1 percent of that figure visited Bali for spiritual tourism, then there would be at least 160,000 yoga tourists to Bali in a year,” Wijayasa said (Erviani 2010). The study also found Americans spent a total of US$2.95 billion on buying yoga equipment, including mattresses, and classes (Erviani 2010). 

Tourism as Unfreedom  

Endless and often misguided attempts to chase more tourism dollars for Bali have contributed to the mess the island is in. A powerful case can be made that "tourism potential" has already been over-tapped. Sooner or later, tourist destinations reach a saturation point, when enough is more than enough. Failure to understand and appreciate this leads to two inevitable outcomes. Over-commercialization, which makes the island less attractive to tourists for the very reasons many contemplate coming here in the first place and a rapid degradation of local culture. In the most populated areas of Bali, both of these effects can be clearly seen. Notions of "good spiritual vibrations" on Bali are somewhat laughable. Yes, there may well be some. However, there is a physical limit to how much a small island can be raped and abused without direct consequences. Yoga courses might put money in some peoples' pockets, but will have very little impact on the bigger picture.

Sustainable tourism has admirable goals; both travelers and those working in the industry, foreigners and locals, should be made aware of issues related to consumption, culture and power. Ecotourism needs great planning and sensitivity in order for it to work, and its application is sometimes limited. It can be, however, a feasible way to transfer part of the "financial wealth of the developed world toward protecting the biological wealth of the developing world” (Alkire 2004).  One of the major problems of mass tourism has been keeping the money inside the developing countries where it is spent. Normally only about 45 percent of the revenues stay in these developing countries, although some economists believe that the number may be as low as 10 percent (Jones 1993, 44). But since one of the requirements for ecotourism is "to hire and buy locally," it can be a sound alternative for many of these countries (Jones 1993, 45) The willingness of travelers to pay considerable amounts of money to visit ecologically valuable places around the world can be a source of great revenue for the host country and its conservation efforts.

Sustainable tourism can also change people's conception of their land and property. If implemented successfully, ecotourism can give local people living in an area threatened by deforestation or overfishing an economic reason to seek other means to a livelihood (Jones 1993, 46). In an island off Bali itself, Halmahera, home of a rare bird in danger of extinction, a farmer who owned the forested land where the bird lived was persuaded to refuse the offer a Japanese logging firm to buy the land to clear it. He chose instead to cooperate with the ecotourism developers, who convinced him that he would earn more money through tourist fees than from the one-time sale of his land to the Japanese. Presently, the entire community is profiting by providing lodging and transportation to the tourists (Jones 1993, 47). Even though sustainable tourism is not perfect, it can make a difference, especially when tourism is becoming the largest industry in the world. At least it can be a resource to the host communities to help them decide what kind of development their residents want to pursue. 

There is a need for ethical tourism practiced by the tourists to ensure the money they spend in Bali goes to the Balinese, not the government and international financial institutions that suppress them. It is a well known and substantiated fact by organizations such as Transparency International and Human Rights Watch that Indonesia is one of, if not the most, corrupt countries in the world, particularly with regard to law enforcement and justice. It is also well documented that corruption comes from the very top (the president) and that Indonesia’s existence is founded upon unlawful military occupation by Javanese and Sumatrans. They institute mass murder and other human rights abuses that still go on to this day. Examples include… The endemic corruption costs Indonesian’s both investment and productivity that can be measured in terms of substantial net financial loss to the people. There is no true reverence of legal doctrine followed by the state; the application of law is subject to the discretion of the enforcer.  The wealth of the country is controlled by a small minority of military-connected families. The police are enemies of the people with an objective to line their own pockets through extortion. Businesses wholesale “rape” both the people and environment in Indonesia while western governments look on because of their own exploitation of Indonesia's massive natural resources. One of the consequences is that the everyday Balinese have nowhere near the financial, cultural and personal protection to which they are legally entitled. 

My work explores the changes in Balinese ritual activity as expressed in the performing arts and in the views of individuals. The interaction between performers, municipal officials, and village and tourist audiences creates a sense of cultural identity among the peoples. This image is then made commodity and exchanged in a contemporary tourism-based economy. Balinese culture (and dance as one of its manifestations) has had to be protected by separating what is truly linked to Balinese tradition (mainly based on religion) from what is not. The separation, at discourse level, has created two domains; one sacred, fixed and exclusively Balinese, and one profane, flexible and able to be contaminated through interaction with the outside world. Balinese people seek harmony between these domains. Thus the amplification of performances and ritual activity associated with tourism-based development has reinforced essential Balinese traditions; while as a part of the entertainment domain, the cultural identity becomes a medium for reinterpreting traditional concepts and affording performers fundamental freedoms. In spite of this, these freedoms are only experienced by those who have access to the necessary resources that allow the individual to function within their environment and sustain themselves. 

The cultural image of Bali from which the tourism-based economy is reliant has transformed the role of women in ritual activity. Young Balinese girls are educated in the performing and material arts which amplify the segment of society that is exchangeable in Bali’s tourist economy. This is because females in Bali are undereducated despite legal provisions for public education.  Interestingly, females are encouraged to participate in local performing arts and ritual activities, but they are not encouraged to seek formal education. The female role in ritual life has altered to assist in promoting the tourism sector only insofar as the male role has shifted to assist the tourist development sector. 

Males are educated in English language and seek employment as tourists’ guides, taxi drivers, construction workers, house-staff and other modes of employment that relate to tourism-based development. Females do not have access to the same employment opportunities as men because they are often notable to speak English, the business language of Bali. Most importantly, the tourism-based economy expands as the authentic and traditional role of females is (or becomes more) exchangeable. The result is that females who do not speak English or have a formal education, and do not participate in the marketed ritual activities, live below the poverty line and often resort to illicit means for subsistence.

The example of the son coming home on a new or used motorcycle is also an example of how goods and cash could now leak out of the previously closed cycle of village wealth. No longer did the farmer pay the duck herder in rice and the duck herder pay the fisherman in exchange for fish while the fisherman bought vegetables from the farmer's wife and so on in consistent circles.  Now the son earns cash, some of which he sends home allowing the farmer to pay the blacksmith with paper money for his new knife or sickle thereby allowing the blacksmith to buy an electric blower for his forge. The blower was bought from a store in Denpasar by a purchaser who orders their stock from a factory in China. Now there is cash money not only leaving the village but it is also leaving the country. Economists shudder at the simple solution of printing more money and prefer instead to devise a long and roundabout way for the money to be returned by the longest possible route so that more people could get a share. Their answer, in simple terms, is tourism. After all, that is where the farmer's son's money came from in the first place – is it not?

Myself as the Unwilling Tourist  

Ubud is the name of both a province on the island of Bali and the center of its tourism-based economy with over 10,000 permanent residents.  The region has been participating in international tourism for over one hundred years. Since the early stages it was promoted by the Indonesian government as the “the cultural heart of Bali” and an ideal cultural heritage destination for both domestic and international markets. In my fieldwork I described and interpreted the characteristics, structures, and interactions of peoples in Ubud, Bali as they were situated within a larger global framework. 

             The axis of my research centers on analyzing the discourse and ceremonial activities of local ritual performers house staff, government officials, and a formal educator alongside the influx of global tourists.  More particularly, the narrative and practices of the peoples and international tourist has been documented and thickly described so as to reflect the nature of ethnographic methodology. I sought to understand how locals in Ubud rely on global networks and resources to expand an exchangeable image of traditional society so as to promote profit within the tourism-based economy.  My fieldwork began July 2009 and lasted for four weeks. During the first two weeks of my stay I attended an intense Indonesian language course every morning followed by a religion and social structure class in the afternoon. Both courses were taught at the Pondok Pekak non-profit education center in Ubud; my instructor was a woman.  Though admittedly limited, the language skills developed during this program proved to be of unimaginable value during my observations of interactions between both tourists and locals, not to mention during interviews, especially those with locals.  I gathered data working initially with unstructured data rather than a closed set of externally imposed categories. First aiming to find my footing in Ubud, I observed from a slight distance during my language and other classes when not in school, though notably my observation was not without participation.  After gaining a feel for cultural norms I began to develop open-ended questions that I could ask various people in the village, with another set of questions for those in the AID community as well as some for the educated locals I dealt with fairly regularly.  Although I built patterns from this fieldwork, the choice and development of theoretical frameworks is dependent upon me in understanding and interpreting etic (outsider) views to the emic (insider) perspectives provided to me by my research participants. 

            In lei of tape-recorded interviews and structured observatory practices, I chose to submerse myself in the culture of Ubud, which would soon come to be known to me as the Spirit of Bali.  This was accomplished by means of casual experiences. These proved to be more successful in that the local discourse between Balinese peoples and international tourists has created an environment whereby the locals perform differently when under the influence of tourist-exchange. Seeing this I knew that if I was to gain the trust of the indigenous community I was going to have to break down the commercialized divide between tourists and natives. 

This became especially important in gaining an inside look at Balinese life by means of the man who picked me up from the airport. Once I was able to show him and his family that they did not work for me as they did for the man who provided my initial accommodations, the family worked alongside me, assisting in my intellectual and cultural understanding of Ubud’s dual realities. 

The substance of this relationship was made clear when the family invited me to attend the long awaited cremation of an important family member – an experience most students and tourists do not have the opportunity to witness. As is usual for ethnographic fieldwork, I spent considerable time interviewing Gede and his family as well as connecting the dots between temples, rituals, and rice-fields across the island.  I also spent time directly observing the family and locals as they lived and performed ritual activity. The primary result takes the form of a coherent descriptive narrative, representing the multiplicity of persons and perceptions of the participants as well as my own view and interpretations. However, in order to capture how the locals are influenced by global crosscurrents international development promoted by the larger tourism-industrial complex, my research includes many other facets as well. 

            Because tour guides, housing-staff and others from which are directly employed by the associated tourism economy are often the only local people with whom tourists interact for a considerable amount of time, it was in the interest of my fieldwork to streamline their discourse and practice. I visited various tourism schools that offer elective courses in English, material and performing arts. I interviewed teachers, fathered information about curricula and teacher materials, and observed some courses. 

            In order to grasp the complex nature of local people and international tourism-based development in Ubud, it is necessary to place to situation within a wider historical, political, economic and religious context. Part of my research was done through coursework at Virginia Commonwealth University under the eye of Anthropology Professor Manus. During my fieldwork, I was engulfed in the Spirit of Bali by undertaking background literature research in the local libraries of Ubud. I regularly consulted primary and secondary media sources like Indonesian newspapers (The Jakarta Post) and magazines (Garuda). Regular discussion with an Indonesian anthropologist who requested anonymity, tourism guides, local scholars and students was useful in talking about my preliminary observations and hypothesis. I also had the unique opportunity to discuss my research with former Oxfam representative with whom I also stayed during my fieldwork.  Importantly, however, the majority of my fieldwork was done in the field living in a village, in the home of a Balinese family. 

When I came upon the opportunity to visit Bali, Indonesia, I initially viewed the circumstance as an ideal time for me to experience another peoples’ daily life and gain an understanding of their “culture”. From this, I hoped to become aware of the “cultural” changes posed by tourism-based development and pose a vital “answer” to the given “problems” I observed. My Western mind was acting upon a ‘cultural’ stage built by the ancient Greeks. I reduced the situation looking for measurable ‘truths’, that is, I sought “answers” to “problems” which I was to deduce from understanding this “culture”.  Just as Geertz, even before I began my study I was blinded by bias despite my advisor reminding me that what I plan for is not likely to be my experience at all. For the knowledge of our past, the changes of our present, and the issues of our future cannot be understood by their parts or patterns. 

As a Westerner, I inherited the view that when I see a problem, it is subjective to the outside world, and my perception of the problem has little to do with the situation. However, following my experience in Bali I understood that reality is like a mirror; what is seen in reflection and deemed a ‘problem’ or ‘solution’ often exists only to the observer. As Geertz, I was objectifying ‘culture’ as if it were a tangible construct capable of conforming populations. My goal was to observe how these changes have affected correlated meaning.  

It has been stated that the Balinese seek harmony within any given situation so as to always perform for the unseen forces of reality, that is, their gods and social norms. However, this “culture” is not properly described as having its origin in curiosity and constantly sought harmony, but as having its origin in the love of perfection; it is a study of perfection. It moves by the force, not merely or primarily of the scientific passion for pure knowledge, but also of the moral and social passion for doing “good”. Excessively we look for meaning in the outside world, yet it is the internal world where reality can be found. “Use a mirror in difficult times: You will see both the cause of resolution.” This quote from the emperor of the Ming Dynasty means that it is not “the system” that reduces individual freedom; it is the individual that marginalizes others and subsequently themselves.  

Tourism and You

My request and recommendation for you is to stay away from Bali, Indonesia unless your agenda is to enjoy only the Balinese-friendly hotels, tour operators, travel agents, airlines and tourist attractions.  These locally and native-owned businesses will not just make Bali and hopefully the world a better place, but should give you a deserved sense that you are acting responsibly for the benefit of mankind plus reward you with an enhanced holiday, with quality, value and authenticity as a bonus. If we have chosen the position in life in which we can most of all work for mankind, no burdens can bow us down, because they are sacrifices for the benefit of all; then we shall experience no petty, limited, selfish joy, but our happiness will belong to millions, our deeds will live on quietly but perpetually at work (Karl Marx). 

Citations

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