| Groups shift, change, fragment, expand,
and migrate; space remains. Part of the indisputable reality behind
outsiders' impressions of Bali's profound religiosity concerns the
wedding of lore and topography. Balinese refuse to let the legends
and stories they append to locales eclipse, in spite of the geographic
mobility (epitomized in sacred trek legends) that has probably prevailed
for centuries, especially as population has increased with new irrigable
land available for settlement. Colonial health measures accelerated
population growth, and the Dutch roads and dams enabled irrigation
to be extended well beyond the areas cultivated under the traditional
subak-technology. Later we shall review Dutch restrictions on caste
mobility; here we should note that by territorializing both the spheres
of influence of courts and the bonds between lords and subjects, the
colonial administration doubtless inhibited traditional geographic
mobility, especially across kingdoms. There is no reason not to assume
that displacement was frequent in precolonial Bali. Rajas imported
religious experts and artisans from other areas; they planted specialist
groups wherever new shrines and temples were dedicated, and these
groups in turn forged status bonds with the local population. Relocation
likely resulted also from journeys to distant festivals at irrigation
or state temples where relationships were consolidated far from home.
If one can generalize at all from current events, status competition
and pervasive antagonism in the home banjar must often have forced
groups to migrate either to seek land or to escape punishment for
infractions of local adat. While the rajas capitalized on such tendencies,
the colonial administration discouraged them altogether; and we can
speculate that for the period of |
