Continued...
Bali now: an indigenous retrospect (pre-1906 to Post-1971)
Distinguished
birth is like a cipher: it has no power in itself lice wealth, or
talent, or personal excellence, but it tells with all the power
of a cipher, when added to either of the others.
J.F.
Boyes
Having seen how history has taken Bali into account, it is time
to appreciate how Bali takes history into account. Since 1597 changing
interpretations of Balinese events and institutions by outsiders
have been engaging flexible interpretations by insiders, and the
ideals and images on both sides make Bali look more epic, more rigidly
and permanently stratified, than it actually is. For example, what
Schrieke says of Middle Java is still true of Bali today, at least
in its more ambitious circles:
Descent
was the proof of legitimacy par excellence. The fewer the evidences
of a right of succession on the ground of heredity, the greater
the effort which had to be made to adduce supernatural proofs of
the justice of claims. And when claims based on heredity were (to
say the least) dubious, the historiographer made every effort to
smooth out genealogical irregularities (1957).
|