In Bali one may see a woman laying bricks or breaking stones
to pave a road, or find men in the market in Den Pasar sitting
at their sewing-machines making blouses for women, but it would
be unthinkable for a woman to paint a picture or to climb a
coconut tree; a man would be disgraced if seen performing work
that is the perquisite of women.
The labour allotted to each sex is sharply defined; all heavy
work requiring manly attributes - agriculture, building in wood
or thatch, the care of cattle - as well as most of the trades
and crafts, such as carpentry, wood- and stone-carving, painting,
writing, playing musical instruments, is the work of men. Women
own, raise, and sell chickens and-pigs, but only men care for
cows, buffaloes, and ducks. Since men dislike working for wages,
the women of the lower classes are obliged to engage as coolies
transporting building-materials, carrying coconuts to sell to
the Chinese for making copra, delivering charcoal, or obtaining
broken coral from the beach to make lime. Although only men
build Balinese houses, women are the house-painters and work
as masons in constructions of Western style.
Domestic duties such as fetching water for the kitchen, threshing
rice, making flour, weaving, and making domestic offerings are
performed by women, but men take an equal interest in the care
of children and are proud to carry their sons everywhere. While
the daily food is cooked by women, only men may prepare the
pork and turtle dishes for banquets, and rice may be cooked
by both. When at harvest-time both sexes help cut the rice and
carry it home, every woman holds one of the heavy sheaves on
her head, and the men carry two, one on each end of a pole swung
across the shoulders. It is a rule that a woman carries only
on her head and a man on his shoulders, except for offerings
and holy objects, which must be carried on the head.
Children assist their parents in the daily work, the boys taking
care of the ducks and cows and weeding the ricefields; or, if
their father is a craftsman, they become his apprentices. Little
girls help their mothers to carry loads, to cook, to weave,
or sell in the market. The activity of the women seems to increase
with age; by far the most active person in our household was
Gusti's aunt, a proud old woman over sixty. Women of the common
class carry even greater loads than the young, but she, being
a Pregusti, could not carry loads. Her bands, however, were
never still and she was reputed the best maker of offerings
in the bandjar. Endowed with a knowledge acquired only by age,
elderly women are essential to the religious festivals and many
act as priestesses.
Although old men are mainly concerned with sitting in the bale
bandjar discussing literature, chewing sirih, and drinking tuak,
they also have duties to perform: they are the leading members
of the village association, the priests, witch-doctors, story-tellers,
and of course the teachers of writing, poetry, and the arts.
Old men are often duck-shepherds, guiding the flocks of ducks
to the fields and back.
At one time the dramatic, arts were restricted to the men, although
older women danced in religious ceremonies. But today girls
have successfully invaded the theatrical field. In general the
condition of Balinese women is better than in other Eastern
countries. A woman has definite rights; the income she derives
from the sale of her pigs, her weaving, or the garden produce
she sells in the market is her own, and she may dispose of her
belongings without the knowledge of her husband. Most women
are not only conomically independent, but contribute to the
expenses of the household. A woman's debts are her own and her
husband is not liable for them. The women keep the finances
of the family and control the markets.
