Advantages
Music of Kebyar
Commoners
Temporal Perspectives
Village Fields
Knowledge
Magnificent
Betutu
Evidences
Tropical
Mahendradatta
Music of Kebyar
Administrative

Continued...

Bali has long been reputed for its capacity to maintain a distinctive social and cultural 'Balinese ness' in the face of sweeping change. One persistent Component on anthropological lists of the island's institutions has been the ancestor cult, often presented as a static custom of principally theological significance. In this chapter we will examine some complexities in the formulation, maintenance, and recent intensification of ancestor lore in a particular group through time. Our subject is a large Sudra group in Tabanan district: how its members explain the origin of their house in the classical era, account for its trials and accomplishments during the Dutch colonial period, and, with little sense of discontinuity, justify its role in modern Balinese politics, from Indonesian independence through the national elections of 197 1. We first detail legends, rituals, and stories - cultural forces in their own right - celebrating central ancestors and leaders from the group's classical, colonial, and modern history. We will then describe practical social, political, and economic matters indirectly involved in these traditions. Finally, we will draw general conclusions regarding the significance of ancestors in Balinese society, in which legends and rituals commemorating specific deceased leaders are no mere antiquarian escape from the present nor a pale reflection of more practical realities, but an active commentary on, and a contributing force to, a group's internal dynamics and self-esteem.

Relatively corporate ancestor-groups are optional in Balinese social structure and are actualized by building a high-level (supra-houseyard) temple, often complemented by making intratemple marriages - for example, father's-brother's daughter. As the congregation supporting an ancestor temple expands, genealogical connections become obscure: outsiders might even be admitted if costs and upkeep grow burdensome; traditions of an ideal descent line may, however, persist. Yet the social integration of the group rests more on its temple duties per se and marriages between its members. According to high-caste traditions the ideal conveyors of a group's identity and status are eldest sons of eldest sons, especially if they are born of a marriage with a near patrikins woman. Emphasis on eldest lines is an optional aspect of Balinese descent. Rules for actual inheritance of house property range from primogeniture to ultimogeniture, and every son assumes particular ceremonial responsibilities for ancestral shrines according to the share of productive fields and other material wealth received after the father's death. It is in certain textual traditions - the special province of royal houses, but imitated by ascendant commoner groups - that emphasis falls on eldest sons. All eldest son in the eldest agnatic line who is also the offspring of a patricousin marriage is enhanced in and of his descent: from birth lie would be expected to be individually meritorious ill keeping with this auspicious genealogy. But occupants of the most highly regarded genealogical positions are not necessarily bearers of the most elaborate legends. Practical leadership of a group often falls to members not automatically qualified by descent. More pragmatic qualities take precedence, and the figures of actual leaders are then apt to be embellished, almost apologetically, with posthumous legends, stories, and anecdotes to show why it was - actual genealogical position notwithstanding - that they succeeded to leadership.