Story of Bali, Indonesia

The Balinese nearly always experience possession but Westerners rarely do so. Mead described the little girl trane6 dance, the witch and kris dance Calonarang'), and seers' ho are Possessed by gods or ancestors (who speak through them) and she stated that in trance, strong emotions of grief and striving are expressed which are never otherwise appropriate except in drama. In these respects, the authors agree with her reporting and interpretations. However, her following statement misconstrued the effects of trance on the society in general: 'These trance states are an essential part of Balinese social organization, for without them life would go on forever in a fixed -and rigid form, foreordained but unguessed in advance'. Trance states are an important aspect of the Balinese culture but the conclusion that without them life would go on forever in a fixed rigid form is questionable. 'Mere is no evidence that trance phenomena in Bali have such a general effect Possibly, Mead meant to draw attention to the observation that trance behaviour may be highly unpredictable and is emotionally expressive.

Trance is a state in which the Balinese can overtly express intense emotion, such as anger, jealousy, and physical violence, without social disapproval.

Their anecdotal observations, supported by photos and a film, depicted three types of events: (1) nursing, (2) bathing the infant, and (3) the mother teasing the infant. However, the descriptions offered are limited in amount and detail and insufficient in themselves to support a broad generalization about limited climax. The illustrative film, 'Karba's First Years', showing behaviors of one mother with her small child shows broken sequences which do not fully support Mead's commentary. Furthermore, in Bateson and Mead's film, 'Childhood Rivalry in Bali and New Guinea', the same child (Karba) is immediately and climactically comforted following the sequence of teasing. As noted in Chapter 5, it was not possible to replicate data of mother turning away in an emotional interaction.

This chapter examines several behavior patterns, ceremonies, and events mentioned by Mead and discuses additional data regarding Balinese events and patterns relevant to the concept of climax observed on multiple occasions.

Please access this web site for more Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Bandung, Surabaya and all Indonesia Hotels bali lombok yogyakarta jakartahotels- and Indonesian Holidays Information, hotels and travel reservation indonesia hotels travel holidays