Story of Bali, Indonesia

The cremation ceremony in Bali is characterized by weeks of laborious and expensive preparation; on its final day it constitutes a festive occasion for surrounding villagers. At this ceremony, which is at times carnival-like and at other times solemn in atmosphere, the corpse is raised into a tower, whose height and number of steps leading to the corpse platform signify the status of the deceased. Forty or more persons then carry the tower as far as several thousand metres to the cremation area. The corpse and offerings are placed inside a paper and wood coffin decorated to represent an animal such as a bull, selected to be appropriate to the caste of the individual. Finally, the tower and its contents are quickly set ablaze, producing a dramatic and climactic tower of flames. After the flames die down, most observers and participants leave for home. Rituals for dealing with the cremated individual's ashes take place at various intervals following cremation but do not detract from the culminating and climactic character of the cremation itself which is recognized by all Balinese as a landmark event.

I with the implication that the aspects identified so far are all positive. However, the characteristics in this chapter have not been designated as positive or negative because to do so would mean making judgments relative to some other culture or ethnocentric ideal. As an example, Mead stated that everywhere there is a tendency to crowd too many offerings on the altar shelf, to pack too many flowers in a young girl's hair, or to carve too many scrolls and flowers on a stone gate. This is analogous to a Balinese stating that the buildings in New York are built too high and with too many windows.

Further research into the character of the Balinese could take several approaches. One involves the use of objectively scored psychological scales or tests. For example, the Stanford Hypnotic Clinical Scale and the Dissociative Experiences Scale measure the extent to which the population is highly hypnotizable and uses dissociation as a psychological mechanism, both of which would relate to the extensive use of trance and self-hypnosis in many aspects of Balinese life. Another method of research into character would be prospective in-depth studies of individuals similar to the authors' current studies of suicide in Bali.

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