Story of Bali, Indonesia

This major traditional ceremony is one of the most striking examples of climax that Westerners are familiar with. It clearly builds to a definitive consummation point or climax. 'the point of highest dramatic- tension or - major turning point in the action' (Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, 1965). C. Geertz (1980) described the entire process as (1) 'a long crescendo of getting ready, (2) the ceremony of burning, and (3) 'finishing up'. Even Mead appeared to contradict her view of climax in describing cremation: 'the weeks of laborious preparation culminate in three days of ceremony'. At the cremation, the men carrying the tower 'shout, they leap, they lift their arms in threatening gestures, they whirl around and around in a mass of vigorously stamping, kicking and entangled limbs, falling down, trampling upon their fellows, hurling themselves into a pool of mud and splattering each other with howls of glee' (Belo, 1935).

The villagers also regarded Bateson and, Mead-.as Europeans, like the- Dutch, of whom they were generally, afraid and whom they believed to be persons of ultimate power and superiority two of their subjects claimed that they and other small children were afraid of them; one said he thought they were Dutch. The Dutch acted superior to all Balinese and were autocratic but benevolent rulers who had a well-known history of forceful and violent conquest of Bali. Dutch people or anyone perceived as Dutch would have evoked fear or worry (takut) in the Balinese of that era. Bateson and Mead's foreignness (i.e., Dutch-like characteristics) may have had a very powerful effect on the behavior of most of the Balinese they observed. It is possible that their appearance affected the Balinese to such an extent that they seemed to Bateson and Mead to be generally lacking in emotion.

Made Kaler reported to the authors that wherever Mead went in Bayung Gede, she attracted a crowd of villagers and that this reaction persisted. This was in spite of the villagers' increasing familiarity with her and her attempts to follow some local and Balinese customs such as eating with her fingers when visiting villagers. Apparently she attempted to make the villagers accept her as far as possible, and the villagers obviously liked her but she remained a curiosity.

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