Story of Bali, Indonesia

Four social systems bind !he Balinese together. the clan system (dadia), tire stratification system (kasta), the community system (banjar), and the interest and working group system (seka).

The dadia system encompasses the combined extended families and all their ancestors. In this relationship, family members periodically band together in one place in ceremonies for the worship Of God:-at the house shrine (sanggah) for the immediate family or at the temple for the extended family (pura). At these ce-ri6monies, they express feelings of devotion and respect for elders at- the ceremony of death (nyumbah), where food offered to the ancestors can be eaten (nyurud). These activities also strengthen the family bond.

The family, ancestors, and community are tightly enmeshed and interdependent. No one, except the vagrant or schizophrenic, can function without being part of all three. Every Balinese Hindu is imbued with them from birth and this early imprinting (to use an analogy from the field of ethology), with regular and frequent reinforcement, lasts throughout this life and the lives thereafter.

In the case of temple dances, this appears to be accurate in the sense that these dances may go on for hours with no obvious finale or single culminating point. However, within the overall structure there are multiple episodes of mounting tension with release in Joke or comedy.5 Ethnologists (McPhee, 1948; Holt and Bateson, 1970) stated that trance dances can be seen as climaxes within temple dances.

The traditional music of Bali is played by the gamelan orchestra; it has a distinctive, easily recognized sound and rhythm because of the five-tone scale and the characteristic percussion instruments that are not used in Western music. According to McPhee (1970: 296): The swift, aerial basic of the Balinese orchestra or gamelan- Fills the open air chiming resonance. Innumerable little gongs, large and small xylophone-like instruments with ringing bronze keys blend in an intricate polyphony that floats above the throbbing drums and periodic accents of deep and vibrant gongs. The air is shattered with a continuous shower of bright, percussive sound as the difficult music is performed by thirty or forty carefully rehearsed musicians.

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