Story of Bali, Indonesia

The authors are puzzled by Bateson and Mead's interpretation of Rangda as a mother figure. Rather, there is 'consensus that Rangda represents evil and symbolizes an exorcism of the powers of evil, witchcraft, and demons (Covarrubias, 1937; Belo, 1960; Bandem and deBoer, 1981; de Zoete and Spies, 1938). Rangda represents the power of Siwa, the god who can cause destruction3 as well as well-being. Rangda is also reassuring- sacred masks of Rangda are often kept in the village temples and are believed to protect the village from harm, just as does the mask of the friendly barong; they can be benevolent forces in the life of the community (Bandem and deBoer, 1981). When good and evil representations are pitted against each other in dance, it is not important that one triumphs over the other or as is typical in the West that the 'good guys' win. For the Balinese, good and evil forces are balanced.

Rangda is not feared but she is held in awe, like other things felt but not understood. Balinese are in awe of the banyan tree because it grows so big from such a small seed. It is a holy tree (bingin), one in which evil spirits dwell. The people make offerings to these spirits to honor them and to keep good relations so they will be benevolent and cause no harm. All things in the Balinese world, e.g., the sun, cars, palm wine, and food, have two sides (rua bineda): the good and the bad. Which effect each has depends upon the individual's use of them.

The kris dance, which is part of the Rangda dance dramas, involves men, and sometimes women players, and occasionally Balinese members of the audience, who enter into a dramatic trance performance in which they fall to the ground at the wave of Rangda's cloth, press sharply pointed krises against their bodies but suffer little or no ill effects upon being revived from trance .Mead interpreted the stabbing as a turning against oneself and a reaction to r6jection after approach to the mother Thus symbolically they complete the cycle of the childhood trauma. The trauma referred to the sequence she' described for mother teasing. This psychological interpretation appears to represent Mead's use of psychoanalytic concepts of the era.

Bateson and Mead's film titled Trance and Dance in Bali portrays mostly the trances and the final parts of the Rangda and kris dance. In the beginning Rangda, the witch, threatens to spread plague and kills a mother's newborn baby. Mead's narration states that Rangda 'represents fear itself and the friendly jovial barong (dragon) who comes on the scene represents life. Rangda and the dragon's male followers go into trance and the latter fall down at the wave of Rangd9s white cloth and they perform the self-stabbing, which is harmless because they are in trance.

Women in attendance sometimes go into trance and turn krises on themselves. 'Children with anxious faces watch. A chicken is brought for offering to the dragon. All the people in trance are revived by sprinkling of holy water as the 'Balinese re-enact the struggle between fear and death and life-protecting ritual'.

The film is a dramatic portrayal of an authentic trance dance drama, something seen less often in Bali, although the dance is recreated for tourists without true trances occurring. The film shows graphically that one can press a sharp dagger against one's body without inflicting harm when in trance. 'Me story is traditional and very familiar to all Balinese and it is no wonder they never tire of it because it is highly dramatic and may include members of the audience going into trance entering into the drama. In the film and in her writings, Mead equated Rangda with a murderous maternal figure.

The Balinese themselves offer an alternative interpretation of this drama. They feel that Mead incorrectly interpreted it as the struggle between fear and death and a1ife-protective ritual', and as symbolizing the mother figure. To them, the drama symbolizes the daily and life long conflict between good and evil and the overcoming of the latter by balancing forces. For them, its theme is not death or fear although the drama ends with the witch no longer threatening to incite plague or killing babies. She is subdued in a trance and the kris dancers enact the strength of the gods that possess them by pressing the sharp krises against their bodies and by coming through unharmed.

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