Revisiting Reuter: Symbolic and material economies in Bali aga society

G.A.M Suartika,Alexander R Cuthbert

doi:10.24843/jkb.2017.v07.i01.p14

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to analyse Thomas Reuter’s seminal text The Custodians of the Sacred Mountains and to discuss some of the theoretical and other issues that flow from the reading. Indirectly it is also intended to assist many local scholars who find the text somewhat impenetrable, let alone making connections to its extensive implications. The book is the second study to emerge that covers the regional basis for the Bali Aga, the first being that of Wälty (1997). The text is one of a kind - erudite, complex and intellectually challenging. The paper begins with historical interventions since the status economy of Bali Aga is wholly dependent on a mythical past. Next, the use of theory, focussing on anthropology and Bali studies is discussed to place Reuter’s work in context. Then his basic concepts are analysed, those of precedence, status, and representation. Subsequently, we focus on place and space since geography is a defining feature of Bali Aga. Finally the mental (symbolic) and material (political economy) dimensions are contrasted with the observation that omission of any consideration of the latter weakens an otherwise seminal work.

Highlights

The work in question -Thomas Reuter’s book Custodians of the Sacred Mountains (2002) is a prodigious work of scholarship
While Reuter does not say that political economy is unimportant, he says that it is a level playing field between the two conceptual frameworks
Since anthropology is a comparative discipline, can societies and cultures justifiably be studied in isolation, as we discover in many studies of isolated Balinese villages? If anthropology deals with development, how is development to be defined, and whose definition should we adopt? Clearly anthropology cannot be reduced to one definition of development

Summary

Introduction

The work in question -Thomas Reuter’s book Custodians of the Sacred Mountains (2002) is a prodigious work of scholarship. In so doing the proscribed linearity of historical progress was abandoned, one promoted in the West by Christianity which perceived of history as a linear, finite process which began with a week of frenetic activity and will conclude with the second coming of Christ (the rapture), perhaps sometime in the future All of this has a bearing on how Reuter approaches his study – dominated by the hypothesis of a symbolic or status economy providing a satisfactory theoretical explanation of Bali Aga culture as a whole, one situated in a reading of their historical evolution into a discrete social identity. Since regionalism is an essential component of their identity as a ’people’, Reuter suggests that the linkage is via theories of status, and as method, a concentration on the concept of representation or otherwise counter - representation in situations where an ethnographer encounters major local power differentials and associated marginalisation discourses He refutes the ‘gloomy perspective’ of post-colonial and post-modern approaches, and challenges much pre-existing social science that resource competition is the defining force in cross cultural encounters. A clarification of this situation is required by a more complex approach to Reuter’s key reference points – those of precedence, status and representation

LOWLAND BALINESE CULTURE

Adat leaders via Badan Pelaksana Pembina

Conclusion

Findings

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