Scary Mask/Local Protector: The Curious History of Jero Amerika

Abstract

Summary“Jero Amerika,” a mask/tutelary god, protects the people of Ubud, a former kingdom of Bali, Indonesia, and today a tourist mecca. Jero Amerika operates within the logic of empowered Balinese temple masks, but Jero Amerika is also eccentric. Returned to Bali from abroad after uncanny events, the mask makes remarkable appearances during temple festivals and in stories that circulate by word of mouth and via media old and new. Jero Amerika’s activities encourage us to regard ontologies, as with all social and material phenomena, as fluid and malleable in their unfolding encounters with changing circumstance.