Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
The guidebook image of Bali as the 'last paradise', and the Balinese as a peace loving, spiritually developed people who assiduously perform the colorful religious ceremonies which is so vital to attracting tourists to Bali was generated in colonial times and supplanted earlier and different images. What is less clear, and what Leo Howe analyses in detail are the myriad ways in which the Balinese have responded to such an image and to the influx of outside influence breaking on the shores of their island. Focusing on the fascinating interrelationship between tourism, economy, culture and religion in Bali, Leo Howe paints a 21st century picture of the Balinese.
Synopsis
The glossy guide book image of Bali is of a timeless paradise whose people are devoutly religious and artistically gifted. However, a hundred years of colonialism, war and Indonesian independence, and tourism have produced both modernizing changes and created an image of Bali as ?traditional?.
Incorporating up-to-date ethnographic field work the book investigates the myriad of ways in which the Balinese has responded to the influx of outside influence. The book focuses on the fascinating interrelationship between tourism, economy, culture and religion in Bali, painting a twenty-first century picture of the Balinese. In documenting these diverse changes Howe critically assesses some of the work of Bali's most famous ethnographer, Clifford Geertz and demonstrates the importance of a historically grounded and broadly contextualized approach to the analysis of a complex society.