Clifford Geertz

Hildred Geertz

This work constitutes the first book-length examination of Balinese kinship in English and an important theoretical analysis of the central ethnographic concept of "kinship system." Hildred and Clifford Geertz's findings challenge the prevailing anthropological notion of a kinship system as an autonomous set of institutionalized social relationships. Their research in Bali suggests that kinship cannot be studied in isolation but must be perceived as a symbolic subsystem governed by ideas and beliefs unique to each culture.

Kinship in Bali

Indonesian Cultures and Communities

Between 1936 and 1938 Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead collected more than 1,200 paintings and sketches made by Balinese peasants.

Balinese Paintings Made for Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead

Images of Power

Ida Bagus Madé Togog

Tales from a Charmed Life is the last in a trilogy of works by Hildred Geertz exploring the complexity of Balinese history, religion, and society. A landmark study by one of the most distinguished anthropologists of Indonesia, it centers around the stories and paintings of Ida Bagus Madé Togog (1913–1989), an artist and ritual specialist who played a significant role in the history of Balinese ethnography. In the 1930s, Togog was central to Mead and Bateson’s pioneering studies of "Balinese character" and came under the influence of expatriate artists Walter Spies and Rudolf Bonnet to emerge as a major representative of the Batuan style of painting. Togog’s art and anecdotal stories of his most memorable life experiences are here interwoven with Geertz’s illuminating commentary to construct an innovative framework for understanding Balinese culture. Togog shares stories of his early life, relating dilemmas from his childhood and youth. Growing up in the wake of Dutch colonization, he came into contact with new languages, customs, and economic opportunities that presented him with puzzling and poignant experiences. He tells of his association with Spies and Bonnet and later Mead and Bateson and his role in the creation of a genre of painting for which Bali is now famous. This is a view of Bali from the inside—a vivid, highly personal look at a world where spirits, ancestors, and sorcerers have the power to intervene in one’s life. According to Togog, who narrowly escaped death numerous times, his was indeed a "charmed life." The other volumes in the trilogy are The Life of a Balinese Temple: Artistry, Imagination, and History in a Peasant Village (2004) and Images of Power: Balinese Paintings Made for Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead (1994).

A Balinese Painter Reminisces

Tales From a Charmed Life

"Illustrated with photographs, drawings, and maps, The Life of a Balinese Temple is a record of a complex communal achievement. Based on continued on-site study over a twenty-year period, it is a contribution to Bali studies and the anthropology of art that will also find an appreciative audience among students of religion, art historians, and those interested in material culture."--BOOK JACKET.

Hildred Geertz

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