Robert E. Wood

Michel Picard

The expansion of international tourism is changing the relationship between ethnic groups and states around the globe. Yet tourism’s importance for the understanding of ethnicity in the modern world has been generally neglected within the field of ethnic studies. This pioneering volume investigates how international tourism development, state policies of ethnic management, and the active responses of local ethnic groups intersect to reshape ethnic identities and ethnic relations in Asian and Pacific societies. It analyzes the ways in which the very meaning of ethnicity and culture are being contested and reworked in the wake of tourism’s impact. Following an introduction that explores the close but often ambivalent relationship between tourism promotion and state ethnic policies, individual contributors examine tourism’s varied effects in China, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the island Pacific in rich ethnographic detail.

Tourism, Ethnicity, and the State in Asian and Pacific Societies

Celebrated for the richness of its artistic and religious traditions, the island of Bali has made its distinctive culture the brand image of its tourist product. This has aroused fears among foreign observers and indigenous authorities alike, who wonder whether Balinese culture will survive the impact of tourism. The author also explores how tourism has contributed to the shaping of modern Balinese culture. An in-depth collection of tourism brochures, advertisements, postcards, newspaper cartoons, tourist snapshots, and fine art illustrate this analysis of not only has viewed Bali but also how the their visitors and the tourist industry.

Cultural Tourism and Touristic Culture

Bali

Rémy Madinier

Indonesia is a remarkable case study for religious politics. While not being a theocratic country, it is not secular either, with the Indonesian state officially defining what constitutes religion, and every citizen needing to be affiliated to one of them. This book focuses on Java and Bali, and the interesting comparison of two neighbouring societies shaped by two different religions - Islam and Hinduism. The book examines the appropriation by the peoples of Java and Bali of the idea of religion, through a dialogic process of indigenization of universalist religions and universalization of indigenous religions. It looks at the tension that exists between proponents of local world-views and indigenous belief systems, and those who deny those local traditions as qualifying as a religion. This tension plays a leading part in the construction of an Indonesian religious identity recognized by the state. The book is of interest to students and scholars of Southeast Asia, religious studies and the anthropology and sociology of religion.

Syncretism, Orthodoxy, and Religious Contention in Java and Bali

The Politics of Religion in Indonesia

Buku ini menelusuri kembali konstruksi dialogis dari apa yang oleh para intelektual Bali disebut sebagai “kebalian”, yang mereka anggap sebagai pohon, yang akarnya adalah agama, batangnya adalah adat, dan budaya sebagai buahnya. Gerakan perenungan identitas ini berawal dari penaklukan Pulau Bali dan integrasinya ke dalam pemerintah kolonial Hindia Belanda pada awal abad XX. Gerakan ini hidup kembali setelah kemerdekaan Indonesia, ketika orang Bali harus berjuang keras agar agama mereka diakui oleh negara. Dengan begitu, para reformis Bali berhasil mendefinisikan identitas etnis mereka dalam kaitannya dengan agama Hindu, meskipun mereka harus merelakan agama mereka dirampas agar agama itu dapat diakui. Hinduisasi praktik-praktik keagamaan mereka ini telah menyulut konflik yang berulang antara orang Bali yang ingin melestarikan kekhasan tradisi leluhur mereka dan orang Bali yang berhasrat mereformasi tradisi leluhur ini, menyesuaikan dengan gagasan mereka tentang hinduisme. Jadi, pertanyaannya bukanlah menentukan apakah orang Bali beragama Hindu, jika dahulunya beragama Hindu, bahkan bukan pula jika mereka sedang menjadi Hindu. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah, pertama, untuk menjelaskan sejumlah alasan mengapa orang Bali menjadikan agama Hindu sebagai penanda diakritik “kebalian” mereka dan, kedua, untuk menguraikan berbagai pembentukan ulang identitas yang dihasilkan.

Kebalian: Konstruksi Dialogis Identitas Bali

This volume investigates various processes by which world religions become localized, as well as how local traditions in Southeast Asia and Melanesia become universalized. In the name of modernity and progress, the contemporary Southeast Asian states tend to press their populations to have a ‘religion,' claiming that their local, indigenous practices and traditions do not constitute religion. Authors analyze this ‘religionization,’ addressing how local people appropriate religion as a category to define some of their practices as differentiated from others, whether they want to have a religion or are constrained to demonstrate that they profess one. Thus, ‘religion’ is what is regarded as such by these local actors, which might not correspond to what counts as religion for the observer. Furthermore, local actors do not always concur regarding what their religion is about, as religion is a contested issue. In consequence, each of the case studies in this volume purposes to elucidate what gets identified and legitimized as ‘religion’, by whom, for what purpose, and under what political conditions.

Michel Picard

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