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Hildred Geertz , The Life of a Balinese Temple: Artistry, Imagination, and History in a Peasant Village :The Life of a Balinese Temple: Artistry, Imagination, and History in a Peasant Village
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Kinnard, Jacob N. |
| Copyright Year | 2007 |
| Abstract | In this remarkably original book, simultaneously a work of sociopolitical, cultural, and art history, Hildred Geertz explores transformations in Bali over time by focusing on a particular architectural object: Batuan Village Temple (Pura Desa Batuan). Although this temple, like most in Bali, appears venerably ancient, an expression of unchanging tradition, Geertz demonstrates how such structures are continually renovated, amended, and re-imagined as well as preserved. Through a study of the production and use of stone carvings — the bas reliefs and statues adorning the temple’s myriad altars, walls, and gates — the book addresses fundamental issues as well in the anthropology of art. The result is a brilliant account of processes of cultural production from 1917 to the present, and, to some extent, extending into a more distant, less accessible, past. As Geertz notes, anthropologists conventionally treat particular things or events as a means to learn about values or social relations, while art historians typically focus on the singular as a manifestation of creative vision. Geertz combines these approaches by attending both to individual works (discussing how, when, and by whom they were made, as well as how local actors speak of and use them) and to the forms of life with which they are entangled. The book is divided into two parts. In the first, “Work,” Geertz introduces the temple and the village, and discusses the fieldwork on which the study is based before tackling the various activities through which villagers engage with the temple, making use of its “spaces and structures.” Geertz’s main concern here is to highlight multiple forms of relevant work, playing on the Balinese karya, “to work”, which encompasses both large rituals (involving the presentation of offerings and prayers) and corporeal and social labour on communal structures such as temples (erecting temporary and permanent structures, serving on committees, performing, and carving statues). Geertz argues that ritual occasions provide crucial |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.5860/choice.42-4110 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg/account/downloads/get/8037 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.42-4110 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
