Visible and Invisible Realms: Power, Magic, and Colonial Conquest in Bali

Wiener, Margaret Joyce

ISBN 10: 0226885828 / ISBN 13: 9780226885827

Published by Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.: Univ of Chicago Pr, 1995

About this Item

trade paperback in very good + condition.

Seller Inventory # 81883

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Visible and Invisible Realms: Power, Magic, and Colonial Conquest in Bali
• Publisher: Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.: Univ of Chicago Pr
• Publication Date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226885828
• ISBN 13: 9780226885827
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Cultural Studies

About this title

Synopsis

In 1908, the ruler of the Balinese realm of Klungkung and more than 100 members of his family and court were massacred when they marched deliberately into the fire of the Dutch colonial army. The question of what their action meant and its continued significance in contemporary Klungkung forms the basis of Margaret Wiener's complex anthropolological history.

Wiener challenges colonial and academic claims that Klungkung had no "real" power and argues that such claims enabled colonial domination. By focusing on Balinese discourses she makes clear the choices open to Balinese, both at the time of the Dutch conquest and in its narration. At the same time, she shows how these discourses, which revolve around magical weapons acquired from invisible agents such as gods, spirits, and ancestors, offer an alternative understanding of Klungkung's power.

Moving between Balinese and Dutch narratives and between past and present, Wiener critiques colonial accounts by recounting Balinese memories and interpretations. Her attention to history and local situations illuminates the ways in which colonialism and orientalist scholarship have obscured the power of indigenous rulers and shows how Klungkung, once Bali's paramount realm, was relegated to a peripheral corner of the Indonesian nation-state. Both as a fascinating story and as a rich example of interdisciplinary scholarship, this book will interest students of colonialism, anthropology, history, religion, and Southeast Asia.