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Perfect Order: Recognizing Complexity in Bali
Along rivers in Bali, small groups of farmers meet regularly in water temples to manage their irrigation systems. They have done so for a thousand years. Over the centuries, water temple networks have expanded to manage the ecology of rice terraces at the scale of whole watersheds. Although each group focuses on its own problems, a global solution nonetheless emerges that optimizes irrigation flows for everyone. Did someone have to design Bali's water temple networks, or could they have emerged from a self-organizing process?
Perfect Order--a groundbreaking work at the nexus of conservation, complexity theory, and anthropology--describes a series of fieldwork projects triggered by this question, ranging from the archaeology of the water temples to their ecological functions and their place in Balinese cosmology. Stephen Lansing shows that the temple networks are fragile, vulnerable to the cross-currents produced by competition among male descent groups. But the feminine rites of water temples mirror the farmers' awareness that when they act in unison, small miracles of order occur regularly, as the jewel-like perfection of the rice terraces produces general prosperity. Much of this is barely visible from within the horizons of Western social theory.
The fruit of a decade of multidisciplinary research, this absorbing book shows that even as researchers probe the foundations of cooperation in the water temple networks, the very existence of the traditional farming techniques they represent is threatened by large-scale development projects.
Perfect Order--a groundbreaking work at the nexus of conservation, complexity theory, and anthropology--describes a series of fieldwork projects triggered by this question, ranging from the archaeology of the water temples to their ecological functions and their place in Balinese cosmology. Stephen Lansing shows that the temple networks are fragile, vulnerable to the cross-currents produced by competition among male descent groups. But the feminine rites of water temples mirror the farmers' awareness that when they act in unison, small miracles of order occur regularly, as the jewel-like perfection of the rice terraces produces general prosperity. Much of this is barely visible from within the horizons of Western social theory.
The fruit of a decade of multidisciplinary research, this absorbing book shows that even as researchers probe the foundations of cooperation in the water temple networks, the very existence of the traditional farming techniques they represent is threatened by large-scale development projects.
- GenresAnthropologyNonfiction
240 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 23, 2013
I am not sure what I just read for my SE Asia class, but I read it.
November 24, 2022
read with eager -and naive- curiosity on the ecological and cooperation systems of subaks, the chapters in the middle (4,5,6) really shed a light on the complexity underlining.
"it developed a rich symbolism to express connections between the living world and the inner self. The natural world became suffused with subjective meaning, while the world of emotions became objectified.
...
farmers found themselves endlessly touching their cakra points with flower petals or eggs, and trying to master demons contained within themselves, their children, and their communities. They also persuaded themselves that the world around them was constantly threatened with disorder, and in need of their attention."
"it developed a rich symbolism to express connections between the living world and the inner self. The natural world became suffused with subjective meaning, while the world of emotions became objectified.
...
farmers found themselves endlessly touching their cakra points with flower petals or eggs, and trying to master demons contained within themselves, their children, and their communities. They also persuaded themselves that the world around them was constantly threatened with disorder, and in need of their attention."
July 30, 2022
A must-read for anyone learning or interested in Balinese culture and traditions.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews