Priests and Programmers: Technologies of Power in the Engineered Landscape of Bali

by J. Stephen Lansing

For the Balinese, the whole of nature is a perpetual resource: through centuries of carefully directed labor by generations of farmers, the engineered landscape of the island's rice terraces has taken shape. According to Stephen Lansing, the need for effective cooperation in water management links thousands of farmers together in hierarchies of productive relationships that span entire watersheds. With unusual clarity and style, Lansing describes the network of water temples that once managed the flow of irrigation water in the name of the Goddess of the Crater Lake. Based on a system of power relations so subtle as to be completely overlooked by colonial administrators, the practical role of the temples was unnoticed until the advent of the "Green Revolution" of the 1970s. Lansing shows how the water temples then lost control of cropping patterns, a series of ecological crises developed, and the bureaucratic model of irrigation control was shown to be hopelessly over-simplified. Today the ancient system of water temples is threatened by development plans that assume agriculture to be a purely technical phenomenon. Using the techniques of ecological simulation modeling as well as cultural and historical analysis, Lansing argues that the material and the symbolic form a single complex--a historically evolving system of productive relationships that is the true unit of analysis. The symbolic system of temple rituals is not merely a reflection of utilitarian constraints but also a basic ingredient in the organization of production.

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction, History, Sociology, Indonesian Literature

183 pages, Hardcover

First published June 5, 1991

About the author

John Stephen Lansing

Reviews

[s · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fascinating study of the interaction between ritual practice at "water temples" and irrigated agriculture in Bali but felt strangely incomplete and at times ad-hoc in its reasoning. Not much discussion of whether/how the water temple system leads to its own forms of marginalization. Many stimulating thoughts about the role of ritual in social reproduction, but I think I wanted a more sophisticated discussion of this in relation to modernity and the state.

[Connor Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was an altogether fascinating account of the system of water temples in Bali and their foundational role in irrigation management for rice fields. I keep searching for an analogous institution, but I am coming up short.

Green revolution technologies are not panacean; they must be combined with local knowledge and respect the local ontology of land. Even if you're not a student of or deeply interested in the Green Revolution, I would recommend this book.

[Adisudewa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains some (but no so comprehensive) description about Subak. Lansing wrote too much about the priest of Pura Batur and too little about the economic benefits and drawback of Subak. I also read some academic papers that dispute Lansing's main conclusions. While I am not in the capacity to judge the academic arguments, I strongly recommend any reader with academic background to evaluate both this book and the papers challenging it. There is another book by Lansing on the same subject ("Perfect Order") that I hope is better than this one

[Dharma Iswara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant study of how ancient the social and technical aspects of water management systems in Bali, inextricably bound with nature and religion....

[Nghia12a1]

ds

[Karib · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very fascinating subject somewhat marred by the author's repetitive writing.