Leo Howe is Senior Lecturer in social anthropology at Cambridge University. His

books include Hinduism and Hierarchy in Bali (James Currey, 2001) and Being

Unemployed in Northern Ireland (Cambridge University Press, 1990).

The glossy guidebook images of Bali as a timeless paradise whose people are

devoutly religious and artistically gifted hides a very different reality. The

Changing World of Bali analyses the religious and social changes in Bali and the

impact of tourism in the context of political and economic developments in Indonesia

from the colonial period to the present day.

A hundred years of colonialism, war, Indonesian independence and tourism

have produced modernising changes, but also generated images of Bali as

‘traditional’.

Incorporating up-to-date ethnographic fieldwork, the book investigates the

myriad of ways in which the Balinese have responded to the influx of outside

influence. The Balinese have seen the emergence of a much more fluid and

contested religious scene, generating dynamic connections between religious

practice, ethnic identity and artistic activity. However, Howe argues that these

developments have been complicated by a concern for the integrity and authenticity

of Balinese culture. Exploitation of the island by the tourist industry,

especially after the 2002 Bali bomb, has created a sense among the Balinese that

they are being robbed and their culture contaminated.

In documenting these diverse changes, Howe critically assesses some of the

work of Bali’s most famous ethnographer, Clifford Geertz, and demonstrates the

importance of a historically grounded and broadly contextualised approach to the

analysis of a complex society.