Skip to main content

Kinship in Bali

This work constitutes the first book-length examination of Balinese kinship in English and an important theoretical analysis of the central ethnographic concept of "kinship system." Hildred and Clifford Geertz’s findings challenge the prevailing anthropological notion of a kinship system as an autonomous set of institutionalized social relationships. Their research in Bali suggests that kinship cannot be studied in isolation but must be perceived as a symbolic subsystem governed by ideas and beliefs unique to each culture.

228 pages | 6 x 9 | © 1978

Anthropology: Cultural and Social Anthropology

Asian Studies: Southeast Asia and Australia

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Preface
1. Culture, Kinship, and the Search for the Dadia
The Search for the Dadia
Balinese Society: An Overview
Cases in Point: Two Principalities and Three Villages
2. Kinship in the Private Domain
Houseyard and Household
The Houseyard Cluster
Interpersonal Relationships in the Domestic Domain
3. Kinship in the Public Domain: The Commoner Dadia
The Dadia Defined
Differentiation: The Structure of Dadia Organization
Dadia Formation, Expansion, Crystallization, Differentiation, and Decline: A Hypothetical Model
Types of Village Differentiation: An Empirical Model
The Dadia and the Title-Group
Teknonymy and Kingroup Integration
Endogamy and Kingroup Integration
The Dadia and Political Leadership
Rivalry between Dadias: Marriage by Capture
Structural Tensions between Dadia and Village and Their Resolution
4. Kinship in the Public Domain: The Gentry Dadia
The Dadia and the Basic Unit of the Classical Balinese State
Gentry Descent: The Principle of Sinking Status
The Politics of Marriage
The Spatialization of Kinship
5. Do the Balinese Have a Kinship System?
Appendixes
A. Balinese Kinship Terminology
B. The Family History of the House of Beng
C. Basic Regulations for the Village of Aan
Notes
Index

Be the first to know

Get the latest updates on new releases, special offers, and media highlights when you subscribe to our email lists!

Sign up here for updates about the Press