Warring Societies of Pre-Colonial Southeast Asia_ Local Cultures of Conflict Within a Regional Context

CHAPTER 5

Expansion and Internalization

of Modes of Warfare

in Pre-colonial Bali

Hans Hägerdal

Introduction

While Bali has attracted enormous attention by anthropologists and
students of visual and performing arts, historical studies were un-
derdeveloped until some three decades ago. Since the 1980s this has
changed radically. A number of Western scholars have worked in the
intersection between anthropology and history and greatly enhanced
our understanding of the workings of traditional state and society.
Local Balinese scholars and popular writers have boosted local history.
Meanwhile, the establishment of colonial rule and the vicissitudes of
Balinese culture in the twentieth century have received a fair share of at-
tention from both Western and Indonesian scholars who have used the
rich archival sources of The Hague and Jakarta.^1 Nevertheless, there are
aspects that are clearly under-studied, not least those lying within the
long period between the fall of Majapahit and the first Dutch expedition
(1500–1846). The present chapter intends to contribute one aspect of
the pre-colonial history of the island with the consequences for state-

1. See, in the first place, Alfons van der Kraan, Bali at War: A History of the Dutch–
   Balinese Conflict of 1846–49 (Clayton: Monash, 1995); Margaret J. Wiener, Visible
   and Invisible Realms: Power, Magic, and Colonial Conquest in Bali (Chicago: Chicago
   University Press, 1995); Geoffrey Robinson, The Dark Side of Paradise: Political
   Violence in Bali (Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press, 1996); Henk Schulte
   Nordholt, The Spell of Power: A History of Balinese Politics, 1650–1940 (Leiden:
   KITLV Press, 1996).