Priests and Programmers: Technologies of Power in the Engineered Landscape of Bali » (2nd Edition)

J. Stephen Lansing is a Professor at the Santa Fe Institute and in the departments of Anthropology and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona. He is the author of "Perfect Order: Recognizing Complexity in Bali" (Princeton).

For the Balinese, the whole of nature is a perpetual resource: through centuries of carefully directed labor, 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. 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. Using the techniques of ecological simulation modeling as well as cultural and historical analysis, Lansing argues that the symbolic system of temple rituals is not merely a reflection of utilitarian constraints but also a basic ingredient in the organization of production.

Geoffrey Samuel - Journal of Asian Studies

[A]n enjoyable and stimulating book.

List of Figures     xi
List of Tables     xiii
Foreword     xv
Preface to the 2007 Edition     xix
Acknowledgments     xxxi
Introduction: The Gods of the Countryside     3
"Income to Which No Tears Are Attached"     17
The Powers of Water     37
The Waters of Power     59
The Temple of the Crater Lake     73
Chance Observations and the Metaphysics of Taxation     95
Massive Guidance     111
Conclusion: Sociogenesis     127
Afterword   Valerio Valeri     134
Plan of the Temple of the Crater Lake     145
Technical Report on the Ecological Simulation Model   James N. Kremer     153
Notes     159
Index     181