Bali in the Early Nineteenth Century

The Ethnographic Accounts of Pierre Dubois

Series: 

Author:
Helen M. Creese
In Bali in the Early Nineteenth Century, Helen Creese examines the nature of the earliest sustained cross-cultural encounter between the Balinese and the Dutch through the eyewitness accounts of Pierre Dubois, the first colonial official to live in Bali. From 1828 to 1831, Dubois served as Civil Administrator to the Badung court in southern Bali. He later recorded his Balinese experiences for the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences in a series of personal letters to an anonymous correspondent. This first ethnography of Bali provides rich, perceptive descriptions of early nineteenth-century Balinese politics, society, religion and culture. The book includes a complete edition and translation of Dubois’ Légère Idée de Balie en 1830/Sketch of Bali in 1830.
Copyright Year:
2016
E-Book (PDF)
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-31583-9
Publication:
30 May 2016
Hardback
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-31582-2
Publication:
09 Jun 2016
Cover Bali in the Early Nineteenth Century

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Helen Creese, Ph.D. (1982), Australian National University, is Associate Professor in Indonesian at the University of Queensland. She has published widely on Balinese history, textual traditions and literature.
"The book is a major achievement in the study of Balinese history and culture. The complex of letters, sometimes in a fragmentary and unfinished state, offers a vast panorama of Bali in the early nineteenth century, seen by a prejudiced but sharp-eyed official who had seen much of this world. [...] The highly useful and down-to-earth comments by Helen Creese, together with her meticulous efforts to trace the life and times of Pierre Dubois, makes the book an inexhaustible source of information."
– Hans Hägerdal, Linnaeus University, in Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 175 (2019), p. 81–135.
Preface
Editorial principles and conventions
List of Illustrations

Part 1: Historical and Cultural Context
Ch. 1: The Textual Traces of a Colonial Life: Pierre Dubois (ca. 1776-1838)
Ch. 2: Overtures: The Dutch in Bali, 1808-1826
Ch. 3: The Recruitment Post at Kuta
Ch. 4: The Transcendent Art of Balinese Politics
Ch. 5: The Return to Kuta, 1829-1831
Ch. 6: The Kuta Post: An Assessment
Ch. 7: An Accidental Ethnographer
Ch. 8: In Pursuit of Truth: Dubois in the Field
Ch. 9: A Textual Cabinet of Curiosities: Commentaries on History, Society, Religion and Ritual
Ch. 10: The Dubois Manuscripts: Transmission and Intertextuality
Ch. 11: A Textual Postscript: The Journey of the Manuscripts

Part 2: Pierre Dubois: Légère Idée de Balie en 1830
List of Letters
Letters – French Transcription

Part 3: Pierre Dubois: Sketch of Bali in 1830
List of Letters
Letters – English Translation

Glossary
Bibliography
Index

All interested in Balinese and Indonesian history, culture, religion and ritual, as well as in historical ethnography and the documentation of colonial encounters.
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