Richard Fox

Critical reflections on religion and media in contemporary Bali

Drawing on ethnographic and archival research conducted on the Indonesian island of Bali, this book demonstrates that more nuanced attention to problems of media will have serious implications for how we think about the study of religions, past and present.

Why Media Matter: Critical Reflections on Religion and the Recent History of “the Balinese”

This is an article about the historical study of religion and why its practitioners should pay closer attention to the technologies, institutions, and practices that we conventionally call “media.” Its central argument is that our understanding of media significantly affects how we interpret the history of religious formations, ranging from the high vantage of the “world religions” down to smaller-scale “new religious movements” and more localized groups. I present this argument with specific reference to the recent history of the Indonesian island of Bali. But the primary target is a more general set of media-related assumptions shared by fields as diverse in their subject matter and approach as the history of religions, British cultural studies, and Old Javanese philology. My principal aim is to show how prevailing understandings of media have helped to obfuscate both the contingency of, and political commit-

Strong and weak media? On the Representation of ‘Terorisme’ in Contemporary Indonesia

According to police records, there have been more than seventy bombings in Indonesia since 1998.2 Most recently, these have included high-profile attacks both in the Balinese tourist center of Kuta and at the American-owned JW Marriott hotel in the capital city of Jakarta. In addition to the many smaller-scale bombings that have occurred sporadically in previous years across the archipelago, there have also been several comparatively spectacular bombings, including one at the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta and another in the parking garage of the Jakarta Stock Exchange, not to mention the spate of some twenty

Why Do Balinese Make Offerings

This article attempts to answer the question as to why Balinese make offerings. Eschewing an explanation in terms of a unitary religious or cultural belief, it explores the practices surrounding the preparation and dedication of banten (the Balinese term most commonly glossed in English as ‘offerings’), and how these practices embody conflicting articulations of agency, community and the common good. Analysis is directed to highlighting this complexity, while at the same time trying to avoid some of the difficulties and misleading reifications that come with the language of ‘syncretism’, ‘hybridity’, ‘great and little traditions’, and the like.

Om Swasty-Alaikum… Interpreting Religio-Ethnic Humor on the Balinese Stage

Om swasty-Alaikum… Interpreter l’humour religio-ethnique sur la scene balinaise. ; Cet article examine l’humour religio-ethnique sur l’ile indonesienne de Bali, avec un accent particulier sur la transformation du theâtre improvise en arene de commentaire social et politique. L’analyse est centree sur le personnage d’un ‘ bouffon’ musulman a bec-de-lievre (bondres), dont les bouffonneries se font l’echo et amplifient une gamme de susceptibilites comiques et chauvines tres repandues dans la societe balinaise actuelle. A premiere vue, le prejuge incarne dans ce personnage semble refleter les frustrations balinaises face aux difficultes economiques persistantes faisant suite aux attentats perpetres dans des boites de nuit en 2002 et 2005. Comme l’a dit le religieux le plus celebre de l’ile, les Balinais ont ete contraints de vendre leur terre pour acheter des brochettes, alors que les musulmans «de l’exterieur » vendent des brochettes pour acheter des terres balinaises. Si l’on ajoute a cela la place croissante de la piete islamique dans la vie publique indonesienne et les recentes attaques sur ce qui est percu comme heterodoxe (cf. Ahmadiyah), on pourrait penser que les Balinais hindous ont des raisons de s’inquieter. Mais les musulmans «de l’exterieur » sont-ils reellement la cause des difficultes des Balinais ? Ou bien, est-ce qu’en prenant pour cibles «les nouveaux venus » dans l’ile, les acteurs et leurs publics ne contribuent-ils pas a passer sous silence un certain nombre d’injustices plus difficiles a traiter ?