Publications
"The extraordinary complexity of Balinese social life, the grand variousness of its culture, and the clockwork precision of its terraced wet rice agriculture climbing up the sides of towering volcanoes have long astonished scholars, administrators, and tourists alike. In this brilliant synthesis, the anthropologist-cum-ecologist J. Stephen Lansing uncovers the principles which animate them and traces the ways in which they support and govern one another to produce a tremulous and troubled self-organizing, self-repairing whole. The collective management of irrigation, the endemic factionalism of village life, the fears and suspicions of the witches' and demons' spirit world, and the ritualized hierarchy of precedence and power are seen as conducing to a complicated common order precariously maintained. The result is something we have not had before--a comprehensive and circumstantial study of Bali as a whole. A major achievement." ~ Clifford Geertz, Institute for Advanced Study
"[A] winning combination of hard science and interpretative ethnography." ~ Roy Ellen, American Anthropologist
"A master story teller, Stephen Lansing is unique in his ability to explain order in human societies within the framework of complex systems theory. Through the lens of his Balinese study system, hierarchical organization, equality, and self-organization all become clearer. There are lessons in this book for understanding diverse societies, including our own." ~ Simon A. Levin, Princeton University, author of Fragile Dominion
"[B]rilliant and delightful. . . . [N]ot only has [Lansing] written a superb book, but he has contributed materially and humanely to the quality of life of the people he has studied. Too few scholars can make this claim." ~ Bryan Pfaffenberger, Technology and Culture
BOOKS I ARTICLES & CHAPTERS
"[A] winning combination of hard science and interpretative ethnography." ~ Roy Ellen, American Anthropologist
"A master story teller, Stephen Lansing is unique in his ability to explain order in human societies within the framework of complex systems theory. Through the lens of his Balinese study system, hierarchical organization, equality, and self-organization all become clearer. There are lessons in this book for understanding diverse societies, including our own." ~ Simon A. Levin, Princeton University, author of Fragile Dominion
"[B]rilliant and delightful. . . . [N]ot only has [Lansing] written a superb book, but he has contributed materially and humanely to the quality of life of the people he has studied. Too few scholars can make this claim." ~ Bryan Pfaffenberger, Technology and Culture
BOOKS I ARTICLES & CHAPTERS