A. Ottino Origin myths, hierarchical order, and the negotiation of ...

Status in the Balinese Village ofTrunyan 511
the values attached to the sibak, whose main purpose, according to
Danandjaja's informants, is to stop the Pasek Gelgel securing predominant
power over the other origin groups. Indeed, while the sibak ideology
fosters an ideal of the complementariness of tasks, village solidarity and
ritual unity, in the domain of traditional leadership in the ritual village
(desa adat) it tips the balance of power in favour of the first settlers.
The sibak division pertains to the domains of desa adat membership,
traditional leadership, and the sharing of ritual duties. It is also a cosmological
division, by means of which the village population is classified into
two ideal groups, each with characteristics associated with the male and
female principles. Members of the male sibak are supposed to be darkskinned,
with wavy or curly hair and abundant body hair. They are tall
and strong, with well-built bodies. By contrast, members of the female
sibak should be light-skinned, fine-featured, with straight hair and no
body hair. The male sibak is associated with the right and the seaward
(kelod) direction and the female sibak with the left and the mountainward
(kaja) direction. Each dadia belongs to one or other sibak. A couple
enters the sibak of the husband's dadia on completion of the marriage
rites, and remains there until their children are married or one spouse dies,
unless an unmarried child of the same sex as the deceased is available to
take over. What is important is to keep the male/female unit intact.
Membership of youth associations is a corollary of the parents' sibak
membership. In order to be able to become a member of such an
association, a youth must have a counterpart of the same sex in the
opposite sibak. First-born sons and daughters enter these youth
associations to serve the village founders. Boys become teruna and serve
the king of Trunyan; girls become debunga and serve his wife, the tutelary
goddess of the lake.
Traditional leadership of the desa adat is based upon the male/female
and elder/younger dyads. In accordance with the precedence given to
female values in the mythical tradition, the desa adat'?, highest-ranking
leader is a woman, the balean desa, whose role is that of a ritual officiant
and medium for the village deity, Ratu Sakti Pancering Jagat. This function
is in a category of its own, however, as the balean desa's primary purpose
is to provide a body for the village deity to communicate with his descendants,
and it could be argued that in this context the balean desa acts as
the female counterpart and complement of the male deity. This is
supported by the fact that the balean desa should remain unmarried.
Below her, the leadership is organized dualistically, per sibak, and functions
are held exclusively by men. They include, in descending order, two
kubayan, two bau mucuk, two bau madenan, two bau merapat, and so on
(Danandjaja 1980:269). All members of the desa adat become part of the
council of elders (krama desa) in accordance with the position of their
dadia in the sibak, and they are eligible for leadership positions on the
basis of seniority. In principle, one moves up as the eldest member of the