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126 REFIGURATION OF IDENTITIES AND FUTURES IN TIMES OF TRANSFORMATION(the humanoid, golden sun-bird, mount of Vishnu,enemy of Naga the serpent), Hanuman (the humanoidMonkey King who conquers Rawana for Rama), Raksasa(the devilish monster with long fangs), Naga (the dragonserpent), and hosts of other weird beasts are depictedand revered but this has not resulted in any noticeablerespect for earthly animals or their habitats (pp. 680-681,emphasis added).Given that there are places like monkey forests whichbecame havens for macaques (who are also construed,sometimes, as representatives of Hanuman), thisassessment appears too harsh. However, the point seemscorrect in its present, general pattern.21Based on survey results from Bali.22 This qualifies the view given by Wheatley (1999) that givesthe impression that monkeys are held to be sacred in Baliin general.23 Brockington (1998) has done an impressive study of“wildlife” figuring in the Mahabharata and RamayanaSanskrit texts. In his assessment (p. 417), “the frequencyof mention of wildlife of all kinds suggests that attitudesto the natural world were on the whole positive.”Brockington also notes (p. 418) that the kinds of animalsmentioned in the Hindu sacred texts are “considerable.”Wild animals mentioned include lions, bears, monkeys,jackals, boar, wolves, hyenas, porcupines, rhinoceroses,mongooses, hares, rats or mice, leopards, various birds,snakes and other reptiles and fish and other water creatures.It looks like a textual zoo and demands comparison withthe monotheistic texts of the Bible and the Koran. Inthe monotheistic tradition, the “ark of Noah,” with itsdescription as full of so many animals to be saved fromthe great flood from God, has captured the imagination ofdifferent millenarian religious groups in the Philippines.24Terweil (1989, 225) encourages the systematic studying ofthis phenomenon of traditional stories, like the Ramayana,which have become ‘embedded in the landscape.’ In theimagination of local people, these stories are not “meremetaphor, but perceived as actuality.” He mentionsanother story which is quite similar to the planet-widebattle of Ramayana, this time involving another animal,the buffalo. Outside Bangkok is a village named SisaKrabu’e (cf. Filipino, karabao/kalabaw), or “BuffaloHead,” because “it was here that the head of the buffaloThorapha had landed after Thoraphi had hurled it away”(p. 255).25See Skeat’s (1984) magisterial work on the Southeast Asianpractices of “magic” for a wide view of the connectionbetween magic, magicians, animal tamers, and animals.REFERENCESBird-David, Nurit. “The Giving Environment: AnotherPerspective on the Economic System of Gatherer-Hunters.”Current Anthropology 31.2 (April 1990): 189-196.Berkes, Fikret, Mina Kislalioglu, Carl Folke and MadhavGadgil. “Exploring the Basic Ecological Unit: Ecosystem-LikeConcepts in Traditional Societies.” Ecosystems 1.5 (September-October 1998): 409-415.Blust, Robert. “The History of Faunal Terms in AustronesianLanguages.” Oceanic Linguistics 41.1 (June 2002): 89-139.Brightman, Robert. Grateful Prey. Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 1993.Brockington, John. The Sanskrit Epics. Leiden: Brill, 1998.Jones-Engel, Lisa, Gregory Engel, Michael Schillaci, AidaRompis, Artha Putra, Komang Gde Suaryana, AgustinFuentes, Brigitte Beer, Sarah Hicks, Robert White, BrendaWilson and Jonathan Allan. Primate to Human RetroviralTransmission in Asia. (Prepared manuscript for journalpublication kindly provided me by one of the authors, Dr.Aida Rompis.)Eiseman, Fred, Jr. Traditional Balinese Stories. No publisherinformation, 2002.Fuentes, Agustin, Aida Rompis, Arta Putra, N.L. Watiniasih, I.N. Suartha, I.G. Soma, I. N. Wandia and I.D.K. Harya Putra.Balinese Macaque Project Report 1998-2001. Unpublishedreport. (Prepared manuscript for publication kindly providedme by one of the authors, Dr. Aida Rompis.)Higham, Charles. The Bronze Age of Southeast Asia. New York:Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, 1996.Hooykaas, Christian. Tovenarij op Bali: Magische tekeningenuit twee Leidse collecties Bijeengebracht en toegelicht. Amsterdam:Meulenhoff Nederland, 1980.Ickes, Kalan. “Hyper-abundance of Native Wild Pigs (Susscrofa) in a Lowland Dipterocarp Rain Forest of PeninsularMalaysia.” Biotropica 33.4 (December 2001): 682-690.Knight, John. Ed. Natural Enemies: People-wildlife Conflicts inAnthropological Perspective. London: Routledge, 2000.Marzluff, John and Tony Angell. “Cultural Coevolution: Howthe Human Bond with Crows and Ravens Extends Theoryand Raises New Questions.” Journal of Ecological Anthropology9 (2005): 69-75.Asian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows