RICE, WORK, & WEALTH

 DISTRIBUTION OF LABOUR

       In Bali one may see a woman laying bricks or breaking stones to pave a road, or find men in the market in Den Pasar sitting at their sewing-machines making blouses for women, but it would be unthinkable for a woman to paint a picture or to climb a coconut tree; a man would be disgraced if seen performing work that is the perquisite of women.

The labour allotted to each sex is sharply defined; all heavy work requiring manly attributes - agriculture, building in wood or thatch, the care of cattle - as well as most of the trades and crafts, such as carpentry, wood- and stone-carving, painting, writing, playing musical instruments, is the work of men. Women own, raise, and sell chickens and-pigs, but only men care for cows, buffaloes, and ducks. Since men dislike working for wages, the women of the lower classes are obliged to engage as coolies transporting building-materials, carrying coconuts to sell to the Chinese for making copra, delivering charcoal, or obtaining broken coral from the beach to make lime. Although only men build Balinese houses, women are the house-painters and work as masons in constructions of Western style.

Domestic duties such as fetching water for the kitchen, threshing rice, making flour, weaving, and making domestic offerings are performed by women, but men take an equal interest in the care of children and are proud to carry their sons everywhere. While the daily food is cooked by women, only men may prepare the pork and turtle dishes for banquets, and rice may be cooked by both. When at harvest-time both sexes help cut the rice and carry it home, every woman holds one of the heavy sheaves on her head, and the men carry two, one on each end of a pole swung across the shoulders. It is a rule that a woman carries only on her head and a man on his shoulders, except for offerings and holy objects, which must be carried on the head.

Children assist their parents in the daily work, the boys taking care of the ducks and cows and weeding the ricefields; or, if their father is a craftsman, they become his apprentices. Little girls help their mothers to carry loads, to cook, to weave, or sell in the market. The activity of the women seems to increase with age; by far the most active person in our household was Gusti's aunt, a proud old woman over sixty. Women of the common class carry even greater loads than the young, but she, being a Pregusti, could not carry loads. Her bands, however, were never still and she was reputed the best maker of offerings in the bandjar. Endowed with a knowledge acquired only by age, elderly women are essential to the religious festivals and many act as priestesses.

Although old men are mainly concerned with sitting in the bale bandjar discussing literature, chewing sirih, and drinking tuak, they also have duties to perform: they are the leading members of the village associa-tion, the priests, witch-doctors, story-tellers, and of course the teachers of writing, poetry, and the arts. Old men are often duck-shepherds, guiding the flocks of ducks to the fields and back.

At one time the dramatic, arts were restricted to the men, although older women danced in religious ceremonies. But today girls have successfully invaded the theatrical field. In general the condition of Balinese women is better than in other Eastern countries. A woman has definite rights; the income she derives from the sale of her pigs, her weaving, or the garden produce she sells in the market is her own, and she may dispose of her belongings without the knowledge of her husband. Most women are not only conomically independent, but contribute to the expenses of the household. A woman's debts are her own and her husband is not liable for them. The women keep the finances of the family and control the markets.

Bali rice 1, 2, 3 ,4