Bridges to the Ancestors is a broad ethnographic study of the festival based on over two decades of research. The work addresses the festival’s players, performing arts, rites, and histories, and explores its relationship to the island’s sociocultural and political trends. Music, the most public icon of the festival, has been largely responsible for overcoming differences between the island’s two ethnic groups. Through the intermingling of Balinese and Sasak musics at the festival, a profound union has been forged, which participants confirm has been the event’s primary social role.
David Harnish’s long familiarity with the festival allows him to compare its current practices with those of twenty years ago, thus change is a major subtext of the book. Today the festival is run by a new generation of officials and performers, and even the temple itself differs significantly from the early 1980s. Changing political forces attempt to intercede and control the festival’s direction, meaning, and interpretation—to further their own interests or to assert a particular sociopolitical identity in postcolonial, modernist, and newly-democratic Indonesia. As the government has increased its influence over the festival, it has created new tensions between the Balinese and Sasak communities. The public practice of religion has changed over the years as well, adding further layers of tension. While the government has pronounced the festival to be "non-Islamic," Sasak festival leaders have reacted by introducing more Islamic interpretation to legitimize participation. The Balinese have responded by seeking to "Hinduize" the festival even further--at the risk of alienating Sasak officials who insist that it should remain part of their unique and secular cultural inheritance.
Bridges to the Ancestors effectively reveals the Lingsar festival as a site of cultural struggle as Harnish explores how history, identity, and power are constructed and negotiated. He addresses the fascinating interaction between music and myth and the forces of modernity, globalization, authenticity, tourism, religion, regionalism, and nationalism in maintaining "tradition."
