We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2014
What is ‘really real’ is the name … of the day, its place in the transempirical taxonomy of days, not its epiphenomenal reflection in the sky.
—Clifford Geertz: The Interpretation of Cultures (1973)The Pawukon calendar of Bali is a complex example of a calendar based on concurrent cycles (see Section 1.11). The whole calendar repeats every 210 days, but these 210-day “years” are unnumbered. The calendar comprises 10 subcycles of lengths 1 through 10, all running simultaneously. The subcycles that determine the calendar are those of length 5, 6, 7; the others are altered to fit, by repetitions or other complications.
Like many other cultures in the region, the Balinese also have a lunisolar calendar of the old Hindu style (see Chapter 9), but leap months have been added erratically; we do not describe its details. This lunisolar calendar is used to determine only one holiday: Nyepi, a “New Year's Day” marking the start of the tenth lunar month, near the onset of spring.
Structure and Implementation
The cycles and supercycles are endless, unanchored, unaccountable, and, as their internal order has no significance, without climax. They do not accumulate, they do not build, and they are not consumed. They don't tell you what time it is; they tell you what kind of time it is.
—Clifford Geertz: The Interpretation of Cultures (1973)The main subcycles of the Pawukon calendar are those of length 5, 6, and 7, and the whole calendar repeats every 210 days, the least common multiple of 5, 6, and 7.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
