Here is an interesting excerpt about gender in Balinese society taken from an article written by Ana Dragojlovic entitled Performing Balinese Femininity in Migration. Without further ado here is the excerpt

The scholarship on gender in Bali is one which presents Bali not only as a gender-segregated society but as largely patriarchal. The extreme gender differentiation is obvious in rituals and symbolic activities. While men and women work together and women participate in many forms of economic production with men, that cannot be translated as gender equality as the tasks in their work are often hierarchically ordered, such that women’s work is often valued lower. Nakatani asserts that the Indonesian government characterises the woman’s role as both productive and reproductive but emphasises that motherhood and wifehood should come first. Strong gender segregation is obvious in the ritual sphere in which most of the offering preparation is done at home by women. Women also have a key role in making offerings for public activities such as Nyepi (Balinese New Year), Galungan and Hari Kuningan and the odalan (anniversary) in each of the desa adat temples in the course of the Balinese 210-day year. However, while women’s contribution to the ceremonies is quite substantial, Balinese Hinduism associates female fertility with pollution, and menstruating women are not permitted to enter the temple or participate in the rituals.

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When a grand ceremony is held, the performance of Wayang Lemah is obligatory. As its name suggest Wayang Lemah is always performed in the daylight (“wayang” means “puppet” and “lemah” means “day”) and is usually performed as long as the high priest officiates the ceremony. Wayang Lemah is an exorcistic play, it is performed primarily for invisible audiences: the spirit, divinities and the demons, it is a part of ceremony which functions to ensure the success of a ceremony and obviously not an entertainment for mortals.

The stage for Wayang Lemah is simpler than the spectacular Wayang Peteng (Night Shadow Puppet) since it does not need a screen and wick lamp and there will be no shadow. Wayang Lemah stage consists of three young, cut banana trunks for placing the puppet during the play (the pointed handle of the puppet can easily stuck into soft banana trunks), on either side of long banana trunk, which runs across and forms the actual stage, two big branches of evergreen dapdap tree had been pushed vertically through the banana trunk into the ground; at top they branched out in three directions symbolizing Hindu trinity.

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Many westerners have become Balinese through the Suddhi Wadani ceremony and the Manusa Yadnya (ceremony for human) ceremony. Suddhi Wadhani ceremony can be paralleled with taking a vow ceremony. In this ceremony someone make a vow to become a Hindu follower, but in order to become a Balinese another series of ceremony have to be performed. To be a Balinese someone has to be “reborn” in Balinese way. A Balinese is given various ceremony since he/she in the womb of his/her mother until he/she pass away, even long after he/she passed away a ceremony is held for him/her.

The series of ceremony is begun with the magedong-gedongan housing of the soul) ceremony on the seventh month of pregnancy. Next ceremony is birth ceremony; it is celebrated by welcome to the world ceremony (penyambutan). Next ceremony is ceremony of seven day for the fall of the umbilical cord (kepus pungsed), followed by the ceremony of the twelfth day, the forty-two day ceremony and the third month ceremony. Upon this third month ceremony, the child is allowed to touch the ground and given a name. After these ceremonies, there will be an otonan ceremony (Balinese birthday ceremony).

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Dear gamelan list,

It is with sadness that I post this notice on the list. I have received news from Bali that the amazing gender player Wayan Loceng from Banjar Babakan, Sukawati passed away early this morning in a hospital where he was hospitalized since yesterday evening. The direct cause of his death was a heart attack in the early hours of the morning.

As described in Michael Tenzer’s book, it is not an overstatement to say that Wayan Loceng was the reigning ‘king of gender’, with an amazing charisma and unique character of his own. He played the gender behind legendary dalangs such as Granyam and Madra amongst others, and his involvement in the musical development of the gender wayang of the Sukawati village in the last half century exceeded by far than that of an average performer. At least, that is my understanding from my conversations with him, since I myself has been under his guidance only since the middle 90s.

The ngaben will be held on the 19th. I have talked on the phone with Ketut, his eldest son, and he has asked me to send the message to his father’s students in the states, Canada etc. and I thought a post on the list would be the best way.

Mari Nabeshima

Tokyo