The Critic very generously asked me to write a response to the UK COVID-19 inquiry’s first report, released a couple of weeks ago. It begins,
“The state ceremonials of classical Bali,” wrote anthropologist Clifford Geertz, “were metaphysical theatre: theatre designed to express a view of the ultimate nature of reality and, at the same time, to shape the existing conditions of life to be consonant with that reality; that is, theatre to present an ontology and, by presenting it, to make it happen – make it actual.” Through its processions, royal cremations, and ritual extravaganzas, the 19th Century Balinese court both built and mirrored and a shared understanding of the cosmos and the Balinese people’s various roles within it.
Modern Western state rituals, like public inquiries, such as the UK’s COVID-19 Inquiry, often function in an analogous way…
Small world: I've read some of Geertz' work and have studied a bit of Indonesian history, theater and music, as well as performed for several months in a Sundanese gamelan. I admire your introduction's "staging" the UK Inquiry as something more ceremonial and less substantive in terms of concrete policy issues.
Small world: I've read some of Geertz' work and have studied a bit of Indonesian history, theater and music, as well as performed for several months in a Sundanese gamelan. I admire your introduction's "staging" the UK Inquiry as something more ceremonial and less substantive in terms of concrete policy issues.
I haven’t read much Geertz, but everything of his that I have read weighs heavily on my mind. A very insightful writer!