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This film examines some of the social uses of water in Balinese culture. In particular some of the different links between water and ideas of purity are explored. The film shows vividly how daily uses of water provide the examples for more abstract notions of purification. The Balinese recognise two kinds of holy water: toya penglukatan, water for washing, by which ritual impurity is washed away; and tirta, holy water which brings well-being.

One theme requires special mention because it is complex. The film's final scenes dwell on the purification necessary on the birth of twins of opposite sex to a commoner family. The logic which makes such births dangerous illustrates many of the points made earlier in the film. Twins are a propitious sign if born to royal families, but correspondingly disastrous if born to ordinary folk. As villagers note, there is no physiological difference but rather a difference in power: the ruler can declare himself different where anomalous births occur. The anomaly lies in the opposition of man and animal: women normally give birth singly, animals in multiples. Curiously the disgrace is often said to lie in the incestuous relationship which the twins are held to have in the womb, although the Balinese do not suggest that children are sexually potent. This suggests a connection with the other theme of the film: Balinese iconography. Incest is the product of uncontrolled desire, from which ultimately almost all pollution is thought to arise. In painting, ideas of control and desire are focal. Natural themes such as animality, symptoms of anger or other overwhelming passions, are codified and elaborated so as to produce a rich vocabulary, as it were, of visual traits by which to represent the dominant characteristics of literary and mythological figures. For instance, round eyes and red faces denote anger and little control, and a generally coarse and unrefined nature. Such ill-mastered passions are held to be responsible for the pollution of society. Political legitimacy, the control of desire, the birth of anomalies and so on may all be related through their link to ideas of pollution and its removal by water.

The film was made as part of the BBC series, Other People's Lives, and is recommended as a teaching aid for secondary schools and introductory university courses. A study guide to accompany the series is available from the RAI, price £3.50. Catalogue number (16mm): 3RA113 £9.

M. Covarrubias, 1937. Island of Bali. Oxford University Press, London. [An introductory account by a cartoonist which remains the best general work on the island.]

A. Forge, 1978. `A Village in Bali'. In A. Sutherland (ed.) Face Values. BBC Publications, London.

C. Geertz, 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books, New York. [A collection of essays by one of the leading American anthropologists on the problems of interpreting culture, mostly with reference to Bali.]

M. Hobart, 1978. `The Path of the Soul'. In G. Milner (ed.) Natural Symbols in South East Asia. S.O.A.S. Press, London. [A general account of the place of ritual purity in Bali and its relation to space and caste.]

C. Hooykaas, 1973. Religion in Bali. E.J. Brill, Leiden. [An introductory account of some of the themes in Balinese religion, trying to condense with often unintended charm the complexities of the textual tradition into simple terms.]

J.L. Swellengrebel, 1960. Bali: Studies in Life, Thought and Ritual. Van Hoeve, The Hague. [A fine collection of essays by leading Dutch scholars on various topics in Balinese religion giving a clear idea of the complexity of the culture.]

[Covarrubias is suitable for school-children, as is perhaps Hooykaas. The remainder are appropriate more for second and third year undergraduates.]