Kala defanged: Managing power in Java away from the centre

If discussions of power in Indonesia have been too Java-centric, power talk about Java has been equally overcentralized. This article presents an alternative view to the top-down, hierarchical, exemplary-centre approach of Anderson, Geertz and others: the view from Banyuwangi in East Java. Through an analysis of local rituals, popular theatre and political action it proposes a different model based on consensus, relativism, and ritual containment.