Abrams, we should be clear, is not only reporting just his own speculation rather than any statement made by the Balinese (which itself may or may not indicate any trade successfully going on, which is rather dubious to begin with as feeding ants just makes more ants), he is, by his own account, making this up in direct contradiction to what his Bali hosts were telling him:
On the second morning, when I saw the array of tiny rice platters, I asked my hostess what they were for. Patiently, she explained to me that they were offerings for the household spirits. When I inquired about the Balinese term that she used for “spirit,” she repeated the explanation in Indonesian, saying that these were gifts for the spirits of the family compound, and I saw that I had understood her correctly....Yet I remained puzzled by my hostess’s assertion that these were gifts for the spirits.“
And presuming to explain what they were ‘really’ trying to do.
Yep, it’s a funny example of trade, in that neither party is cognizant of the fact that they are trading!
I agree that Abrams could be wrong, but I don’t take the story about “spirits” as much evidence: A ritual often has a stated purpose that sounds like nonsense, and yet the ritual persists because it confers some incidental benefit on the enactor.
Abrams, we should be clear, is not only reporting just his own speculation rather than any statement made by the Balinese (which itself may or may not indicate any trade successfully going on, which is rather dubious to begin with as feeding ants just makes more ants), he is, by his own account, making this up in direct contradiction to what his Bali hosts were telling him:
And presuming to explain what they were ‘really’ trying to do.
Yep, it’s a funny example of trade, in that neither party is cognizant of the fact that they are trading!
I agree that Abrams could be wrong, but I don’t take the story about “spirits” as much evidence: A ritual often has a stated purpose that sounds like nonsense, and yet the ritual persists because it confers some incidental benefit on the enactor.