pears on many day-tour packages. The 

 major difference between Sangeh and 

 Alas Kedaton, however, is the attitude of 

 the people in charge. The neaity village of 

 Kukuh has taken an active interest in the 

 welfare of both the tourists and the mon- 

 keys. As a result, this site offers the most 

 pleasant interaction between humans and 

 their primate cousins. 



Like Sangeh, the approach to Alas 

 Kedaton is flanked by rows of souvenir 

 shops. But no one harasses the traveler 

 into buying food for monkeys, a cold 

 drink, or yet another sarong. Instead, the 

 community has installed a system to tone 

 down the pressure on tourists. A desig- 

 nated guide, usually a woman, accompa- 

 nies each group of tourists into the forest. 

 She encourages the tourists to buy only 

 potatoes for the monkeys from one ven- 

 dor. ("It's better for the monkeys," she will 

 say, and this is true.) The guide then puts 

 tourists through explicit monkey-feeding 

 paces. "Bend down, open your hand, give 

 only one piece at a time." 



Although no tourist could possibly imi- 

 tate the graceful genuflection of a Balinese 



woman, the action does put the giver on 

 the same level as the monkey. As a result, 

 monkeys never jump on anyone. In addi- 

 tion, the guides are constantly on the alert 

 for actions that might harm the animals. 

 They seem to know how to say "Don't 

 touch the monkeys" in about five lan- 

 guages. When the guide has taken the vis- 

 itors on a short stroll to see the flying 

 foxes, and once around its small temple, 

 she requests a visit to her shop. If the 

 tourists say no, they are free to head for the 

 parking lot. 



Nyoman Oka, nicknamed Juli, is the 

 principal monkey-food seller. Her hus- 

 band is responsible for the organization 

 and growth of Alas Kedaton as a tourist at- 

 traction. She explained to me, over a lunch 

 of hot Balinese chicken and rice: "If any 

 shop owner bothers a tourist, they are 

 fined 25,000 rupia [about $12]. It isn't nice 

 for tourists to always have someone ask- 

 ing them to buy things." When I inquired 

 about the rows and rows of new shops ap- 

 pearing near the gate, thinking only of the 

 pressure of more human traffic on the 

 monkeys, she laughed. "Those aren't new 



A statue of a Hindu deity at Sangeh Temple serves as a 

 look-out for a long-tailed macaque. 



Hutchinson Library 



shops. We are moving the ones here out 

 there, and we will build more forest or per- 

 haps a garden here." In their ambition to 

 increase the flow of tourists through the 

 area, the people of Kukuh have taken into 

 consideration not only what the visit will 

 be like for tourists, but also what will be 

 best for the monkeys. With the appropriate 

 controls, monkeys and tourists can have a 

 reasonable experience. 



A comparison of the three temples gave 

 me the data I needed as an academic, but 

 my memories of the summer were of more 

 than maps of forests and counts of peanuts 

 snatched from pockets. Most of all, I re- 

 member time spent with the animals, deep 

 in the forest away from the intrusive gaze 

 of tourists. I often sat quietly with a group 

 of females as they groomed one another, 

 and smiled as babies made their first wob- 

 bly steps away from mom. Sometimes I 

 ran after screaming males as they fought 

 out a hierarchical disagreement. 



I also remember moments with my 

 other subjects, the tourists. At all three 

 sites, I was repeatedly asked about my re- 

 search. I always responded with my most 

 used Indonesian sentence, "Saya menyed- 

 lidiki monyet" (I study monkeys), fol- 

 lowed by a quick natural history of 

 macaques. I emphasized the macaque's at- 

 tachment to family and friends and ex- 

 plained specific behaviors as they un- 

 folded right in front of us. Balinese tour 

 guides often sat with me and watched me 

 watch monkeys while their human charges 

 wandered through the temple grounds. We 

 talked together about the long history of 

 macaques on Bali and compared notes on 

 the different sites ai^ound the the island. I 

 soon realized that educating an eager pub- 

 lic was as much my job as collecting data 

 for analysis. Obviously, the best way to 

 save the monkeys from exploitation and 

 extinction is to create a mutually respect- 

 ful alliance between the tourists and the 

 animals. 



Back home, a carving of the monkey 

 god, Hanuman, hangs over my desk and 

 watches as I enter endless columns of 

 numbers into my computer. Hanuman 

 laughs because he knows that these data 

 mean little in the real world of his monkey 

 armies. Once more, he is needed to battle 

 an evil foe, but this time, the monkeys 

 themselves need Hanuman's protection. 



Meredith F. Small is an associate profes- 

 sor of anthropology at Coniell. Her book 

 Female Choices: Sexual Behavior of Fe- 

 male Primates was published last year by 

 Cornell University Press. 



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