Arjuna's Angels: Girls Learning Gamelan Music in Bali

In this dissertation, I offer an in-depth analysis of Balinese musical practices as a case study of the process by which changes in musical practices and gendered discourse occur. I discuss various discourses women draw upon to empower themselves, each other, and their female students in resistance to oppressive gender-based hierarchies. I critically address the roles of children and traditional music education within the contexts of a politically changing nation-state and increasing Balinese regionalism, illustrating how children's gamelans are discursively located at the nexus of political tensions between nationalism and Balinese identity. I show how girls negotiate a myriad of social, religious, and political ideologies that influence their behavior and the expectations of their ways of playing music.