As an organic unit, the structure, significance, and function of the home is dictated by the same fundamental principles of belief that rule the village:

• blood-relation through the worship of the ancestors;
• rank, indicated by higher and lower levels;
• and orientation by the cardinal directions, the mountain and the sea, right and left.

The Balinese say that a house, like a human being:

• has a head - the family shrine
• arms - the sleeping-quarters and the social parlour
• a navel - the courtyard
• sexual organs - the gate
• legs and feet - the kitchen and the granary
• and anus - the pit in the backyard where the refuse is disposed of.

Magic rules control not only the structure but also the building and occupation of the house only on an auspicious day specified in the religious calendar can they begin to build or occupy a house. On our arrival we were able to secure a new pavilion in the household of Custi only because the date for occupation set by the priest was still three months off. We were strangers immune from the laws of magic harmony that affect only the Balinese and we could live in the house until the propitious day when the priest would come to perform the melaspasin, the ceremony of inauguration, saying his prayers over each part of the house, burying little offerings at strategic points to protect the inmates from evil influences.

bali