On the trail of Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead in Bali

Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead spent many months in Bayunggede, in Northern Bali between 1936 and 1939. When Yves Winkin visited the village in 1996, several old monks spoke to him of « Gared Mid ». By following the creation of the island in its own image which directs the author s experience, this article explores the relationship between the place and text and photography. The « mimetic chains » which produce relationships between anthropological knowledge of Bali and texts like Bateson and Mead's Balinese Character are explored. The idea of developing the study of « social mimesis » is thus put into practice and critiqued with reference to Goffman