Religion

Religion plays an important and sometimes indispensable role in the lives of many. It is therefore interesting to discuss the interaction between religion and the human macaque interface.

In the Indonesian island of Bali, the majority of people adopt Hinduism as a religion. And in Hinduism, macaques are considered sacred. The story of the Ramayana tells of how Hanuman, the incarnation of Shiva, takes the form of a monkey and leads an army of monkeys to defeat the demon Rawana.There are 63 Hindu temple sites all over Bali, and the macaques in said sites are often revered and fed (Schilaci et al., 2010).

However, this sacredness may be a bit misleading. The relationship between macaques and Hinduism is actually not that simple. For example, Schilaci et al. (2010) found air-rifle pallets in the X-ray films of 8 out of 91 (8.79%) macaques sampled in Bali. The authors claim that air rifles are commonly used to deter macaques from crop raiding. It has been suggested that macaques in Bali exist in subjective states, and they are found in a border between the demonic world and the sacred (Wheatley, 1999). Hence, a macaque found raiding crops would be deemed demonic. While macaques found on temple grounds would be deemed sacred (Fuentes, Southern & Suaryana, 2005). This explanation is much more deeper compared to merely suggesting that some Balinese do not hold macaques as sacred. Rather, there is a context to it that matters.

This example highlights the importance of context in determining the relationship between the human-macaque interface and religion. Even in conservation psychology, there have been conflicting studies found with regard to the relationship between religion and environmental conservation. It cannot be stressed enough that context plays an important role, and our understanding of human-macaque conflict would be deepened if we appreciate this.