These things definitely happen and there are underlying inter-village and inter-family rivalry's that flare up.
This New Year Seririt was dead quiet in the main town area, turned out there had been a few days of fighting between Lokapaksa and Patemon, two villages just outside Seririt, one on each side of the river. Apparently 3 dead, so the village heads had both villages in lock down over new year enforced by pecelan and police.
Locals tell me a muslim village nearby on the beach has been "dealt with" a few times over the years to the extent of setting the mosque alight twice.
Our neighbors father was killed in a fight over land by one of his nephews about 10 years ago, yet today the entire family group are solid and all get on fine.
Another guy we knew very well from Ungahan got in a fight about 6 months ago and was killed, married with 3 kids, you could not have met a more polite and pleasant bloke.
Quite a few of our locals tell me they used used go for fighting in Singaraja for "entertainment" in their younger days, some with big scars to prove it.
We just need to bear in mind these things can and do flare up anywhere here, just like in many other parts of the world, probably not directed at expats but there are no Queensbury rules and getting mixed up in a local fight is a deadly business.