... 04 September 2013 Integration Paper on: “Deep play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight” CLIFFORD GEERTZ Clifford Geertz in his article entitled “Deep play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight”, uses interpretative analysis in the context of cultures as symbolic systems or a set of texts consisting of practices which create shared cultural meaning that is to be read by the anthropologist. Using direct observation of cockfighting and its significance within Balinese society, Geertz makes assertions of its symbolic meaning and relation to Balinese culture, concentrating largely on its social implications and masculine symbolism. To the outsider, one may mistakenly see Balinese cockfighting as simply placing a bet on an animal fight like many other sports concerning animal matches, but there is more to the cockfighting tradition than just that. Cockfighting was firstly shown more than a sport and somewhat of a rite of passage into the Balinese social group/life when an incident concerning Geertz, along with the community, runs away during a police raid of an illegal cockfight instead of simply pulling out their papers and asserting their Distinguished Visitor status. Geertz, before this incident, was treated, along with his wife, as if they were but ghosts in the village that they were observing, thus he portrays this incident as the juncture of his...
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...Bibliography Clifford Geertz (1972): Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight. Daedalus, vol. 101, no. 1, pp. 1-37 Summary The article by Clifford Geertz describes the explicit procedure and context in which Balinese cockfighting is performed. His first established presence in this unfamiliar country exposed him to an unwelcoming depiction of how the Balinese ignored foreigners. When fleeing with the locals upon a police raid from a cockfight, they overcame the biased expectations of the Balinese and were finally able to engage with the locals. His studies comprised primarily on cockfighting due to its diverse analogies associated to the Balinese every day life. The symbolic representation of the cock as an extension to the man, the importance of betting as a representation of their status and their approach to village rivalries through birds tearing each other apart demonstrates cockfighting is as significant a cultural expression to the Balinese as is baseball to Americans. Main Concepts Anthropological fieldwork is information collection outside of an office or laboratory where research on given subjects are conducted (Geertz, 1972, p. 2). Visitor status is social standing or perception on someone who does not come from their “home” (Geertz, 1972, p. 2). Narcissistic ego is the excessive interest in self-importance and status (Geertz, 1972, p. 3). Platonic love is a none sexual but intimate relationship with something or someone (Geertz, 1972, p. 4). Deep play means something...
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...elegant birds. Bali, like many other nations, has banned cock fighting as a cruel sport, although the practice is still allowed on the Island of the Gods for ceremonial purposes. These fighting birds are as much a part of Balinese Hindu rites as the burning of incense and giving offerings to the gods. Breeding the roosters, some of which boast feathers with a golden luster that evokes songket, takes place up in the cool, mountainous region above Gianyar. In a small hamlet called Malet, the birds are big business. Village head I Ketut Ludea says that while Malet raises about 600 roosters every year, most are sold to other communities nearby. The rest are used for local ceremonies. “In our village we must sacrifice birds before turning the soil to plant our crops, so we need around 250 birds for these ceremonies,” Ludea says. “We can sell the other 350 birds, which does not make this our most important revenue for the village, but a side job that many of us use for the education of our children.” Such children include Ledea’s 12-year-old grandniece, who studies English twice a week in nearby Tampak Siring on the back of this additional income. As Clifford Geertz noted in his seminal essay “Deep Play: Notes from a Balinese Cockfight”, too much is at stake for the practice just to be a game. Finances are not the primary reason for breeding roosters in Malet. Ledea says that the village’s ancient adat, or local law, demands sacrifices to ensure good harvests...
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...“Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight” Clifford Geertz Reprinted from The Interpretation of Cultures The Raid Early in April of 1958, my wife and I arrived, malarial and diffident, in a Balinese village we intended, as anthropologists, to study. A small place, about five hundred people, and relatively remote, it was its own world. We were intruders, professional ones, and the villagers dealt with us as Balinese seem always to deal with people not part of their life who yet press themselves upon them: as though we were not there. For them, and to a degree for ourselves, we were nonpersons, specters, invisible men. almost as satisfactory. If we ventured to approach someone (something one is powerfully inhibited from doing in such an atmosphere), he moved, negligently but definitively, away. If, seated or leaning against a wall, we had him trapped, he said nothing at all, or mumbled what for the Balinese is the ultimate nonword-"yes." The indifference, of course, was studied; the villagers were watching every move we made and they had an enormous amount of quite accurate information about who we were and what we were going to be doing. But they acted as if we simply did not exist, which, in fact, as this behavior was designed to inform us, we did not, or anyway not yet. cockfighting as "primitive," "backward," "unprogressive," and generally unbecoming an ambitious nation. And, as with those other embarrassments -opium smoking, begging, or uncovered breasts-it seeks...
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...consider works of art based on certain assumptions within that school of theory. The different lenses also allow critics to focus on particular aspects of a work they consider important. For example, if a critic is working with certain Marxist theories, s/he might focus on how the characters in a story interact based on their economic situation. If a critic is working with post-colonial theories, s/he might consider the same story but look at how characters from colonial powers (Britain, France, and even America) treat characters from, say, Africa or the Caribbean. Hopefully, after reading through and working with the resources in this area of the OWL, literary theory will become a little easier to understand and use. Disclaimer Please note that the schools of literary criticism and their explanations included here are by no means the only ways of distinguishing these separate areas of theory. Indeed, many critics use tools from two or more schools in their work. Some would define differently or greatly expand the (very) general statements given here. Our explanations are meant only as starting places for your own investigation into literary theory. We encourage you to use the list of scholars and works provided for each school to further your understanding of these theories. We also recommend the following secondary sources for study of literary theory: * The Critical Tradition: Classical Texts and Contemporary Trends, 1998, edited by David H. Richter * Critical Theory...
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