Aguilar, Alexa Nicole A. SOCSCI 150, Prof. Nymia Simbulan
BA Behavioral Sciences, 2nd Year 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 successive acceptance into the community, where he inadvertently established rapport with the community through active participation in one of the society’s cultural activities.