Geertz’s “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight” Clifford Geertz’s “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight” is an essay that seeks to deal with the meaning of cockfighting in Balinese culture. Although the essay was meant for members of the academic community, it is in itself a fascinating account, description, and dissection of cockfighting’s significance in Balinese culture. This makes the essay an enjoyable read not only for those who want to understand Balinese culture, but also to
Regency Gentlemen Amusements The Regency Era, generally referring to the time period of 1800-1820, was undeniably a time of pleasure seeking and over-indulgence. The Regency era represented a time when the current ruler, mad King George III, was incapable of performing his royal duties. Due to his madness, the King’s son the Prince of Wales, a Regent and heir to the throne, was appointed to govern. The Prince of Wales was designated Regent in 1811 (Channel4). During this era people of the
example is when I attended my SOC 300 class last Thursday. Geertz (1973) studied cockfights in Bali, Indonesia to represent his theory on cultural ritual and interaction, specifically how culture is a system of symbols and meanings. Geertz found that though there are monetary bets, what “is at stake [is] symbolic, for (a few cases of ruined addict gamblers aside) no one's status is actually altered by the outcome of a cockfight; it is only, and that momentarily, affirmed or insulted”. Once Geertz found
The sports, games, and pastimes of the time of Shakespeare have not just been set aside and paid no attention to, but they have been effectively abandoned and omitted. The Elizabethan hobbies have been thoroughly overshadowed by many modern sports such as baseball, football, soccer, hockey, and an abundant amount of other games. The 16th century English pastimes included many activities that were impeccable examples of both simplicity and amusement intertwined. With all of these amusing yet transparent
Clifford Geertz, the most emblematic figure of interpretive anthropology, has a great impact on social and cultural theory. His analysis and interpretation of Balinese Cockfight and their relevance in social science is going to be discussed in this paper. After that, the event of Balinese Cockfight be again analyzed in respect of Levi-Strauss’s Structuralism and Victor Turner’s symbolic analysis. A range of disciplines from anthropology to sociology to cultural studies and history are theoretically
QUESTION: Compare Geertz’s two essays to answer the following question: does Geertz’s ethnographic writing on the Balinese cockfight convincingly succeed in achieving his theoretical position, as outlined in ‘Thick Description’? INTRODUCTION: Geertz is famous for his influence in the field of symbolic anthropology, which focuses on the role of symbols in society that guide action. Culture, according to Geertz, is “a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means
Comparing Susan Douglas' Narcissism as Liberation and Clifford Greetz's Deep Play: Notes on a Balinese Cockfight The method used by Susan Douglas in her essay “Narcissism as Liberation” to describe the way a particular event to practice might have a deeper meaning seems to differ somewhat with that used by Clifford Greetz in “Deep Play: Notes on a Balinese Cockfight”. In the former, the author concentrates on the method which would be best described as “direct approach”. In her explanations
Cultural Purity and the Refute of the Inevitable Momentum In the introduction to “The Pure Products Go Crazy,” James Clifford offers a poem by William Carlos Williams about a housekeeper of his named Elsie. This girl is of mixed blood, with a divided common ancestry, and no real collective roots to trace. Williams begins to make the observation that this is the direction that the world is moving in, as Clifford puts it—“an inevitable momentum.” Clifford believes in that, “in an interconnected
hope while also struggling with poverty and political oppression. Several months prior to the opening of the story, the Colonel’s son, Agustín, had been killed at a cockfight for distributing secret political literature. The Colonel is torn between his desire to keep his son’s prizefighting cock in order to enter it into the cockfights in January and his need to sell it to provide food for himself and his wife. The story focuses primarily on the Colonel’s pride in trying to conceal his poverty-stricken
Taylor, by classification, is considered an armchair anthropologist. He learned aspects of different cultures through the writings of others, and verified the information by examining accounts made by different people and saw what lined up (Taylor 1873: 33). He defined culture by the thoughts of one molded together with the thoughts of others .He viewed the different cultures of the world as a primitive form of the European culture, and had very ethnocentric ideals (Cool 2016). Taylor judged cultures
CHAPTER TWO Literature Review 2.1 Introduction This chapter provides background information on the research topic. The first section provides a general overview of the anthropology of sports with sub-headings of anthropologists and their contributions to the study of sport and the body in the anthropology of sport. The second section provides a description of sport studies. The third section of the chapter sheds light on the meaning and application of sport. The fourth heading provides literature
In “No One Writes to the Colonel”, Gabriel Garcia Marquez writes about an old colonel. The colonel has a rooster that use to belong to his son, Augustin, who was murdered at a cockfight. The colonel used to be a part of a resistance against the current government, but they ended up surrendering. As a result, the government promised to give each soldier a pension, but the colonel ends up waiting 15 years for it. Since Augustin’s death, the colonel and his wife have been struggling to feed themselves
The cockfights themselves do not give or take status away from neither the winner nor loser of fights but symbolize status and the fight for status that the Balinese men experience with day by day. The cockfighting is an extreme way of symbolizing how the fight
When you see the SPCA commercials, what goes through your head? Do you ask yourself questions like: How can someone do that to a puppy/kitten? Who can stomach starving and female dog after she just gave birth? Some people are so sick in the head that these questions do not pop in their heads. Can we protect these helpless animals? My targeted audience is everybody who love animals, all ages and genders. People treat their animals like family so they will notice when an animal is being abused or mistreated
expertise tied together a common thread called culture. Clifford Geertz in his essay “Deep Play” brought us the world of cockfighting in Bali. In this essay he portrays the culture of our present American society through the use of the Balinese cockfight. Amazingly enough Geertz used what some would call a primitive culture to show us the aspects of our culture and the role these aspects play in our culture. Social structure, family, tradition, and money are just a few of the aspects brought out
Imagine this: an innocent animal is tortured and forced into an arena. Then, for the amusement of spectators, it is brutally mutilated, then killed. For many years, the ethics of bullfighting have been the center of an extremely heated debate. Some say that it has cultural significance, while others say that it is animal cruelty. Although one group perceives bullfighting as an art that symbolizes life and death, it’s torture for the bull and the others involved. First things first, the bull suffers
The major topic I choose to focus on is Manila, Philippines. A country that involves social inequality, culture, and immigration work ethics. Many Filipinos have to face economic issues and class structures day-to-day. The city Manila faces economic, political, social, and cultural activity. The city has undergone rapid economic development since its destruction in World War II and its subsequent rebuilding; it is now plagued with the familiar urban problems of pollution, traffic congestion, and
THE BODY FARM In modern day American society, when you think of “disposing of the dead” you will most likely think of funerals or cremations. There is another option that is slowly starting to make its way into the minds of the American public. That option is donating your body, or the body of your loved ones, to science. The majority of the American public will think about body donation in reference to medical schools, but a fairly new option is donation to a “body farm.” The sensationalized
Solitude, an emotion many have felt before in their lives, plays a very important role into developing who one becomes or will become. The events that lead people into solitude are different from everyone and in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel, “One Hundred Years Of Solitude”, this proves to be a very important topic when describing the fictional town of Macondo and the effects it has on others. These changes are depicted through a journey. Starting with the changes that have led to the current conditions
1. What is Culture? What I personally think is that our culture is the foundation of who we really are in life. It identifies the lifestyle and pursuits that are practiced in the group of people we relate with in our society. In other words, an important concept to understand is that cultural beliefs, values, and practices are learned from birth first at home, in church, and other places where people meet. Some practices and beliefs in human culture include religion, music, sports, food, health beliefs