Geertz Resumo

Geertz Summary

In the text Deep Play: notes on the Balinese cockfight, by Clifford Geertz, the author introduces his ethnography by giving a background on his arrival in Bali, and how the process of adaptation was extremely difficult, for he was treated as an invisible person.

He then moves on to expose the cause of the cockfight, and how the government sees it (as alcohol during prohibition, weed nowadays etc), that it portrays an image of a non ambicious nation, and how the balinese people don't care about the possible consequences this act might bring. Geertz later talks about his experience with a cockfight with a larger crowd and his journey to get away from the police. He recounts his first experience in a large cockfight, and tells - after him and his wife just ran away - how the police man's attitude changed towards them - foreigners - and how the couple they barely knew, who helped them escape the madness, defended them to the police. There is a shift in the attitude towards them from the people after they experience the “real” cockfight situation, they go from invisible to "celebrities”, making this the turning point in his research. Geertz reinforces again, that cockfight is part of the "Bali way of life". To Balinese men, their cocks are like a second, detachable, penis. The balinese men take care of their cocks as if they were the most precious diamond in the world, it's the most valuable thing they own and they must raise it to be worth it. On the other hand, the author also relates that loosing a cockfight results in contradictory mixed feelings.

Moreover on his research, Geertz asserts that the cocks are not mere animals, they symbolize more than a detachable part of the men, they represent power, myths, demons, everything. Overall, the author concludes that cockfighting in Bali encloses several themes together besides the acutal fighting - like mass excitement and rivalry - which is why this tradition is a big part of Balinese society. In the end, even though cockfighting can be seen as something bad, it equals to another cultural habit in another part of the world just as well, and at the end of the day, we're all humans who have control over our actions and choose to act the way we do aware of all consequences because it’s simply a part of who we are culturally.