Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight by Clifford Geertz presenter: Kang, Seunghui

CONTENTS: Who is Clifford Geertz Geertz’s study What is deep play Deep Cockfight Meaning of cockfight Conclusion Questions & answers

Who is Clifford Geertz? Clifford Geertz (1926-2006) began his academic career at Antioch College in Ohio as an English major and went on to study anthropology at Harvard. After being given the opportunity to do research in Indonesia, Geertz wrote Agricultural Involution which surveyed two types of Indonesian agriculture, their geographic location, and their historical development. His most influential work has been in the area of ethnographic studies, specifically research conducted on Javanese culture (an Indonesian island). Geertz is best known for his attention to systems of meaning—the symbolic—in anthropological analysis of culture, how cultures change, and the study of culture at large. Geertz was a professor at Princeton University’s Institute for Advanced Study. Clifford Geertz (1926-present) is best known for his ethnographic studies of Javanese culture (Java is an Indonesian island south of Borneo) and for his writings about the interpretation of culture. The most influential aspect of Geertz's work has been his emphasis on the importance of the symbolic -- of systems of meaning -- as it relates to culture, cultural change, and the study of culture; notice this emphasis as you read the summaries and excerpts below. Bodley and Geertz can both compared here with Matthew Arnold for for perspective on the great transition which has taken place regarding the concept "culture" in Western thought over the past century; Raymond Williams's perspective might be taken as a middle ground in this transition.

What is Geertz’s study? Geertz aims to provide social science with and understanding and appreciation of “thick description. Geertz applies thick description in the direction of anthropological study his theory that asserts the essentially semiotic nature of culture has implications for the social sciences in general and, in our case, political science (and comparative political science) in particular.

Deep play The 'deep play' concept was originally coined in the 18th century by the philosophical radical Jeremy Bentham (1789) who used it to refer to a form of gambling in which the stakes are so high it is irrational to engage in it at all. Bentham argued that deep play should be outlawed because, in part, what might be won does not come close to offsetting the price of what might be lost. Clifford Geertz (1973) morphed the concept to suggest that deep play may be 'irrational' according to Bentham's utilitarian standpoint, but that there are more than purely economic considerations at stake. To paraphrase Geertz, it is not the money itself, though the more of it involved, the deeper the play, but what the money causes to happen: the migration of status hierarchies into the body of the event. Thus, the graduated correlation of 'status gambling' with deeper play is, for Geertz, more about making meaning than making money

What is cockfight? A cockfight is a blood sport between two specially trained roosters held in a ring called a cockpit.

(continued) Belgium, France, Mexico, Haiti, Italy, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Peru, and Guam have well-established arenas with seats or bleachers for spectators surrounding the ring, similar to a wrestling or boxing arena. Fights may be held all throughout the day, with people betting on which birds will win. In many countries, the spectacle of cockfighting draws whole family, and in some countries, cockfighting is as popular as baseball and football are in the United States. Among the competitors who raise fighting cocks, there is great pride in the prowess of their birds and in winning a championship.

Deep Cockfight: is fundamentally a dramatization of status concerns, the following facts;(17 facts) 1.A man virtually never bets against a cock owned by a member of his own kingroup. 2. This principle is extended logically 3. So, too, for the village as a whole 4. Cocks which come from any distance are almost always favorites 5. Almost all matches are sociologically relevant. … 17. Finally, the Balinese peasants themselves are quite aware of all this and can

What is cockfight? (conclusion) What the cockfight says it says in a vocabulary of sentiment-the thrill of risk, the despair of loss, the pleasure of triumph. Yet what it says is not merely that risk is exciting, loss depressing, or triumph gratifying, banal tautologies of affect, but that it is of these emotions, thus exampled, that society is built and individuals put together. Attending cockfights and participating in them is, for the Balinese, a kind of sentimental education. The cockfight is the Balinese reflection on theirs: on its look, its uses, its force, its fascination.

Questions What is Geertz’s argument’s import for political science? Why did choose the Balinese cockfight? In your opinion, Study of Geertz have special thing?