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Clifford Geertz
1926 – 2006
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An influential American
anthropologist who is
known mostly for his
strong support for and
influence on the
practice of symbolic
anthropology,
professor emeritus at
the Institute for
Advanced Study,
Princeton.
Thick Description: Toward an
Interpretive Theory of Culture
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Geertz believed the role of
anthropologists was to try to interpret the
guiding symbols of each culture. He was
considered quite ‘innovative in this
regard, as he was one of the earliest
scholars to see that the insights provided
by common language, philosophy and
literary analysis could have major
explanatory force in the social sciences.
Deep Play
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Geertz borrowed the phrase deep play
from Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), the
father of utilitarianism, who dismisses as
"deep play" any activity in which "the
stakes are so high that ... it is irrational
for anyone to engage in it at all, since
the marginal utility of what you stand to
win is grossly outweighed by the disutility
of what you stand to lose."
Source Information
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In The Interpretation of Cultures 1973, the
most original anthropologist of his generation
moved far beyond the traditional confines of
his discipline to develop an important new
concept of culture. This groundbreaking
book, winner of the 1974 Sorokin Award of
the American Sociological Association,
helped define for an entire generation of
anthropologists what their field is ultimately
about.
Dramatic Turn
Before/After
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Section 1. the Raid
Non-persons
Invisible to the
villagers
Ignored deliberately
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We are in,
becoming the center
of attention
By the
anthropological
golden rule
When in Rome, do
as Romans do.
Rhetorical Function
of dramatizing this anecdote
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To establish the author as authoritative
figure
Since we have been there, witnessed
everything with our own eyes,
Warrant: first-hand personal experience
speaks louder
Fallacy: it could be as unreliable as
anything else
Do the wrong things
for the right reason
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Cockfight now
illegal
Used to be a major
source of revenue
for the government
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To raise money for
a new school
a cultural text
Section 2. Of Cocks and Men
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"In the cockfight, men and beast, good and
evil, ego and id, the creative power of
aroused masculinity and the destructive
power of loosened animality fuse in a bloody
drama of hatred, cruelty, violence, and
death."
Generalization
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“Court trials, wars, political contests,
inheritance disputes, and street
arguments are all compared to
cockfights” (352).
A focused gathering
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Section 3. The Fight
Description on how the fight is actually
conducted. Umps and rules never get
disputed.
Goffman's notion of a "focused gathering"
Excerpts from
Behavior in Public Places
by Erving Goffman
Section 4
Odds and Even Money
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Interesting descriptive account of how betting is
actually done. Betting is divided into two portions,
the collective, quietly arranged center betting and the
rather cantankerous side betting involving individual
gamblers. Being closer to even-matched fights
makes it to be a "deep" match, which Balinese find to
be more interesting and intense. When the fight is
deep, there is a tendency for, the higher the center
bet, the greater the pull on the side bet toward short
odds, and that the higher the center bet, the greater
the volume of the side bet, and vice versa. The
Balinese make conscious effort to make matches as
deep as possible by arranging for even-matched
Section 5. Playing with Fire
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Save for some addict gamblers who are
contempted, betting is not about money
for the Balinese. Rather, it is about the
social honor, prestige and status.
Theme and its variations
376-370
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17 points Geertz has made
What is the common thread?
Who do you root for?
An elbow cannot turn outward
Section 6 Feathers, Blood,
Crowds, and Money
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"the cockfight is a means of expression;
its function is neither to assuage social
passions nor to heighten them, but, in a
medium of feathers, blood, crowds, and
money, to display them" (372).
The second key passage, also from the
same page - "it brings to imaginative
realization a dimension of Balinese
experience normally well-obscured from
view“ (372).
Section 7 Saying Something of
Something
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"Attending cockfights and participating in
them is, for the Balinese, a kind of
sentimental education. What he learns
there is what his culture's ethos and his
private sensibility look like when spelled
out externally in a collective context”
(376).
Themes and Conncetion
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"Drawing on almost every level of Balinese
experience, it bring together themes - animal
savagery, male narcissism, opponent
gambling, status rivalry, mass excitement,
blood sacrifice - whose main connection is
their involvement with rage and the fear of
rage, and binding them into a set of rules
which at once contains them and allows them
play, builds a symbolic structure in which,
over and over again, the reality of their inner
affiliation can be intelligibly felt" (376).
A double-edged
portal of discovery
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"In the cockfight, then, the Balinese
forms and discovers his temperament
and his society's temper at the same
time. Or, more exactly, he forms and
discovers a particular facet of them"
(377-378).
read over the shoulders of those
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"The culture of a people is an ensemble
of texts, themselves ensembles, which
the anthropologist strains to read over
the shoulders of those to whom they
properly belong" (378).
How to gain access
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"The guiding principle is the same:
societies, like lives, contain their own
interpretations. One has only to learn
how to gain access to them"