Summary
Geertz explains that Bali has traditionally been studied by anthropologists for its laws, family ties, and witchcraft or sorcery. But, he argues, a large portion of the Balinese culture can be extracted from observing cockfights.
This phenomenon stems from the fact that cocks are seen as extensions of the male form.
Indeed, Geertz notes that the suggestive double entendre is as prevalent in the Balinese language as it is in English. Even the island itself, Geertz notes, is understood to resemble the shape of a rooster.
Geertz goes on to describe how men treat their fighting cocks with great intimacy, attention, and even sensuality. The cocks are fed and bathed as if they were newborn babies, and are treated with gentleness and care by their owners.
Geertz notes that this obsession with cocks and cockfighting stems, ironically, from the Balinese revulsion of animal behavior. In Balinese culture, animals are frequently associated with demons and evil, and animal behavior (like eating, defecating, and even babies crawling) is discouraged or done privately.
Cocks are, Geertz explains, the perfect inversion of the human form.
Cockfighting represents a fusion of man and beast that is often considered a form of sacrifice to the animalistic demons that the Balinese perceive as always threatening to disturb their way of life.
Analysis
In this section of the article, Geertz delves into some specifics about Balinese society in order to introduce his primary (and, he suggests, misunderstood) subject of study – cockfighting.
Immediately, Geertz establishes the stakes of his academic article by acknowledging the novelty and uniqueness of his own work: whereas other anthropological studies tended to focus on Balinese culture through the same lens as one would approach Western culture (through laws, social dynamics, and social dissent), Geertz announces that observing cockfights generated a more genuine representation of the Balinese way of life.
This hypothesis will become much more complex later in the article, but in this section, Geertz establishes a contention that Balinese cockfighting is worth studying despite perception in the West that it is brutal and barbaric.
The second part of this section is devoted to underscoring the seriousness with which the Balinese take cockfighting, thereby dispelling the notion that it is simply a cruel or barbaric sport. Though he does not say so explicitly, Geertz's descriptions of how the Balinese treat their fighting cocks serves to validate the practice within the culture for Western readers who may have their own preconceived notions about cockfighting. Indeed, when Geertz notes that fighting cocks are bathed with the same herbs and ceremony as newborn babies, he implies to the reader that the entire practice of cockfighting is rooted deeply in Balinese notions of kinship, honor, and care.
This section ultimately helps challenge some of the reader's own judgements about cockfighting that they may have brought to the essay. Furthermore, this section helps establish the tone of the remainder of the article, which will take cockfighting seriously as an anthropological subject of study, much like the Balinese take it seriously as an inherent part of their social existence.
