“But, aside from a few passing remarks, the
cockfight has barely been noticed, although as a popular obsession of consuming
power it is at least as important a revelation of what being a Balinese “is
really like” as these more celebrated phenomena. As much of America surfaces in
a ballpark, on a golf links, at a race track, or around a poker table, much of Bali
surfaces in a cock ring. For it is only apparently cocks that are fighting
there. Actually, it is men.”
Pg.59-60.
The reason why I find this paragraph interesting is
because Geertz compares the importance of cockfighting in Balinese culture to American
sports that we find to be part of what it means to be an a American. But as Geertz
point out cockfighting has a deeper meaning in what it means to be a Balinese’s
man because in Balinese culture a cock represents a “hero,” “warrior,” or “
tough guy.” So a cock signifies a man’s
manhood, which explains the phenomena of cockfighting in Bali.
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