Relation: An example of a culture text that is presented in the class reading, "Cultural Anthro" by Robbins.
Description: The Balinese like cockfighting just as much as Americans like football. They fight their prized roosters until one dies and many may see this is a disgrace. "Rarely do cocks owned by members of the same family or village fight each other" (Robbins 21). The people who fight cocks are usually the leader of the communities. "A man will never bet against a cock that is owned by someone of his family group or villiage or a friend's family group or village, but he will place large bets against a cock owned by an enemy or the friend of an enemy"(Robbins 21). The owners of the cocks are usually among the leaders of the communities and the winner takes home the loser's rooster for dinner. One may view cockfighting as disturbing, but the Balinese do not do it for violence.
Commentary: The Balinese use cockfighting as a cultural text to represent status in society. If one is known to be successful in cockfighting, they have a higher status in their community. I think it is important to try an understand the reasons behind what people do, rather than fall into ethnocentric fallacy and say that their belief is wrong. The Balinese use cockfighting to represent status and the United States uses money. The more money you have the more "success" and "progress" you have made in your life. Balinese cockfighting is similar to the way American's determine status because most successfull Americans (political leaders and large companies) are willing to eliminate their competitors now matter how many people it hurts. There is always one winner and one loser, one made richer and one made poorer. Once I compared American status and Balinese status, cockfighting didn't seem so bad. Is the way Americans get status really any better?
To the readers: I am not sure if my commentary makes sense. It does to me but I'm not sure if my comparison is understandable. Was trying to compare how Americans and the Balinese get status and how they are similar. If it doesn't make sense to you, please email you so I can explain and so you can help me fix it. :) Thanks!
Don't worry, your comparison make sense to me. You are pointing out the differences in cultural "success" between American's and the Balinese. In both cultures, success will often relate to social status, hence people with more money and power in the United States will usually be of higher social class. The same will apply to those who win more cock fights in Bali.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that people often try to gain success in order to be placed in a higher social class? In other words, do we try to make more money to be noticed by more people? And do the Balinese people try to win more cock fights, not just to win, but to gain attention from others beyond their peers?
-Phil
I must admit I am slightly confused. I thought that the Balinese Cock fighting in the text, was a story about the cock fights, which would mean that the Balinese cock fighting was not a cultural text since it was an action, and a reoccurance instead of a text. What about this action makes it a cultural text instead of a cultural act? I am intrigued to know!
ReplyDeleteA cultural text is defined in the book as "a way of thinking about a culture as a text of significant symbols- words, gestures, drawings, natural objects- that carries meaning." It was one of the examples she had under cultural text and I thought I'd just go with that. The Balinese cock fight is a cultural text because it is a symbol to them. "The Balinese cokcifight is a text filled with meaning about status as the Balinese see it. Cocks represent men, or , more specifically, their owners. The fate of the cock in the ring is linked, if only temorarily, tot he social fate of its owner. Each cock has the following consisting of the owner, the owner's family, and members of the owner's village, and these followers 'risk' their status by betting on the cockfight. Furthermore, Geertz maintains, the more a match is between near equals, personal enemies, or high-status individuals, the more the match is about status"(ANTHRO 22).
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