Can I just substitute an interpretive dance in place of a list?

[phalangingle]

Although I am generally of the opinion that I would never be a member of a club that would have someone like me as a member, I decided to give this a try.

Comments

Re: Softball

[phalangingle]

Yes. There are two that I particularly like. "Thick Description" and "Ideology as a Cultural System" are the two essays I would like to discuss

Re: Softball

[phalangingle]

While I think description provides an orientation to cultural analysis, I do not think it is a formalized program that can be said to succeed or fail. Geertz points out the importance of the structures of signification, but to his advantage, he does not attempt to make cultural structure into a 'God term.' In the cockfight essay Geertz provides a thick description of the imaginative universe in which the Balinese Cockfight is signified. Relations of society to nature, human to beasts, masculinity and honor, are all signified through the Balinese Cockfight. While an expansive imaginative universe is sketched out, there is still the question of how members, and various social groups, put these models into practice. For thick description to fully realize its potential, it must not only sketch out a model of culture (a composite account of the various signs, symbols, images, narrative forms, etc that circulate within the village) but also the putting of the model into practice

Re: Softball

[phalangingle]

I agree with most of this, but wouldn't characterize it as meaningless understanding of Balinese culture. It is problematic for Geertz to offer an aesthetic interpretation of the cockfight if his purpose is to describe the mental maps of the participants or to explain their practice. I don't think this is his purpose however. The critique that the interpretation becomes static and that it creates an abstraction and objectification of a changeable practice is valid. But if the purpose of the essay is to locate the Balinese cockfight in the imaginative universe of the cultural codes available in Bali, then the abstraction is not a fatal flaw for the essay. While signification of the cock fight surely means different things to different participants, that its meaning changes over time, and that symbols may be used and understood in differing ways from Geertz, the imaginative universe of symbols and narratives makes possible semiotic practices for (re)constructing the meaning of the cock fight

Re: Softball

[doctorex]

Do you know Roseberry's critique of Geertz? If so, what do you think of it?

Re: Softball

[phalangingle]

I am not familiar with this critique.