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Sabung: Many Meanings In Geertz’s essay Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight, he explains that for the Balinese, cockfighting is an essential part of their culture. The sport has many connotations for the Balinese people, and it is interwoven in daily life. Geertz explains, that for the most part cock fighting is an exclusively male sport, and gambling naturally follows. However, to understand Geertz’s anthropological perspective on the Balinese culture and “cockfighting“, one should understand the meanings of how the Balinese have integrated the word “cock” into their language, and into their male gender ideaology. Sabung, the Balinese word for cock, has many meanings within the culture that acts as guidelines for male social interactions. The word is used metaphorically to mean a number of things, but is all centered on the Sabung; which can be connected either to the animal and/or to a man’s penis. “[Hero],…warrior,…man of parts,…or tough guy” are various meanings attached to the word Sabung (309). With these diverse meanings both positive and negative one can understand that the word Sabung is used in forming the male gender ideaology. The Sabung can take on both strong and weak male associations and comparisons; regardless if a male maybe weak or strong the reference will always go back to the Sabung. However, if one were to look at Western society a distinct difference in how strong and weak males are compared can be noticed. Western society tends to compare strong males to strong male animals, such as a bull, stallion or lion. Whereas weak males are reverted to female comparisons like pansies or mama’s boys. With this gender ideaology, characteristics of men and their personalities again are centered on the word sabung and different types of sabungs.
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