In "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight", writing by Clifford Geertz, cockfighting is the main source of entertainment for all of the villagers. It is the biggest event in the town and brings all the villagers together to see the gruesome battles.
             "In the cockfight, man and beast, good and evil, ego and id, the creative power of aroused masculinity and the destructive power of lessened animality fuse in a bloody drama of hatred, cruelty, violence, and death (Geertz 311)
             Cockfighting is a representative of the violent human nature in the Balinese culture. In these fights people get to see cruelty, violence, and death.
             It is in human nature to seek violence without being harmed. In the finial section Geertz summarizes his observations and in one paragraph he describes about the violent human nature of the Balinese people.
             Every People, the proverb hast, loves its own form of violence. The cockfight is the Balinese reflection on theirs: on its look, its uses, it forces, its fascination. Drawing on almost every level of Balinese experience, it brings together Themes–animal savagery, male narcissism, opponent gambling, status rivalry, mass excitement, and blood sacrifice (Geertz 330).
             Geertz records the cockfight is his essay because he sees that it is the most important part of the culture. The cockfight is a representation for animal savagery, male narcissism, and status rivalry that occurs in the fight. One of the first things that Geertz mentions is animal savagery, which has been around since the beginning of life. Animals killing other animals are part of nature and something that will always occur. The Balinese people use the cockfight to see animal savagery to satisfy their need for brutality. Another thing that Geertz talks about is male narcissism, which represents self-admiration. By definition narcissism mans: excessive or erotic interest in oneself and one's physical ap...