While reading this selection, I did
try to fit as many definitions of a discourse community to Balinese cockfights.
The author gave us many details about the functionality of the village and how
they go about their daily lives. He gives us many clues that help us relate
what he is talking about to a discourse community. Johns Swales’ definitions of
a discourse community fit well with many of the characteristics of Balinese
cockfights yet there’s one in particular that cannot be related. Swales first definition
states that a discourse community has an agreed set of public goals. Even
though the cock owners are all working for the same goal, (which is to win)
they are share conflict of interest. This means that they do not work together;
they work against another. Since the members of the community of cock fighters
are competing to be the only winners, the community is not together as a whole.
They are only together for the sheer pleasure of the sport. I also noticed a
similarity between the ways they carry out their sport with a sport of my own.
I am a wrestler and I am part of a wrestling team. Yet, the sport as a whole is
based on individual aims. I may wrestle in the room and improve my sparing
partner but I am there for the purpose of improving myself. In the end, the
team goals stops and you are there for your own personal achievements. Just
like the cockfights, everyone participates to win. We all have the same goal
but that goal only applies to ourselves. It just so happens that we all share
the same dream.
This is a great analysis of how discourse communities can be cooperative in some ways and competitive in others. Yes, the cockfights are used to stratify and simulate social structures, solidifying familial allegiances while strengthening interpersonal rivalries. But in sense, as Geertz points out, more than creating these rivalries, the cockfights function as a text that allows the villagers to "read" and recognize preexisting rivalries. In this way even the competitiveness creates a certain unity and understanding among the villagers.
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