ANTH 303 Anthropological Theory Fall 2017
Oct. 24: Balinese Cockfight part 2 READ: Roseberry, William (1982) “Balinese Cockfights and the Seduction of Anthropology.”  Social Research. 49(4):1013-1028. http://pao.chadwyck.com/PDF/1354736278175.pdf

Plagiarism assignment

The following questions will help guide our discussion as we try to make sense of this, and other, theories. In addition, we will apply the theory to the video shown in the first day of class:

How can this theory be seen as a product of the historical period in which it was created?
What questions does this theory ask?
What information does this theory see as important?
What are other relevant assumptions made by the theory?
How does the theory analyse this information to answer the questions it sees as important?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of this approach?

Some concepts from Roseberry:
- importance of “cultural materialism” à la Raymond Williams versus Marvin Harris
    - therefore interested in politics, economics and culture (as material social process)
        - politics, economics and culture as connected, not distinct elements
- importance of history (process) and of dynamics (culture as production, not product)
- observes internal differentiation of society, especially with some relation to class (in the marxist definition of class)
- Roseberry was a marxist anthropologist who was strongly influenced by Eric Wolf

- note how he anatomizes Geertz (pp. 1017-1019)
    - challenges Geertz’ selectivity in choosing the cultural “text” he will analyse
    - challenges Geertz for ignoring historical context, especially with respect to: earlier practice of lords to tax markets and cockfights; Dutch colonial experience; Indonesian dominance
    - challenges Geertz for not engaging with status formation
        - similarly, says Geertz does not engage with a variety of forms of inequality
    - challenges idea of culture as text: “a text is written; it is not writing” (p. 1022)
        - Roseberry wants process studied, not just product
            - who is writing, for whom, at what historical point; how does the story change over time
        - further, Roseberry insists that culture is material social process

How an essay might be structured to compare the two: a modest Pechakucha

How would Roseberry analyse the video?
    - beyond the usual marxist focus on class, social relations of production, looking for exploitation, etc, would also think about how this is a cultural expression of specific interests in the political economy

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