The essay by Geertz on the Balinese cockfight is by far his most famous and influential piece of work. Why? Using resources from the Russian formalism of the early 20th century, the article uncovers the textual and structural foundations that gave it a competitive advantage over his other writings. In so doing the analysis seeks to reconcile Geertz with the structuralism that he famously and perhaps unwisely dismissed as irrelevant for interpretative sociology. The reception trajectory of Geertz points to the need for a more robust theory of culture than his hermeneutics could offer. The Yale strong program is understood as a solution to this malaise, one that combines structuralist analysis with Geertzian sensibilities.
Alexander, J. (1987) Twenty Lectures: Sociological Theory Since World War II. New York: Columbia University Press.
2.
Alexander, J. (1989) `Culture and Political Crisis: Watergate and Durkheimian Sociology', in J. Alexander, Structure and Meaning, pp.174-216. New York: Columbia University Press.
3.
Alexander, J. and Smith, P. (2001) `The Strong Program in Cultural Theory: Elements of Structural Hermeneutics', in J. Turner (ed.) Handbook of Social Theory, pp. 135-50. New York: Kluwer Academic.
4.
Barthes, R. (1968) Elements of Semiology. New York : Hill and Wang.
5.
Clifford, J. (1983) `On Ethnographic Authority', Representations1(2): 118-46.
6.
Crapanzano, V. (1986) `Hermes' Dilemma: the Masking of Subversion in Ethnographic Description', in J. Clifford and G. Marcus (eds) Writing Culture, pp. 51-76. Berkeley: University of California Press.
7.
Durkheim, E. (1912) Les formes elémentaires de la vie religieuse. Paris: Alcan.
8.
Edles, L. (1998) Symbol and Ritual in the New Spain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
9.
Eichenbaum, B. (1971[1925]) `O. Henry and the Theory of the Short Story' , in L. Matejka and K. Pomorska (eds) Readings in Russian Poetics: Formalist and Structuralist Views, pp. 227-70. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
10.
Freud, S. (1955 [1914]) `The Moses of Michelangelo' , in Sigmund Freud Standard Edition Volume 13, pp. 211-36. London: Hogarth Press .
11.
Geertz, C. (1968) Islam Observed. New Haven: Yale University Press.
12.
Geertz, C. (1973a) The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.
13.
Geertz, C. (1973b) `Thick Description: Toward an Interpretative Theory of Culture', in C. Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, pp. 3-30. New York: Basic Books.
14.
Geertz, C. (1973c) `The Cerebral Savage', in The Interpretation of Cultures, pp. 345-59. New York: Basic Books .
15.
Geertz, C. (1973d) `Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight', in The Interpretation of Cultures, pp. 412-53. New York: Basic Books.
16.
Geertz, C. (1988) Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
17.
Jacobs, R.N. (2000) Race, Media and the Crisis of Civil Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
18.
Jakobson, R. (1971[1935]) `The Dominant', in L. Matejka and K. Pomorska (eds) Readings in Russian Poetics: Formalist and Structuralist Views, pp. 82-7. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
19.
Lévi-Strauss, C. (1962) La pensée sauvage. Paris: Plon.
20.
Shklovsky, V. (1971[1925]) `The Mystery Novel: Dickens's Little Dorrit' , in L. Matejka and K. Pomorska (eds.) Readings in Russian Poetics: Formalist and Structuralist Views, pp. 220-26. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
21.
Shklovsky, V. (1990[1925]) Theory of Prose. Elmwood Park, IL: Dalkey Archive Press.
22.
Smith. P. (2005) Why War? The Cultural Logic of Iraq, the Gulf War and Suez. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
23.
Smith, P. (2008) Punishment and Culture. Chicago : University of Chicago Press.
24.
Tomashevsky, B. (1965) `Thematics', in L.T. Lemon and M.J. Reis (eds) Russian Formalist Criticism, pp. 61-95. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press.
