Setting the stage: Geertz and Balinese cockfights – A post scriptum

This article examines a significant discrepancy between Clifford Geertz's published account of his fieldwork experience in Bali and his original fieldnotes. The analysis focuses on the famous opening scene of ‘Deep play: Notes on the Balinese cockfight’, where Geertz describes fleeing from a police raid with villagers – an incident he portrays as transforming him from an ignored outsider into an accepted insider. By comparing previously unavailable fieldnotes from both Clifford and Hildred Geertz with the published narrative, the author reveals substantial contradictions in the timeline, events and their aftermath. The fieldnotes show no evidence of the initial ‘awayness’ period or subsequent ‘euphoric embrace’ that Geertz described, suggesting he significantly reimagined the event when writing his essay 14 years later. This discovery raises important questions about ethnographic authority; the relationship between field experiences and published accounts; and the increasingly blurred boundaries between anthropology and literature. The article concludes by reflecting on the ethical implications of Geertz's narrative choices and their influence on contemporary anthropological writing.