Cockfight (Senior Journalist III) - The Final

Day 2,473, 12:05 • Published in Albania Albania • by mo green




The sport of cockfighting developed in Asia. This sport is one in which birds are paired and they fight to the death. Big muscular birds had an advantage in this sport than smaller birds. Winning birds provided the breeding stock, so fighting cocks naturally became bigger over the centuries. Indian fighting cocks were imported into England and were the basis for Old English bird stocks, also used for fighting. They, in turn, provided the basic genetic material for the Cornish breed, a chicken with extreme muscling that resulted in a broad breast.




Culture’s new visitor must gain the basic respect of the inhabitants by being in-tune and mindful of cultural clues and knowing your outsider hierarchical place to participate. Being invisible to the locals at first as spectators with time transitioned to their acceptance. Acceptance in Bali is teasing. Cockfighting in Bali is very symbolic in Balinese’s culture as a popular obsession of consuming power, notable in the Balinese Temper. The word “cock” is an entendre. Gerrtz explains Balinese men have a deep psychological identification with their cocks which are viewed as having a life of their own. “Sabung” a word for cock is used to mean hero, warrior, champion, political candidate, lady killer, dandy, bachelor, or tough guy. A pompous man is like a tailless cock who struts around like he has a spectacular one. A desperate man is like a dying cock who makes one final lunge at his tormentor to drag hum along to a common destruction. Balinese men gathering for a cockfight means more than two animals fighting, it and the owners of cocks represents a man’s ego.