1 Deeper Play: Geertz’s “Thick Descripon” and a Balinese Temple Ritual (the Odalan) i By J. I. (Hans) Bakker, University of Guelph hbakker@uoguelph.ca ABSTRACT Geertz is well known for one aspect of his method. But in the 21 st century his broader oeuvre is oſten ignored. Many Symbolic Interaconists refer to his noon of “thick descripon”. They may not know his work on Indonesia in general, but they oſten know his famous essay on the Balinese cockfight: "Deep Play" (Geertz, 1972/1973). That essay is oſten held up as an exemplary “model” of ethnographic fieldwork. But we need to examine what he calls "thick descripon” more carefully. Aſter the first few pages of the essay there is actually very lile “idiographic descripon” per se. Much of the paper concerns general descripon and analysis. We do not get a blow by blow account of a cock fight as viewed by Geertz. Instead we get an analysis that is based on Jeremy Bentham’s Ulitarianism. There is a good deal missing from the broader analysis as well. Much of that can be found in other work (Geertz, 1959, 1961, 1966, 1967, 1980, 1995). Students who only read “Deep Play” oſten form a superficial impression of the method of “thick descripon” and a distorted sense of Balinese culture (Vickers, 1996; Howe, 2001; Warren, 1993). This essay supplements Geertz’s essay with a discussion of a religious ceremony of far more importance than the largely secular cock fight. I touch on a central feature of Balinese society not emphasized by Geertz in “Deep Play”: the temple anniversary fesval. It is called an odalan (Belo, 1966; Eiseman, 1990; H. Geertz, 2004). Broader theorecal and methodological issues related to Comparave Historical Sociology (CHS) and Verstehen are also examined (Zijderveld, 1976). I. Introduction: Play, Deep Play, Deeper Play: The main points raised in this discussion concern the method or technique called thick description. Thick description can be considered another way of describing what nineteenth century contributors like Wilhelm Windelband and Wilhelm Dilthey sometimes called “idiographic description” (Bakker, 2009). Most North AmericanSymbolic Interactionists today avoid the phrase “idiographic description” and use Geertz’s phrase thick description, instead. What can be called thick description has been used in many settings in Indonesia (Kinseng, 1994; Benda-Beckman, 1990; Bakker, 1992). There is an enormous literature about Indonesia in general and Java in particular (Anderson, 1972). But one important case is certainly the island of Bali. In this chapter I will discuss strengths and weaknesses of Geertz’s famous attempt at the application of that technique to the study of one phenomenon in Bali. Thick description is the famous use of the phrase by Geertz himself. Ironically, he does not actually present a solid ethnographic thick description himself. There is very little real thick description in his essay “Deep Play”, especially after the first few pages. His wife,