textbooks. But what is not discussed in most academic texts is the ways
in which techniques are embedded in a broader Logic of Method, a
“Methodology” (capital M). Without such Methodological awareness
Geertz’s essay on the Balinese cockfight would end mid-way. Geertz is
concerned to develop the idea that events in time can constitute a kind of
symbolic “text.” In other words, his Methodology is a combination of
Hermeneutics (No ̈th, 1995) and Semiotics (Cobley, 2010) and the various
traditions represented by various combinations and permutations of those
two rather grand titles (e.g., “textual semiotics”). Here I will round out my
discussion with a very brief mention of the ways in which social science
research involves not only thick description but also ITMs and, in some
rare instances, law-like generalizations. I make a distinction among three
Methodologies rather than just two. I have studiously avoided mention of
the three categories since it takes a bit of effort just to start to get a sense
of what is involved in the empirical problem of a temple ritual in Bali. My
critique of Geertz’s thick description is not limited to his relative failure to
follow through consistently with thick description in his famous essay on
the cockfight. I also believe that in addition to studying a topic that is of
more importance than the cockfight it is necessary to study that topic using
much more than thick description, even if very well done. Too often the
results of an ethnographic study are presented as if they flow from the field-
work notes and specific observations. But even in the case of Jane Belo’s
excellent work it cannot be said that it wasalla matter of thick description.
She studied the “Deeper Play” of the odalan but she did not pretend to
ignore what I call “ideal types” when writing about her conclusions.
Students of Symbolic Interaction should be prepared to make generaliza-
tions and not simply pretend to restrict themselves to just those idiographic
details they noticed in the field.
THICK DESCRIPTION, ITMS, AND “LAWS”
While Geertz emphasizes the idea of “thick description” his essay on the
Balinese cockfight goes far further than just thick description. He starts
with a narrative account, but he ends with a flourish of generalizations
about “texts.” He does not limit himself to “idiographic description” of
situations or events in a very limited period oftime, t-1(an hour, a few
hours, a day, a few days, etc.) and a very small geographicalplace, p-1
(a household, a household cluster, a small hamlet, a hamlet cluster, etc.).
Geertz’s “Thick Description” and a Balinese Temple Ritual 103