According to Cultural Materialism, sport is to be understood with reference to the technology and economy of the system in which it occurs. The Balinese Cockfight fits the economic surroundings of Bali and Indonesia, as well as the technology. With a population of over three million people on Bali alone, it is slowly developing. Most of the jobs are either in the hotel and tourist industry, the textile and garment industry, and in many small scale and home industries producing handicrafts a

nd souvenirs. As long as Bali’s economy relies heavily on tourism, there will always be a large fluctuation in the economy as well as the sophistication of that economy. The Cockfight is simple and inexpensive, this is why it fits into the Balinese culture very well.

The sociopolitical component of the Balinese Cockfight is less obvious. In the cockfight you have several different groups or classes of people involved in the fight. The most inner circle of men are the wealthier, more powerful men and their ‘entourage’, if you will. These men are usually the owners of the cocks that are fighting as well. These wealthier individuals are more concerned with their social status than winning money on the cock fights. These individuals always wager one to one, there are no odds amongst the inner circle. The outer circle consists of basically, pure spectators. These individuals are in the lower classes of society and come to the cockfights for pure entertainment and money. Although the inner circle looks down on these individuals that have no stake in the fight, they are a necessary part of the system. These less wealthy, lower class men are the ones that give status to the wealthier inner circle of men. The men in the outer circle wager heavily on the fights as well, but these wagers have odds, four to 2 or three to one, etc. All of the odd betting is done very rapidly and with hand signals, very similar to the seemingly unintelligible chaos of a major stock exchange floor.

The third component of Cultural Materialism that is relative to the Balinese Cockfight is the ideological phenomena. The rules and structure of the cockfights in Bali are very organized and strictly adhered to. And although cockfighting is illegal on Bali, it is understood by the authorities that it will take place and that they can’t do much about it. Not to mention that the authorities are often paid to allow the cockfight to go unnoticed.

Fighting is an integral part of hockey. When you have an extremely physical sport, and each player has a potential weapon in their hand, fighting under an unwritten code provides a relief, th

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