In Clifford Geertz's article, "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight", Geertz explores how a chance incident allows him and his wife the opportunity to study and document the complex nature of Balinese cockfighting. In the beginning of the article, Geertz and his wife were complete outsiders in the Bali village. In the article Geertz's states, "people seemed to look right through us." This expresses how Geertz and his wife were neglected by almost all the people in the village which made it practically impossible for them to learn about the culture of the Balinese people. This outsider status was removed, however, after Geertz and his wife responded in the same way as the villagers did during a police raid at an illegal cockfight. I found it astonishing that just because of his impulse decision to run, Geertz's entire relationship with the Balinese people changed drastically. After this event, Geertz and his wife were no longer treated with the cold shoulder but were instead welcomed with open arms by who were now their fellow villagers. This one event not only allowed Geertz to become part of the community, but also more importantly allowed him to discover previous unknown aspects of Balinese culture.
With his new acceptance into the community Geertz began to discover the elaborate importance of cockfighting in Bali. Geertz explains in great detail in the article how cockfighting in Balinese culture is not centered around the money that is made or lost or the cock that dies or lives, but is instead centered around the hidden social impact of each match's outcome. This impact that the cockfights have on men's social status would not have been apparent to Geertz if he was still an outsider looking in. Geertz's understanding and documentation of the social impact of cockfighting in Bali was only possible because of the unexpected event that opened the doors to a deeper knowledge of Balinese culture.