The Interpretation of Cultures by Clifford Geertz
"The Interpretation of Cultures" by Clifford Geertz is a seminal collection of essays that explores the concept of culture through an anthropological lens. Spanning fifteen years of Geertz's career, the text emphasizes the importance of understanding culture as a dynamic and interpretive process rather than a static set of beliefs or practices. Geertz advocates for a "thick description" approach, where the nuances of daily life and social interactions are thoroughly analyzed to reveal deeper cultural meanings. The essays are organized thematically rather than chronologically, with each section building on the previous one to articulate Geertz's evolving theoretical stance on culture.
Key topics include the relationship between mind and culture, the role of religion and ideology in shaping social systems, and the significance of cultural symbols in human experience. Geertz's work draws from various disciplines, including philosophy and psychology, which broadens its appeal and application across different fields. The collection is not just for professional anthropologists but is relevant to anyone interested in understanding the complex ways in which cultures are constructed and lived. Overall, "The Interpretation of Cultures" invites readers to appreciate the richness of cultural contexts and the interpretive potential of anthropology in grasping human experiences.
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The Interpretation of Cultures by Clifford Geertz
First published: 1973
Type of work: Cultural anthropology
Form and Content
The Interpretation of Cultures is a collection of essays spanning the fifteen years of Clifford Geertz’s career as a cultural anthropologist since he took his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1956. On the whole, the collection reveals a twofold purpose. The first, and perhaps less important, is to demonstrate the development of his ideas—ideas that grew by leaps and bounds out of his fieldwork in Bali and other developing nations. As a consequence, many of the essays contain richly detailed, even anecdotal accounts of day-to-day life. As Geertz puts it, “the majority of the essays are, in fact, empirical studies rather than theoretical disquisitions, for I grow uncomfortable when I get too far away from the immediacies of social life.”
While Geertz never does stray too far from the details of life, the essays nevertheless build toward a second, more important end: a “redefinition of culture.” All the essays, that is, “are basically concerned with pushing forward, instant case by instant case, a particular . . . view of what culture is, what role it plays in social life, and how it ought properly to be studied.” As a result, the book as a whole emerges “somewhat as a treatise—a treatise in cultural theory as developed through a series of concrete analyses.”
The Interpretation of Cultures is divided into five parts, and, as Geertz points out, the essays are arranged in a logical rather than a chronological, order. In general, the logic of Geertz’s arrangement reflects his twofold purpose. Typically, a more recent and more purely theoretical essay introduces the more particular essays that originally led, step by step, to the theoretical stance. In the first essay, “Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture,” the only essay not previously published elsewhere and constituting the whole of part 1, Geertz attempts to state his present position as generally as he can. It “represents an effort to state more explicitly and systematically” the trend of his thought.
Each of the succeeding four parts follows much the same pattern, a more general and theoretical essay introducing the more specific and developmental essays. Part 2 discusses the concept of man, particularly the concept of mind, the interrelationship between physical and cultural evolution. Part 3 focuses discussion on, as the title of the opening essay puts it, “Religion as a Cultural System,” while part 4, in a corresponding way, focuses discussion on “Ideology as a Cultural System.” The final section, however, appears to be more of a mixed bag. In it, Geertz provides a critical analysis of the structuralist anthropology of Claude Levi-Strauss along with “Person, Time, and Conduct in Bali” and, one of his better-known essays, “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight.” Since concepts of person and time have religious significance in Bali and the cockfight has not only personal but also political significance, part 5 tends, in a very specific way, to sum up the arguments of the preceding parts.
Critical Context
As Maxine Greene noted in her review, Geertz’s work participates in an “emerging concern with the world as lived and perceived rather than as objectively explained.” Even a quick glance at his footnotes reveals the extent to which Geertz has drawn on, amended, and consolidated a wide variety of work across several disciplines from philosophy, linguistics, and literary criticism to psychology, biology, and the various social sciences.
Because his sources are cosmopolitan, as one might expect, his applicability is equally diverse. Another reviewer, Wilton S. Dillon, states that “The Interpretation of Cultures deserves reading, for enlightenment and pleasure, by persons in a wide variety of specialties and callings: professional anthropologists, political theorists and politicians, admen and schoolmen, theologians, philosophers, and social workers.” As he goes on to point out, Geertz “violates territoriality.” No one is immune to the symbol systems through which a knowledge of reality is communicated. While it is a failed quest to search for universals in such systems, such systems are themselves primary in human mentality. While Geertz never strays far from the immediacies of social experience, his method, more than his conclusions, provides glimpses of unity in the overlapping and interactive cultural patterns that people use to govern their lives.
Bibliography
Brown, R.E. Review in Library Journal. XCVIII (August, 1973), p. 2324.
Dillon, Wilton S. Review in Teachers College Record. LXXVI (September, 1974), pp. 155-159.
Geertz, Clifford. Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology, 1983.
Goodenough, Ward H. “On Cultural Theory,” in Science. CLXXXVI (November 1, 1974), pp. 435-436.
Greene, Maxine. Review in Harvard Educational Review. XLIV (May, 1974), pp. 331-336.