Knowra Clifford Geertz Clifford Geertz Clifford Geertz (1926–2006) was an American cultural anthropologist who treated culture as webs of meaning and developed interpretive anthropology through close analysis of symbols and social practices.
Interpretive anthropology : An approach to anthropology that interprets cultural meanings through the symbols and practices people use. Geertz made this approach influential by treating ethnography as interpretation rather than law-seeking science.
The Interpretation of Cultures : A 1973 collection of essays by Clifford Geertz on culture, symbols, religion, and ethnographic interpretation. This book gathers the essays that established his interpretive approach, including “Thick Description.”
Talcott Parsons : An American sociologist who developed a major theory of social systems and influenced postwar social science. Geertz studied with Parsons at Harvard and adapted his interest in systems of meaning.
Cultural materialism : An anthropological theory that explains cultural practices through material conditions, including technology, ecology, and production. It prioritizes material causes where Geertz foregrounds the meanings people give their practices.
Writing Culture : A 1986 edited volume that examined ethnographic writing, representation, and the authority of anthropologists. The volume’s contributors scrutinized the interpretive authority associated with Geertz’s model of ethnography.
Thick description : A detailed account of action that explains its cultural context and significance, not merely its observable movements. Geertz used this method to show how the same gesture can carry different meanings.
Balinese cockfight : A ritualized contest in Bali in which roosters fight while their owners and supporters wager on the outcome. Geertz interpreted the cockfight as a dramatic expression of Balinese status, rivalry, and social identity.
Max Weber : A German sociologist who analyzed social action, authority, religion, and the meanings people attach to their conduct. Geertz invoked Weber’s account of humans as animals suspended in webs of significance.
Structural anthropology : An approach associated with Claude Lévi-Strauss that seeks underlying structures organizing cultural classifications and myths. Geertz focused on historically situated meanings rather than universal structures beneath them.
Reflexive anthropology : An approach that examines how anthropologists’ positions and choices shape the knowledge they produce. Geertz’s literary account of ethnography helped prompt attention to how field accounts are composed.
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