Book Review on Geertz 1973 the Interpretation of Culture
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The longevity of the book (excerpts are still read in social science classes) has multiple attributions. First, the book altered how anthropologists perceived their piece of work – The Interpretation of Cultures is an epistemological work. The get-go chapter, Thick Description: Toward and Interpretive Theory of Civilization, is frequently referenced past social scientists. Prior to the publication of Geertz' work, field researchers oft treated themselves as "human being recorders", travelling to unfamiliar locales, penetrating the local earth, and recording local "reality." Geertz, through philosophical argumentation, made a adequately basic point, albeit eloquently enough to garner attention from his peers: it is non possible for social scientists to record a tangible social reality. Really, anthropologists capture reality as it is understood by local actors, and then filter this understanding through their own lens. Anthropology is an interpretation of an estimation of reality. Geertz makes this betoken through his oft-cited "winking" example. A wink can mean many things: a physiological tick, a flirtation, a sign of confidence, a extravaganza of someone else who just winked. The visual "reality": someone moving their eye in a certain manner, tin can have numerous social meanings. It is the job of an anthropologist to unearth all these meanings, and their social contexts. Geertz labeled this scientific process "thick description." To Geertz, the best social science captures complex patterns in detail. Symbols play an important role in this endeavor. If the goal is to understand local meaning, then social scientists should explore the symbolic significance of cultural artifacts (with the term "artifact" admittedly not the mot juste – I mean the term in a very broad sense).
The Interpretation of Cultures is structurally unique. The book includes fifteen capacity. Each chapter is a topical essay. In a preface, Geertz acknowledges that he wrote the essays at different times, not initially intending to combine them into a single book. In some respects, so, The Interpretation of Cultures serves as the nerveless works of Clifford Geertz. There is some unification to the book. Nearly obviously, the chapters depict upon the aforementioned datasets. Yet, the volume is a potpourri of sorts. The essays include theoretical expositions (on faith, on culture, on the human being heed), commentary on the social sciences, and presentation of anthropological results. A more than conscientious reader than I could probably find the words to describe how this mélange comes together into a coherent whole that represents an "arroyo", a style of understanding the craft underlying anthropological fieldwork. I think, at some level (and Geertz suggests every bit much in his preface), an endeavor to make sense of how the essays cohere is most a metaphor for Geertz' inductive arroyo to science – put it all together, back off, try to make sense of the whole, back off again, effort to make sense once again.
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These cultural "webs of significance" Clifford Geertz speaks of are constructed of religious beliefs and practices, cultural community, social interactions, attitudes and behavior -- everything effectually us that we have constructed as rational beings capable of idea and imagination. According to Geertz, the office of the anthropologist is, in a sense, to 'decode' the symbolic meanings of thes
"Human is an brute suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun, I take culture to be those webs..."These cultural "webs of significance" Clifford Geertz speaks of are constructed of religious beliefs and practices, cultural customs, social interactions, attitudes and behavior -- everything around u.s.a. that we have constructed as rational beings capable of thought and imagination. According to Geertz, the role of the anthropologist is, in a sense, to 'decode' the symbolic meanings of these sure events, practices, community and interactions that take place within a specific civilization, however insignificant they may seem to the observer. Particular is of utmost importance. An anthropologist must get function of the civilisation -- looking in from the outside he volition sympathise nothing. Of grade, in order to reduce the occurrence of the anthropologist's ain cultural bias and to try to more accurately empathize a civilisation, i could easily say that it is imperative that anthropologists emerge themselves in the customs and practices of that culture. Only, even then, is it always possible for 1 to grasp an understanding of a culture in which one was not born into? Are humans socialized from birth to perceive all cultural customs and practices through a shady lens, clouded past perceptions of the world they have acquired during childhood?
Geertz believes that, while to some extent it is possible to attain an understanding of a civilization outside of our own, it is of import to understand that anthropological writing is but a "thick description," an interpretation of an interpretation. In other words, the anthropologist is interpreting the culture's estimation of the result that is taking place. In that location is cipher precise, categorically logical or rational about anthropological writing: Cultural assay is strictly the procedure of creating various hypotheses, examining those hypotheses, and so deriving explanations from the best hypotheses. Equally Geertz says, the analysis of information technology is not an "experimental science in search of law" only, rather, "an interpretive one in search of meaning." Information technology is the job of an anthropologist to outset attempt to sympathise how an event is interpreted by the culture in which it takes place, then to make an estimation of that interpretation, and then it is left up to the reader of anthropological writing to interpret the final interpretations. Information technology is hard, if non incommunicable, to derive whatever absolute factual determination from data constructed of so many interpretive layers; thus, interpretation is non definitive.
The role of an anthropologist, according to Geertz, is to construct the finest interpretations possible, and about importantly, to be an agile participant in the culture, rather than a passive observer.
This volume is THE classical text for a modern cultural anthropologist. Information technology's also an excellent volume for anyone skeptical of social science in general, and serves as a great introduction for anyone just curious well-nigh anthropology.
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This is probably the hardest volume I've ever finished reading. And that after two false starts, when I realized I didn't understand enough of it, so I left information technology for "when I get smarter."
Does that hateful I've gotten smarter?
Self-teasing aside, this is a book worth rereading. The start laissez passer gave me an overview of Geertz's ideas. I all the same didn't understand many of them, or not as fully as I'd have liked to, just now at least I know where
TL;DR: Nothing (worth talking about) is simple or straightforward.***
This is probably the hardest book I've ever finished reading. And that after 2 false starts, when I realized I didn't understand enough of information technology, so I left information technology for "when I get smarter."
Does that mean I've gotten smarter?
Self-teasing aside, this is a volume worth rereading. The first pass gave me an overview of Geertz's ideas. I however didn't empathize many of them, or non every bit fully equally I'd have liked to, just now at least I know where to go when I desire to go deeper.
The following notes should hopefully steer me:
https://choveshkata.net/forum/viewtop...
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"Believing, with Max Weber, that man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun, I take culture to be those webs, and the analysis of it to be therefore non an experimental science in search of laws, but an interpretive ane in search of meaning.
I'm rereading this and am amazed at how much I missed the final time I picked it upwards. Rather than endeavor to suspension downwards why Geertz is so neat or what he covers in this book, I'grand just gonna include a couple of my favorite quotations:"Believing, with Max Weber, that man is an beast suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun, I take civilization to be those webs, and the analysis of it to exist therefore not an experimental science in search of laws, just an interpretive one in search of meaning." (5)
"...where an interpretation comes from does not determine where it can exist impelled to go." (23)
"it may be in the cultural particularities of people - in their oddities - that some of the well-nigh instructive revelations of what it is to be generically human are to exist constitute." (43)
In particular his essay "The Touch on of the Concept of Civilization on the Concept of Man" gave me an entirely new perspective relative to the doctrine of the psychic unity of flesh.
There'due south no incertitude this is academic reading, but if there were ever a book that deserved to exist read by everyone interested in culture, this is it.
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A cultureless human being beingness would probably turn out to be not an intrinsically talented though unfulfilled ape, but a wholly mindless and consequentlyThe Interpretation of Cultures is a collection of Professor Geertz'southward writing, something of an introduction to the field of anthropology. I was able to appoint with the bulk of this work, which is always a positive for an academic product. He remarked that culture and human development are symbiotic, interrelated; take the culture abroad and we are . . . ?
A cultureless human being would probably plough out to be non an intrinsically talented though unfulfilled ape, but a wholly mindless and consequently unworkable monstrosity. Similar the cabbage it then much resembles, the Man sapiens encephalon, having arisen within the framework of human civilization, would not be feasible outside of it.Practice nosotros think this is really the case?
Professor Geertz offers upwardly a whole lot of reflection on Indonesian civilisation, especially religious practices. Put in association with Bridegroom R. O'G. Anderson's work, Imagined Communities, previously reviewed elsewhere, I at present wonder if that place is some kind of mother lode for social scientists. This work so delves further into Balinese society, ultimately to cockfighting, which is virtually every bit ground level equally an observer can get. Do yous recollect the all-time mode to understand Americans today might be to research professional wrestling? If so, to researchers interested in investigating this corner of our culture, I might provide some insight into the careers of Dick The Bruiser or Pretty Male child Bobby Heenan, later known every bit Bobby The Encephalon Heenan.
I constitute the word of both ideology and nationalism particularly relevant to our contempo political experience. I imagine that many social scientists through the years have presumed that the era of enlightenment would lessen the importance of parochial and ideological movements, that multiculturalism, free trade and globalism would rid us of the pernicious factions, observed historically beyond then many dimensions. Non so, it turns out. Rather, it seems those in command or seeking command take figured out that these powerful themes remain and accept get ever more adept at the subtle practice of mass manipulation to satisfy their narrow agendas.
Somewhere in the middle of this book, I did come to question where the lines are drawn among the social sciences. Psychology, history, sociology, economic science, political science, anthropology, and, as Professor Geertz remarked, fifty-fifty soothsaying, all seem to exist in ambiguous corridors of idea. Where does psychology stop and economics begin, for instance. Maybe at that place should only exist one social science, the sub-disciplines being inventions of the career-minded? Does anyone know where I might obtain a degree in soothsaying? That seems the nearly practical of all.
Professor Geertz commented on the writing of Claude Lévi-Strauss, noting some of the same themes that crossed my mind when I read Tristes Tropiques, besides reviewed elsewhere. Professor Geertz is a much ameliorate writer, or maybe his voice carries the weight of greater authority, or both.
What, after all, is 1 to make of savages? Fifty-fifty now, after three centuries of debate on the affair—whether they are noble, bestial, or even as you and I; whether they reason every bit we exercise, are sunk in a demented mysticism, or are possessors of higher forms of truth we have in our avarice lost; whether their customs, from cannibalism to matriliny, are mere alternatives, no better and no worse, to our own, or crude precursors of our own now outmoded, or but passing strange, impenetrable exotica amusing to collect; whether they are bound and we are gratis, or we are bound and they are free—subsequently all this nosotros still don't know.It'southward all part of trying to brand sense of our existence, which is why I think I'll proceed to read more books in this subject. It's likely I'll never reach a conclusion. ...more
Only subsequently would I realize how big a threat Geertz posed to the inter generational project of legitimizing anthropology to the scientific community. Several of my mentors regarded him with at least a little scorn.
Like all the great ethnographers, he emerged from his fieldwork Geertz threw down the gauntlet at social science, defining a generation of anthropologists in the process. When I first read this text back in college, I was enticed by the logic and liberation of his "thick description."
Only afterwards would I realize how big a threat Geertz posed to the inter generational project of legitimizing anthropology to the scientific community. Several of my mentors regarded him with at to the lowest degree a little scorn.
Like all the great ethnographers, he emerged from his fieldwork with not but insights of his host culture, but also with a key for understanding the homo status. Limitations and miscalculations aside, this text matters considering, like Boas, Mead, Levi-Strauss, et al, it rebirthed the enterprise. ...more
I especially liked "Ritual and Social Alter: A Javanese Example." Information technology describes how a funeral in a village became an consequence of confusion and unhappiness considering of changing times — non so much modernization per se
I came dorsum from Indonesia in 2012 all ready to read Geertz, but I never got around to it until now. This collection of essays around the concept of culture — what is it, and how can/should nosotros study it? — is a classic that holds up very well. (Caveat emptor: I'm non an anthropologist.)I especially liked "Ritual and Social Change: A Javanese Instance." Information technology describes how a funeral in a village became an effect of confusion and unhappiness because of irresolute times — not then much modernization per se as the development of politics. The people of the village always had Muslim funerals, presided over by a human being qualified to do so. But as new political parties arose afterward independence, some parties are distinctly Muslim and some are not. Equally the family of the deceased belonged to a non-Muslim political faction, it became obvious that they were other than Muslim, and the presiding young man declined to direct the rituals. But there was no other kind of funeral, and no one to run one, and the family unit really wanted the typical Muslim affair. It was a fascinating case, as are most of those in the book.
I was disappointed past "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight," which is equitably famous, but not equally interesting to me every bit many of the other essays here. Anything about ideology and its human relationship to culture seemed particularly relevant in today'south Us (2018) — sadly enough. Anything about religion was immensely interesting to me. I was as well struck, repeatedly, by Geertz's references to other scholars, past and contemporary, and the apparent depth of his familiarity with their work.
I think the dullest essay was "The Integrative Revolution," most the evolution of several of what Geertz called "the new states" (Indonesia, Malaya, Burma, India, Lebanon, Morocco, Nigeria), mainly because information technology was much less virtually culture and more about how the states were shaping up every bit states, post-colonially. That reminds me, though, that I actually enjoyed reading what Geertz had to say about Morocco. I might seek out more than of what he wrote about that country, where he as well did fieldwork.
Overall, I'm very glad to have read this. It's been especially interesting to be reading Bridegroom Anderson'due south A Life Beyond Boundaries for the last calendar week as I finished the final few essays in this book.
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But whatever, I defy anyone to read "Deep Play: Notes on the Balin
Okay, I acknowledge your reservations about Clifford Geertz. Lots of people have reservations nigh Clifford Geertz. Bridegroom Anderson, for example, has reservations well-nigh Clifford Geertz, as practise I. I acknowledge your business that Geertz'due south "semiotic arroyo to the study of culture" may be inherently--irredeemably--slippery, woolly-headed flimflam papered over with a raft of highbrow references and a better than boilerplate prose mannerBut whatever, I defy anyone to read "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight," the final essay in this collection, without laughing aloud. And isn't that why we read anthropology, for the yuks?
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Even so, if y'all re-read certain essays you tin have away some very important messages from Geertz that have proven to exist foundations social anthropology today. His analyses of organized religion, ideology and the politics of meaning intermission down the subjects into their respective elements, tracing each 1 to its sociopolitical roots every bit a construct of culture. He paints the caveats of biological development in conjunction with the development of culture excellently, presenting t
This book tin can be a fleck dense.Nevertheless, if you re-read certain essays you can take abroad some very important letters from Geertz that take proven to be foundations social anthropology today. His analyses of religion, ideology and the politics of meaning break down the subjects into their respective elements, tracing each one to its sociopolitical roots as a construct of culture. He paints the caveats of biological evolution in conjunction with the development of culture excellently, presenting that the ii are not mutually exclusive.
Would definitely recommend this book to someone who is willing to have their time.
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Several of the essays, such as "Thick Description," I assume must exist somewhat standard reading material in anthropology, and for good reason.
"The Growth of Culture and the Development of Listen" is an intriguing essay, and as a synthesis of (at the time) cut edge ideas, serves every bit a very representative sample of the trend toward dynamical : semblances of culture in other species (citing DeVore with respect to non-homo primates, but run across "The Biology of Traditions" by Fragaszy & Perry for a more recent foray); ideas of neural evolution strongly informed past Hebb and others which are still clearly dominant today, including what sounds similar an early formulation of 'flow'; early on hints of Sutton's "Bitter Truth"; the notion of thinking being a public act, with private thought a derivative (to my surprise I have non seen this thought direct taken up or challenged in the context of social cognition e.g. Michael Tomasello; nor in the wistful and phenomenological sciences); imaginal thinking every bit an implement of what we at present call 'predictive coding'; cogitating thought and its connection to insight and aporia; and ultimately, the very Geertzian conclusion that human noesis relies on "the accessibility of public symbolic structures to build upwardly its ain autonomous, ongoing pattern of activity."
"Religion as a Cultural System" is, as well, a tour de forcefulness and a must read for anyone interested in contemplative sciences or religious studies; and I should think very much aligned with what Vervaeke calls "religio" (a sort-of semiotic binding of oneself to the earth which is taken to, a priori, orient our way of perception and action).
"Ethos, Globe View, and the Analysis of Sacred Symbols" takes this semiotic binding into the concree, with Geertz dissecting many fascinating aspects of Javanese organized religion.
"Ideology as a Cultural System" is another delightful read, and very enlightening to read. Credo is perennial. but reading this in 2020 does feel timely. The balance of Function IV is largely focused on the "new states" as of the time of writing (Indonesia, Malaya, Burma, Bharat, Lebanon, Morocco, and Nigeria). This is a very piercing analysis, and a practiced primer for someone largely unfamiliar with the politics in these countries in the twentieth century.
Part V contains three miscellaneous essays, which are quite a bit lighter and more fun to read. "Person, Time, and Conduct in Bali" is a really compelling breakdown of how the Balinese perceive others; and "Deep Play" as others have remarked, can perhaps but be described as a romp.
"All ethnography is role philosophy, and a adept bargain of the residuum is confession."
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While he talks about unlike religious beliefs around the globe, doing some unique (and "excellent") comparisons and contrasts, he focuses mostly on Bali, Indonesia, and Morocco, as those are the countries in which he spent most of his time away, studying other cultures. He has some interesting viewpoints, observations, and anecdotes throughout the entire book. As well, he came across every bit trying to be respectful of all religious beliefs, too, which was interesting to read.
One affair that stood out to me over the course of the entire book was when he said "early on" that "we don't know what we call up until nosotros run across what nosotros say." Probably one of the 'best quotes' in the book, in my opinion. In whatever case, the book was filled with splendid observations, quotable lines, and memorable observations.
This book was quite readable; that being the case, in that location was a lot that I am sure went over my caput (even if only because I exercise not normally think in terms of the manner the book was written). Information technology gave me headaches more than than in one case while reading, simply I think the headaches were worth it (in the end, 'cause I assumed they meant my encephalon was working 'hard' to empathize what was being said and/or presented in the book). Each chapter is cleaved up into 5 subsections, and each subsection builds upon the one prior. I would say there were more 'humorous moments' toward the end of the book, because he told more anecdotal stories about his experiences while living amongst the indigenous people he was studying. All in all, it was a fun, fascinating book to read, and I could easily run across myself reading it again (partly considering of how much I am certain I missed the first time effectually). I am glad I took the time to finish reading it.
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Some essays practise stand up out: 'Religion every bit a cultural organisation' offers interesting analysis of the function that sacred symbols play in "synthesiz[ing] a people'south east
Roughly equal parts interesting and exhausting, sometimes skewing more towards the latter. As a collection of essays written at different times, the book repeats many points and circles back to discussions, and the overall themes and messages are rendered vague - helped only slightly by the introduction intended to tie the essays together.Some essays do stand out: 'Organized religion as a cultural organisation' offers interesting analysis of the role that sacred symbols play in "synthesiz[ing] a people's ethos and their world view", besides as providing an anthropological definition of religion no doubt useful to many unlike academic fields; "(1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a full general order of existence and (iv) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic." 'Ideology as a cultural system' also stood out to me as all the same worthy of interest, concluding that "Whatsoever else ideologies may be – projections of unacknowledged fears, disguises for ulterior motive, phatic expressions of group solidarity – they are, most distinctly, maps of problematic social reality and matrices for the creation of collective consciousness." 'Person, time, and conduct in Bali' is a great exploration of an interesting cultural pattern and example of how human being idea itself is "consummately social". Finally, the famous 'Deep Play: Notes on a Balinese Cockfight' is as interesting as its continued fame would propose (the latter ii essays being the two about readable - only also longest - capacity in the book in my opinion).
Overall, though, to a not-anthropology student similar myself, the book seems dated (compiled in the 70s, the essays themselves written in the 60s) and tiring (not helped by my decision to take notes and wait up some of the half-explained theories Geertz discusses). To anyone who, like me, is interested by the premise but not shackled into an anthropology course, I would recommend merely reading the intro and then the iv chapters I mentioned.
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The Indonesian case studies were most entertaining for me. Who knew Balinese people have v different names (none of which is a surname)? And the last chapter is the culmination of information technology all: cock-fights on Bali (and yes, they are cruel, just this is a volume on anthropology, non animate being rights). If, like me, you are wary of anthropological jargon, just read the last chapter (or find it online). ...more than
Still, when The Interp
Truth be told, I found the heart sections of this text to be rather underwhelming. The pages and pages of ethnographical investigations were and then awash in detail that the notable contributions to social theory were obscured. Geertz states up front that this book is based off a collection of scholarly articles, and I suspect that therein lies the trouble: what in journal articles constitutes scholarship and rigor makes for overly-technical and disjointed book-length chapters.Nevertheless, when The Estimation of Cultures is practiced, information technology is really good. The first chapter'due south handling of methodological challenges in the social sciences, the sections dealing with philosophical anthropology, and the classic business relationship of cockfights in Bali (even if the literary allusions were a petty melodramatic) are among the best examples of cultural anthropology that I take encountered. Recommended, but best read selectively.
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