the interpretation of cultures by clifford geertz summary

Geertz died of complications following heart surgery in October of 2006.

'Deep Play' is his most famous essay, as it puts on display Geertz's predilection for thick description – or explaining reasons behind human action with as much detail as possible. During these years, he published and edited a number of important anthropological studies that established him as an Indonesianist and a theorist of symbolic anthropology. He remained at Princeton for 30 years before becoming a professor emeritus. In 1970, he joined the faculty at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study as a professor of social science. He later returned to Indonesia to conduct fieldwork in Bali and Sumatra.įrom 1960 to 1970, Geertz taught at the University of Chicago in their anthropology department. They are dramatic affairs which involve elaborate processes of subterfuge. Deep fights run for high bets and usually occur between upper-class individuals. This is a collection of essays which attempt to push forward a particular view of what culture is, what role it plays in social life and how it ought to be. The first long-term fieldwork Geertz conducted was in Java, Indonesia with his first wife Hildred. In his essay, Geertz uses the fights to analyze the culture, representing their various values and fears through their recreation and competition. Geertz went on to earn a doctor of philosophy in anthropology from Harvard University in 1956. He attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio where he received a bachelor of arts in philosophy.

Geertz was born in San Francisco in 1926 and served in the United States Navy during the Second World War.

He is best known for his advocacy of symbolic anthropology, an anthropological methodology that focuses on symbols as vehicles for cultural interpretation. Clifford Geertz was an American anthropologist.

The interpretation of cultures by clifford geertz summary