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The Interpretation Of Cultures (Basic Books Classics)
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 301.2
EAN: 9780465097197
ISBN: 0465097197
Label: Basic Books
Manufacturer: Basic Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 480
Publication Date: May 18, 1977
Publisher: Basic Books
Studio: Basic Books
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Editorial Review:
In The Interpretation of Cultures, the most original anthropologist of his generation moved far beyond the traditional confines of his discipline to develop an important new concept of culture. This groundbreaking book, winner of the 1974 Sorokin Award of the American Sociological Association, helped define for an entire generation of anthropologists what their field is ultimately about.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Dated and irritating in places
Geertz has done much to enrich our understanding of societies, and the role ideas and beliefs play within them. But shouldn't an anthopologist, of all people, also be evaluated for how fairly s/he looks at other cultures? And here I think work like some contained in this book is indefensible.
How can essentializing, stereotyping garbage like this be sold by anyone as great anthropology? From the last essay in the collection, "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight":
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Rating:  - An Academic Giant
This is a book for scholars but it is very readable and will definitely throw you into what anthropology is (should be?) about. You might have to read through each essay a couple of times to make sure you understood the points he was making, but it's not annoying to do because the points he is making are so excellent.
One of the best book purchases I have ever made.
Rating: - An Imperative Classic
"Man is an animal 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 us 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 ... Read More
Rating: - From Universals to Particulars
The Interpretation of Culture by Clifford Geertz is concerned with articulating a particular view of what culture is, what role it plays in social life, and proposes a methodology with which it should be studied. Geertz posits that culture should not be seen as a science in search of law but instead as an interpretation in search of meaning. "The concept of culture I espouse, and whose utility the essays below attempt to demonstrate, is essentially a semiotic one. Believing, with Max Weber, that man is ... Read More
Rating: - Just a Continuation of Anti-Progressive, Anti-Science
In the typical post-modernist sense, Geertz seeks to cast doubt on everything without leaving us with anything in place. Just like other post modernists, his theories are so vague, poorly stated, and in generally strange that they cannot be proved right or wrong. Even if he, like other post-modernists, is right, we do not gain anything but perhaps a somewhat edited understanding of our world.
The field of cultural anthropology in and of itself is a "shady" field. The lack of biological evidence ... Read More
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