Geertz, Clifford

Julia M. Garrett

Chapter

Requires Authentication

Geertz, Clifford

Julia M. Garrett
Julia M. Garrett

Search for this author in:

De Gruyter De Gruyter Brill | Google Scholar

or

Purchase Chapter PDF

$42.00

Published by

View more publications by University of Toronto Press

To Publisher Page

This chapter is in the book Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory

Geertz- ed. The Scharnburg Library of iyth Century BlackWomen Writers. 30 vols. New York: Oxford UP,1988.- ed. Three Classic African-American Novels. NewYork: Random House, 1990.Geertz, Clifford(b. U.S.A., 1926-) Cultural anthropologist.Geertz is a leading authority on Bali, Java andMorocco and is best known outside his owndiscipline as the foremost theorist of culturalor interpretive anthropology. He has sought totransform ethnographic study by proceedingfrom a semiotic concept of culture, thus mak-ing cultural analysis 'not an experimental sci-ence in search of law but an interpretive onein search of meaning' (Interpretation of Cultures3). (See *semiotics.)Geertz received his Ph.D. from HarvardUniversity and carried out most of his field-work in Bali and Java during the 19505. Dur-ing his decade at the University of Chicago(1960-70) he pioneered what became knownas the 'symbolic anthropology' movement,serving as professor of anthropology and laterchairman of the Committee for the Compara-tive Study of New Nations. These were alsothe years of most of his fieldwork in Morocco.Since 1970 he has been professor of social sci-ence at the Institute for Advanced Study inPrinceton, New Jersey.Geertz's semiotic approach to ethnographicanalysis construes culture as a *text, somethingto be read and interpreted. Also present in thisrendering of social action as a document is theprimordial meaning of 'text' as somethingwoven, the idea of culture as an intricate 'fab-ric of meaning' (Interpretation of Cultures 145).Continuing with this analogy, culture as awhole consists of interwoven strands of var-ious symbol systems, defined according togeneral issues such as aesthetics, religion, law,or even common sense. Each symbol system isin turn composed of individual symbolic formsor signs, meaning 'any object, act, event, qual-ity, or relation which serves as a vehicle forconception' Interpretation of Cultures 91). (See*sign.)Culture, as the accumulated body of sym-bolic forms and systems, is socially constitutedand historically transmitted. It enables individ-uals not only to comprehend and interprettheir experience but also to express themselvesand direct their behaviour on the basis of suchjudgments. As a theory of human subjectivity,Geertz's concept of culture is thus a dialecticalone: culture is both 'a [historically evolving]product and a determinant of social interac-tion' (Interpretation of Cultures 250). In relationspecifically to aesthetic theory, this dialecticaldefinition of culture emphasizes the interactiverather than the mimetic aspect of art forms,which are understood to function as 'positiveagents in the creation and maintenance of [cul-tural sensibilities]' (Interpretation of Cultures451). (See *mimesis.)A common interest in semiotics would ini-tially appear to align Geertz with the structuralanthropologist *Claude Levi-Strauss, who firstapplied semiotic theory to anthropologicalanalysis. However, Geertz situates his workfirmly in opposition to *structuralism andother brands of *formalism, whose laws andstatic paradigms run the risk of reifying cul-tures and of obstructing the analysis of changewithin a given society. Geertz insists that cul-ture is above all a public rather than a merelyconceptual phenomenon. It is therefore mostaccurately understood through the varioussymbolic forms by which people make in-terpretive sense of themselves to themselves.Geertz has designated the practice of 'thickdescription' as the methodology of culturalanalysis and hence the essence of ethnogra-phy. His essay 'Deep Play: Notes on the Ba-linese Cockfight' (Interpretation of Cultures)remains the best-known demonstration of thispractice. Thick description often begins withwhat might be called 'thin' description, the de-tailed but essentially superficial presentation ofa specific cultural artefact: perhaps an anec-dote, a local custom, an incident, an institu-tion, or a historical episode. This description is'thickened' when it gives way to analysis andinterpretation, when the cultural artefact be-comes a text to be read. In an elaborately me-ticulous fashion the ethnographer proceeds to'unpack' this text by examining the symbolsystems that inform it, working through thelayers of conceptual structures, social institu-tions, local conventions, and individual mo-tives which make that isolated artefact - nowviewed as a text - meaningful. In short, theethnographer endeavours to set particularevents within the circumstances of their sig-nificance, the contexts which give themresonance. Notwithstanding such analytical331

You are currently not able to access this content.

Not sure if you should have access? Please log in using an institutional account to see if you have access to view or download this content.

Purchase Chapter PDF

$42.00

Geertz- ed. The Scharnburg Library of iyth Century BlackWomen Writers. 30 vols. New York: Oxford UP,1988.- ed. Three Classic African-American Novels. NewYork: Random House, 1990.Geertz, Clifford(b. U.S.A., 1926-) Cultural anthropologist.Geertz is a leading authority on Bali, Java andMorocco and is best known outside his owndiscipline as the foremost theorist of culturalor interpretive anthropology. He has sought totransform ethnographic study by proceedingfrom a semiotic concept of culture, thus mak-ing cultural analysis 'not an experimental sci-ence in search of law but an interpretive onein search of meaning' (Interpretation of Cultures3). (See *semiotics.)Geertz received his Ph.D. from HarvardUniversity and carried out most of his field-work in Bali and Java during the 19505. Dur-ing his decade at the University of Chicago(1960-70) he pioneered what became knownas the 'symbolic anthropology' movement,serving as professor of anthropology and laterchairman of the Committee for the Compara-tive Study of New Nations. These were alsothe years of most of his fieldwork in Morocco.Since 1970 he has been professor of social sci-ence at the Institute for Advanced Study inPrinceton, New Jersey.Geertz's semiotic approach to ethnographicanalysis construes culture as a *text, somethingto be read and interpreted. Also present in thisrendering of social action as a document is theprimordial meaning of 'text' as somethingwoven, the idea of culture as an intricate 'fab-ric of meaning' (Interpretation of Cultures 145).Continuing with this analogy, culture as awhole consists of interwoven strands of var-ious symbol systems, defined according togeneral issues such as aesthetics, religion, law,or even common sense. Each symbol system isin turn composed of individual symbolic formsor signs, meaning 'any object, act, event, qual-ity, or relation which serves as a vehicle forconception' Interpretation of Cultures 91). (See*sign.)Culture, as the accumulated body of sym-bolic forms and systems, is socially constitutedand historically transmitted. It enables individ-uals not only to comprehend and interprettheir experience but also to express themselvesand direct their behaviour on the basis of suchjudgments. As a theory of human subjectivity,Geertz's concept of culture is thus a dialecticalone: culture is both 'a [historically evolving]product and a determinant of social interac-tion' (Interpretation of Cultures 250). In relationspecifically to aesthetic theory, this dialecticaldefinition of culture emphasizes the interactiverather than the mimetic aspect of art forms,which are understood to function as 'positiveagents in the creation and maintenance of [cul-tural sensibilities]' (Interpretation of Cultures451). (See *mimesis.)A common interest in semiotics would ini-tially appear to align Geertz with the structuralanthropologist *Claude Levi-Strauss, who firstapplied semiotic theory to anthropologicalanalysis. However, Geertz situates his workfirmly in opposition to *structuralism andother brands of *formalism, whose laws andstatic paradigms run the risk of reifying cul-tures and of obstructing the analysis of changewithin a given society. Geertz insists that cul-ture is above all a public rather than a merelyconceptual phenomenon. It is therefore mostaccurately understood through the varioussymbolic forms by which people make in-terpretive sense of themselves to themselves.Geertz has designated the practice of 'thickdescription' as the methodology of culturalanalysis and hence the essence of ethnogra-phy. His essay 'Deep Play: Notes on the Ba-linese Cockfight' (Interpretation of Cultures)remains the best-known demonstration of thispractice. Thick description often begins withwhat might be called 'thin' description, the de-tailed but essentially superficial presentation ofa specific cultural artefact: perhaps an anec-dote, a local custom, an incident, an institu-tion, or a historical episode. This description is'thickened' when it gives way to analysis andinterpretation, when the cultural artefact be-comes a text to be read. In an elaborately me-ticulous fashion the ethnographer proceeds to'unpack' this text by examining the symbolsystems that inform it, working through thelayers of conceptual structures, social institu-tions, local conventions, and individual mo-tives which make that isolated artefact - nowviewed as a text - meaningful. In short, theethnographer endeavours to set particularevents within the circumstances of their sig-nificance, the contexts which give themresonance. Notwithstanding such analytical331

You are currently not able to access this content.

Not sure if you should have access? Please log in using an institutional account to see if you have access to view or download this content.

Purchase Chapter PDF

$42.00