Clifford Geertz - Interpretive Anthropology - 2636 Words

Social Anthropology Essay. How would you summarize Clifford Geertz’s contribution to the field of anthropology? Clifford Geertz I have chosen this essay on Geertz, as the information I received in class I found interesting and wanted to elaborate on the knowledge I already had. In this essay, I will be discussing Geertz’s contributions to anthropology, and what I have interpreted these contributions as myself. When looking at Geertz’s ideas and theories in Anthropology, some of these ideas and theories will include his theories on the web of relations and symbolism. Geertz also took the idea of theory and came up with new ideas to develop it further. What Geertz was trying to do by looking at symbolism was trying to break down the†¦show more content†¦The term ‘semiotic’ refers to the idea of culture and the understanding of it, through the decoding of signs and symbols. â€Å"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 not an experimental science in search of law but an interpretive one in search of meaning. It is explication I am after, construing social expressions on their surface enigmatical. (Geertz 1973p. 5).† This concept of culture being semiotic, as Geertz believed, I interpret it as he maintained that symbolism brought meaning and order to people’s lives. Geertz draws on other disciplined sciences like history, philosophy, psychology and literary criticism in order to assess and decode the meanings behind things such as art, institutions, values and beliefs and other symbols as he believes them to be. The interpreting of these signs and symbols for the ethnographer must be based on ‘thick description’ or else all the possible meanings will not be clear. We can also understand Geertz’s idea behind culture more within this as he believes that if the ethnographers can have a better understanding using thick description for these symbols, then different cultures will have an increased understanding of each other. Geertz was interested in making a distinction between thin and thick description.Show MoreRelatedSymbolic And Interpretive Anthropology Of The 1960 s And 1970890 Words   |  4 Pagesfield of symbolic and interpretive anthropology. 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Among such was the evolutionist theory implicatedRead MoreReligion As A Cultural System1033 Words   |  5 Pagesduring the mid-twentieth century, began to be influenced by ethnographers who went beyond library collections (pg.30, 2015). Clifford J. Geertz, examines the meaning of religious symbols and studies religion in complex, literate societies (pg.31 2015). Geertz more so viewed religion as a cultural system, and his role was to make sense of cultural systems through an interpretive/symbolic approach to religion (pg.31, 2015). His definition for religion through an emic perspective is â€Å" (1) a system whichRead MoreEvolution Of Language And The Brain1447 Words   |  6 PagesGraduate School of Education from 1977-1978 in Philosophy and Cognitive Development. Ultimately pursuing a Ph.D. from Harvard in Biological Anthropology from 1978-1984. Later he joined the Harvard faculty as an assistant professor of biological anthropology, he was promoted to an associate professor. In 1992 became an associate professor of biological anthropology at Boston University and he was an associate at McLean Hospital and the Harvard Medical School. Deacon’s special interests include bio-culturalRead MoreAn Article On Making Strange Exercise2635 Words   |  11 Pagesanyone who visits the house may suffer from smelly odour. Apart from these problems, it is still a house that is worth to purchase or rent. â€Æ' Why do ethnographic research? â€Å"What does the ethnographer do? ... He observes, he records, he analyzes† (Geertz, 1973, pp.19-20). This explanation shows the significance of observation in ethnographic research. Through close observing, researchers may learn to find their feet with the researched. Also, being an insider, ethnographers have a chance to investigateRead MoreMetropolis And Mental Life By Georg Simmel2554 Words   |  11 Pageshealthy workings of the university, church, scientific community, and other social organizations might be at odds with claims of collectivity as manifest in politics. (Boyd) Clifford Geertz his known for his writing â€Å"Thick Description: Toward and Interpretive Theory of Culture.† His work consists of mainly social anthropology. This type of work is based on ethnography, or the study of culture. For this purpose, culture is defined as symbols that guide community behavior. These symbols gain meaning