Clifford Geertz

Clifford James Geertz (born August 23, 1926 in San Francisco) is an American cultural anthropologist, one of the most influential anthropologists in the second half of the twentieth century, famous for his work on cultural symbols and meaning.

Life

Clifford Geertz was born in San Francisco in 1926. He was the editor of his high school newspaper and wanted to become a journalist. However, when World War II broke out he decided to join the U.S. Navy. After the service (1943-1945), Geertz enrolled at Antioch College, where he received an A.B. in 1950, with a major in philosophy. He married soon after, and together with his wife was accepted to Harvard University to study anthropology, receiving his Ph.D. in 1956.

Geertz taught or held fellowships at a number of schools: Center for International Studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1957), Stanford University (1958-59), and the University of California Berkeley (1958-60). In 1960, he joined the anthropology staff of the University of Chicago, where he stayed as a professor of anthropology for ten years—from 1960 to 1970. During those years Geertz studied the culture of Java, publishing several minor works, which described in detail Javanese history and economy. In 1960, he wrote his famous The Religion of Java, and throughout the 1960s several other works that dealt with Asian and African cultures. His wife conducted research on kinship and family.

Geertz became professor of social science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton from 1970-2000, where he published his most famous works. From 2000, he became professor emeritus there. In addition, he served as Eastman Professor at Oxford University from 1978 to 1979. During the 1970s, Geertz started to deal with global principles in anthropology, resulting in his book The Interpretation of Cultures in 1973, which discussed the role of the anthropologist in cultural studies. During this period he made numerous field trips to Java, Bali, Sumatra, Celebes, and Morocco, writing several books on the cultures he met there. During 1980s and 1990s Geertz continued to research those cultures, but his focus shifted more toward study of methodological approaches to anthropology and ethnography.

Geertz received a L.H.D. from Bates College in 1980, and numerous honorary degrees and awards.

Work

At the University of Chicago, Geertz became a "champion of symbolic anthropology," which gives prime attention to the role of thought (or "symbols") in society. Culture, outlined by Geertz in his famous book The Interpretation of Cultures (1973), is conceived of "a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which people communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life." The function of culture is therefore to impose meaning on the world and make it understandable. As Geertz puts it himself:

The concept of culture I espouse. . . is essentially a semiotic one. 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 interpretative one in search of meaning. It is explication I am after. . . . (pp. 4-5)

The role of anthropologists is thus to try (though complete success is not possible) to interpret the guiding symbols of each culture. The anthropologist is like a literary critic who analyses a text—he needs to sort out "the structures of signification. . . and determining their social ground and import. . . . Doing ethnography is like trying to read (in the sense of 'construct a reading of') a manuscript. . . ."

Since every culture has its own web of distinctive symbols and subsequent meanings, the anthropologist needs to understand those meanings in order to understand the culture itself. In order to do that, the anthropologist must isolate the elements of culture, find the relationship among those elements, and characterize the whole system in some general way. The Mmeaning behind those systems is of utmost significance, and is the goal of anthropological inquiry.

Geertz has conducted extensive ethnographical research in Southeast Asia, especially Java and Bali, and in Morocco in North Africa. He has also contributed to social and cultural theory, and is still very influential in turning anthropology toward a concern with the frames of meaning within which various peoples live out their lives. His work has included research on religion, most particularly Islam, on bazaar trade, on economic development, on traditional political structures, on village and family life, and on the general question of ethnic diversity and its implications in the modern world.

Harvard professor and literary scholar Stephen Greenblatt has identified him as a strong influence, and Geertz acknowledges Greenblatt as a faithful interpreter of his work.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Chernus, Ira. n.d. Religion As A Cultural System: The Theory Of Clifford Geertz.

• Inglis, Fred. 2000. Clifford Geertz: Culture, Custom and Ethics. Polity Press. ISBN 0745621589

• Olson, Gary A. 1991. Clifford Geertz on Ethnography and Social Construction. JAC Online, 11, 2

• Ortner, Sherry B. 1999. The Fate of Culture: Geertz and Beyond. University of California Press. ISBN 0520216016

Bibliography

• Geertz, Clifford J. 1968. Pedlars and Princes: Social Development and Economic Change in Two Indonesian Towns University Of Chicago Press. (original published 1963). ISBN 0226285146

• Geertz, Clifford J. 1969. Agricultural Involution: The process of ecological change in Indonesia. University of California Press. (original published 1964). ISBN 0520004590

• Geertz, Clifford J. 1971. Islam Observed, Religious Development in Morocco and Indonesia. University Of Chicago Press. (original published 1968). ISBN 0226285111

• Geertz, Clifford J. 1976. The Religion of Java. University Of Chicago Press. (original published 1960). ISBN 0226285103

• Geertz, Clifford J. 1980. Negara: The Theater State in Nineteenth Century Bali. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691007780

• Geertz, Clifford J. 1990. Works and Lives. Stanford University Press. (original published 1988). ISBN 0804717478

• Geertz, Clifford J. 2000. The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books. (original published 1973). ISBN 0465097197

• Geertz, Clifford J. 2000. Local Knowledge. Basic Books. (original published 1983). ISBN 0465041620

External links

• HyperGeertz@WorldCatalogue - Complete bibliography in six languages (en, de, es, fr, it, nl), including all translations and reprints, as well as manuscripts and research reports

• Interview of Clifford Geertz - video

• Geertz biography – Short biography

• Clifford Geertz: A Life of Learning - Charles Homer Haskins Lecture in 1999 by Geertz

• Clifford Geertz - Biography

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