Clifford Geertz
Clifford Geertz was an American anthropologist who is remembered for his strong influence on the field of cultural anthropology. He is best known for his work on symbolic anthropology and his concept of 'thick description,' which emphasizes the importance of context in understanding human behavior.
Books
This list of books are ONLY the books that have been ranked on the lists that are aggregated on this site. This is not a comprehensive list of all books by this author.
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1. The Interpretation Of Cultures
Selected Essays
The book in question is a seminal work in the field of cultural anthropology, offering a collection of essays that introduce an interpretive approach to understanding cultures. The author argues for a deeper analysis of the symbols and meanings that constitute a society's fabric, suggesting that culture is a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms. Through a series of case studies and theoretical discussions, the work emphasizes the importance of thick description—a detailed account of cultural practices—to grasp the context and nuances of social actions. The book challenges readers to consider the complexities of cultural interpretation and the anthropologist's role in deciphering the intricate webs of significance that define human life.
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2. The Religion Of Java
An ethnographic portrait of mid-20th-century Javanese religious life, tracing how three intertwined cultural streams—abangan (folk-syncretic), santri (orthodox-reformist Islam), and priyayi (Hindu-Buddhist–tinged aristocratic ethos)—shape everyday rituals such as the slametan, relations with spirits and healers, mosque and pesantren practice, and patterns of status and power. Through close observation in a single town, it shows how belief and social structure reinforce one another and how colonial legacies, economic change, and nationalism were reshaping identities and communal solidarities.
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3. Local Knowledge
Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology
A collection of essays that advances interpretive anthropology by arguing that human societies are best understood through the locally situated meanings embedded in symbols, rituals, and everyday practices. It examines how law, art, common sense, and science are culturally constructed, critiques universal theories that ignore context, and frames social inquiry as a form of translation between forms of life. Emphasizing blurred boundaries among disciplines and an anti–anti-relativist stance, it contends that knowledge is partial, context-bound, and grasped through thick description rather than universal laws.
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