Geertz, Clifford James

▪ 2007

      American cultural anthropologist (b. Aug. 23, 1926, San Francisco, Calif.—d. Oct. 30, 2006, Philadelphia, Pa.), was a leading rhetorician and proponent of symbolic anthropology and interpretive anthropology. After service (1943–45) in the U.S. Navy in World War II, Geertz studied at Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio (B.A., 1950), and Harvard University (Ph.D., 1956). He taught or held fellowships at a number of schools before serving (1960–70) on the anthropology staff of the University of Chicago he became (1970) professor of social science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. At Chicago, Geertz became a champion of symbolic anthropology, which gives prime attention to the role of thought—of “symbols”—in society. Symbols guide action. Culture, according to Geertz, is “a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life.” The function of culture is to impose meaning on the world and make it understandable. The role of anthropologists is to try—though complete success is not possible—to interpret the guiding symbols of each culture. Geertz's writings tended to be rhetorical and idiosyncratic, more given to metaphors and examples than bald exposition. Among his major works were The Religion of Java (1960), Person, Time, and Conduct in Bali (1966), The Interpretation of Cultures (1973), Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology (1983), and Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author (1988).

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