ANTH 103 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Clifford Geertz, Symbolic Anthropology, Cockfight
Document Summary
Similar to symbolic anthropology, and also affiliated with chicago university (and later with princeton university) is interpretive anthropology, with clifford geertz as its primary supporter. Geertz identified culture as ideas based on cultural learning and symbols, as mentioned in the "culture" chapter individuals internalize a collection of meanings and symbols previously defined during enculturation. They are using this cultural structure to challenge their environment, express their feelings, and make their decisions. Interpretive anthropology (geertz 1973, 1983) approaches cultures as records, in particular cultural and historical contexts whose mechanisms must be deciphered, and in particular their meanings. Geertz"s approach reinforces malinowski"s conviction that the ethnographer"s primary objective is "to recognize the local point of view, its relation to life, to acknowledge his understanding of his country" (1922/1961 malinowski"s. The role of interpretive anthropology since the 1970s has been to define and interpret what"s important to natives. Cultures are texts people continuously "read" and ethnographers need to decipher them.
