NATAMST 110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Clifford Geertz, Thick Description, Ethnography

• School: Berkeley
• Department: Native American Studies
• Course: NATAMST 110
• Professor: Diane Pearson

Document Summary

Thick description: toward an interpretive theory of culture borrowing from anthropology. Part 1: culture web according to geertz. Anthropology rose from the concept & interest in culture. Pushes for culture to be reduced to size, which reinforces its importance. Believes that man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun, i take culture to be that web . The web needs to be interpreted in search of meaning . Ethnographic is not just observing or collecting information, he believes that a more elaborate attempt could be made by using a thick description which carries schein, et al farther into meaningful cultural research. Thin description might be : he is "rapidly contracting his right eyelids. " Thick description would be a more deep description: "practicing a burlesque of a friend faking a wink to deceive an innocent into thinking a conspiracy is in motion. Culture is more than just habits, skills, or patterns.