Clifford Geertz Definition Of Culture

Culture is shared learned human behavior a way of life.

Clifford geertz definition of culture. Culture is the way humans solve problems of adapting to the environment or living together. Geertz defines culture as webs of significance a symbolic system and a historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols 89 and thereby he calls for an interpretive methodology in search of meaning 5. Clifford james geertz ɡɜːrts listen. Anthropologist clifford geertz 1926 2006 is a well known name within religion studies for his understanding of religion being a cultural system this he articulated in his essay religion as a cultural system 1966 where he examined anthropological approaches to religion.

Following ryle geertz holds that anthropology s task is that of explaining cultures through thick description which specifies many details conceptual structures and meanings and which is opposed to thin description which is a factual account without any interpretation. Geertz is not an idealist even though his sense of culture may beconsidered ideational in the broadest sense of the term. Is essentially a semioticone. Concept of culture around which the whole discipline of anthropology arose and whose domination that discipline has been increasingly con cerned to limit specify focus and contain.

In attempting to lay out the various meanings attached to the word culture clifford geertz refers to the important anthropologicalwork clyde kluckhohn s mirror for man in which the following meanings are suggested. One of the key terms in clifford geertz s anthropological theory is that of thick description. August 23 1926 october 30 2006 was an american anthropologist who is remembered mostly for his strong support for and influence on the practice of symbolic anthropology and who was considered for three decades the single most influential cultural anthropologist in the united states. The concept of culture i espouse.

Culture is ideals values or rules for living. 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.