Clifford Geertz

Works and Lives

Essay on anthropological writing as interpretive, authorial practice shaped by perspective

About the author

Clifford Geertz
Clifford Geertz

American anthropologist who developed interpretive anthropology, arguing that culture should be read as a text rather than analyzed as a science. The Interpretation of Cultures introduced the concept of thick description. His essay on the Balinese cockfight is a classic of ethnographic writing.

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