   |birth_place       = San Francisco |death_date        =  |death_place       = Philadelphia |residence         = |citizenship       = |nationality       = American |ethnicity         = |field             = Anthropology |work_institutions = Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey |alma_mater        = |doctoral_advisor  = |doctoral_students = James Siegel, James Boon, Lawrence Rosen, Abdellah Hammoudi }}  '''Clifford James Geertz''' (August 23, 1926, San Francisco – October 30, 2006, Philadelphia) was a highly influential 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'.C. Geertz, R. A. Shweder, and B. Good, ''Clifford Geertz by his Colleagues'' (Chicago 2005) p. 1 He served until his death as professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.  ==Life== Clifford James Geertz was born in San Francisco, California on August 23, 1926. After service in the U.S. Navy in World War II (1943–45), Geertz received his B.A. in Philosophy from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, OH in 1950, and his Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1956, where he had studied social anthropology in the Department of Social Relations. He taught or held fellowships at a number of schools before joining the anthropology staff of the University of Chicago (1960–70). He then became professor of social science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton from 1970 to 2000, then emeritus professor.  in Princeton, NJ]]  Geertz received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from some fifteen colleges and universities, including Harvard University, the University of Chicago and the University of Cambridge. He was married first to the anthropologist Hildred Geertz. After their divorce he married Karen Blu, also an anthropologist. Clifford Geertz died of complications following heart surgery on October 30, 2006.  ==Geertzian theory== At the University of Chicago, Geertz became a champion of symbolic anthropology, a framework which gives prime attention to the role of symbols in constructing public meaning. In his seminal work ''The Interpretation of Cultures'' (1973), Geertz outlined culture as &quot;a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which people communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life&quot; (1973:89).  Geertz believed the role of anthropologists was to try to interpret the guiding symbols of each culture. He was considered quite innovative in this regard, as he was one of the earliest scholars to see that the insights provided by common language, philosophy and literary analysis could have major explanatory force in the social sciences.  His oft-cited essay &quot;Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight&quot; is the classic example of thick description. Thick description is anthropological practice of explaining with as much detail as possible the reason behind human actions. For example one could say a man winked. However, this would not explain why he winked: was he flirting, did he have something in his eye, was he trying to communicate irony in what he had just said...these are the questions an anthropologist must answer.   During Geertz's long career, he worked through a variety of theoretical phases and schools of thought. In 1957, Geertz wrote that &quot;The drive to make sense out of experience, to give it form and order, is evidently as real and pressing as the more familiar biological needs...&quot;, a statement which reflects an early leaning toward functionalism. Accordingly, in his early career Geertz considered anthropology a kind of science. This is in contrast to Geertz's later enthusiasm for an interpretive approach. In his later work, Geertz spoke particularly of the difficulties that ethnographic research has in getting at an adequate description of objective reality. Geertz attributed this to the fact that people tell ethnographers what they believe to be their own motivations, but those people's actions then often seem to contradict their statements to the researcher. Geertz believed this effect occurred partly due to the problems that people have in verbalizing aspects of their life that they usually take for granted, partly due to how ethnographers structure their research approaches and frameworks, and partly due to the inherent complexity of the social order.  ===Family resemblances and consociates===  Geertz imported the concept of '&quot;family resemblances&quot;...into anthropology from the post-analytic philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, just as he also introduced Alfred Schutz's...distinctions among predecessors, consociates, contemporaries and successors, distinctions that have become commonplace in anthropology'Geertz, Shweder, Good, (2005) p. 68 in his wake. Geertz stressed how the links between 'consociate-contemporary-predecessor-successor...[derive from] the ''umwelt''-''mitwelt''-''vorwelt''-''vogelwelt'' formulation'Clifford Geertz, ''The Interpretation of Culture'' (London 1993) p. 367n of Schutz's phenomenology.  ==Fieldwork== Geertz conducted extensive ethnographical research in Southeast Asia and North Africa. He also contributed to social and cultural theory and is still very influential in turning anthropology toward a concern with the frames of meaning within which various peoples live out their lives. He worked on religion, most particularly Islam, on bazaar trade, on economic development, on traditional political structures, and on village and family life. At the time of his death he was working on the general question of ethnic diversity and its implications in the modern world.  ==Legacy== Geertz's ideas had a strong influence on 20th century academia. Aside from his influence on anthropology, Geertz' landmark contributions to social and cultural theory were also influential for geographers, ecologists, political scientists, humanists, and historians. University of Miami Professor Daniel Pals wrote of Geertz in 1996, &quot;His critics are few; his admirers legion.&quot;   ==Interlocutors== *Stephen Greenblatt *Robert Darnton *Mark R. Woodward  ==Major publications== * &quot;Religion as a Cultural System&quot;. In ''Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion''. Ed. Michael Banton. pp.&amp;nbsp;1–46. ASA Monographs, 3. London: Tavistock Publications. 1966 * ''[ The Religion of Java]'' (1960), University Of Chicago Press 1976 paperback: ISBN 0-226-28510-3 * ''[ Peddlers and Princes: Social Development and Economic Change in Two Indonesian Towns]'' (1963), University Of Chicago Press 1968 paperback: ISBN 0-226-28514-6 * ''Agricultural Involution: the process of ecological change in Indonesia'' (1964) * ''Islam Observed, Religious Development in Morocco and Indonesia'' (1968), University Of Chicago Press 1971 paperback: ISBN 0-226-28511-1 * ''The Interpretation of Cultures'' (1973), Basic Books 2000 paperback: ISBN 0-465-09719-7 *''Kinship in Bali'' (1975) coauthor: Hildred Geertz, University Of Chicago Press 1978 paperback: ISBN 0-226-28516-2 * ''[ Negara: The Theatre State in Nineteenth Century Bali]'' (1980), Princeton University Press 2001 paperback: ISBN 0-691-00778-0 * ''[ Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology]'' (1983), Basic Books 2000 paperback: ISBN 0-465-04162-0 * &quot;Anti-Anti-Relativism&quot; (1984), ''American Anthropologist'', vol. 86, no. 2, pp.&amp;nbsp;263–278. * ''Works and Lives: The Anthropologist As Author'' (1988), Stanford University Press 1990 paperback: ISBN 0-8047-1747-8 * ''[ After the Fact: Two Countries, Four Decades, One Anthropologist]'', Harvard University Press 1995 paperback: ISBN 0-674-00872-3 * ''[ Available Light: Anthropological Reflections on Philosophical Topics]'', Princeton University Press 2000 paperback: ISBN 0-691-08956-6 * &quot;An inconstant profession: The anthropological life in interesting times&quot; (2002), ''Annual Review of Anthropology'', vol. 31, pp.&amp;nbsp;1–19 [ Viewable at hypergeertz.jku.at]  ===Chronologial list of works by Clifford Geertz=== *1957  Ritual and Social Change: A Javanese Example. American Anthropologist 59(1):32-54. *1959  Form and Variation in Balinese Village Structure. American Anthropologist 61:991-1012. *1959  The Javanese Village. In Local, Ethnic, and National Loyalties in Village Indonesia. Ed. G. William Skinner. pp.&amp;nbsp;34–41. New Haven: Southeast Asian Program, Yale University. *1960  Religion of Java. Glencoe: Free Press. *1961  The Rotating Credit Association: A &quot;Middle Rung&quot; in Development. Economic Development and Cultural Change 10:241-263. *1962  Studies in Peasant Life: Community and Society. In Biennial Review of Anthropology 1961. Ed. Bernard J. Siegal. pp.&amp;nbsp;1–41. Stanford: Stanford University Press. *1962  The Growth of Culture and the Evolution of Mind. In Theories of the Mind. Ed. J. Scher. pp.&amp;nbsp;713–740. New York: Free Press. *1963  Agricultural Involution: The Process of Agricultural Change in Indonesia. Berkeley: University of California Press. *1963  Peddlers and Princes: Social Change and Economic Modernization in Two Indonesian Towns. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. *1963  (editor) Old Societies and New States. New York: Free Press. *1963  The Integrative Revolution: Primordial Sentiments and Civil Politics in the New States. In Old Societies and New States. Ed. Clifford Geertz. pp.&amp;nbsp;105–157. Glencoe: Free Press. *1964  Ideology as a Cultural System. In Ideology and Discontent. Ed. David Apter. pp.&amp;nbsp;47–76. New York: Free Press. *1965  The Social History of an Indonesian Town. Cambridge: MIT Press. *1966  Person, Time, and Conduct in Bali: An Essay in Cultural Analysis. Southeast Asia Program, Cultural Report Series. New Haven: Yale University. *1966  Religion as a Cultural System. In Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion. Ed. Michael Banton. pp.&amp;nbsp;1–46. ASA Monographs, 3. London: Tavistock Publications. *1966  The Impact of the Concept of Culture on the Concept of Mind. In New Views of the Nature of Man. Ed. J. Platt. pp.&amp;nbsp;93–118. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. *1967  Politics Past, Politics Preset: Some Notes on the Contribution of Anthropology to the Study of the New States. European Journal of Sociology 8(1):1-14. *1967  The Cerebral Savage: On the Work of Claude Levi-Strauss. Encounter 48(4):25-32. *1967  Tihingan: A Balinese Village. In Villages in Indonesia. Ed. R. N. Koentjaraningrat. pp.&amp;nbsp;210–243. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. *1967  Under the Mosquito Net. New York Review of Books, September 14. *1968  Islam Observed: Religious Development in Morocco and Indonesia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 136 pp. *1968  Thinking as a Moral Act: Dimensions of Anthropological Fieldwork in the New States. Antioch Review 28(2):139-158. *1972  Religious Change and Social Order in Soeharto's Indonesia. Asia 27:62-84. *1972  The Wet and the Dry: Traditional Irrigation in Bali and Morocco. Human Ecology 1:34-39. *1972  Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight. Daedalus 101(1 Winter). *1973  The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. New York: Basic. *1973  Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture. In The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. Clifford Geertz.  pp 3–30.  New York: Basic Books. *1976  From the Native's Point of View. In Meaning in Anthropology. Eds. Keith H. Basso and Henry A. Selby. pp.&amp;nbsp;221–237. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. *1977  Found in Translation: On the Social History of the Moral Imagination. Georgia Review 31(4 Winter):788-810. *1977  Curing, Sorcery, and Magic in a Javanese Town. In Culture, Disease, and Healing: Studies in Medical Anthropology. Ed. David Landy. pp.&amp;nbsp;146–153. New York: Macmillan Publishing. *1979  [with Hildred Geertz and Lawrence Rosen]  Meaning and Order in Moroccan Society: Three Essays in Cultural Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  See his own contribution on &quot;Suq: The Bazaar Economy in Sefrou&quot; (pp.&amp;nbsp;123–225). *1980  Negara: The Theatre State in Nineteenth-Century Bali. Princeton: Princeton University Press. *1983  Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology. New York: Basic Books. *1983  Centers, Kings, and Charisma: Reflections on the Symbolics of Power. In Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology. Clifford Geertz. pp.&amp;nbsp;121–146. New York: Basic Books. *1983  &quot;From the Native's Point of View&quot;: On the Nature of Anthropological Knowledge. In Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology. Clifford Geertz. pp.&amp;nbsp;55–70. New York: Basic Books. *1983  Notions of Primitive Thought: Dialogue with Clifford Geertz. In States of Mind. ed &amp; comp Jonathan Miller. pp.&amp;nbsp;192–210. New York: Pantheon. *1984  Anti-Anti-Relativism. 1983 Distinguished Lecture. American Anthropologist 82:263-278. *1984  Culture and Social Change: The Indonesian Case. Man 19:511-532. *1986  The Uses of Diversity. In Tanner Lectures on Human Values, Vol. 7. Ed. Sterling M. McMurrin. pp.&amp;nbsp;251–275. Cambridge and Salt Lake City: Cambridge University Press and University of Utah Press. *1988  Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author. Stanford: Stanford University Press. The four studies included in the book are: :*&quot;The World in a Text: How to Read Tristes Tropiques&quot; (pp.&amp;nbsp;25–48). :*&quot;Slide Show: Evans-Pritchard's African Transparencies&quot; (pp.&amp;nbsp;49–72). :*&quot;I-Witnessing: Malinowski's Children&quot; (pp.&amp;nbsp;73–101). :*&quot;Us/not-Us: Benedict's Travels&quot; (pp.&amp;nbsp;102–128). *1989  Margaret Mead, 1901-1978. Biographical Memoirs 58:329-341. National Academy of Sciences. *1990  History and Anthropology. New Literary History 21(2 Winter):321-335. *1991  The Year of Living Culturally. New Republic, October 21, 30-36. *1992  &quot;Local Knowledge&quot; and Its Limits: Some Obiter Dicta. Yale Journal of Criticism 5(2):129-135. *1993  &quot;Ethnic Conflict&quot;: Three Alternative Terms. Common Knowledge 2(3 Winter):54-65. *1994  Life on the Edge. [Review of Tsing, In the Realm of the Diamond Queen]. New York Review of Books 41(7 April ):3-4. *1995  After the Fact: Two Countries, Four Decades, One Anthropologist. [The Jerusalem-Harvard Lectures]. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press. *1995  Culture War. [Review essay on Sahlins, How &quot;Natives&quot; Think and Obeyesekere, The Apotheosis of Captain Cook]. New York Review of Books 42(19 November 30):4-6. *2000  ''Available Light: Anthropological Reflections on Philosophical Topics.''  Princeton: Princeton University Press. *2010 ''Life Among the Anthros and Other Essays'' edited by Fred Inglis (Princeton University Press; 272 pages)  ==Honors== * Association for Asian Studies (AAS), 1987 Award for Distinguished Contributions to Asian StudiesAssociation for Asian Studies (AAS), [ 1987 Award for Distinguished Contributions to Asian Studies]; retrieved 2011-05-31  