The Interpretation of Cultures

A theme that emerges quite clearly in Geertz’s approach to the study of culture is the idea that anthropology’s contribution to the social sciences lies in its power to construct general theory out of the particularities of a given society’s culture. In Chapter 1, Geertz acknowledges that cultural interpretation seemingly makes theoretical development difficult because anthropological study inherently requires staying close to the ground. Unlike in other social sciences, theoretical development in anthropology does not consist of imaginative abstractions, but rather of the concrete realities of social life. However, this presumed difficulty does not preclude anthropologists from drawing theoretical conclusions. In fact, it is precisely the particularity of cultural interpretation that allows broader conclusions to be drawn about what culture is and how it functions. In anthropology, “The aim is to draw large conclusions from small, but very densely textured facts; to support broad assertions about the role of culture in the construction of collective life by engaging them exactly with complex specifics” (28).

Geertz argues that the diversity of humankind, as expressed through cultural variance, allows generality to be drawn from specificity. For example, criticizing the search for a