The Interpretation of Cultures

In Chapter 2, Geertz demonstrates how the concept of culture as a complex set of symbols lends understanding to the concept of humanity. He also discusses how culture acts as a control mechanism undergirded by particularity. 

Geertz points out that the concept of culture developed by classic anthropologists was connected to the dominant view of human nature from the Enlightenment idea that human nature is organized and unchanging. Although anthropology has attempted to depart from this view, it often construes variance as “mere accretions, distortions even, overlaying and obscuring what is truly human—the constant, the general, the universal” (35), rather than being significant to human nature. This persistent belief in homogeneity implies that there is a standardized humanity against which all deviations can be measured. It also implies that there is some invariable, single essence that defines humankind.

In reaction to Enlightenment era thought, an alternative view emerged in anthropology: “what man is may be so entangled with where he is, who he is, and what he believes that it is inseparable from them” (35). While this view seemingly embraces variability, it does so in ways that Geertz finds inadequate— its

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