Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture.

by Clifford Geertz

In this essay, which is the opening chapter of The Interpretation of Cultures, Geertz explains the methodologies and assumptions that have guided his research. He begins by recounting a narrative he collected in the field in Morocco
and uses this story as a model for the various challenges that an ethnographer must confront. He calls ethnographic description a 'thick description [because] what we call our data are really our own construction of other people's constructions of what they and their compatriots are up to.' The ethnographer must sort out the meaning by examining the multi-layered narratives, and Geertz compares this work to that of literary critics. Geertz deals at length with the hazard of using literary techniques to analyse culture, which is part of his scientific, ethnographic project, because, he argues, ethnographic description must render social discourse readable and not resort to mere literary finesse. 'The whole point of a semiotic approach to culture is', Geertz writes, 'to aid us in gaining access to the conceptual world in which we our subjects live so that we can, in some extended sense of the term, converse with them.'

Genres: Ethnography

13 pages, ebook

Published January 1, 1973

About the author

Clifford James Geertz was an American anthropologist and served until his death as professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey.

Reviews

[Claudia Santos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este texto sirvió para que entendiera una referencia del último libro de john Green que no he leido jaajjaja pero también está medio cool :P

[Sahar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought-provoking read. I particularly enjoy the meta descriptive narration!

[Joaco Perez · Rating 4 out of 5]

buena introducción a la antropología interpretativa