Symbolic anthropology

Symbolic anthropology or, more broadly, symbolic and interpretive anthropology, is the study of cultural symbols and how those symbols can be interpreted to better understand a particular society. It is often viewed in contrast to cultural materialism. According to Clifford Geertz, "[b]elieving, with Max Weber, that man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun, I take culture to be those webs, and the analysis of it to be therefore not an experimental science in search of law but an interpretive one in search of meaning."^[1]

Prominent symbolic anthropologists include Clifford Geertz, David Schneider, Victor Turner and Mary Douglas.

Key publications

• Geertz, Clifford (1973) The interpretation of cultures, Basic Books, New York
• Geertz, Clifford. (Ed.) (1974) Myth, symbol, and culture, W. W. Norton, New York
• Sahlins, Marshall (1976) Culture and practical reason, University of Chicago Press, Chicago
• Schneider, David (1968) American kinship: A cultural account. Prentice-Hall, New Jersey
• Turner, Victor (1967) The forest of symbols: Aspects of Ndembu ritual, Cornell University Press, Ithaca
• Turner, Victor (1974) Dramas, fields and metaphors: Symbolic action in human society, Cornell University Press, Ithaca

See also

• Collective unconscious
• Interpretive sociology
• Max Weber
• Semiotic anthropology

References

1. Geertz, Clifford (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books. p. 5.

External links

• "Symbolic and interpretive anthropologies", Department of Anthropology, University of Alabama, retrieved March 13, 2013
• Culture and Public Action: Symbolic anthropology