Clifford Geertz Quotes & Sayings

“People keep asking how anthropology is different from sociology, and everybody gets nervous.”

“The point of literary criticism in anthropology is not to replace research, but to find out how it is that we are persuasive.”

“Younger anthropologists have the notion that anthropology is too diverse. The number of things done under the name of anthropology is just infinite; you can do anything and call it anthropology.”

“I don't feel that an atmosphere of debate and total disagreement and argument is such a bad thing. It makes for a vital and alive field.”

“We need to think more about the nature of rhetoric in anthropology. There isn't a body of knowledge and thought to fall back on in this regard.”

“I'm an inveterate fox and not a hedgehog, so I always think you should try everything.”

“The way in which mathematicians and physicists and historians talk is quite different, and what a physicist means by physical intuition and what a mathematician means by beauty or elegance are things worth thinking about.”

“Anthropology in general has always been fairly hospitable to female scholars, and even to feminist scholars.”

“The North African mule talks always of his mother's brother, the horse, but never of his father, the donkey, in favor of others supposedly more reputable.”

“Meaning is socially, historically, and rhetorically constructed.”