born Aug. 23, 1926, San Francisco, Calif., U.S.
U.S. cultural anthropologist, a leading proponent of a form of anthropology that stresses the importance of symbol s and interpretation in human social life.
Culture , according to Geertz, is "a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms"
forms that serve to impose meaning on the world and make it understandable. Geertz's writings have been influential both within and outside of anthropology; they include The Religion of Java (1960), The Interpretation of Cultures (1973), Local Knowledge (1983), and Works and Lives (1988). He referred to his ethnographic methodology as "thick description." Geertz taught at the University of Chicago (196070), among other institutions, and in 1970 joined the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., becoming an emeritus professor in 2000. See also cultural anthropology .