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Geertz, Clifford‎> ‎

Impact of the Concept of Culture on the Concept of Man

Geertz, Clifford, 1966. "The Impact of the Concept of Culture on the Concept of Man,"  The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books. New
York City, NY. 1973.

Basic Premises

Elements of culture (marriage, economy, religion, etc.) can be so entwined that you cannot easily separate any particular layer and
analyze it by itself 
"...The image of a constant human nature independent of time, place, and circumstance, of studies and professions, transient
fashions and temporary opinions, may be an illusion,...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).
"We must...descend into detail...if we wish to encounter humanity face to face" (53). 
Look for what makes people/cultures different, not the same; it is more effective to analyze human nature by noting the differences
between cultures that arise over time and space than to try to form vague notions of universals
"...We need to look for systematic relationships among diverse phenomena, not for substantive identities among similar ones"
(44). see Stratigraphic vs. Synthetic
"It is in understanding that variousness [in man]...that we shall come to construct a concept of human nature that...has both
substance and truth" (52).
Culture reveals the link between what man is capable of and how he actually behaves, which in turn helps define human nature
(Man's career, pg. 52).
"Culture, the accumulated totality of [human behavior] patterns, is not just an ornament of human existence but...an essential
condition of it" (46). 
Culture is the "accumulated totality" of symbolic patterns that appear in different societies (46).

Principal Concepts

Uniformitarian view
formed by anthropologists from the Enlightenment, the idea that all mankind operates on similar laws that dicate culture and
behavior.
Consensus gentium (consensus of all mankind)
Generalization
simplifying the particulars of a variety of cultures to fit one definition in order to form unifying laws.
Sickle-cell anemia analogy: "The notion that unless a cultural phenomenon is empirically universal it cannot reflect anything
about the nature of man is about as logical as the notion that because sickle-cell anemia is, fortunately, not universal, it cannot
tell us anything about human genetic processes" (44).
some generalizations can inevitably be made about culture
Man vs. man
"Man" is found around his culture; "man" is found in his culture (37).
Garden metaphor
step away from the uniformitarian view into perilous waters (36-7).

Methodologies 

Stratigraphic approach vs. the synthetic approach

The stratigraphic approach of anthropology breaks man into layers of biology, psychology, and culture; states we can analyze
man by peeling away layers (37).
Geertz proposes the synthetic approach, that is, understanding that elements of culture are so entwine that we cannot easily
take them apart. The approach dictates that the layers of man should be treated as variables, and viewing culture as a set of
control mechanisms (44).
Often refers to his own research conducted in Southeast Asia and Indonesia (i.e. Balinese culture).

Additional Notes

If  there's no backstage for culture, everything we do is shaped by the group we grew up with

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