The interpretation of cultures : selected essays / by Clifford Geertz.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Thick description : toward an interpretive theory of culture -- The impact of the concept of culture on the concept of man -- The growth of culture and the evolution of mind -- Religion as a cultural system -- Ethos, world view, and the analysis of sacred symbols -- Ritual and social change : a Javanese example -- "Internal conversion" in contemporary Bali -- Ideology as a cultural system -- After the revolution : the fate of nationalism in the new states -- The integrative revolution : primordial sentiments and civil politics in the new states -- The politics of meaning -- Politics past, politics present : some notes on the uses of anthropology in understanding the new states -- The cerebral savage : on the work of Claude Lévi-Strauss -- Person, time, and conduct in Bali -- Deep play : notes on the Balinese cockfight.

In this book the most original anthropologist of his generation moved far beyond the traditional confines of his discipline to develop an important new concept of culture. This book, winner of the 1974 Sorokin Award of the American Sociological Association, helped define for an entire generation of anthropologists what their field is ultimately about -- Provided by the publisher.