Back to Blog
The interpretation of cultures 19736/26/2023 Geertz’s position illustrates the interpretive approach to symbolic anthropology, while Turner’s illustrates the symbolic approach. Victor Turner, on the other hand, states that symbols initiate social action and are “determinable influences inclining persons and groups to action” (1967:36). According to Clifford Geertz, humans are in need of symbolic “sources of illumination” to orient themselves with respect to the system of meaning that is any particular culture (1973a:45). Symbolic anthropology studies symbols and the processes,such as myth and ritual, by which humans assign meanings to these symbols to address fundamental questions about human social life (Spencer 1996:535). These interpretations form a shared cultural system of meaning–i.e., understandings shared, to varying degrees, among members of the same society (Des Chene 1996:1274). Symbolic anthropology studies the way people understand their surroundings, as well as the actions and utterances of the other members of their society.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |