Clifford Geertz By His Colleagues

Clifford Geertz is the most influential American anthropologist of the past four decades. His writings have defined and given character to the intellectual agenda of a meaning-centered, nonreductive interpretive social science and have provoked much excitement and debate about the nature of human understanding.

As part of the American Anthropological Association's centennial celebration, the executive board sponsored a presidential session honoring Geertz. Clifford Geertz by His Colleagues compiles the twelve speeches given then by a distinguished panel of social scientists along with a concluding piece by Geertz in which he responds to each speaker and reflects on his own career. These edited speeches cover a broad range of topics, including Geertz's views on morality, cultural critique, interpretivism, time and change, Islam, and violence.

A fitting tribute to one of the great thinkers of our age, this collection will be enjoyed by anthropologists as well as students of psychology, history, and philosophy.

Richard A. Shweder is the William Claude Reavis Distinguished Service Professor in the Committee on Human Development at the University of Chicago. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including, most recently, Why Do Men Barbecue? Recipes for Cultural Psychology. Byron Good is professor of medical anthropology and chairman of the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard University. He is the author or editor of several books, including Medicine, Rationality, and Experience: An Anthropological Perspective.