adamjames's review
3.0
Roughly equal parts interesting and exhausting, sometimes skewing more towards the latter. As a collection of essays written at different times, the book repeats many points and circles back to discussions, and the overall themes and messages are rendered vague - helped only slightly by the introduction intended to tie the essays together.
Some essays do stand out: 'Religion as a cultural system' offers interesting analysis of the function that sacred symbols play in "synthesiz[ing] a people’s ethos and their world view", as well as providing an anthropological definition of religion no doubt useful to many different academic fields; "(1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic." 'Ideology as a cultural system' also stood out to me as still worthy of interest, concluding that "Whatever else ideologies may be – projections of unacknowledged fears, disguises for ulterior motive, phatic expressions of group solidarity – they are, most distinctly, maps of problematic social reality and matrices for the creation of collective consciousness." 'Person, time, and conduct in Bali' is a great exploration of an interesting cultural pattern and example of how human thought itself is "consummately social". Finally, the famous 'Deep Play: Notes on a Balinese Cockfight' is as interesting as its continued fame would suggest (the latter two essays being the two most readable - but also longest - chapters in the book in my opinion).
Overall, though, to a non-anthropology student like myself, the book seems dated (compiled in the 70s, the essays themselves written in the 60s) and tiring (not helped by my decision to take notes and look up some of the half-explained theories Geertz discusses). To anyone who, like me, is interested by the premise but not shackled into an anthropology course, I would recommend just reading the intro and then the four chapters I mentioned.
Some essays do stand out: 'Religion as a cultural system' offers interesting analysis of the function that sacred symbols play in "synthesiz[ing] a people’s ethos and their world view", as well as providing an anthropological definition of religion no doubt useful to many different academic fields; "(1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic." 'Ideology as a cultural system' also stood out to me as still worthy of interest, concluding that "Whatever else ideologies may be – projections of unacknowledged fears, disguises for ulterior motive, phatic expressions of group solidarity – they are, most distinctly, maps of problematic social reality and matrices for the creation of collective consciousness." 'Person, time, and conduct in Bali' is a great exploration of an interesting cultural pattern and example of how human thought itself is "consummately social". Finally, the famous 'Deep Play: Notes on a Balinese Cockfight' is as interesting as its continued fame would suggest (the latter two essays being the two most readable - but also longest - chapters in the book in my opinion).
Overall, though, to a non-anthropology student like myself, the book seems dated (compiled in the 70s, the essays themselves written in the 60s) and tiring (not helped by my decision to take notes and look up some of the half-explained theories Geertz discusses). To anyone who, like me, is interested by the premise but not shackled into an anthropology course, I would recommend just reading the intro and then the four chapters I mentioned.
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