A Macat Analysis of The Interpretation of Cultures

Up to the mid 20th century, generations of anthropologists had imported their own value systems into their work, regardless of where they were studying. Indigenous cultures were almost always judged to fall short in some manner—offering justification for colonization in the name of 'civilizing natives.' By the second half of the twentieth century, however, scholars had begun to question such outright bias. The Interpretation of Cultures (1973) made Geertz a leading voice of anthropology's 'symbolic' movement, which held that scholars should interpret a culture from the perspective of its natives helping anthropology to reinvent itself as a scientific discipline that remains relevant today.