Clifford Geertz views culture as a public performance of signs and symbolic acts (see: Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture). In "Person Time
and Conduct in Bali" (in "Interpretation of Culture") geertz
discusses the importance of recognizing the nature of human thought and
perception as an employed social mechanism for cultural analysis. He demonstrates
this notion and his idea of "thick description" in the case of the
Balinese people and the manner in which they conceive and interpret the sense
of being a person, time and subsequent behaviour.
In Geertz's
view cultural patterns are the means through which people attribute meaning and
structure various events in their lives. Therefore the study of culture
according to Geertz is the study of the mechanism employed by individuals and
groups in order to orient themselves in the world. These mechanisms serve as
private solutions to the universal existential problems of cognition and
orientation by answering questions like who we are, where do we come from, the relation
between us and other people and between us and nature.
According
to Geertz one of the focal points of the need for the orientation is the
private individual and his definition as a social unit. Social structures organize
and construct personal identity and Geertz uses the example of Bali and the
Balinese people to show hoe their complex system of names and social
denotations of individuals function to construct such as personal identity
through an established perception of time and existence.
According
to Geertz, the Balinese name system seeks to obscure temporal differences between
people and attempts at constructing them as sharing the same time, thus promoting
a relative anonymousation of the personality. Geertz shows how personal
perceptions in Bali are linked to perceptions of time, which for the Balinese
is not linear as it is in the West but rather fragmented with specific meanings
assigned to specific days. Time in Bali is simultaneous and all people are each
other's contemporary.
Finally,
perceptions of the self and time are linked according to Geertz to conduct and
behavior. Geertz discusses the Balinese term of "lek",
misstraslated as "shame", which refers to one's failure to play out
is role in social performance. Geertz's main thesis in "Person Time and
Conduct in Bali" is that there exists interdependence between perceptions of
the person, time and conduct which all stem from human experience and the
attempt to organize social life. The next step for Geertz is try to trace the characteristics
of these social experiences such as integration, change and conflict.
other summaries of articles by Clifford Geertz:
Clifford Geertz: Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture – Summary, Review and analysis
Clifford Geertz –"From the Native's Point of View: On the Nature of Anthropological Understanding"
Clifford Geertz: "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight
other summaries of articles by Clifford Geertz:
Clifford Geertz: Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture – Summary, Review and analysis
Clifford Geertz –"From the Native's Point of View: On the Nature of Anthropological Understanding"
Clifford Geertz: "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight
Get the book: