Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology (Basic Books Classics)

From the preeminent anthropologist, a landmark exploration of how culture shapes human society

“Shrewd and often illuminating."—New York Times

Over his storied career, Clifford Geertz pioneered ground-breaking approaches to anthropology, arguing that interpreting and analyzing cultural symbols was central to understanding a wide range of societies. In Local Knowledge, he revisits and expands the core ideas that reshaped an entire field.

In chapters covering everything from art in Renaissance Italy to political pageantry in Java, Geertz deepens our understanding of human societies though the intimacies of “local knowledge.” Geertz explores the very meaning of culture and the importance of shared symbolism as a means of understanding the world. Through his signature analysis and undeniable, intellectual rigor, this foundational text invites readers to better understand how culture produces the ideas and systems that populate our everyday lives. 

Clifford Geertz (1926-2006) was a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His book Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1988.