1. In class, I've drawn our attention to quotes from the readings as a way of concretizing our discussions. This week, I'm asking you to select quotes that you wish to discuss. Please copy down quotes from Geertz that you find particularly useful for thinking about his major arguments. Bring these to class. (You don't need copies for everyone, just one for you to refer to.)

2. Geertz defines culture as: "Believing, with Max Weber, that man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he, himself has spun, I take culture to be those webs, and the analysis of it to be therefore not an experimental science in search of law but an interpretive one in search of meaning" (5). What does he mean? And what are the strengths and weaknesses, in your view, of an interpretive theory of culture?

3. What does Geertz mean by thick description? What tasks does doing thick description entail for the ethnographer?

4. What does Geertz see as the dilemma of theory for anthropology? (Hint: See pp. 24-28).

5. Geertz explains his problems with functionalism in both "The Impact of Culture of the Concept of Man" and in "Deep Play." What are his criticisms? Do you agree?

6. What is Geertz's sense of the evolution of humans and culture? How do people relate to their culture? Why does he assert that culture completes us?

7. Geertz argues that we should analyze the cockfight as an art form or text through which people create meaning about themselves and their worlds. What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages to this approach?

8. What is Roseberry's critique of Geertz? What does he mean when he distinguishes between cultural text and cultural process or culture as product and culture as production? What are the strengths and weaknesses of his argument?

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