What we call our data are really our own constructions of other people’s constructions of what they and their compatriots are up to.
Clifford GeertzRead
To see ourselves as others see us can be eye-opening. To see others as sharing a nature with ourselves is the merest decency. But it is from the far more difficult achievement of seeing ourselves amongst others, as a local example of the forms human life has locally taken, a case among cases, a world among worlds, that the largeness of mind, without which objectivity is self-congratulation and tolerance a sham, comes.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Understanding ourselves and others fosters genuine empathy and objectivity.
Clifford Geertz emphasizes the importance of perspective in human experience. He suggests that recognizing ourselves in relation to others not only broadens our understanding but also deepens our empathy, allowing for more meaningful connections and a true sense of decency in acknowledging our shared humanity. The quote calls for a reflective approach to our interactions, where seeing oneself among others can lead to greater objectivity and authenticity in our assessments of both ourselves and those around us.
Themes
PerspectiveEmpathySelf-AwarenessHumanityDecency
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of relationships, this quote can illustrate how understanding others improves collaboration.
More from Clifford Geertz
All quotes →The point of literary criticism in anthropology is not to replace research, but to find out how it is that we are persuasive.
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[Culture] denotes an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms, by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life.
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I've often been accused of making anthropology into literature, but anthropology is also field research. Writing is central to it.
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It may be in the cultural particularities of people — in their oddities — that some of the most instructive revelations of what it is to be generically human are to be found.
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Culture is public, because meaning is
Clifford GeertzRead
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