Clifford Geertz (1926-present) is best known
for his ethnographic studies of Javanese
culture (Java is an Indonesian island south
of Borneo) and for his writings about the
interpretation of culture. The most
 influential aspect of Geertz's work has been
his emphasis on the importance of the
symbolic -- of systems of meaning -- as it
relates to culture, cultural change, and the
study of culture; Bodley and Geertz can both
compared here with Matthew Arnold for for
perspective on the great transition which
has taken place regarding the concept
"culture" in Western thought over the past
century; Raymond Williams's perspective
might be taken as a middle ground in this
transition.

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