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MICHAEL
GEERTZ
AND
MARTIN
THE
INTERPRETIVE
IN ANTHROPOLOGY
APPROACH
has
proposed
rather
understanding
science variety
has noted:
that
social
than causal
scientists
laws,
study meaning
and reject mechanistic
He has
explanations.
rather
than behavior,
seek
of the natural
explanations
to take
invited his colleagues
in favor of interpretive
as text
to consider
and metaphor,
human
the possibilities
of analogy
seriously
activity
to rework,
and symbolic
In other words,
he has asked social scientists
action as drama.
en
if not abandon,
their traditional
about
the nature of their intellectual
assumptions
terprise.3
to his work
and the critical response
Geertz's
Despite
importance
that has been generated
in the anthropological
literature,
however,
of the social sciences have not given his theories the critical
philosophers
In this paper I will elucidate
they deserve.4
evaluate Geertz's
In particular,
interpretive approach.
one of the root problems with Geertz's
theory is the
analogy of interpreting a text. This analogy leads him
tant questions
from the purview of social science, to
attention
97: 269-286,
1993.
Synthese
1993 Kluwer Academic
Publishers.
Printed
in the Netherlands.
of the
impor
underestimate
the
270
MICHAEL
MARTIN
1.
1.1.
Interpretive
THEORY
GEERTZ'S
Anthropology
Geertz's
is interpretivism?5
answer,
given in his paper Thick
an
Toward
of Culture',6
is that,
Theory
Descriptions:
Interpretive
in order to understand
should
detailed
culture,
give
ethnographers
that are based on a complex web of interpreta
microscopic
descriptions
are not precluded,
these descriptions
tions. Although
generalizations
What
make
theorizing difficult.
assumes
Geertz
that one of the primary aims of anthropology
culture. "The concept of culture I espouse",
he says,
understand
is essentially
in webs
of
of
analysis
interpretive
is to
one.
he
one
in search
of meaning.7
for ethnogra
In order to find this meaning,
he believes
it is necessary
a
term
to
from
Gilbert
what,
Ryle, he calls
borrowing
phers
provide
"thick descriptions":
... is the
is in fact faced with
of complex
the ethnographer
multiplicity
conceptual
are at
of them superimposed
into one another,
which
structures,
many
upon or knotted
once
first to grasp and
and which
he contrives
somehow
strange,
irregular,
inexplicit,
levels of his
then to render. And
this is true at the most down-to-earth,
jungle fieldwork
What
informants,
interviewing,
observing
. . .
his
households
lines, censuring
writing
a reading
read (in the sense of "construct
activity:
ellipses,
written
incoherences,
suspicious
not in conventional
graphs
rituals,
journal.
of")
eliciting
Doing
emendations,
of sound but in transient
examples
of shaped
behavior.8
are inter
that ethographers'
thick descriptions
acknowledges
on
are
these
based
in
the
Indeed,
part
descriptions
interpre
pretations.
of what inform
tations of informants, which in turn are interpretations
to Geertz,
ants think they are doing.
In other words,
according
are
themselves
and
second
writings
interpretations
"anthropological
stresses that anthro
Geertz
and third order ones to boot".9 However,
are seeking neither to become natives
in their interpretations
pologists
nor to mimic
and
in
another
that it is not
them,10
paper he emphasizes
Geertz
GEERTZ
AND
or sympathize
to empathize
necessary
INTERPRETIVE
THE
with
APPROACH
the natives
271
to provide
these
interpretations.11
An
of thick descriptions
is that they are
characteristic
important
that is, they are interpretations
of cultural details. This is
microscopic;
not to say that there are not some broad interpretations:
"It is merely
to say that the anthropologist
such broader
characteristically
approaches
more
and
abstract
from
the
direction
of ex
analyses
interpretations
extended
with extremely
small matters".12
The
acquaintances
about
is
their
thing
findings
important
"anthropological
complex speci
Geertz
ficness, their circumstantiality".13
However,
rejects the idea that
can be regarded on a "microcosmic
model";
ethnographic
descriptions
that is, he rejects the view that the subject of such a description
is a
tremely
miniature
version
of Social
of which
it is a part.
Thought
says, have
turned
away
from explanations
in terms of
laws. They
are
and pendulums
less for the sort of thing that connects
and more
for the
looking
planets
sort that connects
and swords. Yet another
is that analogies
drawn from
chrysanthemums
are coming
to play the kind of role in sociological
the humanities
that
understanding
drawn
from the crafts and technology
have played
in physical
analogies
understanding.
I not only think these things are true, I think they are true together;
and it is
Further,
the culture shift that makes
them so that ismy subject: the refiguration
of social thought.14
Geertz
of this is that it is
goes on to argue that one implication
harder to think of the social sciences as either "underdeveloped
natural
sciences" or "ignorant
and pretentious
of
the
mission
of the
usurpers
or "comprising
a clearly distinctive
a
humanities"
third
enterprise,
culture to Snow's canonical
two".15
He says that the interpretive movement
in the social sciences has
grown
tremendously.
[T]he move
toward
representations,
(sense,
import,
conceiving
significants,
signification,
of
social
Darstellungen
Bedeutung.
in terms of symbols
life as organized
(signs,
... the
varies) whose
terminology
meaning
. we must
that
grasp if we are to understand
.)
272
MICHAEL
organization
The woods
and
its principles,
formulate
MARTIN
has
by now
grown
to formidable
proportions.
interpreters.
not just exalted glossography
and it is a form of explanation,
Interpretive
explanation
on what
trains it attention
events,
institutions,
actions,
utterances,
customs,
images,
to those whose
all the usual objects of social-scientific
interest, mean
actions,
institutions,
and
customs,
so on
systematic
live.16
paranoids
are. As
they
or mechanisms
Volta's,
Freud's
a result,
it issues not
but in constructions
like Darwin's
unpacking
of
the conceptual
world
laws
like Boyle's,
like Burckhardt's,
in which
condotiere,
or
forces
like
Weber's
or
Calvinists,
or
Matters
so. The
together,
a challenge
to some
is that, however
is being mounted
raggedly,
thing it means
social science. The strict separation
the central assumptions
of mainstream
of theory
a formal vocabulary
to create
and data,
the "brute
fact" idea; the effort
of analysis
to moral
of
all
the
"ideal
and
claim
the
references,
idea;
subjective
purged
language"
- none
and Olympian
the "God's
truth" idea
of these ideas can prosper
view,
neutrality
One
of
when
rather
will
what
comes
to be regarded
explanation
to its determinants.
than behavior
if it continues,
it is we want
it just may
postulating
them.19
be
a sea change
in our
Social events
to know.
to discovering
and measuring
them
forces
as a matter
to its sense
of connecting
action
or
of social theory represents,
refiguration
not so much
is but
notion
of what knowledge
The
do have
what
than
we
causes
assert
through
and
social
institutions
effects;
this lies less through
and inspecting
expressions
in asserting
noting
AND
GEERTZ
1.3.
Interpretive
Social
THE
INTERPRETIVE
Science
in Action:
APPROACH
The Balinese
273
Cockfight
men
and
cultural
the
significance
sport
has within
the broader
Balinese
culture.
is not
clear.
understand
Sullivan
For
Geertz
They
peutic interpretation.
cates and organizes violence:
Paul Rabinow
and William M.
example,
as providing what might be called a thera
say that on his view the cockfight domesti
As Geertz
and
and
thereby
making
comprehensible
ritualizes
form
violence
and
plays
violent
conflict
a therapeutic
and
thereby orders
role by organizing
inequality.22
that Geertz
gives
what
might
be
called
a symbolic
struggle
interpretation:
on cockfights
as emblemizing
the pattern
of large-scale
social
interprets
betting
relations
in local society
and status relationships.
And
he construes
kinship,
village,
or negative
the cockfight
itself as an emblem
for elements
in Balinese
positive
life ....
in
is
the
Balinese
for animal
Geertz's
distaste
account,
Particularly
important,
like behavior
in human
animals
the "Powers
of Darkness."
Geertz
beings;
represent
He
274
MICHAEL
construes
the fascination
with
cockfighting
MARTIN
as a surrogate
between
good
and evil.23
yet a different
paper,
aspect of Geertz's
to him, Geertz presents
According
interpretation.
and commentary
what might be called a status organization
interpreta
is a simulation
of
that the cockfight
tion. Geertz,
he says, maintains
on
the social matrix, while at the same time it provides a commentary
William
arrives
Roseberry,
at a different
stressing
this matrix:
to the
in the cockfight.
Both are related
looks to two aspects of significance
is a
of the Balinese
that the cockfight
society. He first observes
organization
.... As
or following
a "status bloodbath"
"simulation
of the social matrix",
Goffman,
he has not yet referred
toward the second aspect of significance,
Geertz moves
although
Geertz
then
hierarchical
as a text, he begins
to refer to it as "an art form." As an art form display,
to the cockfight
in the hidden
in Balinese
that are
it "displays"
fundamental
society
passion
passions
As an atomistic
inversion
of
from view in ordinary
hidden
daily life and comportment.
the way Balinese
status hierarchy
normally
present
sense
in another
but as a commentary
cockfight
Little's
struggle
symbolic
paper:
Geertz's
on
to the
to themselves,
the cockfight
relates
themselves
- no
of the
organization
longer as a status-based
in the first place.24
the existence
of the status difference
reading
of Geertz
finds
support
in the text of
with
such Powers
with
the
and cockfighting
[of Darkness],
to invade
the small space
in which
the
threaten
constantly
is quite explicit. A
its inhabitants,
have so carefully
built their lives and devour
Balinese
is in the first instance a blood sacrifice offered, with the appropri
any cockfight,
cockfight,
to pacify
ate chains
to the demons
in order
their ravenous,
cannibal
and oblations,
The
connection
animalistic
bloody
cocks
that
man
and evil, ego
and beast,
good
of loosened
and destructive
power
masculinity
and death.25
of hatred,
violence,
cruelty,
In the cockfight
hunger....
powers
of
demons
of
aroused
drama
and
id,
animality
the
creative
fuse
in a
and commentary
social organization
However,
Roseberry's
interpre
that the cock
tation can also find support there. Geertz does maintain
fight is "a simulation of the social matrix":26
animal mirrors
of psychic
cocks may be surrogates
for their owners
personalities,
to be - simulation
is more
is made
of the
forms, but the cockfight
exactly,
deliberately
the involved
social matrix,
groups
system of cross-cut,
highly
corporate
overlapping,
"castes"
in
the
which
societies,
irrigation
temple
congregations,
village,
kingroups,
The
devotees
live. And
the prestige,
in it...
And
AND
GEERTZ
THE
APPROACH
INTERPRETIVE
275
What
like when
spelled
out
externally
in a collective
text.29
of ritualizing
2.
2.1.
The Scope
violence
and domesticating
THEORY
GEERTZ'S
of Interpretive
it.
EVALUATED
Anthropology
as
conceives of the task of the anthropologist
seen, Geertz
a
a
text.
it
to
of
Since
culture
is
the
like
text,
analogous
interpreter
must be interpreted,
in
itsmeaning
Geertz's
deciphered. Unfortunately,
of social science the text analogy
takes over and dictates
conception
even to the extent of
is conceived
how the discipline
off,
by cutting
As we have
and approaches.
Even
those
questions
noninterpretive
a
has
in
who
believe
that
their
interpretation
anthropologists
place
not
it
is
that
believe
that
the
whole
story,
discipline might
noninterpre
tive questions can and should be asked. How important is interpretation
for Geertz? His answer is that it is all-important.
In Thick
Descrip
for he
tions', he does not allow for any tasks besides
interpretation,31
assumes that, since culture consists of complex structures of meanings,
sense of these.
must limit themselves
to making
anthropologists
the text analogy,
there are more
Yet even if one accepts
jobs for
excluding,
social scientists to do than just interpret. The text analogy need not be
so restrictive. A reader of a text might well ask not only what the text
means
in the first place, why it
but also why the text was produced
takes this form rather than that, what functions it has, what psychologi
cal effects a given interpretation
has on readers who accept it. Just as
a reader might want to know how a text developed,
a social scientist
might
want
to know
how
a culture
developed.
276
MICHAEL
MARTIN
a reader desires
has on someone
it.
on
wered
GEERTZ
AND
THE
INTERPRETIVE
APPROACH
277
and would
involve using psychological
theories and
gate causal matters
laws. However,
this is exactly what Geertz
is suspicious of.
in the issue of the psychological
As a result of Geertz's
disinterest
are not asked,
let alone
effects of cockfighting,
important questions
one would
answered.
like to know whether men who
For example,
or psychological
raise and fight cocks have a different personality
profile
from those who don't; what Balinese women
think of cockfighting
and
how their attitudes
toward it affect their relations with men; whether
of the recent tougher
the psychology
of men has changed because
on
how
attitudes
men's
governmental
cockfighting;
policy
psychological
are affected by their formal education,
toward cockfighting
by religious
ideas and values.
conversion,
by the influx of western
In sum, questions
and psychological
about origins, functions,
effects
social science. Since they are
the scope of interpretive
go well beyond
that excludes
them has serious
legitimate and important, any approach
limitations.
2.2.
Interpretation
and Causality
of texts.
In
On the other hand, this repression
of causality
is not complete.
he acknowledges
'Blurred Genres',
that there are causal considerations
in the social sciences and only rejects the way the analysis of causality
is approached:
"[Sjocial events do have causes and social institutions
it just may be that the road to discovering
what we assert in
effects;
this lies less through postulating
forces and measuring
them
asserting
than through noting expressions
and inspecting
them".36 Apparently,
is concerned with causes after all. Un
then, interpretive
anthropology
in
it
is
unclear
what
it is worth noting that,
way. However,
fortunately,
in all three readings of his interpretation
of Balinese
each
cockfighting,
has a causal dimension.
278
MICHAEL
MARTIN
as offering a thera
When Rabinow
and Sullivan understand Geertz
to which the cockfight domesticates
and
according
peutic interpretation
violence,
they do not speak in causal terms. However,
they
organizes
- the
are surely saying that cockfighting
of the participants,
psychology
the social practice and its implications,
and so forth - causally affects
in such a way that their
albeit in some unspecified
manner,
people,
violent behavior
is controlled
and tamed.37 The symbolic struggle read
ing of Geertz suggested by Little also has a causal aspect. Males presum
belief connected with the symbolic struggle
ably have an unconscious
between
circumstances
good and evil that under certain unspecified
causes them to be obsessed with cocks, to be ambivalent
about eating
a dead cock, and so forth. Causal
considerations
also apply to the
and commentary
social organization
reading of Geertz
suggested
by
On
this
the
views
and attitudes that Balinese
Roseberry.
interpretation
men have of the social matrix of their society are transformed by some
and sociological
into the institution
process
psychological
unspecified
in turn stimulates
of the cockfight. This institution
this social matrix
a commentary
on it. The way this transformation
and provides
works
are involved is not made clear by Geertz.
and what causal mechanisms
In short,
causal considerations
and mechanisms
Geertz's
of
the
Balinese
cockfight. The
interpretation
to obscure
their presence.
2.3.
The Validation
are implicit
in
text analogy tends
of Interpretations
What
what
criteria
of better
or worse
should
be used?
in answering
is not very helpful
these ques
Unfortunately,
one suspects
tions. Again
that the text analogy adversely
affects his
are either
to
him
that
cultural
account,
suppose
leading
interpretations
or
on
like subjective
based
considerations
that
literary interpretations38
InThick
have nothing to do with the validation of scientific hypotheses.
are subjective
he seems to suggest that interpretations
Descriptions',
and that therefore
there are no objective
criteria for evaluating
them.
as
a
accurate
criterion
of
the
rejecting
prediction
validity of
Explicitly
Geertz
AND
GEERTZ
interpretation
- he indicates
THE
INTERPRETIVE
APPROACH
279
to anything
sin of interpretive
literature,
dreams,
symptoms,
besetting
approaches
to resist, conceptual
is that they tend to resist, or to be permitted
articulation
culture
of assessment.
You
either grasp an interpretation
and thus to escape
modes
systematic
or you do not, see the point of it or you do not, accept
in
it or you do not. Imprisoned
The
as self validation,
as validated
it is presented
the immediacy
of its own detail,
or, worse,
to
of the person who presents
sensitivities
it; any attempt
by the supposedly
developed
as a travesty - as the anthropol
cast what
it says in terms other than its own is regarded
severest
term of moral
abuse, ethnocentric.
ogist's
am not timid about the
however
of study which,
I, myself,
timidly (though
asserts
this just will not do. There
is no reason why
itself to be a science,
structure
the conceptual
of a cultural
should be any less formidable,
and
interpretation
canons of appraisal,
to explicit
thus less susceptible
than that of, say, a biological
obser
- no reason
or a physical
vation
that the terms
in which
such a
except
experiment
For
matter
a field
at all),
formulation
to insinuating
can be
cast
theories
are,
because
if not wholly
nonexistent,
very nearly
we lack the power
to state them.40
so. We
are reduced
He
cultural
says:
- a
a person,
a history,
a ritual,
of anything
poem,
good interpretation
a society - takes us into the heart of that of which
it is the interpretation.
not do that, but leads us instead somewhere
of its
else
into an admiration
of its author's
of
the
of
Euclidean
it may
beauties
order
cleverness,
. . . calls for.41
else than what
the task at hand
charms; but it is something
One
that
supposes
take one to the heart
he does not explicate
not explain how one
in Thick
Geertz
an institution,
When
it does
own
have
elegance,
intrinsic
280
MICHAEL
MARTIN
more
to attention
account
of an ethnographic
does not rest on its author's
ability to
. . .but on the
to which
facts in faraway places
he is able to
degree
primitive
to reduce
the puzzlement
what manner
of men are
clarify what goes on in such places,
- to
acts
out
unfamiliar
unknown
these?
which
of
emerging
backgrounds
naturally
give
of verification,
all right
rise. This raises some serious problems
is
or, if "verification"
The
claim
capture
too
you
would
this
prefer
"appraisal"),
is precisely
the virtue
of how
in it.44
general ap
the Balinese
the symbolic
GEERTZ
AND
THE
INTERPRETIVE
APPROACH
of Balinese
cockfighting.
struggle interpretation
to the following
understand Geertz as appealing
to justify this interpretation:
(1)
(2)
(3)
281
Balinese males
bases this
identify with their birds. Geertz
on the things that Balinese males say. He admits that he has
no "unconscious
material
either to confirm or disconfirm
this intriguing notion".47 Nevertheless,
he argues that it is
the
Balinese
that cocks are the
by
universally
recognized
masculine
symbol par excellence.
The moral
language of Bali has roosterish
imagery. Geertz
bases this on examples. The Balinese word for cock is used
to mean
'hero', 'warrior', 'tough guy'; court
metaphorically
are
to cockfights,
and so forth.
wars,
etc.,
trials,
compared
Men are obsessed with cocks and cockfights. Geertz
bases
this on the vast amount
of time men
(4)
(5)
association
with animals.
When
the owner of the winning
cock takes the carcass of
the losing cock "home to eat, he does so with a mixture
of
social embarrassment,
moral
aesthetic
satisfaction,
disgust,
and cannibal
based on his per
joy".48 This is presumably
sonal observations
of the culture and his conversations
with
Balinese.
Are
(6)
(7)
Balinese
compare heaven to the mood of a man whose cock
has just won and hell to the mood of a man whose cock has
as (5).
just lost. This is based on the same evidence
282
MICHAEL
MARTIN
we have no reason to
supported by a few examples. However,
are representative
or that Geertz's
that these examples
im
is reliable. Thus, one would
like to know how widespread
pression
in comparison
roosterish
with
imagery is in Balinese moral
language
other imagery that might
indicate a different
interpretation.
Although
is also
suppose
appears frequently.
are well-established
that (l)-(7)
let us suppose
However,
proposi
use
culture and society. How might Geertz
tions about the Balinese
(l)-(7)
(8)
to support:
Cockfighting
and evil?
is a surrogate
between
good
(8) has
a nonnegligible
(a)
The
(b)
prior probability.
If the symbolic struggle hypothesis
(8) is true, then the evi
to
used
dence statements
support it are probably
((l)-(7))
symbolic
struggle
hypothesis
true.
(c)
No other hypothesis
is as strongly confirmed by the evidence
that
statements;
is, any other hypothesis H such that if H is
are probably
true has a lower prior proba
then
true,
(l)-(7)
it is reconstructed
along these lines, the symbolic
struggle
a
is
that should be evaluated
by the
interpretation
simply
hypothesis
then ask if it is better confirmed
than rival
usual criteria. One would
are initially less plausible
if (c) is met,
if rival hypotheses
hypotheses,
than (8), and as a consequence
have less prior probability
than (8).
not
rival
Geertz
does
consider
and
does
Unfortunately,
interpretations
not attempt to determine
if (c) has been met.
One
obvious
rival hypothesis
that
is simpler
than
GEERTZ
AND
THE
INTERPRETIVE
APPROACH
283
curses
them.
3.
CONCLUSION
to
Geertz
is a leading advocate of the interpretive
Although
approach
a rationale as well as a concrete model
the social sciences, providing
of what the results of such an approach would entail, his account has
a
serious limitations. Geertz
is not only vague about what constitutes
in his theoretical writings,
valid interpretation
his interpretation
of the
Balinese
284
MICHAEL
MARTIN
on Geertz's
to alternatives.
In addition,
should be preferred
view,
limited to providing
social science is arbitrarily
thick
interpretations
and no other tasks are permissible.
causality has
Finally,
descriptions
a much more
important role to play in the social sciences than Geertz
if one restricts social science to the giving of interpreta
allows. Even
enter into the specification
of the web of
tions, causal considerations
If the job of social science
of social practices and institutions.
meanings
is conceived
than merely
of as including more
the culture,
interpreting
as we have seen it surely does,
then causality plays an even more
important role.
NOTES
1
2
3
See Walters
Peacock
(1980).
(1981,
pp.
122-23).
Shankman
(1984, p. 261).
texts like Braybrooke
in standard
For example,
(1987) and Rosenberg
at all. While
Little
considers
Geertz's
is not mentioned
view,
(1991)
are rather brief.
comments
5
on Shankman
I have relied heavily
of Geertz.
(1984) in my exposition
6
Geertz
(1973, pp. 3-30).
7
Geertz
(1973, p. 5).
8
Geertz
(1973, p. 10).
9
Geertz
(1973, p. 14).
10
Geertz
(1973, p. 13).
11
Geertz
(1983, pp. 55-59).
12
Geertz
(1983, p. 21).
13
Geertz
(1983, p. 23).
14
Geertz
(1983, p. 19).
15
Geertz
(1983, p. 21).
16
Geertz
(1983, pp. 21-22).
17
Geertz
(1983, p. 20).
18
Geertz
(1983, p. 31).
19
Geertz
(1983, pp. 34).
20
Geertz
(1973, pp. 421-53).
21
Rabinow
and Sullivan
(1987, p. 26).
22
Ibid.
23
Little
(1991, p. 69).
24
(1982, p. 1018).
Roseberry
25
Geertz
(1973, pp. 420-21).
26
Geertz
(1973, p. 436).
27
Ibid.
28
Geertz
(1973, p. 448).
29
Geertz
(1973, p. 449).
4
(1988),
Little's
Geertz
critical
30
31
Geertz
(1973, p. 451).
to claim
not want
I do
belies
THE
AND
GEERTZ
he
the restrictions
that Geertz
on
imposes
APPROACH
INTERPRETIVE
social
285
consistent.
Some of his research
is completely
see Little
in this paper. On this point,
science
in terms of narrative
of origins might be addressed
that questions
are interpretive,
still remains
the question
such explanations
Assuming
explanations.
can be addressed
accounts.
This
of origins
whether
all legitimate
by narrative
questions
is surely an open question.
33
are not listed in the index of Geertz
or 'functionalism'
'function'
the terms
Indeed,
to reject one of the
functionalism
In Geertz
only
(1983, p. 99) he mentions
(1973).
it.
of holding
implications
34
no evidence
in this case, he provides
that
to function
If Geertz
is implicitly
appealing
cockfighting
in terms of
has
this function.
The
function
of
consequences
the causal consequences
the causal
of a cultural
the practice,
of organizing
has
cockfighting
35
Geertz
(1973, p. 421).
36
Geertz
(1983, p. 34).
37
and Sullivan
strong
(1987),
Perhaps Rabinow
would
However,
reject this causal interpretation.
is ordinarily
understood
practice
no evidence
that
and he provides
and domesticating
violence.
advocates
of
they provide
social science,
interpretive
no alternative
account and
is available.
it is hard to see what other
38
cannot be
to suppose
that literary
there is no good reason
However,
interpretation
considerations.
based on objective
F0llesdal
See, for example,
(1967).
(1979) and Hirsch
39
Geertz
(1973, p. 26).
40
Geertz
(1973, p. 24).
41
Geertz
(1973, p. 18).
42
See Shankman
(1984, p. 263).
43
Geertz
(1973, p. 25).
44
Geertz
(1973, p. 16).
45
can be objective.
I have argued
that interpretations
See Martin
Elsewhere
(1993).
46
Geertz
(1973, p. 16).
47
Geertz
(1973, p. 420).
48
Geertz
(1973, p. 421).
49
Ibid.
50
see Salmon
For this sort of analysis of confirmation,
(1982, pp. 49-51).
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Dagfinn:
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