The Interpretation of Cultures
1973 · 547 pages
Culture is not what people do, Geertz argues, but the meanings hung on it, and thick description means reading a Balinese cockfight the way you would read a poem.
★ 7.0
The Books canon
Sourced and shelved.
Every book chosen by hand and annotated for why it matters.
Browse all 1,178 books or filter by subject, era, place, and author.
Browse all 1,178 books or filter by subject, era, place, and author.
Coming of Age in Samoa
1928 · 223 pages
Sixty-eight girls on the Samoan island of Ta'u convinced Mead that the turmoil of adolescence is made by culture, not biology. She turned anthropology into an argument ordinary Americans took sides in.
★ 6.4
Learning to Labour
1977 · 336 pages
Working-class boys are not pushed into working-class jobs, Willis found: they choose them. Twelve lads at a Midlands comprehensive laugh their way through school and hand themselves to the factory floor.
★ 5.2
Tally's Corner
A Study of Negro Streetcorner Men
1967 · 179 pages
Twelve months on a Washington corner with Black men without steady work. They fail as husbands and fathers, Liebow shows, not from any inherited culture but because the jobs cannot support a family.
★ 5.2