Clifford Geertz first studied anthropology in Harvard University. Geertz first attended school in Antioch College in Ohio. He began college as an English major and a writer and only tried Anthropology at a suggestion of a teacher. Geertz and his wife were both accepted at Harvard to study Social Relations as they wanted to pursue their degrees in Anthropology.
After two years of studying, he began work on his first project, Rimrock, located in the southwest United States. While there he studied drought death and the effects of alcohol on the five cultures were in the region. After he was done with the study, he wrote his first professional article. When his first project ended, he was given the opportunity to go to Indonesia with his wife. While in Indonesia he studied religion while his wife studied kinship and family.
When Clifford returned from Indonesia, he wrote his first book, Agricultural Involution. It describes the two main kinds of agriculture in Indonesia, swidden and sawah (irrigated rice paddy fields), and their geographical localization. It also describes the historical development of Indonesian agriculture by developing the hypothesis that existing forms of agriculture were intensified instead of changed. Since then, Geertz has published over a dozen books.
Geertz is now Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study located in Princeton, New Jersey. His ideas have found favor among other anthropologists and other sciences. His work serves society by providing "a more realistic, and less platonic view of other cultures." His goal has never been to perpetuate a specific methodology, but to "set a tone or mood or agenda that people could react toward or against."
Written by: Reed Pick