ABSTRACT
From Clifford Geertz, from Jane Austen and from Michael Oakeshott, we receive depictions of cultural process-the construction, exchange and interpretation of cultural forms-as conversation. Their convergence on this image appeals to me; also the way that their depictions can be found to converse one with another, pointing up an image of cultural process at once complex, multiple and counterpoised. I begin, then, with their conversation.
