ABSTRACT
The way of doing anthropology, the people know as 'interpretive', was the expression within anthropology of a much wider trend, one that affected a whole range of arts and humanities disciplines. Clifford Geertz asserts that the kind of explanation it should seek to offer is qualitatively different from that pursued in the natural sciences, which had provided models and inspiration for other schools of sociological and philosophical thought, most proximately in anthropology. The argument aligned anthropology with other humane sciences, such as literary or textual analysis and historical study, and distanced it from 'social sciences' such as economics and sociology. Geertz's influence, both within and beyond anthropology, because the 'conversation' to which he sought to contribute was cross-disciplinary and indeed extended beyond the academy to a broader educated reading public.
