The Interpretation of Cultures by Clifford Geertz
Published 1973 · 547 pages · 120,000 words · about 8 hours at an average pace · Anthropology & Folklore, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Politics & Society
How hard is The Interpretation of Cultures to read?
The Interpretation of Cultures scores 36 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 52 out of 100
- Academic social-science vocabulary with philosophical terminology from hermeneutics and semiotics.
- Sentence structure: 55 out of 100
- Abstraction: 62 out of 100
- High-level theorizing about meaning, interpretation, and culture as symbol systems.
- Information density: 58 out of 100
- Layered arguments with ethnographic detail supporting abstract claims.
- Narrative indirection: 25 out of 100
- Essays approach their subjects obliquely, building through examples before stating conclusions.
- Symbolic density: 35 out of 100
- The cockfight as cultural text; culture itself as a web of symbols.
- Ironic distance: 22 out of 100
- Geertz writes with dry wit and skepticism toward scientific pretension in anthropology.
- Resolution withholding: 20 out of 100
- Interpretive essays resist closure. Geertz offers readings, not final answers.
- Structural complexity: 35 out of 100
- Fifteen independent essays unified by a theoretical framework.
How The Interpretation of Cultures is regarded
The Interpretation of Cultures holds a literary regard score of 74 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.