Cultural Anthropology
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It is difficult and challenging to find an effective method of studying and learning about a group of people and then portray what is leaned in a short ethnography. In Person, Time and Conduct in Bali by Clifford Geertz, he attempts and is successful in studying the small group of Balineans in their own environment. He expresses a general understanding of culture from an anthropological perspective and gradually gets very specific with the customs and way of life of the Balinese. Geertz attempts to provide a detailed understanding of the circumstances of the Balinesean subjects who were being studied by developing strong goals and intensions of the book; arguments and claims which are proven, and an effective way of organizing and structuring the content of the information and evidence needed. In other words, Geertz is creating an ethnography which is descriptive because the detail is crucial and interpretive because he determines the significance of what is observed.
The organization and structure of Person, Time and Conduct in Bali is very effective in the sense that it makes the content easier to understand. The book starts off with a broad perspective and gradually work its way to specific topics regarding Bali. The first chapter discusses the social nature of thought and its effects on the anthropologic analysis of culture. Here a brief description of the focus of the book is presented, which gave me a general feeling of what was going to be addressed throughout the entire composition; therefore, I did not feel lost while reading it. A general theory and understanding of culture is also stated, where I found that the information given could be applied to many different cultures...