Arts & Culture
Symbolic and Interpretive Anthropology of Ritual Objects
Quick fact
Anthropologist Clifford Geertz famously described culture as a 'web of significance' that humans themselves have spun, and he argued that ritual objects are like literary texts that can be 'read' to decode cultural meanings.
Why this is interesting
You’ve probably seen an object—maybe a flag, a wedding ring, or a totem pole—that is more than just a physical thing. How do simple objects carry such deep cultural power?