Mind, Culture And Learning

Mind, Culture and Learning Examining “The Interpretation of Cultures” by Clifford Geertz

Thick Description: Toward an interpretive theory of culture 

Culture is a human characteristic  What

is culture?  How cultural resources get their meaning?

Calvin and Norman



Ethnography is an endeavour to provide ‘thick description’  What

is ‘thick description’?  How does an ethnographer do it?  Why the claim that ethnographer thick description is at best an interpretive of ‘what is out there’?

Swee Ling and Van Anh



Cultural analysis is about teasing the closest description to what happen  How

does this work?  What is the significance of this?  What can it say about the quest for cultural theory?

Tiong Meng and Boon Huat



Geertz’s account of passing event captured in text is at best looking at the event from micro perspective, disregarding macro issues like history, power, and social conflict  Why

is this the case?  Are there evidences from the Cohen story? Shalleh and Noraini

The growth of culture and the evolution of the mind 

There is a “fog of confusion” that arises around the concept of the mind  What

is this confusion?  What is the concept of the mind according to Geertz? And why he thinks this is so?

Van Anh and Swee Ling



Culture resources are ingredients to human thought  How

is this so?  How does this link to human intellect and reasoning?  How is this significant to learning? Boon Huat and Tiong Meng



Human would be emotionally unviable without culture  How

is this so?  How is this significant to learning?

Norman and Calvin



Geertz’s theory of culture does not explain cultural change  What

is the critic?  What is the counter argument?

Shalleh and Jacquelyn

tyvm!