Hildred Storey Geertz (February 12, 1927 – September 30, 2022) was an American

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

who has studied

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...

nese and Javanese kinship practices and Balinese art in Indonesia. Between 1960 and 1970, Geertz served as a research scholar, a lecturer, and an assistant professor of social anthropology at the University of Chicago. Since 1970, she has been teaching in the Anthropology department at Princeton University. She was named professor emerita in 1998. Geertz was also the first female department chair at Princeton University. She received the honor for “People Who Have Made a Difference in the Lives of Women at Princeton” in 1998. She was also nominated as an outstanding anthropology educator by Marquis Who's Who in America.

Major works

Geertz was born in New York City on February 12, 1927. She completed her B.A. and met her future husband, Clifford Geertz in Antioch College, Ohio. Geertz conducted her first fieldwork in Java with fellowship for her graduate school studies from 1952 to 1954. She received her Ph.D. in

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...

in 1956 and published ''The Javanese Family'' in 1961. The book examines the structures and functions of the Javanese

kinship In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...

system. She provides detailed ethnographic data to show how the most central unit: the nuclear family, stabilizes and sustains Javanese society. Geertz conducted

fieldwork Field research, field studies, or fieldwork is the collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library, or workplace setting. The approaches and methods used in field research vary across disciplines. For example, biologists who conduct fie ...

in Bali for a year in 1957. She continued her research of the kinship system. And she was co-author with her husband Clifford Geertz, of ''Kinship in Bali'' (Chicago,1975). This book refutes the popular view by the time: an emphasis on autonomous characteristics of kinship. It argues that the kinship system should be examined as a subsystem that inherits particular cultural patterns, ideas, and symbols of the society. Geertz later worked in Sefrou, Morocco, with Lawrence Rosen and Clifford Geertz to understand Moroccan family structure and the formation of their social ties. She was co-author with them of ''Meaning and Order in Moroccan Society: Three Essays in Cultural Analysis''. Geertz published ''Images of Power: Balinese Paintings Made for Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead (1994)'' after conducting work on a painting series about the village of Batuan, where Margaret Mead and

Gregory Bateson Gregory Bateson (9 May 1904 – 4 July 1980) was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician, and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. His writings include '' Steps to an ...

studied in the 1930s and collected these paintings originally for further studies. She critically suggests that these paintings, painted by European artists who reside in Bali, reflect an “ethnography of Balinese imagination (p.1)” and are not insightful to show the Balinese characteristics.

Personal life and death

Geertz married Clifford Geertz in 1948; they divorced in 1981. They had one son and one daughter. Geertz died in Princeton, New Jersey on September 30, 2022, at the age of 95.

Publications

* Geertz, Hildred (1968). “Latah in Java: A theoretical paradox.” Indonesia Indonesia (Ithaca) No. 5. *Geertz Hildred; Geertz, Clifford (1978). ''Kinship in Bali.'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press. . *Geertz, Hildred (1989). Javanese Family: A Study of Kinship and Socialization. Illinois: Waveland Press. . *Geertz, Hildred (1989). The Javanese family: a study of kinship and socialization American Council of Learned Societies. Illinois: Waveland Press. *Geertz, Hildred (1991). State and Society in Bali: Historical Textual and Anthropological Approaches. Leiden: KITLV Press. * Geertz, Hildred (1994). Images of Power: Balinese Paintings Made for Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press * Geertz, Hildred Geertz; Togog, Ida Bagus Made(2005). Tales From a Charmed Life: A Balinese Painter Reminisces. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. *Geertz, Hildred (2014). Life of a Balinese Temple Artistry, Imagination, and History in a Peasant Village. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. * Geertz, Hildred (2017). Storytelling in Bali. Leiden: Boston Brill .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Geertz, Hildred 1927 births 2022 deaths Wikipedia Student Program Antioch College alumni Radcliffe College alumni University of Chicago faculty Princeton University faculty American anthropologists Women anthropologists Social anthropologists People from New York City