[Culture] denotes an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms, by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life.

The way in which mathematicians and physicists and historians talk is quite different, and what a physicist means by physical intuition and what a mathematician means by beauty or elegance are things worth thinking about.

Younger anthropologists have the notion that anthropology is too diverse. The number of things done under the name of anthropology is just infinite; you can do anything and call it anthropology

I think of myself as a writer who happens to be doing his writing as an anthropologist

Culture is public, because meaning is

My instincts are always against people who want to fasten some sort of hegemony onto things

I'm an inveterate fox and not a hedgehog, so I always think you should try everything