“Culture is best seen not as complexes of concrete behavior patterns — customs, usages, traditions, habit clusters — as has, by and large, been the case up to now, but as a set of control mechanisms — plans, recipes, rules, instructions (what computer engineers call “programs”) — for the governing of behavior.”

—  Clifford Geertz, book The Interpretation of Cultures

Source: The Interpretation of Cultures (1973), p. 44

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Clifford Geertz16
American anthropologist 1926–2006

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