Symbolic anthropology

Symbolic anthropology or, more broadly, symbolic and interpretive anthropology, is the study of cultural symbols and how those symbols can be used to better understanding a particular society. It is often viewed in contrast to cultural materialism. According to Clifford Geertz, "[b]elieving, with Max Weber, that man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun, I take culture to be those webs, and the analysis of it to be therefore not an experimental science in search of law but an interpretive one in search of meaning."

Prominent symbolic anthropologists include Clifford Geertz, David Schneider, Victor Turner and Mary Douglas.

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