--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: What we call our data are really our own…" description: "\"What we call our data are really our own constructions of other people’s constructions of what they and their compatriots are up to.\" — Clifford Geertz" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4fe/clifford-geertz-11500_construction_what-we-call-our-data-are-really-our-own_396699.png" --- # What we call our data are really our own constructions of… ![“What we call our data are really our own constructions of other people’s constructions of what they and their compatriots are up to.” quote by Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4fe/clifford-geertz-11500_construction_what-we-call-our-data-are-really-our-own_396699.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4fe/clifford-geertz-11500_construction_what-we-call-our-data-are-really-our-own_396699.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4fe/clifford-geertz-11500_construction_what-we-call-our-data-are-really-our-own_396699.png) > “What we call our data are really our own constructions of other people’s constructions of what they and their compatriots are up to.” [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Our data are shaped by layers of interpretation, reflecting both our own and others’ perspectives. **In simple terms:** Data are built on multiple interpretations. Key Takeaway Recognize bias in data sources. Themes interpretation culture bias knowledge construction Mood analytical critical thoughtful Type philosophical inspirational When to use this quote - research design - media analysis - policy making - cross‑cultural studies Key Concepts social constructivism epistemology semiotics Questions to Reflect On - How do your assumptions shape the data you collect? - What perspectives are missing from your dataset? A Different Perspective Data never fully escape subjectivity. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Construction](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/construction/) [Constructions Compatriots](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/constructions-compatriots-3567659/) [Constructions People](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/constructions-people-3567662/) [Data](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/data/) [Data Really](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/data-really-1704565/) [People](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/people/) [People Constructions](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/people-constructions-3567661/) [Really Constructions](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/really-constructions-3567660/) ## Related quotes > [Data really powers everything that we do.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jeff-weiner/data-really-powers-everything-that-we-do/) [Jeff Weiner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jeff-weiner/) > [The cloud is still really just a bunch of servers, owned by someone or something, whose decisions and competence must be trusted. This applies…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/douglas-rushkoff/the-cloud-is-still-really-just-a-bunch-of-servers-owned-by-someone-or/) [Douglas Rushkoff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/douglas-rushkoff/) > [I would only have been too pleased if someone had asked me for my data. If you really believed in your data, you wouldn't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-lovelock/i-would-only-have-been-too-pleased-if-someone-had-asked-me-for-my/) [James Lovelock](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-lovelock/) > [Any subject is suitable provided it is of sufficient interest, but the design must be very carefully considered, and plenty of time and thought…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-j-phillips/any-subject-is-suitable-provided-it-is-of-sufficient-interest-but-the/) [Walter J. Phillips](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-j-phillips/) > [Philosophical knowledge is the knowledge gained by reason from concepts ; mathematical knowledge is the knowledge gained by reason from the construction of concepts.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/immanuel-kant/philosophical-knowledge-is-the-knowledge-gained-by-reason-from/) [Immanuel Kant](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/immanuel-kant/) > [“Over 275,000 people had signed to end the construction of the TMT telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatories (MKO) by week 20 of the protest.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-magee/over-275-000-people-had-signed-to-end-the-construction-of-the-tmt/) [Steven Magee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-magee/) > [It's no accident that most self-help groups use 'anonymous' in their names; to Americans, the first step toward redemption is a ritual wiping out…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-kirn/it-s-no-accident-that-most-self-help-groups-use-anonymous-in-their/) [Walter Kirn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-kirn/) > [Seoul will strictly limit the total greenhouse gas emissions from buildings and expand the construction of zero-energy buildings.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/park-won-soon/seoul-will-strictly-limit-the-total-greenhouse-gas-emissions-from/) [Park Won-soon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/park-won-soon/) > [ I'm telling you, I could teach at a university, \[George\] Carlin, a whole semester. The construction and deconstruction of the words, the language, the… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jay-mohr/i-m-telling-you-i-could-teach-at-a-university-george-carlin-a-whole/) [Jay Mohr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jay-mohr/) > [“Create with the heart; build with the mind.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/criss-jami/create-with-the-heart-build-with-the-mind/) [Criss Jami](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/criss-jami/) > [Sometimes I think the resurrection of the body, unless much improved in construction, a mistake!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evelyn-underhill/sometimes-i-think-the-resurrection-of-the-body-unless-much-improved/) [Evelyn Underhill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/evelyn-underhill/) > [“But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every words that serves no function, every long word…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-zinsser/but-the-secret-of-good-writing-is-to-strip-every-sentence-to-its/) [William Zinsser](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-zinsser/) > [Cold calculation, random spots of color, mathematically exact construction (clearly shown or concealed), drawing that is now silent and now strident . . .…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/giacomo-puccini/cold-calculation-random-spots-of-color-mathematically-exact/) [Giacomo Puccini](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/giacomo-puccini/) > [To follow good manners willingly is like paving the road and to tell somebody to follow them is like the road which is always…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vikrant-parsai/to-follow-good-manners-willingly-is-like-paving-the-road-and-to-tell/) [Vikrant Parsai](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/vikrant-parsai/) > [The religion of art, like the religion of politics, was born from the ruins of Christianity. Art inherited from the old religion the power…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/octavio-paz/the-religion-of-art-like-the-religion-of-politics-was-born-from-the/) [Octavio Paz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/octavio-paz/) ## More by Clifford Geertz > [My instincts are always against people who want to fasten some sort of hegemony onto things](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/my-instincts-are-always-against-people-who-want-to-fasten-some-sort/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [One of the most significant facts about humanity may finally be that we all begin with the natural equipment to a live a thousand…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/one-of-the-most-significant-facts-about-humanity-may-finally-be-that/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [“One of the most significant facts about us may finally be that we all begin with the natural equipment to live a thousand kinds…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/one-of-the-most-significant-facts-about-us-may-finally-be-that-we-all/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [Understanding a people's culture exposes their normalness without reducing their particularity...It renders them accessible: setting them in the frame of their own banalities, it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/understanding-a-people-s-culture-exposes-their-normalness-without/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [I think what's known about neurology is still scattered and uncertain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/i-think-what-s-known-about-neurology-is-still-scattered-and-uncertain/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [The way in which mathematicians and physicists and historians talk is quite different, and what a physicist means by physical intuition and what a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/the-way-in-which-mathematicians-and-physicists-and-historians-talk-is/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [It's always amusing to look at how something early in the 20th century was written in anthropology and how it's written now. There's been…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/it-s-always-amusing-to-look-at-how-something-early-in-the-20th/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [Cultural analysis is intrinsically incomplete. And, worse than that, the more deeply it goes the less complete it is.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/cultural-analysis-is-intrinsically-incomplete-and-worse-than-that-the/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [It may be in the cultural particularities of people — in their oddities — that some of the most instructive revelations of what it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/it-may-be-in-the-cultural-particularities-of-people-in-their-oddities/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [The point of literary criticism in anthropology is not to replace research, but to find out how it is that we are persuasive.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/the-point-of-literary-criticism-in-anthropology-is-not-to-replace/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [“What the ethnographer is in fact faced with—except when (as, of course, he must do) he is pursuing the more automatized routines of data…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/what-the-ethnographer-is-in-fact-faced-with-except-when-as-of-course/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [ \[Culture\] denotes an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms, by means of which… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/culture-denotes-an-historically-transmitted-pattern-of-meanings/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [Most anthropologists are doing straightforward ethnography, and should](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/most-anthropologists-are-doing-straightforward-ethnography-and-should/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [Learning to exist in a world quite different from that which formed you is the condition, these days, of pursuing research you can on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/learning-to-exist-in-a-world-quite-different-from-that-which-formed/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [I have a social philosophy; you have political opinions; he has an ideology.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/i-have-a-social-philosophy-you-have-political-opinions-he-has-an/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) [Explore all 58 Clifford Geertz quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) ## More Construction quotes > [The religion of art, like the religion of politics, was born from the ruins of Christianity. Art inherited from the old religion the power…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/octavio-paz/the-religion-of-art-like-the-religion-of-politics-was-born-from-the/) [Octavio Paz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/octavio-paz/) > [To follow good manners willingly is like paving the road and to tell somebody to follow them is like the road which is always…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vikrant-parsai/to-follow-good-manners-willingly-is-like-paving-the-road-and-to-tell/) [Vikrant Parsai](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/vikrant-parsai/) > [Cold calculation, random spots of color, mathematically exact construction (clearly shown or concealed), drawing that is now silent and now strident . . .…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/giacomo-puccini/cold-calculation-random-spots-of-color-mathematically-exact/) [Giacomo Puccini](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/giacomo-puccini/) > [“But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every words that serves no function, every long word…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-zinsser/but-the-secret-of-good-writing-is-to-strip-every-sentence-to-its/) [William Zinsser](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-zinsser/) > [Sometimes I think the resurrection of the body, unless much improved in construction, a mistake!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evelyn-underhill/sometimes-i-think-the-resurrection-of-the-body-unless-much-improved/) [Evelyn Underhill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/evelyn-underhill/) > [“Create with the heart; build with the mind.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/criss-jami/create-with-the-heart-build-with-the-mind/) [Criss Jami](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/criss-jami/) > [ I'm telling you, I could teach at a university, \[George\] Carlin, a whole semester. The construction and deconstruction of the words, the language, the… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jay-mohr/i-m-telling-you-i-could-teach-at-a-university-george-carlin-a-whole/) [Jay Mohr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jay-mohr/) > [Seoul will strictly limit the total greenhouse gas emissions from buildings and expand the construction of zero-energy buildings.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/park-won-soon/seoul-will-strictly-limit-the-total-greenhouse-gas-emissions-from/) [Park Won-soon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/park-won-soon/) > [It's no accident that most self-help groups use 'anonymous' in their names; to Americans, the first step toward redemption is a ritual wiping out…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-kirn/it-s-no-accident-that-most-self-help-groups-use-anonymous-in-their/) [Walter Kirn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-kirn/) > [“Over 275,000 people had signed to end the construction of the TMT telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatories (MKO) by week 20 of the protest.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-magee/over-275-000-people-had-signed-to-end-the-construction-of-the-tmt/) [Steven Magee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-magee/) > [Philosophical knowledge is the knowledge gained by reason from concepts ; mathematical knowledge is the knowledge gained by reason from the construction of concepts.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/immanuel-kant/philosophical-knowledge-is-the-knowledge-gained-by-reason-from/) [Immanuel Kant](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/immanuel-kant/) > [Any subject is suitable provided it is of sufficient interest, but the design must be very carefully considered, and plenty of time and thought…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-j-phillips/any-subject-is-suitable-provided-it-is-of-sufficient-interest-but-the/) [Walter J. Phillips](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-j-phillips/) > [No construction stiff working overtime takes more stress and straining than we did just to stay high.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gus-van-sant/no-construction-stiff-working-overtime-takes-more-stress-and/) [Gus Van Sant](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gus-van-sant/) > [Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them… for really new ideas of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-jacobs/cities-need-old-buildings-so-badly-it-is-probably-impossible-for/) [Jane Jacobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-jacobs/) > [My construction of the constitution is very different from that you quote. It is that each department is truly independent of the others, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/my-construction-of-the-constitution-is-very-different-from-that-you/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) [Browse all 942 Construction quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/construction/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "What we call our data are really our own constructions of other people’s constructions of what they and their compatriots are up to.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Clifford Geertz" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/what-we-call-our-data-are-really-our-own-constructions-of-other/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Construction" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/what-we-call-our-data-are-really-our-own-constructions-of-other/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4fe/clifford-geertz-11500_construction_what-we-call-our-data-are-really-our-own_396699.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4fe/clifford-geertz-11500_construction_what-we-call-our-data-are-really-our-own_396699.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4fe/clifford-geertz-11500_construction_what-we-call-our-data-are-really-our-own_396699.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“What we call our data are really our own constructions of other people’s constructions of what they and…” — Clifford Geertz", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Clifford Geertz", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "What we call our data are...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/what-we-call-our-data-are-really-our-own-constructions-of-other/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/what-we-call-our-data-are-really-our-own-constructions-of-other/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```