American anthropologist Clifford Geertz was a significant figure in the field of interpretive anthropology, which emphasizes the use of meanings and symbols rather than just objective facts to understand cultures. He emphasized in one of his reflections the significance of studying rhetoric's role in anthropology.

Geertz maintained that the way people interact with one another and create their realities must be carefully considered when researching human societies and cultures. According to him, comprehending these communication styles is essential to appreciating the intricacies of cultural dynamics.

He did, however, also highlight a problem: there isn't a recognized corpus of work or school of thought in anthropology that is especially devoted to the study of rhetoric. Because of this gap, anthropologists frequently lack precise guidelines for interpreting and analyzing the language and symbols they come across while conducting fieldwork.

Consider anthropology as a large garden with diverse flowers that symbolize different cultural expressions to help visualize this concept. The invisible web of roots that connects these flowers but keeps them mostly out of sight would be analogous to rhetoric. It's challenging to comprehend how each flower grows and interacts with the others in the garden without an understanding of this subterranean system.

Geertz's observation inspires anthropologists to learn more about the ways in which language influences cultural practices and beliefs. It implies that anthropologists can acquire more complex insights into the cultures they examine by improving their knowledge of rhetoric.