The Interpretation of Cultures, by Clifford Geertz

A justly famous work by a justly famous author. This is what good scholarly writing is supposed to do: fill, stretch, and utterly transform the landscape of the mind, and this is what Geertz does, all the while charming and obviously brilliant, so that no one who has read this book can ever think about the social sciences in general, or anthropology in particular, in the same way again.