pattern of political power was like radio waves from a transmitter

Categories: Comparisons

An example of an analogy to a scientific concept,

"The early polities were thus not so much solidary territorial units as loose congeries of villages oriented toward a common urban centre, each such centre competing with others for ascendancy…. So far as the pattern was territorial at all, it consisted of a series of concentric circles of religio-military power spreading out around the various city-state capitals, as radio waves spread from a transmitter. The closer a village to a town, the greater the impact, economically and culturally, of the court on that village."

Clifford Geertz (2000) Ideology as a cultural system (first published 1964), in The Interpretation of Cultures. Selected Essays. 2nd Edition. New York. Basic Books

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Many examples of science analogies are listed in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.

Author: Keith

Former school and college science teacher, teacher educator, research supervisor, and research methods lecturer. Emeritus Professor of Science Education at the University of Cambridge.