Ethnography

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Recommended: Ethnography observation

Karle Pittsinger
Anthropology 101 AE
1 October 2014

1. A thick description goes beyond ordinary measures, in search of a deeper meaning of a specific culture. Ethnographers must be able to evaluate what’s at hand with an open mind, questioning all types of behavior. All societies, big and small, are unique with a certain set of values and beliefs that define them. It takes time to form raw relationships with the community to better understand the interworking of their people. An Ethnographer will be able to grasp culture as a whole when he or she has become accepted instead of an outsider. Human beings are born with one set of cultural knowledge so stepping into a new environment takes a lot of digging to get inside a subjects mind. “Ethnography …show more content…

Ethnographers interpret specific cultures to understand how a group of people think and act. Merely interpreting on a surface level leaves the ethnographer with a wafer thin description that lacks detail. Ethnography takes both an emic and etic perspective to interpret while analyzing. Geertz examines the twitching of an eyelid by three boys and explains different types of descriptions. “The ‘thin description’ of what the rehearser (parodist, winker, twitcher…) is doing (‘rapidly contracting his right eyelids’) and the ‘thick description’ of what he is doing (’practicing a burlesque of a friend faking a wink to deceive an innocent into think a conspiracy is in motion’) lies in ethnography” (Geertz 312). Social events must be decoded, such as the winking/twitching eyes to understand how symbols guide the community. Symbols can often be misleading because they are specific to certain cultures. Symbols obtain meaning from the role they play in patterned behavior of social life. Anthropologists analyze cultures, trying to pick apart their differences. Deep interpretation enables comparisons to be made on all levels, on the surface and at the roots. A “thick description” with great interpretation allows the world to step into another cultures shoes for a while. Without anthropology, our world would be more judgmental instead of trying to understand why people behave certain

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