Take Away 1 Anthropology: What is Anthropology and What is Ethnography

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Anthropology

The holistic, comparative study of humans across time and space, rooted in postcolonial critique and cultural analysis.

Ethnography

A research approach and product involving immersive fieldwork to understand people’s lived experiences.

Participant Observation

The primary method in ethnography: observing while participating in daily life.

Field / Fieldwork

Not just a place, but a time-bound, politically constructed space of research and relations.

Imponderabilia

The subtle, often unspoken routines of daily life that ethnographers aim to capture (Malinowski).

Cultural Relativism

Understanding a culture on its own terms without ethnocentric bias (Franz Boas).

Ethnocentrism

Believing one’s own culture is superior to others; the opposite of cultural relativism.

Holism

Viewing parts of society in relation to the whole.

Emic / Etic

Insider’s perspective vs. analytical external perspective (Kenneth Pike).

Positionality

The researcher’s own background and its impact on access, interpretation, and interaction in the field.

Reflexivity

The practice of reflecting on how one’s identity shapes research.

Intersectionality

Analytic framework examining overlapping identities (e.g. race, gender, class) and their relation to power and discrimination.

Autoethnography

An ethnographic method where the researcher’s own experiences are central to the analysis

Crisis of Representation

Challenge to the idea that ethnographers can objectively ‘capture’ cultures.

Writing Against Culture

Abu-Lughod’s call to avoid essentializing cultures; focus on idividuals and particularities.

Multi-sited Ethnography

Following people, practices or objects across multiple locations (Marcus).

Constitutive Causality

Explaining how people make meaning within their social world (Geertz).

Thick Description

Rich contextual interpretation of social actions (Geertz).

Thin Description

Superficial observation lacking contextual depth.

Experience-near Concepts

Concepts grounded in participants’ own terms (e.g. “gambling” as metaphor for migration).

Experience-distant Concepts

Analytical terms imposed by researchers, often abstract or comparative.

Interpretive Paradigm

Epistemological approach prioritizing meaning-making over causality or prediction.

Epistemological Positionality

Awareness of how knowledge is produced based on the researcher’s standpoint.

Scientific vs Interpretive

Contrasting approaches: objective, generalizable vs. subjective, contextual

Militant Anthropology

Scheper-Hughes’ idea that anthropologists should take ethical and political stances.

Postcolonial Anthropology

A critical reflection on anthropology’s colonial roots and its ongoing implications.

Realist / Confessional / Impressionist

Van Maanen’s three styles of ethnographic writing: objective, self-reflective, and narrative-driven.