Ethnography

Anthropology

A primary concern of the discipline of anthropology is the study of culture, where culture is defined as the acquired meanings persons use to interpret experience and guide social behavior. In anthropology, an ethnography is a complex descriptive interpretation of a culture. Anthropologists historically ventured to remote, exotic settings to live among a people for a year or so to gain a firsthand understanding of their culture. Now, a dramatic difference between the ethnographer and “the other” is no longer a criterion of anthropological ethnography. The study of tribal or primitive cultures has evolved into the study of a wide range of cultural concerns, such as cultural events or scenes. Employing a cross-cultural perspective persists because it affords the ethnographer an ability to recognize aspects of human behavior capable of being observed, which is more likely to occur in the presence of differences than similarities. In anthropology, ethnographic fieldwork aims to discern cultural patterns of socially shared behavior. Anthropological ethnographers do not set out simply to observe culture; rather, they make sense of what they observe by making culture explicit. Conducting prolonged fieldwork, be it in a distant setting or a diverse one, continues to be a distinguishing characteristic of ethnography originating in anthropology.

There have been key differences, however, between American and British anthropologists’ approach to ethnography. Generally, in the United States, ethnography and social anthropology were not separate anthropological pursuits. American anthropologists’ pursuit of ethnographies of exotic groups and universal meanings governing human behavior were accommodated under the rubric “cultural anthropology.” Conversely, British anthropologists historically have drawn a distinction between social anthropology and cultural anthropology. They distinguished between the ethnographer finely examining a specific group of people and the social anthropologist examining the same group to discern broad cultural patterns. Where these two disciplines intersect is that both traditions of anthropology have adhered to the standard of participant observation, both have been attentive to learning the native language, and both have been attuned to the constitution of everyday life.

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