What perspective do anthropologists use in their ethnographies when they want to take a zoomed-out approach to describing the culture they work with in order to make comparisons and larger analyses?

Question

Social Studies

Makenzie Hobbs

4 February, 23:16

What perspective do anthropologists use in their ethnographies when they want to take a zoomed-out approach to describing the culture they work with in order to make comparisons and larger analyses?

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Answers (1)

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Bryson · Answer 1

The response is that anthropologists take an etic approach.

Explanation:

One set of concepts that is important in cultural analysis in anthropology is the idea of emic and etic. Emic refers to the close cultural understandings and fine detail you get from gaining an insider's view of culture, whereas etic refers to viewing a culture essentially as an outsider, from a perspective that can make larger comparisons of similarities and differences with other cultures. The notion is that you gain different insights depending on the perspective because from the etic view, for example, you are taking an outsider's view and you may see patterns and similitudes that somebody from within the culture can't see.