Emic and etic

Sociology gives us a lot of information about the approaches of understanding culture. Emic and Etic perspectives are crucial to the one who produces the knowledge. Emic approaches would propose that the most valid understanding can be gained by joining the culture, being within it, and have an individually internalized understanding of that culture, it could be argued that this constitutes ‘active experimentation’. Etic approaches propose that in order to develop a valid understanding a…

Plainly, a great deal was difficult about understanding the activities in “The ‘Killing’ of Neni Bai”, and that is the way it should be. As someone who has not been socialized as a Hindu, or anything close to one, and as someone living in the overtly capitalistic America, with a life nothing like the ones shown through the eyes and words of Paul Winther, I should understand little about the point of view of the people described in “The ‘Killing’ of Neni Bai”. This includes the activities of:…

established over the maids is not simply because he’s their boss, but because he is probably part of the middle class. Around the end of the chapter when Ehrenreich reveals that she was conducting her research to the maids, surprisingly, she does not gain an etic…

We live in a multicultural world, where people from various ethnicities, backgrounds, culture and beliefs are living among one another. With the increasing number of people with different beliefs and cultures needing treatment, HCP’s need to be aware of the practice and beliefs of these people to provide effective treatment. Leininger recognized this in the 1950’s and began developing a theory which would address this issue. Her culture care theory of diversity and universality is the basis for…

Anthropologist’s ongoing determination towards fieldwork enhances their way of learning another culture while obtaining the native’s point of view. This term coined by Malinowski mirrors an emic perspective like the article. The context of going native for users and designers shown in the article eliminates boundaries progressively. To situate oneself in the ways of ethnographic research, one must carefully observe those you are studying. As stated in the article ethnography is conceived as, “a…

One of the first schools of thought within the discipline was that of Evolutionism which looked at the sociocultural aspects of society through the lens of scientific method, “treating sociocultural phenomena as part of nature, subject to its laws” (Barrett, 2011, p49). Evolutionists believed that culture is purposeful and functional, and it will progress along a unilinear scheme, from savagery to civilization. Its gaze was entirely ethnocentric and anthropologists of this time relied on…

Quantitative vs. Qualitative research It is always a philosophic question which type of research to choose. The answer to this question depends on the nature of the study, the type of necessary information and the availability of recourses (time, money and participants). It is important to take into account that two types of reaches are just two different philosophies, however, they are not contrary. Moreover, both methods can be used in mixed-methods researches. This type of approach becomes…

Framing and Methodologies Crucial foundations exist in each theory that grant assumptions permitting conclusions to be drawn. Built upon this are methodologies that then are inherently influenced by a theory’s foundation. Configurational anthropology’s underlying assumption is that of cultural relativity, which has structured both the temporal and spatial alignment of the theory. Cultural relativity states that the beliefs and activities of a culture cannot be judged out of context. To ground…

People practice different rituals and different ways of life, but never fully have a reason for doing so. In “The Vision Quest and the Guardian Spirit”, by George A. Pettitt, he describes the way people in North America develop a vision quest and the concept of a guardian spirit. Pettitt uses good examples, but when explaining them, does not seem so positive of what he is stating. He discusses the process of a vision quest and does so by bringing up stories of boys and hardships they go through…

As it is not often that one is asked to truly analyze their opinions and perceptions in relation to the world around them and put those thoughts on paper, I had a bit of difficulty coming into this assignment. I was not sure of my worldview in the slightest and to be perfectly honest, I am still unsure as to what aspects of my perceptions of the world around me are a result of my environment or the people around me, or to what extent these impacted my worldview. I must say that I do believe…