Thick Description and Cultures as Texts
심층기술론
An interpretive anthropological methodology arguing that ethnographers must provide "thick descriptions" that uncover the rich contextual, stratified webs of significance embedded in human social actions.
| Field | Anthropology |
|---|---|
| Level of analysis | Micro · Individual |
| Paradigm | Interpretivism Phenomenology |
| Key figures | 👤 Clifford Geertz (클리퍼드 기어츠) |
| Year | 1973 |
Key Claims
Clifford Geertz famously distinguished a physiological eye twitch from a conspiratorial wink to establish the necessity of ‘thick description’. Anthropological analysis is not an experimental science in search of universal laws, but an interpretive hermeneutic enterprise in search of meaning.
Further Reading
- Geertz, C. (1973). Thick description: Toward an interpretive theory of culture. In The Interpretation of Cultures (pp. 3–30). Basic Books.
Related theories 3개
A foundational theoretical framework in anthropology addressing Interpretive Anthropology at the micro level of analysis.
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Theories pointing to this one 2개
A major literary hermeneutics paradigm showing that literary meaning is realized dynamically through the interaction between text and reader, as readers fill indeterminacy blanks within shifting horizons of expectation.
A foundational philosophical hermeneutics treatise asserting that understanding is an ongoing historical dialogue where the interpreter's situated fore-meanings merge with the text in a "fusion of horizons".