Etic vs. Emic Approaches in Anthropology
Adrian Simons-Wilson
Working in the field as a cultural anthropologist requires participant observation, interviews, and observation. (Knight) The etic and emic-orientated styles are two different styles that applied anthropologists use in their field work. The etic-orientated approach is a perspective that in ethnography uses concepts and categories for the anthropologists culture to describe another culture. (Ferraro/Andretta) The emic-orientated approach is a viewpoint in ethnography that uses the concepts and categories that are relevant and meaningful to the culture under analysis (Ferraro/Andreatta). There has been much debate on whether the etic or emic-orientated techniques of research should be used in the field. Cultural anthropology should focus on a joint permutation on both the etic and emic-oriented research styles to produce the most useful results because of the advantages and disadvantages both contain. “Eating Christmas in the Kalahari,” “Shakespeare in the Bush,” and “Instructor’s Notes: Emic and Etic” are all intelligent sources that have helped lead me to the conclusion that a joint permutation of etic and emic is best for doing research in the field. This paper will outline the principles of etic and emic-orientation and why both are needed to have the most preeminent information available about cultures, with examples from multiple articles.
A meal consists usually of a food and a drink of sorts. Let’s take spaghetti and red wine. For a person who enjoys both spaghetti and red wine this will being the most optimum results to their pleasure of the meal from the combination of the two. People commonly enjoy their meals with a drink. Research can be looked at in the same way. Statistics are a great way of looking at how a community is either improving or falling behind the rest of their culture as far as their social economic status is concerned. We would not be able to know why they are improving or falling behind without involving
Working in the field as a cultural anthropologist requires participant observation, interviews, and observation. (Knight) The etic and emic-orientated styles are two different styles that applied anthropologists use in their field work. The etic-orientated approach is a perspective that in ethnography uses concepts and categories for the anthropologists culture to describe another culture. (Ferraro/Andretta) The emic-orientated approach is a viewpoint in ethnography that uses the concepts and categories that are relevant and meaningful to the culture under analysis (Ferraro/Andreatta). There has been much debate on whether the etic or emic-orientated techniques of research should be used in the field. Cultural anthropology should focus on a joint permutation on both the etic and emic-oriented research styles to produce the most useful results because of the advantages and disadvantages both contain. “Eating Christmas in the Kalahari,” “Shakespeare in the Bush,” and “Instructor’s Notes: Emic and Etic” are all intelligent sources that have helped lead me to the conclusion that a joint permutation of etic and emic is best for doing research in the field. This paper will outline the principles of etic and emic-orientation and why both are needed to have the most preeminent information available about cultures, with examples from multiple articles.
A meal consists usually of a food and a drink of sorts. Let’s take spaghetti and red wine. For a person who enjoys both spaghetti and red wine this will being the most optimum results to their pleasure of the meal from the combination of the two. People commonly enjoy their meals with a drink. Research can be looked at in the same way. Statistics are a great way of looking at how a community is either improving or falling behind the rest of their culture as far as their social economic status is concerned. We would not be able to know why they are improving or falling behind without involving