Let’s consider “Hopi ceremonial dance” (Merton 243). Thick description of culture should contain a meaning and context that people within a society can interpret and understand, otherwise it is a random behavior or thought which cannot trigger any communication over it. Winking your eye lids on purpose has a context in doing so, a purpose of achieving something and an intention of delivering a specific message to someone particular. Any action to be social and communicable, “it should be (1) deliberate, (2) toward a particular person, (3) containing particular message, (4) according to a socially established code that is commonly shared among a group of people and (5) without cognizance of the rest of the company” (299). This is the point that Geertz emphasizes. Although both actions seem identical on the surface, one has the socially understood and mutually shared meaning in the action, while the other doesn’t deliver any message. One boy contracts his eyelid involuntarily that has no social meaning, while the other contracts with the purpose of signaling a friend. Geertz explains about Ryle’s discussion of “thick description” by using the example of two boys contracting their right eyelids.
To see all the possible meanings of an action, one should use Gilbert Ryle’s “thick description”.Įye contact for example can make a Japanese uncomfortable but in Western countries, it only shows a person’s interest and engagement in the conversation. He then discusses the role of the ethnographer who does not only observe and record his/ her observation but to analyze and interpret the action in a cultural context. Instead, it is semiotic and is understandable by symbols and people’s interactions with them.
Geertz argues that culture is not ruled by law. Section 1: Paragraph 1-3 Luky Portillo In The Interpretation of Cultures, Clifford Geertz discusses the importance of looking into a culture as not an “experimental science in search of law but an interpretive one in search of meaning" (298). 6 Section 6: Paragraph 11-12 Anja Hedji.5 Section 5: Paragraph 8-10 Kejing Peng.4 Section 4: Paragraph 5-7 Carmel Laniado.1 Section 1: Paragraph 1-3 Luky Portillo.
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