What is Geertz thick description?

“Thick Description” is a term used by the cultural anthropologist Clifford Geertz. He described the practice of thick description as a way of providing cultural context and meaning to human actions and behavior, as opposed to “thin description” which is a factual account without any interpretation.

What is an example of thick description?

Thick description includes voices, feelings, actions and meanings (Ponterotto, 2006). The example most commonly used to explain ‘Thick description’ comes from Ryle. He argued that if someone winks at us without a context, we don’t know what it means. We can report on the wink (thin description).

What is theory What does Geertz thick description offer an anthropologist?

Geertz aims to provide social science with and understanding and appreciation of “thick description.” While Geertz applies thick description in the direction of anthropological study (specifically his own ‘interpretive anthropology’), his theory that asserts the essentially semiotic nature of culture has implications …

What is meant by the term thick description?

Thick description is a term used to characterize the process of paying attention to contextual detail in observing and interpreting social meaning when conducting qualitative research.

What is thick description in new historicism?

** Thick Description: collection and interpretation of cultural details, close examination of social behavior that serves as the means of finding the codes by which people govern their choices and actions.

What does Clifford Geertz understand by thick description How important is it in qualitative research?

Thick description is a social sciences qualitative research technique that gives detailed descriptions and interpretations of situations observed by a researcher. It is a ethnographic and qualitative research technique. The term was invented by social anthropologists Gilbert Ryle and Clifford Geertz.

What is Clifford Geertz explanation for the purpose of culture?

Symbols guide action. Culture, according to Geertz, is “a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life.” The function of culture is to impose meaning on the world and make it understandable.

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