Seminar on
Qualitative Methods in
Design
Session 3: Describing Culture
Gunnar Stevens
Human Computer Interaction
University of Siegen, Germany
MALINOWSKI 1922 (FIRST PRINT).
INTRODUCTION (CHAP 1). IN:
ARGONAUTS OF THE WESTERN
PACIFIC, ROUTLEDGE.
Summary
‣ Highlights the aim of ethnography as “to give a clear and
firm outline of the social constitution, and to disentangle
the laws and regularities of all cultural phenomena from
the irrelevances.”
‣ “I consider that only such ethnographic sources are of
unquestionable scientific value, in which we can clearly
draw the line between (…) direct observation (…) and
(…) the interferences of the author, based on his
common sense and psychological insight.” (i.e. you
need to make clear what and how you gathered your
data)
Summary II
‣ “An ethnographer who sets out to study only religion, or only
technology, or only social organization cuts out an artificial
field for inquiry, and he will be seriously handicapped in his
work.” (i.e. you need a holistic view on the subject)
‣ The natives obey the forces and commands of the tribal
code, but they do not comprehend them (i.e. you cannot
simply ask them to explain their social rules).
‣ There are important aspects of social life which can only be
observed, but not recorded by interviews: the imponderabilia
of actual life.
‣ Its good to sometimes “to put aside camera, note book and
pencil, and join (…) in what is going on.”
Summary III
‣ Three avenues for ethnographic research:
‣ The organizations of the tribe, and the anatomy of it’s
culture: concrete, statistical documentation
‣ The imponderabilia of actual life, and the type of behavior:
minute, detailed observations
‣ The corpus inscriptionum (tales, narratives): documents of
native mentality (ways of thinking and feeling)
‣ Aim: “This goal is, briefly, to grasp the native's point of view,
his relation to life, to realise his vision of his world. We have
to study man, and we must study what concerns him most
intimately, that is, the hold which life has on him. “
WHAT IS THE AUTHOR …
… MOST CONCERNED ABOUT?
… MOST OPTIMISTIC ABOUT?
GEERTZ, 1977. THICK DESCRIPTION:
TOWARDS AN INTERPRETIVE THEORY
OF CULTURE, THE INTERPRETATION
OF CULTURES.
Summary
‣ “Man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he
himself has spun.” -> studies of meaning, interpretive
‣ Ethnography is not about methods, its an intellectual effort (It
is “thick description” vs. mere phenomenology).
‣ “What we call our data are really our own constructions of
other people’s constructions of what they and their
compatriots are up to (…).”
‣ “Analysis, then, I sorting out the structures of signification
(…), and determining their social ground and import.”
‣ Anthropological writings are interpretations, are fictions. They
have to be measured against how much they are able to
clarify what goes on in the field (thick description).
Summary II
‣ “The ethnographer “inscribes” social discourse; he writes it
down.” Not as raw social discourse, but as interpretation.
‣ The locus of study is not the object of study. Ethnographies
are microscopic, but offer broader interpretations.
‣ “one cannot write a General Theory of Cultural Interpretation.
Or, rather, one can, but there appears to be little profit in it,
because the essential task (…) is not to codify abstract
regularities but to make thick description possible, not to
generalize across cases but to generalize within them.”
‣ Cultural Theory is not predictive (at most it anticipates).
WHAT IS THE AUTHOR …
… MOST CONCERNED ABOUT?
… MOST OPTIMISTIC ABOUT?