Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on Interpretive Anthropology: A Non-Scientific Mode of Inquiry. Have the paper e-mailed to you 24/7/365.
Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 4 page overview of interpretive anthropology. Using the work of Clifford Geertz as an example, the author emphasizes the importance of interpretive anthropology while contrasting it with more quantitative approaches. Bibliography lists 4 sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: AM2_PPanthGz.rtf
Buy This Term Paper »
Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
Anthropologists have gained the reputation over the centuries as completely misrepresenting cultural meanings and practices. Part of this reputation is attributable to the fact that anthropology is not an
exact science. Despite this fact, cultural anthropology is still looked to to explain the contrast between people of different cultures and ethnic or behavioral backgrounds as well as the
contrast between the people of the same ethnic or racial background but different behavioral patterns (Spradley and McCurdy, 2002). Anthropology often approaches this task from a strictly interpretive standpoint,
a standpoint illustrated most effectively by the work of Clifford Geertz. Geertz approached a culture with the idea of identifying important cultural functions. Geertz approached even the innocent
aspects of a culture as potentially harboring deep cultural meaning. Games and other recreational activities, for example, were classified by Geertz as deep play, a play with potentially important
cultural function. He notes the importance of such play in rendering: "ordinary, everyday experience
comprehensible by presenting it in terms of acts and objects which have had their practical consequences removed and been reduced (or, if you prefer, raised) to the level of sheer
appearances, where their meaning can be more powerfully articulated and more exactly perceived" (Lears, 1995).
Such an approach is, of course, an interpretive approach rather than a scientific approach. Interpretation, in turn is qualitative in nature rather than quantitative. In science
we prefer to look to quantitative verses qualitative data. As a whole, however, anthropology can be characterized by both qualitative and quantitative investigation. In the place of statistical
...