Thick description
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In anthropology and other fields, a thick description of a human behaviour is one that explains not just the behaviour, but its context as well, such that the behaviour becomes meaningful to an outsider.
The term was used most famously by the anthropologist Clifford Geertz in "The Interpretation of Cultures" (1973) to describe his own specific mode of practice. The term is also used in the literary criticism known as New Historicism.
Geertz originally adopted the term from philosopher Gilbert Ryle. Ryle pointed out that if someone winks at us without a context, we don't know what it means. It might mean the person is attracted to us, that they are trying to communicate secretly, that they understand what you mean, or anything. As the context changes, the meaning of the wink changes.
Geertz argues that all human behaviour is like this. He therefore distinguishes between a thin description, which (to extend our example) describes only the wink itself, and a thick description, which explains the context of the practices and discourse within a society. According to Geertz, the task of the anthropologist is to give thick descriptions.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Geertz, Clifford. The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. (New York: Basic Books, 1973), p. 6-10.
[edit] External links
- What is le Penseur doing? - lecture by Gilbert Ryle (1971), and later published in his collected papers.
- Geertz, Clifford. "Thick Description: Toward an Intepretive Theory of Culture."
