Native American Culture Essay

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Culture is an incredibly complex term to break down due to its history and its tendency to be used as an all-encompassing word in modern times (Williams 1). Citing Weber’s quote that “man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun”, anthropologist Clifford Geertz believes that elements of culture are those very webs (Geertz 5). Geertz also argues that analyzing culture is an act of interpretation in pursuit of unveiling meaning rather than an experimental science working towards discovering law (5). It is of paramount importance to carefully consider culture when objectively studying the world and understanding the differences between groups of people. Social constructions that seem completely normal in one area of the world-meal times, marriage customs, gender roles-are rarely universally practiced in the same way in other nations (Dayal 10/7). For this reason, researchers must be conscious of not judging cultural disparities and comparing foreign societies with what is …show more content…
The first is statistical documentation, the second is “imponderabilia of actual life” (in other words keeping an ethnographic diary of one’s experiences), and lastly “corpus inscriptionum” which is the “collection of ethnographic statements, characteristic narratives, typical utterances, items of folk-lore and magical formulae has to be given as documents as native mentality” (24). In this work ethnographers must be detailed and specific to ensure that others analyzing their findings understand exactly where their observations come from, thus validating their objectivity (25). Malinowski believes it would be a mistake to study cultural customs and behaviors of a society while failing to mention the unique perspective of its inhabitants and including their feelings on their world

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