INST 2006: Dimensions of Culture & Society

Welcome to the Courtright Memorial Library! This LibGuide will introduce you to available library services and resources to assist you in your class work and research.

"Ethnography can be defined as the study of people in naturally occurring settings or ‘fields’ by means of methods which capture their social meanings and ordinary activities, involving the researcher participating directly in the setting (if not always the activities) in order to collect data in a systematic manner but without meaning being imposed on them externally. The capture of these social meanings was called by Clifford Geertz ‘thick description’ to emphasise the richness and depth of ethnographic data, and is more colloquially called ‘telling it like it is’ or ‘insider knowledge’."  (read the entire entry here) from Encyclopedia of social and cultural Anthropology (2nd ed.).