860 Thick Ue•;cnnti<)n

See also C;eertz, Clifford; Hymes, l)ell; ROheim, c;eza; do--that is, endeavor to identify and represent the Turner, Victor W. cultural contexts in which behaviors and the mean· ings behind them are embedded in order to figure Further Readings out what people are really up to. Cultural anthro· pologists today recognize Geertz's articulation of Olson, C. (1966). Projective verse. In R. Creeley (Ed.), thick description as a seminal moment in debates Selected writings (pp. 15~26). New York, NY: over the discipline's position as closer to either the New Direc~ions. !Original work published 1950) social sciences or the humanities. Geertz's work also Tedlock, B. (1982). Time and the highland :vfaya. helped usher in the next generation of ethnogra· Albuquerque~ University of New ~fexico. phers who championed more literary approaches to --. (1987). Dreaming: Anthropological and ethnographic writing and analysis. The remainder of psychological interpretations. Cambridge, UK: this entry expands on the notion of thick description (~ambridge University Press. --. (1992). The beautiful and the dangerous: Encounters through (a) a brief overview of its initial articula­ with the Zuni Indians. New York, NY: Viking. tion by the philosopher Gilbert Ryle, (b) a discussion --. (2005)/Woman in the shaman's body. New York, of the debates and criticisms surrounding Geertz's NY: Bantam. application of thick description, and (c) an elabora· Tedlock, B., & Tedlock, D. !Eds.). (1975). Teachings tion on its significance and legacy. of the American earth: Indian religion and philosophy. New York, NY: Liveright. Gilbert Ryle and Thick Description Tedlock, D. (Ed.). (1972). Finding the center: Narrative Although Geertz introduced tbick description as an poetry of the Zuni Indians. New York, NY: Dial Press. important concept in anthropology, he in fact bor· --. (1983). The spoken word and the work of interpretation. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania rowed both the term and the best known exam­ Press. ple for explaining it from the Oxford philosopher --. (1985). The Papal Vuh: The Mayan book of the Gilbert Ryle. Through a series of thought exercises, dawn of life. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. Ryle juxtaposed the idea of a "thin description"­ --. (2003 ). Rabina/ A chi: A Mayan drama of war and that is, a surface-level explanation of a directly sacrifice. ()xford~ UK: Oxford University Press. observable act-with a "thick description," which --. (2010). 2000 ye,1rs of Mayan literature. Berkeley: additionally presents the intentions of social actors lJniversity of California Press. as well as the reasons for and meanings behind their behavior. The most famous of these exercises consid­ ers the thinly described contracting of au eyelid as THICK DESCRIPTION either an involuntary twitch or an intentional wink. Ryle demonstrates that a contracting eyelid only becomes recognizable and understood as a wink Thick description is an approach to cultural analysis with an awareness of the cultural context and cir· popularized by the anthropologist Clifford Geertz cumstance--both the social codes through which a in the introductory essay of his 1973 book The wink rakes on meaning and the various situations Interpretation of Cultures. This method involves that might prompt its use. Methodologically, this dis· densely textured descriptions and explanations of tinction highlights the importance of ethnographic social acts and activities, which strive to uncover embeddedness. In other words, simply being present the layers of cultural significance underlying them. to observe and record an act will not suffice--anv This effort by social researchers to construct actor· video camera can document a contracting eyelid; th~ oriented understandings of meaning is necessarily researcher must be familiar enough with the social interpretive. Geertz's position that ethnography (cui­ environment to (at least attempt to) understand the tural anthropology's principal method of inquiry) is meanings that actors attribute to their actions. fundamentally a project of thick description and his definition of culture (anthropology's chief organiz- Criticisms of Thick Description co:nce:otl as of s1gmt1rca11ce description a more or complete Jescriptir>n prirnarily Cf>me of anthropologists should two camps. Anthropologists to more Torres Straits Expedition 86 l ----~------~------objective social scientific principles see Geertz as Thick description, which came of age during a attempting to thrust social inquiry into an inter­ particularly acrimonious moment in anthropology, pretive quagmire. For example, positivists such as was unquestionably introduced in response ro the Paul Shankman and materialists like Marvin Harris scientific models that dominated the discipline dur­ view thick description's lack of systematic ana­ ing tbe 1950s and 1960s. It in mm influenced a lytical rigor as a form of anything-goes relativism generation of social researchers--within anthropol­ and regard Geertz's thickly descriptive writing as ogy and beyond----suspicious of hard (social science) excessively wordy ivory tower musings that don't facts and dedicated to more literary approaches to say much of anything and make little to no effort ethnographic representations. This postmodern rum to address the pressing issues facing contemporary in anthropology, which reached its apex in the mid­ society. On the other hand, researchers predisposed ro late 1990s, moved from a Geertzian understand­ to an interpretive approach, including postmodem­ ing of social life as a text to be read and interpreted ists like Vincent Crapanzano and Graham Watson, by researchers to the position that ethnographers not cite a number of ambiguities and/or contradictions only describe/explain but, in facr, construct cnlture in Geertz's explanation of thick description and how through the process of writing about it-advocating to go about doing it. One common source of con­ for a cultural anthropology that is very much akin fusion concerns the relationship between describ­ to literary scholarship. Such attention to issues of ing and explaining. Although scholars frequently writing and representation marked a monumental reference "tbick description" to mean the former, shift that, in chorus with important critiques com­ as an approach to cultural analysis it is incomplete ing from feminist and native anthropology, trans­ without the latter. Explaining the circumstances, formed the discipline dnring the final decades of the intentions, and meanings behind a wink may seem 20th century. As such, many contemporary anthro­ straightforward enougb. However, for more elabo­ pologists view Geertz's articulation of thick descrip­ rate cross-cultural situations-including most of tion as a tnming point in repositioning anthropology the concrete examples of thick-description-at-work closer to the humanities. offered by Geertz-sorting out the layers of signifi­ Anthony Kwame Harrison cance underlying different actors' ac'tions and moti­ vations involves a considerable imaginative leap. S'ee also c;eertz, Clifford; Hermeneutics~ I--fu1n~u1istic While Geertz appears comfortable in moving from Anthropology; Postmodernism; Symbolic and descriptive accounts of cultural contexts to diagnos­ Interpretive Anthropology tic understandings of the frames of interpretation that guide social actors' bebaviors, critics sucb as Further Readings Crapanzano argue tbat his explanations are often too neat to account for the inherent contradictions Geertz, (~. ( 1973 ). The interpretation ol cultures. and tensions of lived reality and, furthermore, lack New York, NY Basic Books. sufficient evidence for how he reaches his interpre­ ~Iammersley, M. (2008). ()n thick description: Interpreting tive conclusions. To this end, Crapanzano charac­ Clifford Geertz. ln M. Hammersley !Ed.), Questioning terizes Geertz's writing as deliberately illusive and qualitative inquiry: Critical essays (pp. 52-68). perpetually inconclusive. Another ambiguity sur­ Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. rounds the difference between describing/explaining Ryle, G. ( 1971). Tbe thinking of thoughts: What is "Le particular situations and generating knowledge Penseur'' doing? In G. Ryle (Ed.}, C:ollected papers: abont either the broader society or social life on the VoL 2. Collected essays 1929-1968 ipp. 4811-496). whole. Geertz clearly promotes thick description as London, UK: t1utchinson. an effort toward cultural theory building ratber rhan a means of studying parricular places. Yet, as such, he advocates for the intrinsically unfinisbed nature TORRES STRAITS EXPEDITION of cultnral analysis, arguing that the aim of (inter- are mr·vitAhlv 11nn"rilv11hle :m·al!rs was an regarding the nature of m development British anthropology,