Ethnography Analysis Of Culture

Introduction

Culture is a notoriously difficult term to define. In Tylor’s (1871)book, he states that, “culture or civilization, taken in its wide ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” (p. 1). Thus, understanding a culture has then become crucial and fundamental for the basic understanding of the community. Among all the frequently used methods in social science, the practice of ethnography can be regarded as one of the effective ways to denote the cultural variation across societies.

An ethnographic report, according to Van Maanen (1988), comprises of thick descriptions of interpretations of the culture

To start off, we would like to provide a brief summary on what these two ethnographic works are about as well as their unit of analysis.

In the Realm of the Diamond Queen by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing

In her quest to study the Meratus Dayaks, Anna Tsing ventured to Meratus Mountains of South Kalimantan, Indonesia. She aimed to investigate how the Meratus Dayaks were being marginalized politically and culturally as their perspectives are constantly being excluded due to the state interventions on their lives. This society could be said to be primitives as they are isolated in the thick rainforests and their agricultural activities are subsistence cultivators and forest foragers. There is a distinction between the way the Meratus Dayaks view themselves as compared to how the government view them. For instance, the government view the Meratus’ mobility as “semi-nomadism” and as a threat to national security. However, the Meratus view their own mobility as a symbol of personal freedom. Besides that, state powers are also seen to control even the most common aspects of the Meratus Dayaks’ lives. They have introduced nutrition programs to reorganise their eating habits and family planning programs to control their reproductive