Kanel (2012) writes that etic refers to behaviors or traditions to all or most h
ID: 3462459 • Letter: K
Question
Kanel (2012) writes that etic refers to behaviors or traditions to all or most human regardless of race, ethnicity, or culture and emic refers to behavior or traditions that are particular to a certain cultural group. Please name one etic and one emic behavior or tradition.
As you think about how different people are similar and different, do you find yourself thinking that people are more alike than they are different? Or do think that people are more different than similar? Please support your answer with specific reasoning.
Explanation / Answer
An etic view of a culture is the perspective of an outsider of a third person. For instance, in case of participant observation utilised to understand the cultural practices of a sub-culture of sorts. The drawback for anthropologists using this type of work is that the complete entry of an outsider and acceptance would not be practically implemented in very many ways. This would have limitations in the study since al practices and rituals would not be shown in their entirety. Elements of social desirability and intentional manipulation could come into play. An emic view of a culture on the other hand, is when focus is on intrinsic cultural distinctions that are meaningful to the members of a given society or what anthropologists call as insider’s perspective on their own practices, etc.
Indeed it is true that people are more different than similar. The reason could be connected to the ideologies of many thinkers in the past. Jung for instance spoke of the collective unconcious and how certain themes are universal across cultures and remain common despite the essential differences that we may share as humans. The core component however,still remains the same and they are seen across cultures. These themes are evidently found to be overlapping in researches as well.
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