'Anthropologically strange'
INDIVIDUAL
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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
HUMANISTIC -------------------------------------- MECHANISTIC
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
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GROUP
"Phenomenology focuses on the inter-subjective constitution of the social world and everyday social life. Schütz (1964), in a seminal essay on 'The Stranger', shows how a social group has its own cultural pattern of life - folkways, mores, laws, habits, customs, etiquette, fashions and so on - that, as far as its members are concerned, are taken for granted, are habitual and almost automatic. Schütz's stranger provides a model for the ethnographer using participant observation. The ethnographer tries to treat the familiar world of 'members' as anthropologically strange, to expose its social and cultural construction. This is particularly demanding when a researcher is studying a group with which he or she is familiar, but represents an ideal attitude of mind for the researcher to pursue nevertheless." p.246. | |||
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"Anthropological strangeness: The art or mental trick of making a social setting and behaviour within it appear as if the observer is encountered as a stranger. If applied to mundane 'taken-for-granted' events, this can lead to unusual and original insights." p.556, (Glossary).This ethnographic idea 'strangeness' provides an extension to the role of Hodges' model as a template, a clean slate across disciplines, settings and contexts. A means to 'reset' conceptually, to clear the mind, mindset, attitudes and start afresh.
Walsh, D. (2012). Doing Ethnography. (Chapter 14. pp.245-262) In. Researching Society and Culture, Seale, C. (Ed.). 3rd edition. London: SAGE.
See also:
Schuetz, A. (1944). The Stranger: An Essay in Social Psychology. American Journal of Sociology, 49(6), 499–507. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2771547
Another book student bound.
orcid.org/0000-0002-0192-8965