--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: What the ethnographer is in fact faced…" description: "\"“What the ethnographer is in fact faced with—except when (as, of course, he must do) he is pursuing the more automatized routines of data collection—is..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/06d/clifford-geertz-11500_anthropology_what-the-ethnographer-is-in-fact-faced-w_592942.png" --- # What the ethnographer is in fact faced with—except when… ![“What the ethnographer is in fact faced with—except when (as, of course, he must do) he is pursuing the more automatized routines of data collection—is a multiplicity of complex conceptual structures, many of them superimposed upon or knotted into one another, which are at once strange, irregular…” quote by Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/06d/clifford-geertz-11500_anthropology_what-the-ethnographer-is-in-fact-faced-w_592942.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/06d/clifford-geertz-11500_anthropology_what-the-ethnographer-is-in-fact-faced-w_592942.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/06d/clifford-geertz-11500_anthropology_what-the-ethnographer-is-in-fact-faced-w_592942.png) > ““What the ethnographer is in fact faced with—except when (as, of course, he must do) he is pursuing the more automatized routines of data collection—is a multiplicity of complex conceptual structures, many of them superimposed upon or knotted into one another, which are at once strange, irregular, and inexplicit, and which he must contrive somehow first to grasp and then to render. And this is true at the most down-to-earth, jungle field work levels of his activity; interviewing informants, observing rituals, eliciting kin terms, tracing property lines, censusing households … writing his journal. Doing ethnography is like trying to read (in the sense of “construct a reading of”) a manuscript—foreign, faded, full of ellipses, incoherencies, suspicious emendations, and tendentious commentaries, but written not in conventionalized graphs of sound but in transient examples of shaped behavior.”” [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Ethnographers confront tangled, ambiguous cultural data that must be deciphered and articulated despite its complexity and opacity. **In simple terms:** Ethnography is decoding messy, hidden cultural patterns. Key Takeaway Embrace systematic, patient analysis of cultural details. Themes culture methodology interpretation complexity observation Mood analytical curious reflective Type scholarly observational When to use this quote - fieldwork - interviewing - ritual observation - kinship mapping - household surveys Key Concepts symbolic anthropology ethnographic method interpretive analysis Questions to Reflect On - How do you navigate ambiguous cultural signals? - What strategies reveal hidden cultural structures? A Different Perspective Complexity may obscure clear conclusions, risking misinterpretation. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Anthropology](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anthropology/) [Data collection](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/data-collection/) [Ethnography](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ethnography/) [Habits](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/habits/) [Reading](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/reading/) ## Related quotes > [Most anthropologists are doing straightforward ethnography, and should](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifford-geertz/most-anthropologists-are-doing-straightforward-ethnography-and-should/) [Clifford Geertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifford-geertz/) > [I was a make believe ethnographer: treating New Yorkers like an explorer would treat Zulus - searching for the rawest snapshot, the zero degree…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-klein/i-was-a-make-believe-ethnographer-treating-new-yorkers-like-an/) [William Klein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-klein/) > [“The final goal of which an ethnographer should never lose sight…is, briefly, to grasp the native’s point of view, his relation to life, to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bronis-aw-malinowski/the-final-goal-of-which-an-ethnographer-should-never-lose-sight-is/) Bronisław Malinowski > [“Ethnographer Clifford Geertz says: “Believing, with Max Weber, that man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun, I take…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/valerie-raleigh-yow/ethnographer-clifford-geertz-says-believing-with-max-weber-that-man/) Valerie Raleigh Yow > [I do feel a kinship with anthropology or ethnography, although when you hear those terms you think of something exotic. 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