Research Methodology. The Origin and Scope of Thick Ethnography

Research paper from the year 2015 in the subject Ethnology / Cultural Anthropology, , language: English, abstract: This paper is organized as a history of the diverse elements of scholarship by which the field of research methodology in social anthropology has been developed. Ethnography, as a method of empirical data collection is popular in many disciplines and ethnographic approaches to the study of human and social science is the core of social anthropology. This paper presents the ethnographical discourse of Central and Eastern Europe in relation to anthropology and establishes compatibility with research traditions by presenting the literary scholarship of the broader development of this methodology. It is the objectives of this paper to clarify the difference between thick ethnography versus thin ethnography as theory in research methodology and point out how thick ethnography may impact the future of anthropology.


Neil Turner is an American anthropologist living in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. He holds a Ph.D. and a M.A. in Anthropology. While in the USA, Dr. Turner worked as a research analyst for the American College of Physicians (1992 - 2002), and he has worked as a computer information technician for the oldest law practice in the United States, Rawle & Henderson (2005 - 2007). As a professor, he has taught at Tufts University, Boston, MA., California State University, Los Angeles, CA and as an adjunct professor at American Pathways University, Denver, CO. Dr. Turner has authored several papers and his work has been published by Grin Publishers, Munich, Germany. Also, his work has appeared in the Italian online journal for anthropology, Antrocom. Currently, he is teaching ESL, TOEFL, developing educational software for the computer and conducting ethnographic research for a book on Brazil.