Thick description

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Thick description is a phrase invented by the anthropologist Clifford Geertz to describe his own specific mode of practice.

Geertz originally used an example taken from the works of Gilbert Ryle. Ryle pointed out that without a context if someone winks at us, we don't know what it means. It might mean the person is attracted to us, that they are trying to communicate secretly, that they understand what you mean, or anything. As the context changes, the meaning of the wink changes.

Geertz argues that all human behaviour is like this. A thin description would be of the wink itself, however accurately described. The task of the anthropologist, therefore, is to explain the context of the practices and discourse that take place within a society, such that these practices become meaningful to an 'outsider'. This requires thick description.

See contextualism, indexicality.