Question

Li, an ethnographer, observes some North Americans "crossing their fingers" by bending their middle fingers around their index fingers. When Li asks them to explain this behavior, they say that it means that they are lying. What do ethnographers call this type of "insider" explanation?

Answer 1

Answer: An Emic Explanation

Explanation:

Emic and Etic, coined from the endings of the words phonemic and phonetic are different attitudes towards studying a culture.

An Emic approach involves studying the culture through the eyes of the people who practice the culture. The etic approach on the other hand observes the culture from the outside. The emic is more investigative than observational. Li, by being privy to the perspective of an insider of the culture he is studying has been given an emic explanation.