ethnographic

American  

[eth-nuh-graf-ik] / ˌɛθ nəˈgræf ɪk /

Rarely ethnographical

adjective

1. of or relating to ethnography, the branch of anthropology dealing with the scientific description of individual cultures.

   Ethnographic information indicates that trips to harvest wild hot peppers were important social and economic ventures among Apache peoples in the region.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• ethnographically
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of ethnographic

ethno- ( def. ) + -graphic ( def. )

Explanation

Anything that describes a specific culture's customs, like a movie about a small village in China or a book about French Canadians, can be described as ethnographic. You're most likely to hear the word ethnographic in an anthropology class, since it's a scientific way to describe books, films, research, or lectures that have to do with the study of human societies and their customs. The word comes from two Greek roots, ethnos, or "people," and grapho, "to write." So if you write a paper about the customs of American teenagers in the 1980s, your work is ethnographic.

Example Sentences

Ethnographic studies of recent societies are rich in examples of biological parentage taking a back seat to other kinds of family relationships.

From Science Magazine • Oct. 4, 2023

Ethnographic records from other groups around the world suggest these rates are typical for hunter-gatherers.

From Scientific American • Dec. 13, 2022

Petitjean dexterously shifts from tracing Kahlo’s artistic and biographical trajectory to tracking his father’s progression from an associate at the Ethnographic Museum to a gallery assistant at Galerie Renou et Colle, where Kahlo exhibits.

From Washington Post • Apr. 23, 2020

When it opens next year, the collection of Berlin’s Ethnographic Museum will be incorporated into the Humboldt Forum, along with the Asian art collections of other Berlin museums.

From New York Times • May 16, 2018

M. de Morgan, in his Ethnographic Préhistorique, has attributed this class of monuments to the Neolithic period, and called the men of the contracted burials “les indigènes.”

From El Kab by Quibell, James Edward