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

• 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

See Examples For:

ethnographic

This study relies on ethnographic research: sustained immersion in people’s homes, lives, and communities through extensive interviews, observations, participation, and relationship-building.

From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2026

It is the summation of the ethnographic fieldwork, bold hypotheses and sweeping synthesis unique to this scholar of rural resistance.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025

Anthropologist Emma Tarlo, author of a richly detailed ethnographic work of the period, wrote that during the Emergency, the poor were subjected to "forced choices".

From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2025

For the study, Hewlett and colleagues use observational and ethnographic data to examine nine different modes of cultural transmission, meaning from whom and how children learn, in hunter-gatherer societies.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 19, 2024

Such a hypothesis accords as well with the animism found in ethnographic societies the world over.

From "History of Art, Volume 1" by H.W. Janson