Patterns of Culture by E.E Evans Prichard

Ethnography, or anthropological fieldwork, is the study of a civilization through participatory observation; that is, studying a group of people by living amongst them, participating in their day-to-day lives without changing their way of life, and documenting observations. There are distinct advantages to studying through participatory observation, mainly that the ethnographer gains greater insight into the daily lives of their subjects. Also, the ethnographer gains a greater understanding of the group's social and cultural systems and how they view themselves as opposed to how the outside world views them due to mere statistics and few first-hand accounts. However, there are some weaknesses of ethnography as well; most notably these are attributed to the subjective nature of observation. The circumstances of the study, as well as the preexisting agenda of the ethnographer could have dramatic influences on their conclusion. Therefore, like several cases in history, two different ethnographers can study the same civilization but produce drastically different conclusions. To exhibit this theory this essay will compare the different approaches of early 20th century social-anthropology ethnographers E.E Evans-Prichard and Ruth Benedict. The main objective is to explain how E.E Evans-Prichard would have studied the Zuni tribe if he had done so instead of the Nuer, using references from The Nuer, by E.E Evans-Prichard, and Patterns of Culture, by Ruth Benedict.

If E.E Evans-Prichard completed an ethnography of the Zuni people it would look very different than Ruth Benedict's 1934 account. This is very much attributable to fundamental differences in their ethnographic approaches. Ruth Benedict focuses a lot more on cultural patterns and rituals, where as Evans-Prichard focuses on social and political systems. Benedict also pays more attention to the individual and experience in her ethnography of the Zuni, and Evans-Prichard only cares to observe the Nuer in terms of its group structure in his ethnography. Finally, Ruth Benedict uses a lot of comparisons with other civilizations in her observation, where Evans-Prichard focuses solely on the Nuer civilization. These fundamental differences are apparent in both The Nuer and Patterns of Culture, and suggest that even if E.E Evans-Prichard were to live in the same tent at the same time period as Ruth Benedict, he still would not produce the same conclusion or ethnography as her because their preexisting agendas are very different and they focus on different aspects of their subjects' civilization.

The most significant difference between Evans-Prichard and Benedict is their difference in focus on culture and society. Although they are often commonly confused they are certainly not the same. Culture deals with the different meanings a group of people give to objects, experiences, symbols, and actions. Society deals with social relations (how a person is related