Emic-Etic

Aboriginal art on a man hole by Ole Reidar Johansen

Emic-Etic

This is a debate originating from the work of linguist Kenneth L. Pike, sometimes called the insider-outsider issue.

The emic-etic debate has far-reaching implications for the social sciences.

In anthropology, the emic model refers to an indigenous people’s understanding of their own cultural representations, whereas the etic model is the outsider’s perspective of those indigenous cultural representations.

These categories have been roundly critiqued. Emic models are often said to have been “discovered” by an outside researcher but current trends question the neutrality of external observers. Thus formalized statements made by external observers are seen as exogenous constructions, making any supposed emic theory unavoidably etic.

This notion that theories developed within the humanities and social sciences are social constructions instead of uncovered, formerly hidden universal truths leads to the area of poststructuralism and postmodernism.

Other questions arise that are seldom addressed by social scientists. For instance, we cannot be certain that each member of an indigenous community believes in their group’s cultural representations, or if each believes in the same way. Could some be pretending to believe for material security or social expedience? And in the case of religious officials, some might secretly doubt but feign certainty not just for the aforementioned reasons but perhaps for fear of being wrong and offending a deity.

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