Ethnography

Ethnography (from Greek ἔθνος ethnos "folk, people" and γράφω grapho "to write") is a qualitative research design aimed at exploring cultural phenomena. The resulting field study or a case report reflects the knowledge and the system of meanings in the lives of a cultural group. An ethnography is a means to represent graphically and in writing, the culture of a group.
Ethnography, as the empirical data on human societies and cultures, was pioneered in the biological, social, and cultural branches of anthropology but has also become popular in the social sciences in general—sociology, communication studies, history—wherever people study ethnic groups, formations, compositions, resettlements, social welfare characteristics, materiality, spirituality, and a people's ethnogenesis. The typical ethnography is a holistic study and so includes a brief history, and an analysis of the terrain, the climate, and the habitat. In all cases it should be reflexive, make a substantial contribution toward the understanding of the social life of humans, have an aesthetic impact on the reader, and express a credible reality. It observes the world (the study) from the point of view of the subject (not the participant ethnographer) and records all observed behavior and describes all symbol-meaning relations using concepts that avoid casual explanations.

peruse

to peruse (third-person singular simple present peruses, present participle perusing, simple past and past participle perused)

1. (transitive) To examine or consider with care.
   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter IV:

     Sitting on a low stool, a few yards from her arm-chair, I examined her figure; I perused her features.

2. (transitive) To read completely.
   • 1887, H. Rider Haggard, She, Introduction:

     We are for reasons that, after perusing this manuscript, you may be able to guess, going away again this time to Central Asia […]

3. (transitive, informal) To look over casually; to skim.
   • 2001, Doug Stanton, In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis^[1], ISBN 0805066322, page 35:

     Haynes quickly perused the message, then took it to the captain on the bridge.

   • 2005, Al Lovejoy, Acid Alex^[2], ISBN 1770070931, page 98:

     She asked Denise for the court file, which she fussed from her handbag. The woman perused it briefly and then beamed up at me.

4. (intransitive, regional) To go from place to place; to wander.
   • 1957, Robert Ruark, The Old Man And The Boy^[3], ISBN 0805002391, page 55:

     I loved to straggle off in the mornings […] , just perusing around for firewood.

Usage notes

• The sense of "skimming" is proscribed by some authorities on usage, including the Oxford American Dictionary. The shift, however, is not dissimilar to that found in scan. The Oxford English Dictionary further notes that the word was used as a general synonym for read as far back as the 16th century.