The Hour of Catholicism: Social Analysis According to Rosaldo.
What ideas of social analysis does Renato Rosaldo reveal in Culture & Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis? Are his ideas applicable to all analytical situations, or rather limited? Was I able to recognize his ideas through my analysis of the Catholic Church?.
Renato Rosaldo is a well-known anthropologist who holds a particular interest in the process of social analysis. In his work Culture & Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis, Rosaldo attempts to unveil the approaches used by individuals in order to examine and reveal aspects of a culture that may be unfamiliar to others. In general, social analysis is performed when "the ethnographer, as a positioned subject, grasps certain human phenomena better than others. He or she occupies a position or structural location and observes with a particular angle of vision" (Rosaldo 1986). The main objective of social analysis is to determine what is to be studied, how to go about studying it, make observations, and finally, analyze and report what was discovered. As simplistic and general as this process may seem, ethnographers conduct it in differing manners. In the text, Rosaldo reveals the idea of objective and subjective social analysis. Objective social analysis is the more traditional form of social analysis. Ethnographers utilizing this approach refrain from holding a biased or prejudice mentality when studying a culture. This analysis is preferred because the neutral approach facilitates a more honest portrayal of a culture to those who are unfamiliar. On the other hand, there is subjective analysis. Ethnographers utilizing this approach portray a biased and prejudice mentality when studying a culture. Cultural judgments are made because aspects of the culture do not resemble those within the ethnographer's culture. .
Although both modes of social analysis are currently exercised, the subjective approach appears to be more prevalent.