Hermeneutics as epistemological anchoring of the ethnographic method

Abstract

This paper addresses elements that allow us to establish a relationship between anthropological practice and hermeneutics. We start from the classics of the hermeneutical theory to establish relevant criteria that permits us to analyze the cultural reality. We break with the static paradigms which do not allow a creative stance in considering ethnographic data. We build a hermeneutical perspective from the anthropological work and then define its scope from the ethnographic method. We conclude that, from a new approach, anthropology should leave empiricist areas of positivism to reach the configuration of cultural contexts.