Question

can social reality be interpreted objectively?

Answer 1

Many anthropologists believe that it is not possible to objectively perceive a culture (especially one’s own culture) that exists within the world we also inhabit. We are inevitably influenced by our own sociocultural reality; it is the only reality we could possibly know, for our very subjectivities have been shaped by this reality, and collectively we are responsible for the continual creation and maintenance of this reality. In other words, if reality is socioculturally constructed, we are necessarily the constructors, and therefore bias is inescapable. James Faubion’s thoughts about freedom in Anthropology of Ethics offer a way of understanding this inevitable entrapment within a culturally constructed reality and the possibility of freedom from this structure. Faubion suggests that as social scientists, our best shot at freedom (or objectivity) is to always think critically about the fact of our limitations, to at least acknowledge our culturally constructed reality and the biases that accompany it.