Why is ethnography considered comparative even when it focuses on one community?

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Svante Paabo stands smiling with one hand on a Neanderthal skeleton model in front of a blue Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology banner. — Anthropology Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology director Svante Pӓӓbo posing with a model of a Neanderthal skeleton.

Ethnography is considered inherently comparative because it is an intersubjective process that cannot be fully separated from the researcher's own background. Even when focusing on a single community, the anthropologist inevitably brings their own cultural biases into the field.1

Because the ethnographer’s observations and descriptions are filtered through these inherent, often unconscious, cultural perspectives, the act of documenting another way of life becomes a comparative exercise. Consequently, the formulation of generalizations about culture and the drawing of comparisons between the researcher's own experiences and those of the subject group are unavoidable components of the ethnographic process. This perspective highlights that the distinction between descriptive ethnography and the broader analytical study of cultural anthropology is often more theoretical than practical.1