Phenomenology is a type of philosophy that tries to make philosophy logical and scientific. Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, and Jean-Paul Sartre are some of the best-known people who used phenomenology in their work. It is mostly about looking at the structures of consciousness and the things that happen in acts of consciousness in a systematic way, says Husserl.
In other words, phenomenology wants to close the gap between what people think about and what they actually are by accurately describing what they are aware of. That whole picture or whole picture can’t be separate from either the object or the subject. It is the relationship between them.
Phenomenology is used in anthropological research:
Phenomenology was first used in anthropological studies by structuralists like Strauss, who used folk stories, religious tales, and fairy tales to understand how people think about their world. People in Bali use symbols to show how they think about their social and cultural lives. This is what Geertz’s work “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight” does.
Anthropology has used phenomenology more often in the last 25 years, and this is because anthropologists are now more interested in expressing native culture in their own way rather than based on the anthropologists’ collected knowledge. In this way, it helps to diversify the study. It gives a stronger way to think about objectivity as an ideal for anthropological knowledge, and it lets them use emotions as a methodologically important part of the process of improving objectivity.
As an example, L.P. Vidyarthi’s book, “The Sacred Complex of Hindu Gaya,” says that emotions play a big part in how people think. This leads to more objectivity. The sacred has been a part of human life for a long time, and it can be seen in burial practices. People often link it to their pain and use it to share moral experiences and ethical concerns. For studies of Indian society and culture, phenomenology is very important because the gestures and facial expressions used in our classical dances to tell stories or the emotions we attach to plants and animals need to be studied.
Jane Goodall’s contributions in studying primate behaviour