Budka, P. (2024). Comparison in anthropology – what to compare?. Paper at InfraNorth Workshop “Ethnography Beyond the Case Study: Possibilities and Limitations of Comparison”, Stockholm, Sweden: Nordregio, 10-11 September.

Introduction

In a statement written by the Executive Committee of the European Association of Social Anthropologists on “Why anthropology matters” in 2015, comparison is defined as a “systematic search” for sociocultural similarities and differences, with the objective of developing “general insights into the nature of society and human existence” (EASA, 2015). Together with ethnography and contextualization, comparison constitutes a fundamental element of the “anthropological triangle,” as defined by Roger Sanjek (1998, p. 193). This term refers to the operational system utilized by anthropologists to acquire and use ethnographic data in the process of writing ethnographies.