While interpreting a text, cultural theories help in the process. But, certain cultural implications within the text, if it is to be referred or researched upon, which of these approaches would give a more authentic result?
Caught up in this dilemma of authenticity!
As a social anthropologist I may be biased in this question. But my opinion is that culture as the meanings people attribute to their life-worlds and the process of meaning-making itself cannot be measured quantitatively with a survey. So, to me, the answer is clear that this subject can only be validly explored by an interpretive approach like ethnography.
One of the important aspects of anthropology is conducting ethnography (participant observation, interviews and life history among other qualitative methods). Culture is a major topic of anthropology (and other disciplines that apply surveys and quantitative methods) ), but due to symbolic domains of cultures I think in depth or thick ethnography is more effective. Competence in the language of the culture being studied is necessary to conduct emic approach to capture deeply rooted points of views of people.
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