home-made model

is the anthropologist's own cultural axis of reference from which he draws to make observations. If the behavior he observes is claimed to be socially determined, then it must follow that his own observations too are determined by his own society. To rescue objectivity, the home-made model must be consciously construed.

If an anthropologist assumed that the behavior he observed was socially determined, then were not his own observations equally determined by his own society' That is, was he not in any way or to any degree influenced by his own social background and upbringing' Could the people's theory of life on the one hand not differ from the theory the social anthropologist gives it on the other hand' Certainly he could not have acted from a vacuum. He must naturally have an axis of reference, a base construed out of his home-made model originating automatically from experience. Here, however, the Structuralist, Levi-Strauss came to affirm some positive orientation towards at least a partial defense by pointing out that a substantial amount of objectivity could be reached. The researcher can consciously construe his own model to serve him to deliberate and put himself on the track to understand and interpret the new culture (cf. Levi-Strauss). The point is that though he cannot be totally disengaged from his cultural background in his interpretation of the new culture, the model that a social anthropologist uses for his reports or assessment should be a modified or mutated version of his home-made-model' (Behavioural Science for Students of Science and Technology: African Socio-Cultural cum Techno-Economic Development. By Pauline E. Aligwekwe 2014)

home made model, n.Definitions

home made model