Thick Description
Clifford Geertz's term, borrowed from the philosopher Gilbert Ryle, for description that records the layered meanings a behavior carries for its participants, not just its observable physical form — distinguishing, for instance, an involuntary eyelid twitch from a wink, a parody of a wink, or a rehearsal of that parody. Geertz's Balinese cockfight essay is the discipline's clearest demonstration, trading testability and cross-cultural comparability for interpretive depth.