Supporting and Performing Culture from the Inside

2026-09-26

AI Summary

Current NLP research frequently overlooks cultural perspectives and lacks critical reflection on the discipline's own cultural assumptions. This study introduces the anthropological emic/etic framework to systematically apply insider and outsider cultural perspectives across the entire NLP evaluation pipeline for the first time. Through an interdisciplinary examination of methodology, task selection, and data collection practices, it reveals how "NLP culture" implicitly shapes prevailing research paradigms. Building upon these insights, this work proposes a practical pathway toward developing culturally sensitive AI systems. Ultimately, it offers a novel paradigm for fostering self-reflection and methodological innovation within the NLP community, encouraging researchers to critically interrogate the cultural dimensions embedded in computational approaches to language.

Abstract

Anthropology and related disciplines which study culture have often found it useful to consider their epistemological and methodological approaches in terms of emic versus etic. This is the distinction between the insider perspective, how the world is viewed by a member of the culture, versus the outsider perspective, the scientific cataloguing of cultural knowledge and practice. We adopt this framework to systematically analyse assumptions in recent research on culture in NLP along the full pipeline of task selection, data collection, system design and evaluation. We draw attention to the `culture of NLP'which shapes the research focus and approaches of our field, and suggest pathways towards a more culturally attuned AI.

Problem

• Natural Language Processing
• Culture
• Emic perspective
• AI alignment
• Epistemological bias

Innovation

• Natural Language Processing
• Emic and Etic
• Cultural AI
• Systematic Analysis
• Anthropology