Final answer:
Lansing aimed to differentiate his ethnography by focusing on the day-to-day lives of Americans, utilizing collaborative methods, and acknowledging the researcher's influence on the study, moving away from the distant and abstract approach of armchair anthropology.
Step-by-step explanation:
Lansing sought to make his ethnography distinct from traditional ethnographies by focusing on a different set of subjects and employing innovative methods in the anthropological field. Traditionally, ethnographers studied cultures deemed 'other' or 'primitive' and sometimes did so without directly engaging with the subject community, as was the case with armchair anthropology. In contrast, Lansing worked to highlight the functional complexity of these societies, like Malinowski's detailed study of the Trobriand people, and gave attention to the workings of everyday American life, as no one had studied the so-called average American in this way before.
Furthermore, the development of ethnographic film in the 20th century aimed for a more naturalist and objective portrayal by utilizing the subjects' direct voices through the synchronization of sound recording, as practiced by John Marshall and Timothy Asch. Contemporary ethnographic approaches emphasize collaborative methods, the personal perspectives of individuals within the community being studied, and the researcher's own background influencing their work, foregrounding the interaction and interconnectedness between the observer and the observed.