Definition of ground for Students. 1  1 : the surface of the earth Leaves fell to the ground. 2  2 : 2soil 1, earth The beans themselves popped out of the ground. 3  3 : the bottom of a body of water The boat struck ground.  4 : an area of land sacred 1  ground. 5 : an area used for some purpose a hunting ground.
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that involves comparative study of cultures and the analysis of that data to propose theoretical frameworks for better understanding cultural phenomena. Ethnographies are the studies that provide the raw data which ethnology analyzes to develop theories of culture.
An ethnography is an account of a particular people. Ethnology is the systematic collection, comparison, and contrast of ethnographies. So ethnography is specific, ethnology is generic. Another way to look at is that writing or collecting ethnographies is something anyone can do, but ethnology is a specific academic discipline, another name for cultural anthropology.