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MIXED METHODS IN
ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
Interpretive Description
Qualitative Research for Applied Practice, 2nd Edition
Sally Thorne
Pertti J. Pelto
First published 2017
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 Taylor & Francis
The right of Pertti J. Pelto to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-62958-206-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-62958-207-8 (pbk)
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CONTENTS
Prefacexiii
Acknowledgementsxix
The Big Picture: Mixed Methods Approaches Are Essential Because Each
Individual Method Has Weaknesses. But There Is More:There Are
Multiple Sectors of Data in the Real World 320
Concluding Note 322
References 323
Index325
PREFACE
I returned to the United States in 2014, after living and working in South Asia
for nearly two decades. During that period, beginning in the early 1990s, I was
doing technical assistance, particularly with workshops and other training activi-
ties focused on qualitative methods for research on reproductive health issues and
programs. The research groups I worked with were relatively familiar with the
basics of quantitative (survey) data approaches, so the qualitative methods I pre-
sented were intended to strengthen their utilization of qualitative ethnographic
techniques. These training and related technical assistance activities were primar-
ily in India, in a program originally developed by the Ford Foundation. I also had
several sessions of training activities in Bangladesh and Nepal, particularly in con-
nection with the campaigns for combating the spread of HIV/AIDS. I describe
some of those South Asian research projects and training activities in Chapter 14.
When I returned to my home area in the United States, I found an impressive
growth of interest in “mixed methods research approaches,” manifested in a num-
ber of recently published books, as well as a relatively new Journal of Mixed Methods
Research (launched in 2007).The literature mainly defines “mixed methods” as the
combining of qualitative and quantitative research techniques and analysis, and
treats this strategy as a relatively new development in the social sciences. Indeed,
it does appear to be a “new thing” in some sectors of the social sciences. On the
other hand, I was amused in reflecting that I had strongly urged the combining
of qualitative and quantitative research methods in the book on methodology I
wrote nearly half a century ago (Pelto, 1970).
Another very interesting marker of this methodological discussion is the use of
abbreviations such as “QUAL,” “QUAN,” “qual,” and “quan”—combined in vari-
ous ways to represent different research designs. That practice, I thought, gave this
new topic of methodological discussion a special brand of visibility. I w ondered
xiv Preface
in his earliest years. Most important, however, is the fact that in the course of my
recent reading, I discovered more details of the depth of mixed methods in Boas’s
extensive field research. Most of his ethnographic research was qualitative, but
with innovative mixing of different types of qualitative approaches.
Chapter 3 is devoted to examination of the “new language system” used for
discussing the varieties of mixed methods research designs. I feel that many peo-
ple, especially in developing countries, have not been exposed to the special labels
and terminology of the “mixed methods discussions,” so I include this little review
of these new usages.
Culture and personality studies (Chapter 4) is the topical area that strongly
influenced my early academic career. Also, this sub-area of ethnographic research
was one of the first sectors to develop strong tendencies for inclusion of quan-
titative methods connected to qualitative data gathering. In this chapter I point
out that it was mainly the social psychologists, collaborating with anthropologists,
who introduced the numerical methods that had become common research tools
in psychological studies. Thus, I point out in this chapter, and some others, that
multi-disciplinary studies have been especially likely to be the domains in which
mixing of the tools of data gathering and analysis takes place most readily. Culture
and personality studies, in the first half of the twentieth century, were to a consid-
erable extent built up from the inter-relating of qualitative ethnographic methods
with the quantitative techniques for assessing personality characteristics.
Chapter 5 is devoted to some famous old examples of very large, exploratory
projects, involving many researchers during several years of data gathering. Both
the Hawthorne Research and Yankee City studies are well known in the liter-
ature of the first half of the twentieth century, and they highlight the ways that
longer-term field research practically always results in mixing of different research
approaches.
Ethnographic studies in various health/illness issues and projects are another
area in which multi-disciplinary research teams have very often been the initi-
ators of mixed research designs. Chapter 6 presents a series of studies in which
medical professionals are often teamed with ethnographic researchers—situations
that, again, promote, or even require, multiple measurements of bodily conditions,
counts of numbers of “cases,” and other numerical data, along with qualitative
observations and verbal materials.
Economic and ecological studies are the subject of Chapter 7, in which the
issues examined often require quantitative methods, coupled with a wide range
of verbal descriptions. In many of the studies in this topical area, qualitative
descriptions of physical environments are essential parts of research design, but
concepts of “economic development,” and peoples’ adaptations to environmental
features, generally require measurements in terms of physical products, numbers
of people affected, and (quite often) measures of economic features in terms of
monetary units.
xvi Preface
appreciation for all the help and support of the following persons in India:
Lakshmi Ramachandar, Saroj Pachauri, Ravi Verma, Jayashree Ramakrishna,
Niranjan Saggurti, Archana Joshi, Renu Khanna, Shagufa Kapadia, M.E. Khan,
Shireen Jejeebhoy, R.K.Mutatkar, Vinay Kulkarni, Annie George, Akhila Vasan,
Bella and Siddhi Ganatra, and Hemant Apte. In Bangladesh: Ruchira Tabassum,
Papreen Nahar, Sandra Laston, Abbas Bhuiyan, Lazeena Muna and S.M. Nurul
Alam. Among the many helpful colleagues in Nepal, I especially express my grat-
itude for the support, friendship, and collaboration of Anand Tamang and Mahesh
Puri at the NGO, CREHPA. Sri Lankan colleagues I wish to especially thank
are Herbert Aponso, Tudor Silva, and Ananda Wijekoon (all at the University of
Peradeniya), although there were many others who contributed to our interac-
tions in that fascinating island society.
Other colleagues in North America to whom I owe special expressions of
gratitude are Ludger Müller-Wille, Russ Bernard, and that long list of excellent
students whose research has enriched my knowledge of cultures and peoples in so
many parts of the globe. My listing could go on and on, but here I will particularly
express my deep indebtedness for the countless hours of editorial assistance and
sage advice of Janice Morse, and the very expressive illustrating, helpful editing
and other assistance from my daughter, Dunja Pelto.
1
MIXED METHODS RESEARCH IN
ETHNOGRAPHY, QUALITATIVE
AND QUANTITATIVE
In his discussion of the terminology, Niiranen commented that the first use
of the term “ethnography” should be credited to W.F. Edwards, “who in the late
1830s founded the first scientific society in this field in Paris. [However] A Leipzig
encyclopaedia published in 1833 defines ethnography as part of geography and
history:‘Ethnography, i.e., the science dealing with the folk or peoples (Volkerunde),
2 Mixed Methods Research in Ethnography
is the part of geography which deals with the inhabitants of different countries,
describes them on the basis of their physical and mental abilities and presents their
customs, habits, and special features’” (quoted by Niiranen, p. 23).
In his book, The History of Ethnological Theory (1937), Robert H. Lowie stated
in his very first paragraph that: “Ethnography is the science which deals with
the ‘cultures’ of human groups. By culture we understand the sum total of what
an individual acquires from his society—those beliefs, customs, artistic norms,
food-habits, and crafts ...” (Lowie, 1937:3). In this book I use the word ethnog-
raphy as referring especially to “field research” in human groups. It is largely
descriptive (inductive) in basic design, although there are ethnographic projects
that include deductive, hypothesis-testing operations.
The close relationship between geography and ethnography, in the
nineteenth-century definition, is a reflection of the fact that in earlier centu-
ries, both of these scientific activities were heavily invested in explorations in the
unknown, or less well-known locations and peoples on Planet Earth. As we will
explore further in Chapter 2, the nineteenth century was a time when there were
growing numbers of international expeditions, some of them aimed at political
and economic exploitation of less developed regions such as Africa, arctic America,
Siberia, and others; other expeditions were more intent on expanding geographi-
cal, scientific information about the relatively uncharted parts of the world.
The first [document] contains the discoverer’s own brief summary of what
he was able to learn of the beliefs of the natives of Espanola during the
period of his second voyage, 1493–96, and the record of his commissioning
Mixed Methods Research in Ethnography 3
of Friar Ramon Pane who had learned the language of the islanders, ‘to
collect all their ceremonies and antiquities.’ The second is Ramon’s report
of his observations and inquiries and is not only the first treatise ever writ-
ten in the field of American Antiquities, but to this day remains our most
authentic record of the religion and folk-lore of the long since extinct
Tainos, the original inhabitants of Hayti ...” (Bourne, 1960:19)
castes besides the Brahmans, practice during their lifetime” (p. 228); “On what
is allowed and forbidden in eating and drinking” (p. 237); and, most ominously:
“A description of the four yugas, and of all that is expected to take place at
the end of the fourth yuga” (p. 175). The abridged version of Al-Biruni’s ethno-
graphic production runs to about 80 chapters! The publication contains many
chapters about astronomy, mathematics, and other scientific topics, in addition to
the descriptions of cultural practices of Hindu peoples.
One of the most striking pieces of evidence concerning the depth of his
knowledge of India is the fact that he described several different alphabets used in
the writing of different languages in India (“Notes on the Writing of the Hindus,
on their arithmetic and related subjects....” [pp. 79–88]). Of course, he was par-
ticularly deeply immersed in learning about Hindu mathematical work, because
mathematics and astronomy were his main special areas of scientific interest. One
section is called, “On the constellation of the Great Bear” (p. 180).
The editor of the Al-Biruni book, Qeyamuddin Ahmad, took his masters
and doctoral degrees at Patna University in northern India (Bihar State), in
1950–1962, and was a professor of history at the University of Patna in the years
after completing his doctorate. He noted that “It has been suggested that a feel-
ing of shared adversity brought Al-Biruni and the Hindus close to each other”
(p. xix). For that comment he references Sachau, and then goes on to note that
“... Al-Biruni was deeply interested in astronomy and mathematics since an earlier
period of his life, and he must have taken full advantage of the opportunities of
direct contact with Indian scholars during his stay in Ghazni ... [also] ... while liv-
ing in Ghazni he got additional opportunities for securing first-hand information
by personal contact with Indians and by direct study of Sanskrit sources. As we
know, he paid visits to and lived in different parts of the Punjab....”(p. xix)
In the editing of Al-Biruni’s writings, Ahmad was deeply impressed with the
scholar’s attempt to understand Hindu culture (and science) from the insider’s
perspective. He commented that “Also, very significant is Al-Biruni’s conclud-
ing remark that his book was meant for those who wanted to discuss with the
Hindus the questions of religion, science or literature, on the very basis of their own
civilization.” He goes on to comment that “... Much stress is nowadays being laid
by Western scholars to try to understand Oriental cultures on their own terms
and on the basis of the indigenous sources. It is a measure of Al-Biruni’s greatness
that he made such an attempt, fairly successfully, about one thousand years ago. In
fact, it is this discerning and basically appreciative approach to the understanding
of an alien culture on its own terms which lifts Al-Biruni’s account much above
anything else written on India in the medieval period.” (Ahmad, 1983:xxxi)
We can piece together a loose, composite inventory of the mixed methods
utilized by Al-Biruni in producing this impressive ethnography. Certainly he
depended to a considerable extent on the large Sanskrit and Arabic literature
available to him. Various writers, including Professor Ahmad and other histori-
ans, have described Al-Biruni’s life in connection with the Islamic invader forces,
Mixed Methods Research in Ethnography 5
The writings of Ibn Battuta, and some other “travellers” contain a great deal of
interesting information, but I do not regard them as “real ethnographers,” because
their observations about cultural and social features are highly selective, and are
usually based on relatively short-term observations in each of those many places
their travels took them. Thus, their interesting travel adventures are much less
ethnographically useful than the works of Al-Biruni and Sahagun.
That statement about the contents of quantitative and qualitative data makes
the intent of the qualitative component clear: to expand the programmatic under-
standing of factors that affect people’s decision-making regarding the interactions
of family members with health care providers. As far as I know, Dr. Khan and his
colleagues had not been aware of the discussions about “mixed methods” in the
North American research literature.
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Smithers, John B. Steele, Wm. G. Steele, Stiles, Strouse, Stuart,
Sweat, Wadsworth, Ward, Wheeler, Chilton A. White, Joseph W.
White, Fernando Wood—60.
June 22—This bill was taken up in the Senate, when Mr.
Saulsbury moved this substitute:
That no person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws
thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or
regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but
shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or
labor may be due; and Congress shall pass all necessary and proper
laws for the rendition of all such persons who shall so, as aforesaid,
escape.
Which was rejected—yeas 9, nays 29, as follows:
Yeas—Messrs. Buckalew, Carlile, Cowan, Davis, McDougall,
Powell, Richardson, Riddle, Saulsbury—9.
Nays—Messrs. Anthony, Brown, Chandler, Clark, Conness, Dixon,
Foot, Grimes, Hale, Harlan, Harris, Hicks, Howard, Howe, Johnson,
Lane of Indiana, Lane of Kansas, Morgan, Morrill, Pomeroy,
Ramsey, Sprague, Sumner, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Van Winkle, Wade,
Willey—29.
Mr. Johnson, of Maryland, moved an amendment to substitute a
clause repealing the act of 1850; which was rejected—yeas 17, nays
22, as follows:
Yeas—Messrs. Buckalew, Carlile, Cowan, Davis, Harris, Hicks,
Johnson, Lane of Indiana, McDougall, Powell, Richardson, Riddle,
Saulsbury, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Van Winkle, Willey—17.
Nays—Messrs. Anthony, Brown, Chandler, Clark, Conness, Dixon,
Fessenden, Foot, Grimes, Hale, Harlan, Howard, Howe, Lane of
Kansas, Morgan, Morrill, Pomeroy, Ramsey, Sprague, Sumner,
Wade, Wilson—22.
The bill then passed—yeas 27, nays 12, as follows:
Yeas—Messrs. Anthony, Brown, Chandler, Clark, Conness, Dixon,
Fessenden, Foot, Grimes, Hale, Harlan, Harris, Hicks, Howard,
Howe, Lane of Indiana, Lane of Kansas, Morgan, Morrill, Pomeroy,
Ramsey, Sprague, Sumner, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Wade, Wilson—27.
Nays—Messrs. Buckalew, Carlile, Cowan, Davis, Johnson,
McDougall, Powell, Richardson, Riddle, Saulsbury, Van Winkle,
Willey—12.
Abraham Lincoln, President, approved it, June 28, 1864.
Seward as Secretary of State.
INTERNAL TAXES.
The system of internal revenue taxes imposed during the war did
not evenly divide parties until near its close, when Democrats were
generally arrayed against these taxes. They cannot, from the record,
be correctly classed as political issues, yet their adoption and the
feelings since engendered by them, makes a brief summary of the
record essential.
First Session, Thirty-Seventh Congress.
The bill to provide increased revenue from imports, &c., passed the
House August 2, 1861—yeas 89, nays 39.
Same day, it passed the Senate—yeas 34, nays 8, (Messrs.
Breckinridge, Bright, Johnson, of Missouri, Kennedy, Latham, Polk,
Powell, Saulsbury.)[24]
Second Session, Thirty-Seventh Congress.
June 4—The House passed the bill—yeas 81, nays 28. The Nays
were:
Messrs. James C. Allen, Bliss, James S. Brown, Cox, Edgerton,
Eldridge, Finck, Grider, Harding, Harrington, Chas. M. Harris,
Herrick, Holman, Hutchins, Le Blond, Long, Mallory, Marcy,
McDowell, Morrison, Noble, Pendleton, Perry, Pruyn, Ross,
Wadsworth, Chilton A. White, Joseph W. White—28.
June 17—The Senate passed the bill—yeas 22, nays 5, (Messrs.
Buckalew, Hendricks, McDougall, Powell, Richardson.)
Second Session, Thirty-Seventh Congress.
RECEIPTS.
Total $457,855,704
00
Total debt up to December 31, 1862 556,105,100
00
Estimated amount at that date necessary to support the 357,929,229
Government to July, 1868, was 00
Up to December 31, 1862, the issues of the Treasury were:
Notes $440,678,510 00
Redeemed 30,193,479 50
Outstanding $410,485,030 50
Total $601,522,893 12
EXPENDITURES DURING THAT TIME.
Total $796,264,403 00
Total $973,277,363 50
Confederate Taxes.