Cognitively Informed Ethnography: Using Mixed Methods to Capture the Complexity of Religious Phenomena in Two Ecologically Valid Settings Using Mixed Methods to Capture the Complexity of Religious Phenomena in Two Ecologically Valid Settings

Here, we present two case studies which combine ethnographic fieldwork with quantitative methods to describe religious behaviour in two ecologically valid settings. Case Study 1 describes the use of mixed methods to explore whether different types of supernatural agents are associated with different...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal for the cognitive science of religion
Authors: Turpin, Hugh Daniel (Author) ; Stanford, Mark (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Equinox Publ. [2021]
In: Journal for the cognitive science of religion
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Religious ethnology / Methodenmix / Kognitive Religionswissenschaft / Field-research
RelBib Classification:AA Study of religion
AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
AE Psychology of religion
NCJ Ethics of science
Further subjects:B Ethnography
B cognitive science of religion
B Mixed Methods
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:Here, we present two case studies which combine ethnographic fieldwork with quantitative methods to describe religious behaviour in two ecologically valid settings. Case Study 1 describes the use of mixed methods to explore whether different types of supernatural agents are associated with different categories of moral transgression in Burma, a syncretic and multi-religious environment which naturally lends itself to this question. In this case study, ethnography plays a key role in designing appropriate questionnaire measures, generating hypotheses, and interpreting the behaviour of experimental participants. Case Study 2 describes the use of mixed methods to investigate the interrelationships between religious scandals and the emergence of ex-Catholicism in Ireland, a country noted for its recent and rapid secularization. Here, ethnography plays a key role in elucidating the limitations of early experimental designs and generating further hypotheses, while surveying in turn addresses issues of representativeness in the fieldwork. Together, these case studies serve to illustrate a number of advantages and challenges that come with adopting a mixed methods approach. We close by outlining four reasons for mixing qualitative and quantitative methods when studying religious cognition in the field, using the case studies above as examples. These are: 1) methodological triangulation, 2) assessment of instruments and procedures, 3) qualitative/quantitative iteration, and 4) capturing the current context in scenarios where existing ethnographic research is sparse or deficient.
ISSN:2049-7563
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal for the cognitive science of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1558/jcsr.38498