14/14 Comparative Case Studies and Research Methods Free Online FlashCards

What makes comparison a disciplined research method?

It asks a focused question across carefully selected cases using shared dimensions, relevant differences, and a defensible conclusion.

Why should comparative study avoid ranking religions?

Comparison should not rank religions as primitive or advanced. It should examine how practices and ideas function in particular historical and social worlds.

What does historical and contextual analysis examine?

It places a text, ritual, institution, or movement within a specific time and place, asking how social, political, and economic conditions shaped it.

What four layers should textual analysis distinguish?

It distinguishes the words of a text from its historical setting, interpretive traditions, and community reception.

What is the central focus of ethnographic research?

Ethnography studies religion as lived practice by examining what people do in everyday settings, not only what official doctrines say.

What does sociological and institutional analysis study?

It examines how authority, membership, education, leadership, resources, and social relationships are organized within religious groups.

What is a unit of comparison?

A unit of comparison is the clearly defined object being compared, such as two rituals, institutions, communities, interpretations, or responses to an issue.

How do emic and etic perspectives differ?

Emic analysis uses participants’ categories and meanings; etic analysis uses researchers’ analytical categories. Both can contribute when clearly distinguished.

What does reflexivity require a researcher to examine?

Reflexivity examines how the researcher’s identity, assumptions, language, access, and relationships influence the research.

What is triangulation?

Triangulation compares different kinds of evidence to test an interpretation, such as interviews, observations, instructions, scholarship, and attendance records.

What is a limitation of using a sacred text as evidence?

A sacred text can show scriptural language, but it cannot by itself prove that all adherents follow a particular teaching.

What can an interview demonstrate—and what can it not establish?

An interview reveals one participant’s interpretation, but it does not necessarily represent an entire community.