Representativity and Representation in Sexuality Research: Systematic Ethnographic Sampling in a Study with Mexican Women on Both Sides of the U.S.-Mexico Frontera

Abstract

This paper discusses how systematic ethnographic sampling can strengthen ethnographic generalizability and promote interdisciplinary communication by clarifyng differences between ethnographic and survey research. The study to which this paper refers examines differences in sexual and reproductive health practices and ideas among two groups of women from the same area in Mexico: first-generation immigrants in Atlanta, and their sisters and friends still in the sending community in western Mexico.

The paper begins with an overview of the study's methods and theoretical background, and continues with a discussion of why sampling was particularly important in this specific research context. The paper then outlines some of the theoretical (and underlyng epistemological) differences between how demographers and anthropologists choose interview subjetcs; it discusses not just differences in sampling methods but in the underlying ideas about what sampling is intended to achieve. The final section of the paper covers the actual process of constructing a systematic ethnographic sample, including a description of some of the difficulties encountered throughout the process.