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 Chapter 6

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Ethnography as a sustainable approach
to cultural landscape studies: a case

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of nupe community in central nigeria

Isa Bala Muhammad

Department of Architecture,
Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria

mib@futminna.edu.ng
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Abstract: Cultural landscapes are referred to as the way people relate to their environ-
ment and the meaning as well as the values they derive from such transactions. Under-
standing cultural landscape transactions through the perspective of the native people
requires a social science research method that captures people's cultural values about
their landscape. One such methodological approach is ethnography. Ethnography is
associated with the immersion of the researcher in the field, and it draws on a family of
methods which includes participant observations, listening, and interviews. These
multiple methods of data collection that are subsumed in ethnography are complex,
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most especially when it is used in cultural landscape research. As such this study gives a
detailed outline of how ethnography was employed in the study of a cultural landscape
of Nupe ethnic group in central Nigeria. The chapter gives a written account of the
experiences of the researcher which also had to take cognisance of the role of theory
and philosophical paradigm in social science research. Furthermore, the chapter gives
an account of the procedure followed in establishing the philosophical paradigm as
well as how the reliability and validity of data elicited were ensured. Most importantly is
the applicability of the ethnographic process in the study of other cultural landscapes.
Key words: Cultural landscape, Ethnography, Heritage, Cultural values, Sustainability

Introduction

The preservation of cultural landscape resources is necessary because its study

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is relevant in a lot of sectors such as rural development, nature conservation,

and forestry. cultural landscape study is also an essential element in the inter-
pretation of sustainable development (Agnoletti, 2006). More recently, the Unit-
ed Nations General Assembly report also established and recognised the preser-
vation of cultural and natural heritage, including biodiversity and landscapes
118 Chapter 6

(United-Nations, 2016), The dynamics of the cultural landscape have been seen
to trigger socio-economic development where the relationship between man

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and the environment has over a long period of time created cultural values
(Tengberg et al., 2012; Türkyılmaz, 2016). However, the herculean task is the
choice of an appropriate method in the study as well as an understanding of
these values within the frame of the people who inhabit such landscapes. This is
even more profound when cultural landscape values are to be interpreted to

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include both tangible and intangible values (del Barrio, Devesa, & Herrero, 2012;
WHC, 1994). This arises from the confusion faced by a researcher who chooses
ethnography as a technique for social enquiry (Mannay & Morgan, 2014). In
response, this chapter focuses on creating a step by step process followed in the
use of ethnography for the study of a cultural landscape.
The first part of this chapter focuses on the philosophical paradigm and the
theoretical framework applied to the elicitation of information on cultural
landscape values. As such the two main philosophical paradigms, Positivism
and constructivism were discussed and how each of the paradigms is situated
in the study. Furthermore, the grounded theory is also discussed as a frame
that guided the explorative research as well as its appropriateness towards
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analysis of the data elicited through participant observation. In my eight-
month data collection process, the study focused on the everyday lives of the
indigenous people residing within the studied Nupe community.
Also, in this chapter I offer a reflection on the research, the documented im-
mersion in the field towards the understanding of the meaning of landscape and
values people associate with their landscape. As such, the analytical process
towards the formulation of grounded theory as well as the processes through
which the cultural landscape values’ variables were determined is discussed.
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The chapter concludes with the steps taken towards ensuring reliability and
validity of the methods used for data collection and analysis.

Situating Philosophical Paradigm for Cultural Landscape Studies

A philosophical paradigm is a theoretical framework and system employed to

view events (Fellows & Liu, 2008). It elaborates and shows views and perspec-
tives that are adopted in the determination of a phenomenon. Cultural land-
scape transactions are based on peoples' cultural activities (Berker, 2011) and
one of the most suitable means of gathering the total experience and perception
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of people, is through an unstructured exploration (Blommaert & Jie, 2010). It is

also to be noted that for a sociological phenomenon, a qualitative form of data
also helps in the understanding of people’s world view (Glaser & Strauss, 2009).
More also is that human, unlike other objects of study are complex; they hold
certain values and live in the world which has meaning and have actions that
are intelligible and therefore only understood through empirical evidence
 Ethnography as a sustainable approach to cultural landscape studies 119

(Miles, Huberman, & Saldaña, 2013). In the elicitation of empirical evidence

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about people-place relationship, there exists a clear distinction in the philo-
sophical school of thought between positivism and constructivism. Each of the
paradigms has its weaknesses and strengths. The strength of each method de-
pends on the type of study and data that is to be elicited. As a result of this, the
next section explains what guided the choice of philosophical paradigm for the
study of cultural landscape of the Nupe community.

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Positivism and Cultural Landscape Study

The positivists are inclined towards Cartesian duality of the existence of reality
which stipulates that there are observable facts out there in the field that can be
measured by an observer (Creswell, 2012). This thus showcases the positivists to
be inclined towards quantitative data which makes the researcher completely
detached from the investigation (Biklen, 2010). The positivists believe that social
observations should be treated like the way physical scientist treat physical
phenomena (Goldkuhl & Cronholm, 2010). However, to understand the cultural
landscape values of a community, it is nearly impossible to affirm an absolute
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true situation, because culture differs and so do the landscapes (Gullino &
Larcher, 2012). Suggesting that, there exists a little chance for the existence of
the universal reality in cultural landscape transactions (Rapoport, 1969). Conse-
quent upon this, the philosophical paradigm of positivism is unsuitable for the
study of cultural landscape values. This is because the cultural landscape is
inclined toward people’s perception and cultural values which are not all tangi-
bly represented. Suggesting that for a cultural landscape study, absolute reality
does not exist in what people perceive and value.
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Constructivism and Cultural Landscape Study

The constructivist paradigm posits that construct realities are bound and
that, time and context are free from generalisation (Miles et al., 2013). It also
advocates that truth and reality are attained through the perspectives of the
participants. Similarly, cultural landscape transaction is associated with ob-
servations of phenomena which involve the understanding of where, when
and how, transactions are conducted (Stephenson, 2010). It also requires the
understanding of the sense in which such transactions are perceived by the
people (Bergeron, Paquette, & Poullaouec-Gonidec, 2014). It is to be noted
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that the type of landscape and the culture of people affect how transactions of
people are carried out. Thus, the uniqueness of each landscape and its culture
means that there exists no absolute reality as far as the human relationship
with the environment is concerned. It, therefore, becomes more plausible to
be inclined to the constructivist philosophical paradigm in the study of cul-
tural landscape values of communities.
120 Chapter 6

However, the complexity associated with cultural landscapes’ research has

to contend with culture and human behaviour. Furthermore, the perception

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of people about their landscape requires a long stay with careful observations
(Stephenson, 2010). As such, for phenomenological research on the cultural
landscape values, ethnography becomes a suitable means for elicitation of
information (O'Reilly, 2009).

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The Study Community

Rural landscapes are largely historic products that need to be protected from
rapid urbanisation (Agnoletti, 2014). More also is that opportunities are
bound in Africa towards its contribution to humankind in the world of sci-
ence, technology and culture. This is because Africa is considered as the cra-
dle of humanity (United-Nations, 2002). This cradle of humanity, (Africa) is
made up of several ethnic groups each with its uniqueness and cultural land-
scape transactions which have limited documentation especially the minority
ethnic groups. For example, Nigeria has over 250 ethnic groups and one of
such ethnic group is the Nupe which has been affirmed to have a rich cultural
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heritage (Nadel, 1937, 1942). As such this methodology (ethnography) was
used to measure people and space interaction in a rural Nupe community of
Doko, Nigeria. The choice of Doko community is based on its historical con-
nection as one of the communities that constituted the nucleus of Nupe king-
dom (Muhammad & Said, 2015). It is located 12 kilometres south-west of Bida
in Niger State, Nigeria. The landscape of the community is surrounded by a
hill that runs from the south down to the west as indicated in Figure 6.1.
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Figure 6.1 The hill surrounding Doko Community landscape

 Ethnography as a sustainable approach to cultural landscape studies 121

Soliciting Information through Ethnography

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Ethnography is engendered in an in-depth study, which involves the interpre-
tation of meaning in the local context of the participants. As such it is rooted
in the first-hand exploration of research settings (Mannay & Morgan, 2014).
Ethnography when used for the collection of data , requires the researcher to
be immersed in the field to collect information about the study phenomena
(Murchison, 2010). The ethnographer, therefore, collects data by interacting

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with respondents which usually take different forms such as conversations,
interviews, and performance of ritual within the community. Ethnography
allows emphasis to be placed more on understanding the meaning and the
cultural practice of the people within the settings where they inhabit.
The ethnographic mode of eliciting information on the Nupe community
was saddled with the challenges of conducting it in either covert or overt
form. This challenge of overt observation was based on the influence of the
observer on what is being studied (Patton, 2005). Because there exists the
possibility of the behaviour of those being studied to be staged with the
resultant effect of affecting the data elicited (Oliver and Eales, 2008). On the
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other hand, covert observations would have resulted in ethical questions.
This is because, it is also argued that, it is the right of those being studied to
know that they are being studied (O'Reilly, 2009). This conflict cuts across
all the facet of ethnographic field work right from the type of observation,
evaluator’s role to participants, and the portrayal of the purpose of the
evaluation to the people being studied (Risjord, 2007). Consequently, the
strategy employed in the field was to adopt a process that is most suitable,
reliable and ethically viable. As such for the study of the cultural landscape
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of the studied community, the emphasis was laid on the fulfilment of ethi-
cal issues as well as ensuring that the data gathered were valid (Miles et al.,
2013). Patton (1987), gave five dimensions through which empirical field
work varies. They are the role of the evaluator, the portrayal of the evaluator
role to others, the portrayal of the purpose of the evaluation to others, du-
ration of the evaluation and the focus of the evaluation. In a similar man-
ner, the dimension taken for the study of cultural landscape of the Nupe
community is given in Figure 6.2.
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122 Chapter 6

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Figure 6.2 Dimension for the conduct of the fieldwork on the Nupe cultural landscape,
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adopted from (Patton, 1987)

The elicitation of data from the community requires a choice between three
types of observations which are either full participant’s observation, partial
observation or an onlooker observation. Markedly, rural communities are
 Ethnography as a sustainable approach to cultural landscape studies 123

characterised by the settings in which everyone is known due to their small

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population. As such the conduct of research which is ethnographic and
which also involves a long time of stay makes it nearly impossible not to be
noticed. It thus necessitated that the choice of type of observation needed
to be a full observation. Therefore, the village head was informed of the
study as well as its purpose. The approval of the community head allowed
for some level of trust and rapport to be developed between the researcher

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and the community. Trust, especially in ethnographic research, is key for
the gathering of information from participants ( Charmaz, 2014).

Period of Stay for Holistic Understanding of Cultural Landscape

In the anthropological tradition, participant observation requires a mini-

mum of six months to be spent in the culture of those being observed (Pat-
ton, 2005). This is because the holistic view of people’s culture takes a great
deal of time and the social scientific objective is to generate theoretical
propositions of how a culture functions. As such the duration for the elicita-
tion of data on the cultural landscape took 8 months. This is to allow for
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most of the transaction of the community to be captured. This included
farming activities such as the planting and harvest periods in the commu-
nity. More also is that the long stay allowed for transactions of the commu-
nity to be observed over the period of wet and dry seasons. The reason for
this is that climatic condition most times have an influence on how people
interact with their spaces. Additionally, in rural communities, especially in
Nigeria, the activities of the wet seasons mostly do take place at the farm
while that of the dry season are off the farm (Muhammad, 2017). Further-
more, in order to have a full understanding of the community transactions,
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aside from participant observation, interviews were conducted as part of

the ethnographic process.

Determination of Geographic Boundaries in Cultural Landscapes

The scale of data to be elicited in cultural landscape study is an im-

portant factor that needs to be established right from the beginning. As
such, the scale of observations for the studied community was estab-
lished to be the domestic space as well as the geographic extent required
by the natives towards the fulfilment of the daily needs (Appleton, 1975).
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The socio-cultural transaction of each community is established based on

the family system and as such the determination of the family basic
transactions gives the cue to the spatial transactions of the community.
Thus, the ethnography study began with the understanding of the home-
stead, which is the domestic space.
124 Chapter 6

Observation of the Domestic Space Transactions

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Domestic spatial relationships are central to cultural landscape transaction
more also is that it constitutes a great proportion of an individual’s daily life
(Ausserhofer et al., 2016). As such it became imperative to understand the
socio-physical settings of the Nupe domestic space (Alitajer & Molavi No-
joumi, 2016). Therefore, the determination of domestic space transactions
of the community, a detailed sketch of some selected compounds was

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made. It involved the identification of tangible features that constitute each
compound. This was necessary so as to determine the conceptualization of
the traditional architecture of the Nupe people. More also is that it is ex-
pected just like many cultures, that the Nupes will have a unique character-
isation of their vernacular architecture (Donovan & Gkartzios, 2014). Un-
doubtedly, the community’s compound layout showcased a common char-
acter after 15 compounds were documented. The features found common
in all the compounds visited are the kata (bedrooms), the katagi (kitchen),
nanche (open kitchen) katamba (entrance hut), zhempa (courtyard), yekun
(the local oven structure), edo (granary), Kara (fence), shikpata (toilets and
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bathrooms) and ega (animal pen). Some of these features observed are
shown in Figure 6.3, 6.4 and 6.5 respectively.
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Figure 6.3 A typical Nupe compound showing the kata (bedroom), katagi (kitchen)
Nanche (open kitchen) and zhempa (courtyard)
 Ethnography as a sustainable approach to cultural landscape studies 125

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Figure 6.4 The katamba (entrance hut) found in most of the compounds
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Figure 6.5 Ega (Animal pen) in different forms in most compounds

The people-place relationship is complex to measure due to the dynamics

associated with what people do every day, especially in domestic spaces. The
technique found most useful for the everyday behaviour of the built environ-
ment is the time budget concept (Muhammad & Said, 2015). Time budget
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concept entails the collection of what people do during a fixed period of time.
Such type of observations is carried out either through diaries or through the
conduct of interviews with the participant. However, for the cultural land-
scape transactions of the studied community, the administration of the dia-
ries of the participants was not possible due to the low level of literacy and
126 Chapter 6

thus asking the participants to document their activities was difficult. As a

result, the researcher decided to map the activities of family members in a

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chart. This involved the monitoring of activities base on sessions. Session 1
was held between 6 am and 3 pm, session 2 was held between 3 pm and 9 pm,
and finally, the 3rd session lasted from 9 pm to 6 am. These seasons were
based on preliminary observations made on the pattern of the community’s
transactions. A day was then set aside each for the selected families (n=15).

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Sessions 1 and 2 were logged in through direct observation while the 3rd ses-
sion, which constituted the private time for night rest were mostly captured
the following day through interviews. The interviews were conducted on the
emitso (family heads) and inna-emitso (women’s head). These interviews
were made to capture the activities that took place during the private time of
the Night. As such the inclusion of the interviews together with observations
allowed for a 24-hour circle of activities of each of the families observed.
Furthermore, a follow-up random visits were made to the compounds to in-
tersect the bias associated with human subjects, especially when they are aware
that they are being observed (Patton, 2005). This strategy was taken to also en-
sure that each session was covered at least thrice in each of the 15 compounds
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chosen for the study. This was to validate the participant’s observations (Blom-
maert & Jie, 2010). It was equally important that during the process of data col-
lection photographs were taken. Photographs aside from its presentations of
empirical truth, they were referred to later in order to give a clearer understand-
ing of the activity log. Besides, photographs do offer experiences in which lin-
guistic terms cannot completely interpret or explain (Seamon, 2014).
Similarly, during the conduct of observations, in the spatial transaction of fam-
ilies, there existed periods in which the activities were broken. Such periods
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included long hours of rainfall during the day and night. This natural phenome-
non forced activities that usually take place outside to be suspended and refuge
sought in covered spaces such as rooms, entrance huts, and kitchens. These
periods of activity transactions were excluded because they did not constitute
the normal routine of the families. Obviously, it is expected that people-place
daily transactions are likely to be broken by occasional external forces (Seamon,
2015). As such in the study of people-place relationship what needs to be under-
stood are the routine transactions that occur without any external interference.
Summarily, the observation within the domestic space was directed by a set of
ethnographic observation guide as illustrated in Table 6.1.
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 Ethnography as a sustainable approach to cultural landscape studies 127

Table 6.1 Observation guide on the Domestic space transactions

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1 How are the buildings and compounds laid out?

2 What are the physical features that constitute a typical compound?

3 What are the distances between major activities within the compound?

4 What are the meeting places?

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5 How are the compounds kept clean?

6 What is the source of water?

7 How do they source for their cooking fuel?

8 Where do the female family members spend most of their time?

9 Where do the male family members spend most of their time?

10 Which part of the compound do children spend most of their time?

11 Where do most men receive their guests?

12 Where do most females receive their guests?

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13 Where do men eat their food?

14 Where do women eat their food?

15 Where do the family members have their meetings?

16 How are spaces defined for males and females within the family?

17 How is security constituted within the compound?

The outline of domestic space transactions, schedule as shown in Table 6.1 is

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to ensure that, the data elicited across the various families observed are the
same. This was done so that ng a pattern could be established as the cultural,
spatial transactions of Nupe families within their domestic spaces.

Observations of the Community’s Transactions

Cultural landscape study deals with various forms of transactions. It, therefore
required that data elicitation is carried out systematically to save time and
also to ensure that relevant data about the phenomenon is captured (O'Reilly,
2009). Although the study on the cultural landscape of the Nupe community
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was explorative, it was important that the research was carried out within a
given frame of reference (Forsey, 2010). Correspondingly, the “Habitat Theo-
ry” was used as a frame of reference for the study due to its universal applica-
bility in the study of cultural landscapes. The habitat theory asserts that peo-
ple interact with their environment towards the attainment of their biological
needs. It further posits that settlements exist only in a landscape that provides
128 Chapter 6

water, food, security, defence and place for economic activities. Correspond-
ingly the researcher ensured that aside from other findings that emerged,

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observations were also made to see how defence, security, water, food, and
shelter were constituted within the studied community.
Furthermore, the plethora of data collected required categorisation for
ease and also accurate elicitation of information (Creswell, 2012). Conse-
quently, Nassauer's (1995) three distinctive classification of cultural land-

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scape was employed. They are “Form”, “Practice” and “Relationship”. The
data elicited under “Form” are the spatial and physical structure of both
natural and man-made, while data on “Practice” is the transactions of the
people between themselves and the landscape while “Relationship” in-
cludes those transactions that are intangible. The sum of these classes of
data is represented in Figure 6.6.
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Figure 6.6 The three Key variables of cultural landscape values

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It is to be noted that the constituents of the “relationship” category are

mainly made up of meanings and values of the community. As such this
category is difficult to measure through observations. It thus became nec-
essary to use interviews as a suitable tool for understanding the intangible
values of the Nupe community.
 Ethnography as a sustainable approach to cultural landscape studies 129

The Interview Approach for determination of Intangible Values

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One of the important sources of information on participant observation is the
interview (Forsey, 2010). The interview serves as a means for learning about
things that cannot directly be observed such as feeling, thoughts and what goes
on in the natural world of those being studied. However, three types of interview
approaches are available for the elicitation of information. They are the general
interview guide approach, the conversational interview, the standardised open-

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ended interview. The general interview guide approach consists of questions
carefully worded which mean that each respondent is taken through the same
sequence of questions (Creswell, 2012). Its limitation lies in its confinement to
an outline of predetermined questions which will result in information being
gathered under limited subjects. Moreover, phenomenological studies require
information to be gathered naturally from the participants (Seamon, 2015). As
such the use of conversational interview became more suitable especially dur-
ing the early part of the field work when the rapport between the researcher and
the community was being established. More also is that the choice of conversa-
tional interview allowed for flexibility on questions asked by the researcher
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towards the understanding of the community’s culture and values. Similarly,
conversations with participants afforded the researcher an in-depth under-
standing as well as the subjective meaning the participants ascribe to their land-
scape (Mannay & Morgan, 2014).
In addition, the adoption of conversational interview suited all categories of
respondents, which included children, and the adults (Forsey, 2010). The
advantage of this is that the researcher was able to interview the indigenous
people through their own terminologies, perceptions, and experiences. Fur-
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thermore, the data elicited was such that it was gathered in the natural state
of the people and as such, it reduced the complexities in the understanding of
people’s socio-cultural transactions. Buttressing this is Shopes (2011) in
which she stated that good information from the field means the ability for
the respondent to give freely the necessary information without the feeling of
holding back some information. It is important that in the conduct of inter-
views in cultural landscapes, key informants need to be identified in order to
get adequate information about their community. In the case of Nupe com-
munity, the compounds heads are the custodians of the cultural heritage of
the community. Therefore, the compound heads became the key informants
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in each of the compounds visited. The interviews were all in the evenings
after their day’s work at the farm. It is important that appropriate time is
strategically used so as to get adequate information from the respondents.
It is worth mentioning that aside from the compound heads, interviews were
also conducted on the women, children, and people whose transactions were
130 Chapter 6

seen to be different from the general practice of the community which is mainly
farming. The examples of these categories are the gozan (traditional barber),

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and the egba (the local mason). This was to ensure that most of the transactions
of the community were adequately captured. In addition, an audio recorder was
used to record interview responses, The choice of an audio recorder over a video
recorder was because it was less intrusive and allows the respondents to adjust
quickly as the interview progressed (Mehl, Gosling, & Pennebaker, 2006).

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Ethnographic Data Analysis

Ethnographic experience in the cultural landscape of community is the culmi-

nation of diverse sources of data which included participant’s observations,
taking of photographs, interviews and field notes. Field notes were taken in the
form of sketches and jottings of the researcher on what was observed (O'Reilly,
2009). However, the first aspect of the data analysis for all the various forms of
qualitative information was to employ open coding, then followed by sorting
(Miles et al., 2013). Employing this sequence of analysis of open coding and
sorting was carried out towards the answering of questions such as when,
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where, why, who and how transactions are made (Charmaz, 2014).
As such for this study, the whole data collected were defragmented into a
pool. Even though, as earlier mentioned information about the cultural land-
scape transactions of the Nupe community was collected under three catego-
ries of “Form”, “Practice” and “Relationship”. However, these categories were
used as a framework for the elicitation of data and thus the grouping did not
emerge from analysis of cultural landscape data. Therefore, there was the
need for the generation of an indigenous typology based on the settings un-
der study (Miles et al., 2013). As such, to generate an indigenous typology, all
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information gathered under the three categories was merged as illustrated in

Figure 6.7 for content analysis. Thereafter, computer software QSR Nvivo 10
was used because of its capabilities in content analysis and organisation of
documents, such as audio, video, pictures, and memos.
The information from pictures, field notes, sketches, and interviews was ag-
gregated together to create codes. These codes were then thematically ana-
lysed and label given to describe each category of the theme (Figueroa, 2008).
The thematic analysis output emerged with five categories of themes which
are “Profession”, “Architecture”, “Family structure”, “Landscape” and “Val-
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ues” as illustrated in Figure 6.8.

 Ethnography as a sustainable approach to cultural landscape studies 131

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Figure 6.7 Multiple sources of ethnographic data
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Figure 6.8 The Emergent Five Categories of Themes for Nupe Community Cultural
Landscape
132 Chapter 6

Thereupon the emergence of these categories, there was also the need to
determine the most important category amongst the typologies of categories

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towards the formulation of grounded theory (Miles et al., 2013). To restate, the
first category is the “Family structure” which is the basic structure of commu-
nities; this was followed by “Architecture” which means the immediate do-
mestic space of both built and unbuilt forms. “People and profession” of the
community make the third category, while the fourth category is the “Land-

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scape of the community”. The landscape was operationalized to mean both
the natural and man-made features and spaces of the common communal
transaction. The fifth category, the “Value” category emerged to have multi-
dimensional links to all the other categories. Thus, the “Value” category was
found suitable for the generation of a grounded theory of the community (
Charmaz, Clarke, Friese, & Washburn, 2015; Glaser, Strauss, & Strutzel, 1968).
The foregoing analysis showcased an inductive grounding of data and also
abstractions from the cultural landscape of the community. More also is that
the strength of ethnography lies in allowing the unexpected and also an un-
predictable outcome of research. This thus makes it devoid of techniques that
insist on control of outcomes (Mannay & Morgan, 2014).
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Reliability and Validity of Ethnographic Data

Reliability and Validity of data for ethnographic data (qualitative data) are
difficult especially when it has to do with the establishment of a uniform
standard of measurement to be applied everywhere (Seamon & Sowers, 2008).
However, reliability can be obtained through intersubjective corroboration.
As such for this study, the researcher within the limits of knowledge imbibed
the principles of reporting the phenomenon with vividness, such that the
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reader is drawn to the text in the form of reality and honesty (Forsey, 2010).
Accuracy was attained through maximisation of believability of the reader and
also a comparison with other similar or contrasting scenarios. The ultimate
aim was towards drawing the reader from their usual recognition towards a
new path of understanding (Seamon, 2009).
Furthermore, the reliability of the data was certified by the use of multiple
methods in data gathering on the cultural landscape values of the study
community. To rephrase, this included interviews and participants observa-
tions. Direct participation provided a meaningful context of what took place
and what people actually did empirically and therefore gave the data more
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credence. More also is that participants observation followed by interview

reinforced the quality of data gathered (Miles et al., 2013). In addition, report-
ing on rival explanations lends credibility to the final sets of findings reported
by the evaluator. Hence, negative cases were sought within the community
and in some instances collaborations or counters, found during the course of
 Ethnography as a sustainable approach to cultural landscape studies 133

the discussion. Similarly, extrapolations were also made to give a multiple

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interest and possibilities of the same scenario within the studied community
and also on other studies carried out elsewhere. Doing this was to allow the
researcher a broad-based view of all phenomena studied. Finally, the se-
quence of a good phenomenological study as outlined by Seamon and Sowers
(2008) was followed. This involved the identifications of phenomena, descrip-
tive account of the phenomena, and the study of the respondent towards

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understanding the underlying commonalities and pattern.
Additionally, the generation of grounded theory is towards the fulfilment of
four criteria which are fit, work, relevance and modifiability (Creswell, 2012).
As such, for fitness, it was ensured that there were no contradictions of what
were uttered, especially in the interviews and the realities on the ground.
While in workability of data, it was ensured that variations found in the field
were explained. Such explanations were also made within the context of the
cultural landscape values of the studied community. Finally, the theory for-
mulated was made amendable to new information. Consequent upon these
all the four criteria of grounded theory were fulfilled.
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Conclusion

Sustainable development, advocates for the incorporation of people’s values in

developments. However, people’s values are constituted in both tangible and
intangible forms. It thus becomes imperative to have a systematic way of under-
standing such values. People's values are constituted in their cultural land-
scapes which serve as an everyday environment. The study showcased the ex-
tensive step by step process involved in the elicitation of cultural landscape
tho

values of communities. These, amongst others, included the formation of rap-

port with the study community, the use of multi-method approach in the elici-
tation of data about the indigenous people upon which the bedrock of the in-
formation was ethnographic. The ethnographic process allowed for data to be
gathered and understood through the perspective of the indigenous people.
Most importantly is that rural landscapes are largely historic products that need
to be understood and protected from global acculturation towards documenta-
tion and preservation of the uniqueness of each cultural landscape. Conse-
quently, ethnography as a methodological approach needs to be sustained as a
sustainable means in the study of cultural landscapes in order to meet up with
au

United Nations advocacy in the preservation of global cultural heritages.

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