New ethnography, closely related to cognitive anthropology and ethnoscience . It is a method of ethnography that aims to understand how members of other cultures perceive and interact with their world through their own filter of cognition combined with any knowledge gained by enculturation. It is often focused in linguistic anthropology, taking into consideration how the knowledge and use of a particular language relates to an individual’s thought process and their implicit knowledge. The hope is to understand in what ways the development of an individual within a particular culture and the use of a certain language influences a person’s perception of and interaction with the world around them.
This is why many now consider a credible ethnographer to be one who has lived with the people of study for an extended period of time while also becoming fairly fluent in their native language. Living with the people and speaking their language gives the ethnographer a deeper, more accurate understanding of their culture and in addition opens to them a new way of understanding and experiencing the world around them. In doing so, the ethnographer moves from the etic, or outsider, to an emic, or insider, point of view.
Not only does learning the language of a culture give the ethnographer a greater understanding of semantics, but the language itself is deeply entwined with the culture in which it is used; so much so, that even the syntax and grammar are an accurate reflection of the culture and it’s particular nuances. The social behaviors expressed by members of a culture are also psychological in nature, as cognition of the individual is supposedly influenced by culture. Thus there is a combination of linguistic, cultural, and psychological anthropology that work together to gain a greater emic view of a studied culture when using new ethnography.
Malinowski , the father of new ehnography
In Britain, anthropology developed in a somewhat different direction following the groundbreaking ethnographic studies written by the Polish intellectual Bronislaw Malinowski, who went to the Trobriand Island off Papua New Guinea in 1918. where he stayed long duration with native people , learned their language and participated in their daily life . thus Malinowski argued strongly for fieldwork and His book The Argonauts of Western Pacific which elaborate the new ethnography method became the ‘bible’ for British ethnographers/anthropologists of his own and subsequent generations: