Ethnography

Ethnography (dictionary.com)
 * Ethnography**: a branch of anthropology dealing with the scientific description of individual cultures.

Ethnography is a method for studying groups of people. It is a qualitative approach which relies on collecting information written up in case or field studies based on observation, surveys and interviews. It is used in the fields of sociology, anthropology, history and communications to describe, study and analyze a group of people and their culture. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnography)
 * ethnos = folk/people; grapho = to write**

http://www.jnjr.div.ed.ac.uk/Primary%20Sources/Early_Modern/diemling_christianethnographies.html
 * Christian Ethnographies of Jews and Judaism:**

(Preview of link above) “What did Jews really think about non-Jews in the early modern period? This is difficult to determine because there are not many historical sources. Because they were a small religious minority, often marginalized and persecuted, Jews had learned to be guarded in the way they expressed the discontent and frustration they felt at being in exile and under the authority of a Christian regime.

In order to find out more, historians have to find ways to explore the mentality of powerless and marginalized groups. An interesting range of sources are 'Christian ethnographies' of Jews and Judaism (a term first coined by Ronnie Po-chia Hsia), which describe Jewish rituals and ways of life for a Christian audience from an ethnographic perspective. What is remarkable about these texts is that most of them were written by former Jews who had converted to Christianity. This genre thrived between 1530, when the convert Anthonius Margaritha wrote his pioneering book Der Gantz Jüdisch Glaub, and the 18th century, and was particularly popular in German lands.”