One of the goals of the "new" or experimental ethnography is to illuminate the unique historical, social, and political situation of a people from their own multifaceted perspectives. As part of the effort to reach this goal, ethnographers are learning to listen in various keys to what members of society under study have to say about themselves and about their place in the world.

In Romancing the Real, Sabra J. Webber argues that folklore--traditional aesthetic culture--is of central importance to the new ethnography. It is by becoming cultured in a people's traditional art...