This article argues that the historical and critical perspective adopted by glotopolitics would be enriched by the ethnographic approach. Based on the sustained involvement of the researcher over a long period of time in a specifc place (or places) and the combination- and contrast - of various sources of information and observation, ethnography makes it possible to situate texts in their contexts of production and to better understand what they “do” at the level of social practices. From a conceptualization of ethnography as a method, methodology and deep theorizing, the above will be exemplifed with a dispute over the representation of Quechua between two types of communities of practice involved in the development of language policies in Peru. It will be argued that the “internal perspective” achieved by ethnography allows for a better explanation of the processes involved in the construction of language ideologies.