Description
Book Synopsis Ethnography in the Raw describes the author’s encounters with the Philippine family into which he has married, his wife’s friends and acquaintances, and their lives in a remote rural village in the rice basin of Luzon, about 130 miles northeast of Manila. The book links detailed descriptions of his Philippine family with cultural practices such as circumcision, marriage and cockfights combined with theoretical musings on the concepts of sacrifice, social exchange, patron-client relations, food, and religious symbolism. It is both anthropological fieldwork ‘in the raw,’ and an incisive analysis of contemporary Philippine society and culture.
Trade Review “[This book] is readable, amusing, illuminating, and very ‘human’.” • Nelson Graburn, University of California, Berkeley
“Brian Moeran's brilliantly readable ethnography of everyday life in a Luzon village recalls his classic 1985 Okubo Diary, set in Japan, and demonstrates yet again the potential of 'observant participation' for yielding insights into custom and convention as well as personal perspectives and predilections that cannot always be reduced to cultural norms.” • Michael Jackson, author of The Genealogical Imagination
Table of Contents List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Notes on Text
Prologue
Chapter 1. Beginnings
Chapter 2. People
Chapter 3. The Barangay
Chapter 4. Buying a Car
Chapter 5. Kinship and Names
Chapter 6. Tying the Knot
Chapter 7. Family
Chapter 8. For Richer, For Poorer
Chapter 9. Chaos and Laughter
Chapter 10. Language Use
Chapter 11. New Year's Eve
Chapter 12. Mobile Phones and Social Media
Chapter 13. Irrigation
Chapter 14. Rice and Classification
Chapter 15. Going for a Walk
Chapter 16. A Pillow Tree
Chapter 17. Actually
Chapter 18. Spirits
Chapter 19. Birthday Parties
Chapter 20. No Money, No Hangover
Chapter 21. Wiping and Weeping
Chapter 22. Circumcision
Chapter 23. Blackness
Chapter 24. Japan
Chapter 25. The Author of Life
Chapter 26. Oh, George!
Chapter 27. OFWs
Chapter 28. Of Cocks and Men
Chapter 29. Religious Side Bets
Chapter 30. The Foreigner at Large
Chapter 31. She Love You, She Crazy
Chapter 32. Valentine’s Day
Chapter 33. Crispin, Caesar, and Cecilio
Chapter 34. Drugs
Chapter 35. Cementeries
Chapter 36. Security Guards
Chapter 37. Elections
Chapter 38. Beliefs
Chapter 39. A Shotgun Wedding
Chapter 40. Feria
Epilogue
References
Index
