Ethnography in the Raw

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.

Brian Moeran is a seasoned anthropologist who has been professor at various universities in England, Denmark, and Hong Kong. His other books include Ōkubo Diary: Portrait of a Japanese Valley (Routledge, 2010).

“[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