Visayan Vignettes : Ethnographic Traces of a Philippine Island

Rating:
Summary: A good example of how to approach Filipino culture
Review: I'm not an anthropologist or Bisayan, so I cannot comment with any authority on the author's treatment of these topics. I am an amateur student of the Bisaya language and Filipino culture, and I very much appreciated the author's effort to understand his subjects and their culture through revelations embedded in their language. Literally every page has examples of the language and the insight it help to provide in understanding/clarifying the people and how they viewed their lives. The book raised an obvious question - "how can a people be understood and described without making their language central?"

Rating:
Summary: A good example of how to approach Filipino culture
Review: I'm not an anthropologist or Bisayan, so I cannot comment with any authority on the author's treatment of these topics. I am an amateur student of the Bisaya language and Filipino culture, and I very much appreciated the author's effort to understand his subjects and their culture through revelations embedded in their language. Literally every page has examples of the language and the insight it help to provide in understanding/clarifying the people and how they viewed their lives. The book raised an obvious question - "how can a people be understood and described without making their language central?"