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Phally Chroy Douglas Raybecks Mad Dogs, Englishmen, and the Errant Anthropologist is a well written, humorous, and

entertaining account of Raybecks fieldwork in Wakaf Bharu, a village located in Malaysias state of Kelantan. This ethnography consists of stories, summations, and various entries that shed light into some of the dimension of Kelantanese culture and society in Wakaf Bharu with the premise that nothing is expected to go according to plan. Raybeck is able to accomplish a deeply immerse narrative of his year and a half of fieldwork that is not only valuable and full of extensive academic research but also provide warnings for anthropologists, and others alike, to some of the unexpected adventures and experiences associated with fieldwork. This type of cultural immersion and reflexivity can foster humility and personal connectedness with researcher and informants that can possibly lead to unexpected research data and access to native information. Raybeck does an excellent job in conveying these experiences and emotions by exploring the full gamut and process of anthropology fieldwork starting from grad schools, continuing with onsite fieldwork, and the post-fieldwork aftermath that paints an important picture of fieldwork as consisting of not only the actual work in the field but also the ensuing aftermath of everlasting friendship. For me, I found the book very entertaining, discoveries uncanny, and experiences quiet alarming as I have also done fieldwork and faced many of Raybecks issues in 1968 with my own research in SEA in 2007, 2010, and 2012. In addition, I was also fortunate, like Raybeck, to come from a graduate anthropology program at an Ivy League institution and also learned that no matter where you come from, the institution cannot fully prepare you for the unexpected reality of fieldwork. Why it may be a stretch and overreaching, I feel Raybeck is able to deliver to us a kind of reflexive Clifford Geertzs think description that is narrative, personal, and honest while remaining insightful, academically resourceful, and informative. I champion this type of anthropology in my own work as I feel shared relationships and experiences are important between researcher and informants in the analysis of culture. Not only are the researchers relationships with their environment, informants, and community important but the researchers own inflections of themselves and of others as well. The researchers own personal experiences and subjection in the environment necessitate a kind of tension important in the synthesizing of anthropological research and data. I feel anthropology has gone a long way since its colonial origins and ignoring the nuances and developments in anthropological research since becoming an academic discipline is problematic to issues of modernity that only immersion anthropology can solve, and partially in some cases. The debate of subjectivity and polluting of objectivity through immersion research is ever present but I feel in today ever changing and blurred world of culture, reflexivity is crucial. Some final notes: I feel what Raybeck experienced in Kelantan is quite common all over the SEA mainland. There exists a very important contradictory element in SEA societies, maybe in other society as well where strong values of chastity and keeping face, in maintaining definitions of status and societal placement. From topics of prostitution, disbursing of information through gossip, and maintaining proper temperament amidst dire situations, it was not surprising for me that Raybeck was able to

convey these experiences. However, missing from an overall excellent narrative were Raybecks examination of the role of Islam in various aspects of society, the cross-cultural influxes associated with the strong Chinese influences, and the proximity of Wakaf Bharu to Thailand.

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