“The text is an easy read, accessible to undergraduates, and contains information not only on a cultural group but also on the process of doing ethnography, which makes it useful for a methods course.” — Ruth Jolie, Mercyhurst College
“Very readable and entertaining book that teaches much about participant
observation and Malay peasant culture.” — Stephen Murray
“A gem of a book. Beautifully written, dryly comic and wryly self-mocking, at root it is a thoughtful and critical contribution to the aims and field techniques of our profession.”
— Rosemary Firth, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
“Students will love the book, and professors will find it a useful addition to texts for courses on peoples and cultures of Southeast Asia or ethnographic field research.”
— Ronald Provencher, The Journal of Asian Studies
“. . . an engaging, entertaining, and highly readable introduction to the challenges and joys of doing ethnography. The author uses humor—more often than not, directed at himself—to illustrate important concepts such as using both qualitative and quantitative methods, establishing rapport, participant observation, direct contact with the subject population, and both culture shock and return culture shock.” — Margaret Bodemer, California Polytechnic State University
“A colleague recommended this as a good intro-level exploration of the ethnographic fieldwork experience. The author’s candid observations and comfortable prose convinced me. I look forward to teaching it this fall.” — Doc Billingsley, Washington University