IT was around 2012 when I saw my wife — my then-girlfriend — reading a small book titled Inside Philippine Society (New Day Publishers, 1997) on a beach in Puerto Galera. Out of pure curiosity, I took the book just to browse through it. I was immediately hooked, and I did not give it back to her until I finished it. I loved not only the clarity and cohesion of the author's arguments, but also liked his straightforwardness. He was explaining, in a very transparent manner, things that had been puzzling me since my arrival in the Philippines. Niels Mulder was attempting to understand the underlying cultural causes of the problems of Philippine society in terms of identity, kinship, religion and nationhood. To my mind, all his arguments matched perfectly and somehow solidified several random ideas I had, by then, in my head. Since then, I have given this book as a gift to many friends.

A couple of years later, I ventured to look him up with the help of Google. I had thought he was a retired anthropologist residing in the Netherlands, but it turned out that he had chosen the slopes of Mt. Banahaw near Sariaya, Quezon for his last home. He answered my email immediately and invited me to his house to discuss things that might stimulate us intellectually.