In search of basic theory
For the past ten years, 'in Southeast Asia', I have lived among my peasant neighbours up on the slope of the mystically potent Mt.Banáhawin in the Philippines. These neighbours grow vegetables and sweet potatoes for the market in the lowlands, and in that sense they are fully incorporated in the market economy of the country. For as much as they are observant members of the Roman Church, or as they aspire for their children to make it to the professions and Manila, or even as they vote—sold or not—for certain politicians, they certainly participate in hierarchically organised, lowland Christian society. Yet, here among themselves, they strike me as rather anarchic individualists who have a strong sense of their right to go their own way, and who are highly intolerant of any interference. Sometimes—especially relating to the production of intrusive noise—their behaviour is manifestly uncivil. It is "At mine I do what I want", and asking for consideration can be a life-threatening experience. "We live in a democracy, so everybody has the right to do as he pleases".
Naturally, when a well-meaning politician—on his way to become Minister of Agriculture—tried to implement more rational cultivation and marketing strategies based on mutual consultation and cooperation—every April, there is a predictable glut of tomatoes and cabbage, and farm-gate prices mean a loss to most—he fell flat on his nose. The people here 'do as they please', or so they say.
For this reason and for my experience with North-Eastern Thai egalitarianism—endlessly celebrated in their disdain for the pretensions of Central-Thai 'aristocrats' as expressed in their country ballads phlaeng lu.k thung—I was intrigued by the idea of Autonomy, Equality, and Fellowship in Southeast Asia. Because of my exposure to a peasant way of life and my tentative interpretations, I was eager to compare notes with fellow anthropologists. The book I received for reviewing, though, has little to do with peasant individualism. In the main, it is about life in small, tribal groups that are hidden in inaccessible places where they aspire to maintain their independence from their surrounding, hierarchically organised, and often predatory neighbours.
The ways of life of these small, hidden 'societies' are dealt with in some ten chapters written by anthropologists with considerable experience among these groups. Their thoughts and speculations have been brought together as an exploration of a presumably characteristic 'anarchic solidarity', with the prospect of developing a theoretical mould to contain it. As it is with explorations and with research centring on the person of the field worker, the often very interesting results are idiosyncratic, and resist the development of an integrated perspective. The diversity of points of departure and tentative conclusions are skilfully brought together in a theoretical overview by Charles Macdonald, whose personal research is among the highland Palawan of Southern Palawan Island (Philippines).
The collection focuses on the highly egalitarian ethos linked with a high degree of personal autonomy, characteristic of many minority populations. Even so, the members of such groups have to accommodate to each other, and as such they live in—albeit sometimes minuscule—societies. This point is not to the taste of certain contributors who maintain that the 'anarchic solidarity' observed contrasts with everything that the term society is thought to imply, and that we need to develop a different label. Benjamin's way out is 'tribal society' (170) that has developed 'the art of not being governed' (Scott 2009), while keeping the states in which they are willy-nilly located off their backs.
Some of the contributors suggest that the anarchic-solidarity mode of life reflects an original predisposition that has gone lost in the general evolution to greater social complexity. Others propose to search for explanations in cosmological and/or psychological peculiarities. Others again see it as a strategic response to the depredation of the environment by the surrounding majority, or even to the threat of being incorporated by them, and to be subsequently condemned to the habitus of peasants. Still others focus on the evolution of ranking and the coming into being of complex and necessarily hierarchical social arrangements.
It is not to the point to be in favour of one position at the expense of another, as all these suggestions capture—or try to catch—aspects of the reality of the minority populations under discussion. The strong point of the collection is the serious attempt to theorise a way of life, even as the idea of 'original predisposition' sometimes shines through. In other words, there is a tendency to go back to basics and to evolution. Be this as it may—and even as I wasn't enlightened about the peasant way that surrounds me—the contents of the collection are a feast of anthropological ingenuity, and open visions on the mostly hidden existence of small groups that may also be relevant to shed light on our own basic life with intimates.
Niels Mulder recently concluded his swan song, Situating Filipino Civilisation in Southeast Asia; Reflections and observations. Saarbruecken: LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing (print-to-order ed., ISBN 9783659130830), 2012. <niels_mulder201935@yahoo.com.ph>.
Reference
Scott, James C. 2009. The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchic History of Upland Southeast Asia. New Haven:YaleUniversity Press.