Publication

This report deals with the problem of physical violence, caused by a seemingly never-ending quest for self-determination, in the predominantly Muslim regions of the Southern Philippines (parts of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago). Most studies characterize the violence as symptomatic of inter-religious civil war or American-Philippine imperialism. This report challenges these views. It connects the present to the distant past – i.e., it looks at the area’s pre-Islamic social order and how it has shaped practices of control and domination. The conclusion it draws is that the most problematic types of violence experienced in these regions have practical origins; they all relate to efforts at control over either contending forces or followers and would-be-followers.