1978 Comparative Politics
order. Should we accept the logical inference
from Stavenhagen's analysis (more capitalism to
accelerate drastic change), or his faith (less
capitalism, because it may no longer do the
trick)? The question remains open.
JORGE 1. DOMINGUEZ
Howard University
Popular Uprisings in the Philippines,
1840-1940. By David R. Sturtevant. (Itha-
ca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1976. Pp.
317. $17.50.)
David Sturtevant, who has been writing on
the Philippines for nearly two decades, com-
bines in his long-awaited Popular Uprisings new
material and analysis with several of his articles.
Using some archive records from the Philippines
and the United States, a few interviews, several
newspapers, and numerous secondary sources,
Sturtevant focuses on three aspects of rural
unrest between 1840 and 1940: the origins of
13 peasant-based movements, the government's
actions against them, and the assessments of
those movements by Philipino, Spanish, and
American officials and contemporary analysts.
Sturtevant argues that peasant discontent
belongs to a heritage of spiritual dissent that
continues today. The causes of discontent are
"serious cultural tensions" growing from a
"clash between customary and modern ten-
dencies" or "the stress between what Robert
Redfield called the little and great traditions"
(p. 17). Villagers who joined the various mil-
lenarian and revitalization movements were
asserting their little tradition's vision of what
could be (and, some believed, had already once
been) the good life against the increasingly
depersonalized and alien great tradition repre-
sented by western religions, laws and govern-
ments. Late in the nineteenth century and
during the twentieth, these groups strongly
advocated independence from Spanish and
American rule, believing that liberation would
permit the revival of the moral order their
religions espoused. "As participants in the little
tradition, they sought the re-creation of the
simple clarifies inherent in the defunct moral
order" (p. 41).
The government bargained with leaders of
these groups, getting some to join the official
bureaucracy, arresting adherents, and doing
battle with them. Those who analyzed the
movements following the climactic events of
each one frequently tried to dismiss the ad-
herents as fanatics. Only in the decade or two
prior to 1940 did some influential government
771
officials and, especially, newspaper editors link
these uprisings to harsh conditions in the
countryside.
The book is certainly a contribution to
scholarship on the Philippines. But, as the
author warns, it is "neither the first nor the last
word" on unrest during this century or on the
groups it discusses. Indeed, the book will spark
controversy among scholars and provoke addi-
tional research.
One of the book's limitations is vagueness
regarding causes of unrest and the peasant's
objectives. Concepts such as "cultural tension"
and "little versus great tradition" are helpful,
but these terms are not elaborated upon. For
example, the first three chapters on the
"sources of stress" provide valuable background
but lack specificity and depth for the particular
groups discussed. The author's argument would
have become much clearer had he, for each
group, described the social, economic, political
and other cultural features of the provinces
where the Cofradia, Guardia de Honor, Mako-
bola, Colorum, Santa Iglesia, and others
thrived.
Such analyses may also resolve an apparent
contradiction. Sturtevant sometimes suggests
that villagers sought the material benefits en-
joyed by the upper classes. This is at odds with
the thesis that villagers wanted a moral order
that would reject and rise above such material-
ism.
A second limitation is the book's concentra-
tion on "leaders" of these groups rather than
on less well-known participants. It emphasizes
the same "charismatic" characters that the
Manila newspapers and government officials
emphasized, saying little about why these
figures were attractive, what people's grievances
were, and what people did. The book reveals
scarcely anything about what went. on inside
these groups. Some of the glimpses offered (as
in the marvelous interview with Coloram
spokesman Pedro Calosa in an appendix) sug-
gests that leaders were not necessarily followed
or actually leading. Too often the groups
remain mysterious for both reader and author
(e.g., p. 144).
One cause of this limitation is Sturtevant's
heavy reliance, on government reports. Rey-
naldo C. Itelo, who has recently studied several
of these groups, says more about what gook
place within them and offers an analysis that,
while not completely opposite, differs from
Sutrtevant's. Itelo uses sources indigenous to
those movements (in addition to many to
Sturtevant's sources) and consciously seeks to
interpret the groups from the participants'
perspective ("Pasion and the Interpretation of