People of the Middle Ground

Book excerpt: This book tells the story of people in central Mindanao who, over time, developed a masterful capacity to borrow from the new without losing touch with the old, reimagining themselves not as willing Western clones or stubborn tribal traditionalists, but as virtuosos at articulating between multiple ways of being. Its central question is: How did they negotiate the middle ground in a world of swirling change? In answering that question, Dr. Edgerton provides a fascinating case study that will be invaluable to scholars everywhere who seek to understand how people with little power manage to articulate a changing sense of identity in the face of forces far more powerful than themselves.