Few publications of the Cornell Southeast Asia Program Series have been concerned with the Philippines,1 the focus of the series have been rather on Malay-Indonesian studies and mainland Southeast Asia. This thin volume by Oona Paredes is a welcome addition to the ethnohistorical literature of the Philippines’, especially Mindanao region. The archival research on which the book is based was carried in the frame of a doctoral programme and it was supported by a grant from the Werner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. During 1994-1995 Paredes did ethnographic field visits to Lumad communities and she has kept a follow-up correspondence with key informants over the years. Her previous anthropological work includes the issue of the “Higaunon Resistance and Ethnic Politics in Northern Mindanao” (1997), besides related topics.
