Power and Intimacy in the Christian Philippines

The lowland Philippines in contrast to the apparently exotic tribal areas has for many years been thought of as a strangely Westernized place without a cultural life of its own. This innovative and important book shows that this perception is a myth which reflects our own obsessions with defining culture and identity as something unchanging. Through an absorbing account of arranged marriages miraculous saint cults spirit mediumship and gay beauty contests the author describes the unexpectedness of daily life in rural Bicol and the resilience and imagination of the Filipino poor.