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Rating: 
Summary: interesting look at concepts of power and exchange
Review: Cannell does an absolutely amazing job portraying the everyday lives of people in the Philippines, and how quotidian acts serve as forms of resistance to various externally imposed ideas and hierarchies. especially interesting because things like Christianity was initially externally imposed from the Spanish, yet has been re-appropriated by Filipinas/os in order to serve their needs. book breakdown:1: Marraige Stories 2: kinship and the ritualisation of marraige 3: Healing and the people who have nothing 4: Spirit Mediums and spirit-companians 5: Spirit Mediums and Seance forms 6: Coda: the birthday parties of the spirits. 7: the living and the dead 8: the funeral of the 'dead Christ' 9: Kinship, reciprocity and devotions to the saints 10: Beauty and the idea of America (beauty, mimicry and transformation) Chapter 10 is especially interesting as it deals with the bakla (male transvestites) of Bicol and how they interpret and approptiate notions of beauty and power. overall, a really ecclectic and interesting book that got me to think of power, mimicry and symbols in a new light.
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