518 amerlcan ethnologist
In spite of the title, the stones in Bernstein'sbook are ancillary to the main points he wantsto make about Taman shamanism. Most ofthese points, based in his psychological uni-versal ism and, at times, evolutionary perspec-tive, are apparent in his answer to the question"Why is ba lien ism primarily a female phe-nomenon?* (pp. 150-154). Bernstein's answerconsiders the "power asymmetry between thesexes" and the "universal associations in sexu-ality whereby 'male' is equated with 'domi-nance' and 'female' with 'subordination' " (p.152). He suggests that the "passivity" associ-ated with subordination does not necessarilymean that Taman women lack "sexual energy^(p. 153). In fact, the evidence suggests quite theopposite. The precipitating illnesses that areessential for becoming a Balien in the firstplace are "explicitly sexualized" (p. 153) asfantasies of seduction and forced sexual sub-mission. Highly charged sexual behavior isprohibited in Taman society; therefore, thetension between sexual repression and expres-sion is resolved in the transformation of the pa-tient with an illness into the socially acceptablerole of the Balien who engages in mystical ex-periences. Bernstein carries this one step fur-ther, as do many who take this psychoanalyticapproach, when he considers the role of Bal-ien ism as an institution that functions as a pro-jective system through which Taman resolvetensions in gender relations that are related tosexual repression. From this point of view, as-pects of Balienism—projection, dissociation,and somatization—are not only "mechanismsfor defending the ego in repressing thoughts ordesires that create anxiety" (p. 9) but also oper-ate (or function) in defense of the social fabric.
While the ethnographic data Bernstein pro-vides are rich and extremely useful, he ne-glects some of his significant observations tofavor his theoretical paradigm and psychologi-cal explanations of Taman shamanism. To hiscredit, he states his theoretical intentions at theoutset (pp. 7-9). His society-as-self model,however, has to isolate the Taman as a bound-ed, integrating ego and to disregard the manycircuits in which the Taman traffic. Bernstein,in a endnote to his conclusion, remarks that"the Taman way of life did not evolve in isola-tion" (p. 171). Elsewhere, he notes the wide-spread use throughout Southeast Asia of theword "balien" to refer to "healers or magicore-ligious practitioners" (p. 166). Bubut, the termfor the object-extraction curative ceremony, in
the Javanese language means to pull some-thing out and to polish, both essential featuresof this shamanistic healing practice in whichstones are extracted from the patient's body us-ing balien stones that have been polished withoil. Clearly, isolating the Taman from the widerworld for purposes of analysis minimizesTaman shamanism as a historically contingentpractice that reflects gender relations that arechanging due to relations with that world—arole greater than the mere projection of basicinstincts.
Shining and other Paths: War and Society inPeru 1980-1995. Steve J. Stem, ed. Durham,NC: Duke University Press, 1998. xiv + 534pp., maps, photographs, figures, bibliography,index, contributors.
DAVID KNOWLTONUniversity of Utah
Word filters from Peru of another ShiningPath attack. This seems anachronistic, sincethe movement is now a mere shadow of what itwas seven years ago when it wasontheedgeofits planned siege of Peru's capital Lima, whichseriously shook the country. Nevertheless, theShining Path remains an issue for analysts ofPeruvian society among others; those inter-ested in comparing radical movements in theAmericas and elsewhere; students of socialmovements in general; researchers in contem-porary peasant and postpeasant societies; andthose wishing to understand the place of intel-lectual work, including anthropology, in con-temporary social formations.
In this volume, historian Steve Stem, notedfor his work on colonial Latin American his-tory, gathers important scholarly voices to de-mystify the Shining Path by locating it in rela-tionship to other social and political processesthrough nuanced studies of specific issues andregions. In the book's first section, aptly titled"Within and Against History," the authors askabout background and its use, including the re-lationship of ideologies of history and societyto social process and history. They investigatethe selective appropriation of a past as ideol-ogy at the same time as particular issues of thepast create a present. In this vein, anthropolo-gist Marisol de la Cadena explores in her chap-ter the shift in Peruvian intellectual discoursefrom preoccupations with Indians and whilesto issues of social class and how the resukinf
book reviews 519
ideational cleavages and disjunctures in Peru-vian society provide a critical background forunderstanding the formation of the ShiningPath, as well as other contemporary politicaland intellectual discourses. Historian Ivan Hi-nojosa studies the movement's relationship tothe rich background of Peruvian leftist thoughtand practice. Historian Florencia Ma I Ion ex-amines the Shining Path in the nexus of the left-ist Velasco Alvarado government of the latesixties. By comparing particular leftist organiz-ers and certain communities with the commu-nities' own distinct experiences and relation-ships to national historical events in the centralhighland province of Andahuaylas, Mai Ionshows the importance of both for under-standing the subsequent successes or failuresof the Shining Path in that region.
The authors of the book's second section ex-plore the war in the central highlands wherethe Shining Path gained its early strength. Thisinitiative ultimately failed because of the com-plexities in the Shining Path's understanding ofand relationship with a differentiated peas-antry that was integrated with national society.I should mention that former guerrillas withwhom I have spoken, insist that the movementdid not suffer a defeat in the highlands.
Anthropologist and well-known senderolo-gist Carlos Ivan Degregori explores the historyof Shining Path in various regions of Ayacuchothat led to its disjuncture with local peasantsand the formation of peasant militias, called"peasant rondas," to protect communitiesagainst incursions by the movement. He showshow a shift in military policy vis-a-vis the ruralpopulation became important for strengthen-ing the rondas and connecting them with thestate's concerns. Historian Ponciano del Pinoprovides a fascinating discussion of the innerlife of the movement's militants in this region asthey attempted to create new subjects—realpeople with their own backgrounds and reali-ties. He particularly notes the effort to raisechildren who would embody the ShiningPath's ideals. Historian Nelson Manrique dis-cusses the war's sequence of events in relation-ship to local social distinctions. He illustratesthe importance of comprehending local socialstructure and history in understanding thepaths the war took in each of the highlandprovinces of Ayacucho, Huancavelica, Junin,and Cerro de Pasco. He also mentions the im-portance in the guerilla struggle of the Univer-sidad Nacional del Centro (the National Uni-
versity of the Center) in the strategically lo-cated city of Huancayo. I vividly remember thechoices articulated by anthropology studentsfrom that University in 1985. They felt stronglydrawn to the "armed rebellion" as a necessaryconsequence of studying anthropology. An-thropologist Orin Starn concludes this sectionwith a poorly conceived but important argu-ment against the simplistic notions of the Shin-ing Path that are common in some writings, fa-voring instead a break in the ideological tropesthat mystify understanding of the region andform significant traps for unwary and hastyscholarship.
In the book's third section, the contributorsinvestigate the Shining Path's attempts to moveforcefully into both the high plateau near Bo-livia and the poor neighborhoods of metropoli-tan Lima. In both cases, the Shining Path facedissues that differed from those of the centralhighlands, in part because of the strong historyof progressive organizing in these areas. Inboth places a dense network of organizations,in some cases parts of national social move-ments, impeded the revolution's path. As a re-sult, the Shining Path chose to engage in a waragainst the so called "third paths" as it infil-trated, attempted to co-opt, and often violentlyattacked this assortment of NGOs, churchgroups, political organizations, and locallybased self-help organizations. In each case,the process and resu Its varied with how the dif-ferent organizations were connected to exter-nal sources of power.
Thus Jo Marie Burt, editor of NACLA (NorthAmerican Commission on Latin America) Re-port on the Americas, relates and analyzesevents in the famous pueblo joven (shantytown) of Villa El Salvador where the ShiningPath slyly analyzed local social and politicalstructures in order to collapse them, at timesviolently. Historian Jos6 Luis Renique studiesthe difficult process of invasion and resistancefaced by Shining Path cadres in Puno, whoseparticular history makes it organizationallydistinct from this war's other regions.
The Shining Path is famous for the promi-nence women seem to have held within itsforces as guerrillas and often leaders, causingmany scholars to comment on the movement'sapparent progressive feminist stance. In thebook's fourth section, activist Isabel Coral Cor-dero investigates this image and its relation-ship to the structu res of gender within Peruviansociety to show the factors militating for the
520 american ethnologist
rising prominence of women. She also demon-strates that, at the same time, Shining Path didnot challenge the fundamental inequalities ofgender.
The authors in the book's final section,which precedes an incisive summary by SteveStern, consider the legacies left by the war inPeruvian society. Researcher Enrique Obandoexplores the quandaries faced by a ci vi I societywith a strong and demanding military and theparticular sequence of events that determinetheir current relationship. Writer Patricia Oliartconsiders the relationship between the warand the electoral success of Peru's President,Alberto Fujimori, while activists Carlos Ba-sombrio Iglesias and Hortensia Munoz ana-lyze how concepts of human rights haveevolved and how new concerns have devel-oped in relationship to the war and its after-math. These concerns include a shift from em-phasizing state and guerrilla violence to arecognition of a general category of victim-hood from a multiplicity of causes.
Although somewhat uneven, this book is animportant and useful contribution to under-standing a movement that for far more than adecade disastrously shook Peru and its schol-arship. As Stern notes in his introduction, theShining Path is often described as enigmatic.The authors go a long way towards diffusingthat aura of enigma and demonstrating theShining Path's roots and relationships with Pe-ruvian society. There is a need to integrate andexplore the notion of enigma and the questionof whether the standard comparative catego-ries of social science are adequate for describ-ing Latin American society. To that end, Stem'scomments and compilations would provide agood point of engagement. Unfortunately, theauthors do not integrate their analyses withcomparative understandings and theories ofmilitant and other social movements. This ab-sence, and a general neglect of the roles of re-ligion and religious organizations, is a seriousgap in Stern's attempt to remove the veil ofmystery from this important but also very hu-man group and the war in which they partici-pated. Nevertheless, this book is important andwill serve as a baseline for future work in Peru,as well as for the comparative understanding ofevents developing in Colombia.
The Big Drum Ritual of Carriacou: Praise-songs in Rememory of Flight LornaMcDaniel.Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1998.ix + 198 pp., figures, tables, photographs, ap-pendixes, notes, bibliography, index.
TINA K. RAMNARINEQueen's University, Belfast
In this book, Lorna McDaniel presents amultilayered analysis of the Big Drum ritual ofCarriacou. McDaniel explores this ritual as anexample of diasporic performance practicethat encodes memory and identity. She pur-sues historical, etymological, performance,structural, and comparative approaches totrace the development and significance of theBig Drum ritual and the continuing impact ofthis genre on contemporary Carriacouan so-cial life. This song, drum, and dance ritualmarks major life events and is also performedtoday for tourists as well as in political celebra-tions.
Sound recordings of this tradition are not ex-tensive. Important contributions are the re-cordings of Alan Lomax, who recorded a vari-ety of traditional musics in the Caribbean inthe1960s. He turned his attention to the tradi-tional music of Carriacou, including examplesof the Big Drum ritual, which had received lit-tle recording interest from major companies.While Lomax was keen to apply his cantomet-ric theories to musical creolization, McDanielin some sense reverses this process and at-tempts to extract identifiable elements from acreolized genre.
Throughout the book, the myth of the"Flying Africans" is important to McDameTsinterpretations of historical memory, socialmeaning in the song texts performed in the rit-ual, and to compositional processes. Thismyth, succinctly recited to her by a Carria-couan culture bearer, Gentle Andrews, is asfollows: T h e Africans who were brought Heredid not like it. They just walked to the sea. Theyall began to sing as they spread their arms. Afew rose to the sky. Only those who did not eatsalt left the ground. The Africans flew home*(p. 2). She outlines four levels of flight: "flightfrom enslavement," "dream-inspired flight* inritual dance, "spiritual flight of religious ec-stasy," and "compositional flight" (p. 4). Themyth of flight is linked to diasporic experienceon a general level as well as to more recentrepatriation ideologies extolled by MarcusGarvey and still embraced in, for example, the
