Rituals of Resistance

Abstract

In context of new world orders threatening from above and new popular struggles breaking out from below, description and of mass protest in Latin America is confronted with need for comprehensive theories of social conflict. To account for these developments among subaltern classes, Latin Americanists are increasingly turning to views of James C. Scott regarding forms of resistance. I hope to show that important aspects of his model hinder our efforts to understand and develop theories of conflict in Latin America. Gilbert Joseph calls Scott's the most visible and polished of what now constitutes vital current in peasant and goes on to suggest that his analysis of 'everyday forms of peasant resistance' can contribute valuable insights to broader conceptualization of Latin American banditry (1990: 26). Susan Eckstein introduces survey of varied forms of protest in Latin America by citing Scott on hidden forms of peasant resistance and extending these forms to other economically subordinate groups (1989: 8). She says that Scott correctly and insightfully argues that peasants frequently engage in everyday forms of resistance, although she quickly adds that such quiet forms of defiance rarely result in major change and also discusses direct and explicit forms of resistance (1989: 8). Levine and Mainwaring call one of Scott's books a major recent statement in tradition of studies on popular classes (1989: 203 n. 1). Widespread and growing attention in studies of Latin America is thus being given to Scott's work (see also Tutino, 1986; Colburn, 1989b; Jimenez, 1989; Edelman, 1990; Foweraker, 1990; Gould, 1990; Orlove, 1991; and, more critically, Roseberry, 1989; Cook and Binford, 1990). In Joseph's and Eckstein's cases, at least, this is ironic, because both these writers go on to