ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that kinship relations among the Maranaos provide means for Maranao youths to survive the precarities and risks around them. The Marawi siege, or attack of the Maute group, in 2017 signifies the kinds of risks surrounding the Maranaos, such as suspicion and anger toward the government, dominance of a shadow economy in the area, and above all, violence backed by religious extremism. How did most of the Maranao youths manage to not join the Maute group? To answer this, I would like to introduce an individual story of a Maranao young man who once got into an Islamic pious movement. As the person developed an exclusive attitude, his family and relatives kept a close eye on him, making sure that his place among kinship members was secure. This attentive “non-doing” of his intimate sphere provided him time and space to come back. Maranao kinship relations and patron-clientelism, however, is not a stable system of duty and rights, but today it reflects principles of competition, self-help, and meritocracy. The predicament of the Maranao youths today comes from the fact that they have to meet not only the duties of the kinship network, but also the requirements of being a competitive self. This chapter concludes that Maranao kinship relations and patron-clientelism, although influenced by other powerful values centered in Manila or the global West, still provide safeguards for Maranao youths because kinship relations can accept a person for who s/he is, as well as tame and ease the pain of becoming a fragile individual living with precarity in the marginalized society.
