by
Ted Daniels, Ph.D.
Electronic version copyright © Ted Daniels 1997. All rights reserved
Originally published in Millennialism: An International Bibliography
by Garland Publishing New York, 1992. Reproduced here by permission.
URL for this article is http://www.
5. Adas, Michael. Prophets of Rebellion: Millenarian Protest Movements Against the European Colonial Order. Chapel Hill, NC: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1979.
A comparative historical approach to third-world millenarism, in terms of the complementary theories of revitalization and acculturation. All such movements are considered revolts. A major focus of the book is on the relationship between prophetism and revolt. Adas investigates the respective grievances, contexts, available options, patterns of leadership and mobilization, organization, myths, beliefs and rituals of a variety of movements. All of them sought to revive tradition and rid themselves of whites and/or foreign intervention, but all of them also showed a degree of ambivalence about assimilation. The selected movements are those of Prince Dipanagara (Netherlands East Indies, 1825-1830), Pai Maire (aka Hau Hau, New Zealand Maoris, 1864 - ca. 1867), Birsa (Chota Nagpur, India, 1895-1900), Maji Maji (Southwest Africa, 1905-1906) and Saya San (Burma, 1930-1932). These are considered with an emphasis on the various colonial regimes that gave rise to them.
All these movements may be attributed to anomie among colonial peoples, relative deprivation and the displacement of local elites. The guiding myths of these movements were not indigenous, or at least not important, in the cases of New Zealand and India. The prophet is in every case the crucial link.
All these prophets made colonialism's burdens intolerable by providing a way to remove them. Elites were frequently involved, and most followers were not rootless; there was little class consciousness to be found in these movements.
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