Such concepts as “research agenda,” “history,” and “culture,” including the idea of “Mindanao”, occur in academic discussions, conferences, the echelons of power, the media, and everyday language. They have become too familiar that they have lost their explanatory power. They have to be reconsidered and problematized to reinvigorate and make them useful devices again in understanding such complex ethno-historical issues as peace and development in Mindanao, Sulu, and Palawan (Minsupala).