As Tilly emphasizes, protesters choose from a limited ‘repertoire’ of
tactics. By implication, most instantiations of a tactic belong to one
or a few lineages, each radiating from a single invention and
comprising a series of adoptions and repetitions. This implication is
tested by investigating the tactic of suicide protest: an individual
kills her or himself, without harming others, to advance a collective
cause. The decline in cruel public punishment and the growth of news
media increased the potential of this tactic. Data are presented for
the period 1919-1970. There were multiple inventions of suicide
protest, but only in Japan was there a recognizable lineage before
1963. The sacrifice of a Vietnamese monk in that year created a model
which was adopted in many different countries, for varied collective
causes. Almost all subsequent acts of suicide protest constitute a
lineage that can be traced back to this origin.