Barangay William Henry Scott PDF

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͞This ďook pƌeseŶts a sidžteeŶth-century Philippine ethnography based on contemporaneous sources. It does not attempt to reconstruct that society by consideration of present Philippine societies, or of features believed to be common to all Austronesian peoples. Nor does it seek similarities with nei...

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“This book presents a sixteenth-century Philippine ethnography based on contemporaneous sources. It does not attempt to reconstruct that society by consideration of present Philippine societies, or of features believed to be common to all Austronesian peoples. Nor does it seek similarities with neighboring cultures in Southeast Asia, though the raw data presented should be of use to scholars who might wish to do so. Rather it seeks to answer the question: What did the Spaniards actually say about the Filipino people when they first met them? It is. hoped that the answer to that question will permit Filipino readers today to pay a vicarious visit to the land of their ancestors tour centuries ago.... “Part 1 describes Visayan culture in eight chapters on physical appearance, food and farming, trades and commerce, religion, literature and entertainment, natural science, social organization, and warfare. Part 2 surveys the rest of the archipelago from south to north.” WILLIAM HENRY SCOTT (1921-1993), distinguished scholar and leading historian on the Cordilleras and prehispanic Philippines, graduated with a BA in Chinese language and literature from Yale, an MA in Church History from Columbia, and a Ph.D. in History from the University' of Santo Tomas. In 1994 the Ateneo de Manila gave Scott (posthumously) the Tanglaw ng Lahi Award for a whole life “spent in teaching not only in the classroom but also the outside world by means of the broad reaches of his contacts and communication, and most of all through his hundreds of published scholarly articles and inspirationals which continue to disseminate and teach honest Philippine history to succeeding generations of Filipinos.” Among his many publications were four significant books—A critical study of the pre-hispanic source materials for the study of Philippine history (1968, 1969, revised 1994), The discovery of the Igorots: Spanish contacts with the pagans of northern Luzon (1974, 1977), Cracks in the parchment curtain (1982), and Ilocano responses to American aggression, 1900-1901 (1986). jsbn 971-550-135-4

William Henry Scott

ATENEO DE MANILA UNIVERSITY PRESS

ATENEO DE MANILA UNIVERSITY PRESS Bellarmine Hall, Katipunan Avenue Loyola Hts., Quezon City P.O. Box 154, 1099 Manila, Philippines Copyright 1994 by Ateneo de Manila and the author First printing 1994 Second printing 1995 Third printing 1997 Cover design by Fidel Rillo Earlier versions of certain chapters have been published in Philippine journals: chapter 2 in Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society (Scott 1990a); chapter 4 in Philippiniana Sacra (Scott 1990b); and part of chapter 5, in Kinaadman (Scott 1992b), The illustrations from the Boxer Codex reproduced in this book are taken from the article on the Codex by Carlos Quirino and Mauro Garcia in the Philippine Journal of Science 87 (1958): 325453. For the cover illustration taken from the Boxer Codex, a color slide was provided by the Lilly Library of the University of Indiana, which gave permission for its reproduction. National Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data Recommended entry" Scott, William Henry. Barangay : sixteenth-century Philippine culture and society / by William Henry Scott. Quezon City ADMU Press, cl994. - 1 1. Ethnology - Philippines. I. Title. GN308.3P5 305.8009'599 1994 P944000012 ISBN 971-550-135-4 (pbk.) ISBN 971-550-138-9 (pbd.)

Contents Foreword ix INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 1 The Word “Barangay” • The Word “Filipino” • The Filipino People The Beyer Wave Migration Theory • Philippine Languages A Word about Orthography PART 1 The Visayas CHAPTER 1: PHYSICAL APPEARANCE ........................................... 17 Decorative Dentistry • Tattooing • Skull Moulding • Penis Pins Circumcision • Pierced Ears • Hair • Clothing • Jewelry CHAPTER 2: FOOD AND FARMING ................................................ 35 Rice Farming • Root Crops • Sago • Bananas • Visayan Farming Terms Camote • Hunting • Fishing • Domestic Animals • Cooking Betel Nut • Distilling and Drinking • Drinking Etiquette CHAPTER 3: TRADES AND COMMERCE ......................................... 54 Ironworking • Woodworking • Architecture • Boat Building Pottery • Goldworking • Weaving • Textiles • Domestic Trade The Chinese Enigma • International Commerce CHAPTER 4: RELIGION ................................................................ 77 Nature Spirits • The Unseen World • The Spirit Underworld • Omens and Divination • Worship • Idols • Origin Myths • Death and Burial Mourning • The Afterlife CHAPTER 5: LITERATURE AND ENTERTAINMENT ........................ 94 Hie Alphabet • Literature • Epics • Folklore • Musical Instruments Vocal Music • Dancing • Games and Gambling CHAPTER 6: NATURAL SCIENCE .................................................. 113 Environment • Health and Hygiene • Ailments • Treatment Timekeeping • Winds and, Weather • Seamanship CHAPTER 7: SOCIAL ORGANIZATION ......................................... 127 Data • Timawa • Oripun • Debt and Dependence • Community Kinship • Law • Marriage • Inheritance • Property and Labor CHAPTER 8: WEAPONS AND WAR ............................................. 147 Swords and Daggers * Spears • Missiles • Defensive Arms • Warfare Purpose and Causes of Wars • Strategy and Tactics • Sea Raiding Defense * Peace Pacts • Epic Heroes PART 2 Mindanao and Luzon CHAPTER 9: MINDANAO ........................................................... 161 Caraga • Butuan • Dapitan • Epic Culture • Sarangani Island Maguindanao • Sulu CHAPTER 10: BIKOIANDIA ......................................................... 179 Agriculture • Drinking • Social Structure • Religion • The Alphabet • Warfare CHAPTER 11: TAGALOG CULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY ................ 189 The Tagalog’s World • Technology' • Trade • The Alphabet CHAPTER 12: TAGALOG SOCIETY AND RELIGION ........................ 217 Kinship • Social Structure • Land and Property • Warfare • Religion CHAPTER IS: CENTRAL LUZON .................................................. 243 Pampanga Culture • Pampanga Law • Lawsuits • Pangasinan Culture The Zambals and Negritos CHAPTER 14: NORTHERN LUZON.............................................. 257 The Igorots • Cagayan Culture Afterword 272 • Notes 277 • Bibliographical Essay 282 • Bibliography 288 • Index 300

Foreword William Henry Scott (1921-1993), distinguished historian and eminent scholar, puts us in considerable debt with the publication of Barangay: Sixteenth-Century Philippine Culture and Society. By bringing to the fore the native inhabitants of the archipelago who in colonial documents and sadly even in historical writing are relegated to the background, Scott fills an egregious lack. The book is an ethnography of sixteenth-century Philippine communities that answers the question: What did the Spaniards actually say about the Filipino people when they first met them? Scott derived his information to answer the question from an extensive bibliographic base. A major cluster of his sources is the historical documents published in five collections. The first three are the colecciones de documentos ineditos (collections of unpublished documents, cited in this volume as CDIA, CDIU, and CAT)), published by the Spanish government beginning in 1825 with Martin Fernandez Navarrete’s five volumes and totaling sixty volumes by 1932. The fourth collection is Blair and Robertson’s The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 (BR), fifty-five volumes of translations into English. The fifth collection is the ongoing Historia de la Provincia Agustiniana del Smo. Nombre deJesus de Filipinos (HPAF) by Isacio Rodriguez with volume 20 being the most recent. In addition to these published collections is a wide array of such other published and unpublished sources as chronicles, travel accounts, navigational logs, letters, sermon books, catechisms, reports, and dictionaries. Dictionaries figure importantly in this book. In the sixteenth century, there were about a million and a half natives and only a small number of missionaries. Aware of the acute imbalance between their number and that of the native population and the enormous challenge in teaching the natives the Spanish language, the Spanish missionaries decided to communicate in the local languages. They calculated that it was more efficient for them to learn the local languages than to teach Spanish to the entire native population. A consequence of the decision was serious efforts toward the production of tools in aid of teaching missionaries the local languages. Among these tools were Spanish-vernacular, vernacularSpanish dictionaries. Some comprising more than seven hundred printed pages, these dictionaries not only list hundreds of local words but also provide in the glosses samples of actual usage of the words. In a way not possible for most other sources, these dictionaries open for us a window to how things were perceived in local categories. The Sanchez Samareho dictionary gives the phases of the moon for every day of the month; the Lisboa Bikolano dictionary defines the parts of the backstrap loom; the Mentrida Hiligaynon dictionary contains the most extensive glossary of seafaring terms. And the San Buenaventura Tagalog dictionary includes ethnographic data found in none of the accounts —details of technolog)' and industry, commercial contracts and interest rates, head taking and puberty rites, mortuary rituals and sexual mores. This ethnography of sixteenth-century Philippines covers a wide geographical terrain. Due to the spread of available sources and the chronology of Spanish activities in the early years of colonization, the chapters on the Visayan islands comprise the most substantial portion of the book. Luzon and Mindanao, however, also get proportionate attention: the second half of the book provides a survey of areas outside of the Visayas— the island of Mindanao, the Cagayan Valley, the Bikol peninsula, and the territory of Tagalog, Pampanga, Pangasinan communities. Scott had notes for a chapter on the Ilocos, but his passing away prevented its completion. An impressive range of topics is treated in the book. The section on the Visayas, for instance, discusses physical appearance, food and farming, trades and commerce, religion, literature and entertainment, natural science, social organization, and warfare. Even more impressive than the range of topics is the degree of detail in which the topics are explored.

Under the heading of Visayan physical appearance, the book describes and analyzes decorative dentistry, skull moulding, penis pins, circumcision, earpiercing, hair, clothing, jewelry, and tattooing. The treatment of each item goes as far as the documents allow. In the case of tattooing, for example, Scott examines various aspects of the custom such as who wore tattoos; how, when, and on which parts of the body they were applied; who actually applied them; what were their regional variations; what risks to health they posed. Most important of all, the author explains what tattoos meant in society. If the information Scott gathered together in his book is representative of what the Spaniards said about the natives, it is clear that they said quite a lot — at least, quite a lot more than is normally supposed. A case can be made that the Spaniards carefully took note of details in the native world so as to destroy or transform nadve culture the more thoroughly. But prescinding from their motives, the Spaniards collected data that now allow us to attempt a description of the native world. Spanish documentary sources were products of the colonial machinery. They were written by Spaniards, for Spanish purposes such as trading, evangelization, tribute-taking. But as he shows in Cracks in the parchment curtain and other essays in Philippine history, Scott had found a way of catching “fleeting glimpses of Filipinos and their reactions to Spanish domination ... unintentional and merely incidental to the purpose of the documents.” And particularly in this book, Scott took seriously all available texts in the local languages which, despite their Spanish provenance, are indigenous in the most basic sense. In them, the natives are the objects of study and of colonial intervention. Yet, they remain subjects as well, since it is thev who in the first instance spoke the language the missionaries used. The documents conserve the native languaging of the native world. Scott ventured to answer the question: What did the Spaniards actually say about the Filipino people when they first met them? Using a wide array of sources and a method conducive to gleaning information on native inhabitants, Scott lays out an answer to the question in a manner that reveals an intensely committed scholarship and an unfailing affection for his adopted people. — JOSE M. CRUZ, S.J.

Introduction This book presents a sixteenth-century Philippine ethnography based on contemporaneous sources. It does not attempt to reconstruct that society by consideration of present Philippine societies, or of features believed to be common to all Austronesian peoples. Nor does it seek similarities with neighboring cultures in Southeast Asia, though the raw data presented should be of use to scholars who might wish to do so. Rather it seeks to answer the question: What did the Spaniards actually say about the Filipino people when they first met them? It is hoped that the answer to that question will permit Filipino readers today to pay a vicarious visit to the land of their ancestors four centuries ago. History texts in use in the Philippine school system generally include a chapter on preHispanic society and culture derived from five main sources available in English in the monumental Blair and Robertson compendium of translations, The Philippine Islands 14931898: these are Antonio Pigafetta’s account of the Magellan voyage, Miguel de Loarca’s 1582 Relation, Juan Plasencia’s 1589 treatises on custom law and religious practices, Pedro Chirino’s 1604 Relation, and chapter 8 of Antonio de Morga’s 1609 Sucesos. Unfortunately, they also make use of two twentieth-century forgeries attributed to sixteenth-century Diego Povedano and nineteenth-century Jose Marfa Pavon, and misrepresent Pedro A. Monteclaro’s 1907 Moragtas as a pre-Hispanic document.1 To the authentic documents may be added four other eyewitness accounts of the Magellan voyage, and a dozen from the other early Spanish expeditions. The 1526 Loaysa expedition touched on the east coast of Mindanao, and Alvaro de Saavedra visited Sarangani Island three times in 1528. Four accounts, one of them running to a hundred pages, have survived from the Ruy Lopez de Villalobos expedition, which spent eighteen months in Sarangani, Mindanao, Leyte, and Samar in 1542-1543, and circumnavigated both Mindanao and Samar. From the Miguel Lopez de Legazpi 1565 expedition which established the Spanish colony, come a detailed sixteen-month journal, separate reports of local products and customs, and a ream of missionary and conquistador correspondence. And from the next century comes Francisco Alcina’s unpublished four-volume Historia de las islas e Indios de Bisayas, which is invaluable both for its author’s descriptions of material culture and his attempt to reconstruct preHispanic Visayan society by interviewing the oldest residents. Much information can also be gleaned through what I have called “cracks in the parchment curtain” in an earlier essay—“chinks, so to speak, through which fleeting glimpses of Filipinos and their reactions to Spanish dominion may be seen . . . unintentional and merely incidental to the purpose of the documents” (Scott 1982,1). A peace pact between Magellan’s survivors and a ruler in Palawan, for example, indicates that it was translated by a Spanish-speaking Makassarese slave seized from a royal Luzon vessel in Borneo. Court proceedings against backsliding Manila converts include a description of a Muslim burial, and notarized testimonies by Filipino chiefs reveal that few of them could sign their names. Tagalog sermons by friar missionaries mention deities otherwise unknown, refer to the number of days a slave is expected to work for his master, and inveigh against the vanity of tooth filing and eyebrow shaving. But by far the richest sources of information on Filipino ethnography are the early seventeenth-century Spanish dictionaries of Philippine languages. By their very nature, dictionaries contain more information than any other sort of literature or documentation. Moreover, since those in the Spanish colony were compiled by missionaries for the use of other missionaries, their definitions may be incorrect but they would not be deliberately dissembling. The Sanchez Samareno dictionary gives the phases of the moon for every day of the month; the Lisboa Bikolano dictionary defines the parts of the backstrap loom; the Mentrida Hiligaynon dictionary contains the most extensive glossary of seafaring terms. And the San

Buenaventura Tagalog dictionary includes ethnographic data found in none of the accounts— details of technology and industry, commercial contracts and interest rates, head taking and puberty rites, jar burial and sexual mores. Naturally, these sources must be used critically. Dictionary definitions are often tantalizingly brief, and the absence of a particular term may reflect the lexicographer’s limitations rather than the nonexistence of the concept. Comments on Filipino ethics and morality are hopelessly skewed by Spanish ethnocentricity and the reactions of aliens caught in the grip of culture shock. On the other hand, missionary reports intended for European audiences are often distorted by the desire to prevent converts from appearing like naked savages. Reports to the king on products and industries suitable for colonial exploitation are obviously more reliable than those recounting Filipino belligerence and treachery which might excuse conquistador brutality. Information on native religion is especially problematic. Direct questions about God, creation, the Flood, the human soul, heaven and hell, regularly produced obliging answers contrary to actual cult practices. In this ethnography, therefore, all descriptions will be based on a synthesis of all the sources available; no data will be presented unless they accord with that synthesis. Moreover, with few exceptions, they will be derived from primary sources in their original languages, not secondary sources or translations. Regrettably, these sources contain two significant lacunae —lack of statistics and failure to cover the whole archipelago. Vital statistics are completely wanting, as well as figures on production and distribution which would permit an estimate of Filipino living standards before the imposition of colonial burdens. Tagalog and Visayan culture can be reconstructed from documents and dictionaries, but there is little information on the peoples of northern Luzon, and none at all on the Mindanao and Sulu sultanates, which the Spaniards did not visit in the sixteenth century except for military attacks. It should also be noted that the Philippines was neither isolated nor unchanged during the century. A Malaccan prince founded a new sultanate in Maguindanao, Brunei established commercial and political ties with Manila, and Filipinos themselves traveled as far as Burma and Timor as merchants or mercenaries. But the many Spanish and Chinese innovations of the last two decades of the century cannot be considered part of traditional Philippine culture, though they quickly became regarded as such. Camote and corn, for example, rice mills and draft animals, were all introduced during a single lifetime. Among surviving sixteenth-century sources, there happen to be more voluminous data on Visayan culture than on the rest of the Philippines combined. The Spaniards were in the Visayas fifty years before they reached Luzon, and they recorded their observations with the enthusiasm of new discoveries. Loarca’s Relacion was written in Iloilo, and Alcina’s Historia in Leyte and Samar. Mateo Sanchez’s Visayan dictionary written in Dagami, Leyte, is the best of the early Spanish lexicons, and can be supplemented by the contemporary Panay dictionary of Alonso Mentrida. However, this documentary conc...