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CUSTOMS OF THE TAGALOGS: A REVIEWER HISTORICAL CONTEXT Filipino-gobernadorcillos Spanish officials were forced to allow them to hold their position because of the shortage in the number of Spaniards who wanted to live outside of Intramuros; Friars were tasked to ensure that they remain loyal to the Crown. Friars Ended up performing the administrative duties. Supervised the election of the local executives, helped in the collection of taxes, involved in educating the youth, and performed other civic duties. They became the most knowledgeable and influential figure in the pueblo. They reported periodically to their superiors what was happening in their respective areas. They also shared their personal observations and experiences. List of Friars and Colonial Officials and their Literary Works 1.Juan de Plasencia – Relacion de las Costumbres de los Tagalogs (Customs of the Tagalogs, 1589) 2. Miguel de Loarca – Relacion de las Islas Filipinas, 1582 [description of Filipinos’ way of life in the Western Visayas area written by an encomendero] 3. Governor Antonio de Morga – Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas [info about the state of the Philippines in latter 16th century] 4. Fr. Pedro Chirino, S.J. – Relacion de las Islas Filipinas, 1604 5. Fr. Juan Delgado, S.J. – Historia General, 1751 6. Fr. Francisco Ignacio Alcina, S.J. – Historia natural del sitio, fertilidad y calidad de las Islas e Indios de Bisayas, 1668 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Fray Juan de Plasencia o Real name is Joan de Portocarrero. o His continuous interaction with the people he converted to Christianity enabled him to write his work. o His work Customs of the Tagalogs is a primary source because he personally witnessed the events and his account contained his observations. o His

work contained numerous information that historians could use in reconstructing the political and socio-cultural history of the Tagalog region. o He also wrote the Doctrina Christiana en Lengua Española y Tagala which later became the first printed book in the Philippines in 1593. He used it as a reading material to those Filipinos who wished to deepen their faith in the newly-accepted religion. ABOUT THE TEXT The original document of Customs of the Tagalogs is currently kept in the Archivo General de Indias (A.G.I.) in Seville, Spain. A duplicate copy is kept in the Archivo Franciscano Ibero-Oriental (A.F.I.O.) in Madrid, Spain. An English translation appeared in Volume VII of the Blair and Robertson’s The Philippine Islands . Another English translation was published as part of the volume for precolonial Philippines in the second series of the Filipiniana Book Guild. The excerpts here came from this source. EXCERPTS FROM CUSTOMS OF THE TAGALOGS [A REVIEWER] Datos Chiefs of the people; governs the people and captains in the war; obeyed and revered by the people. Subjects who committed any offense against them were severely punished. Rules over a few people: 30 to 100 houses. Barangay – Was a family of parents, children, relations and slaves. – Barangays were not subject to one another, except in friendship and relationship. – The chiefs helped one another with their respective barangays. Three Castes: 1. Nobles – freeborn who were called maharlica; do not pay taxes or tribute to the dato but must accompany him in war at their own expense; pays annually to the dato a hundred gantas of rice. This is for arable land. 2. Commoners – are called aliping namamahay; married and serve their master; accompanies him wherever he went beyond the island and rowed for him. They live in their own houses and are lords of their property and gold;

children inherit it and enjoy the ranks of their fathers and they cannot be made slaves nor can either parents or children be sold. They cannot be taken from their own village and carried with the son of their master who was going to dwell in another village; they would remain in their native village, doing service there and cultivating the sowed lands. 3. Slaves – are called aliping sa guiguilir; serve their master in his house and on his cultivated lands, and may be sold; may be given a portion of the harvest by their master so that they may work faithfully. Servants born in the house of their master are rarely sold. The difference between the aliping namamahay and the aliping sa guiguilir should be noted for many have been classed as slaves when they are not. Those who are maharlicas on both parents’ side continue to be so forever. If they should become slaves, it is through marriage. If maharlicas had children among their slaves, their children and the mothers became free. If a maharlica had children by a slave-woman of another, she was compelled, when pregnant, to give her master half of the gold tael, because of her risk of death and her inability to work during pregnancy. In such case, half of the child was free and the father supplies the child with food. If the father does not do this, he did not recognize the child, which makes the child wholly slave.4 If a free woman had children by a slave, they were all free, provided she does not marry the father. If a maharlica and a slave married, the children were divided. The odd numbered children (i.e., first, third, fifth, and so on) regardless of the sex, belonged to the father while the even numbered children (i.e., second, fourth, sixth and so on) belonged to the mother. The children follow the status of the parent where they belong. Only child was half free and half slave. This is the same for odd numbered children. It was not certain when or what age the division of children was made.

Maharlicas pay a certain fine in gold (runs from 1 to 3 taels and a banquet to the entire barangay) if they want to move from one village or from one barangay to another after marriage. Failure to pay may mean war between the old barangay and the new barangay. When one married a woman of another village, children afterwards were divided equally between the 2 barangays. Arbiter – may be a dato or not; selected from another village or barangay; expected to give true judgment; in cases where litigants felt themselves aggrieved or when 2 chiefs had a controversy and they wish to avoid war. In this ceremony, they always had to drink. Death – punishment for a man of low birth who insulted the daughter or wife of chief; also for witches. Slavery – only given to those who earned the death penalty and to the children and accomplices of witches (slaves to the chief). All other offenses were punished by fines in gold. Failure to pay on time requires the culprit to serve until full payment is made. Payment is done the following way o Half the cultivated lands and all their produce belonged to the master. o The master provided the culprit with food and clothing thus enslaving the culprit and his children until such time as he might amass enough money to pay the fine. o If the father by chance pay the debt, the master will charge for the food and clothing given to the children. If payment could not be made, the master keeps the children and they remain slaves. o If a relative/friend paid for the debt of the culprit, the culprit was obliged to render service as an aliping namamahay to the relative/friend. Otherwise, the culprit has to pay double the amount to the relative/friend. This way, slaves were made by debt: sa guiguilir if they served the master and namamahay if they served another person who lent them the money to pay. DOWRIES Dowries are given by the men to the women’s parents. If the parents are living, they enjoy use of

it. At their death and the dowry was unconsumed, it is divided like the rest of the estate, equally among the children except if the father wants to bestow something additional upon the daughter. If the wife was an orphan and has no grandparents at the time of marriage, she enjoys her dowry. Unmarried women can own no property, in land or dowry, for the result of all their labors accumulates to their parents. Divorce with no children: If the wife left the husband to marry another, all her dowry and equal additional amount fell to the husband. If the wife left the husband and did not marry another, the dowry was returned. When the husband left his wife, he lost half the dowry and the other half was returned to him. If he had children, the whole dowry and the fine went to the children and held by the grandparents or other responsible relatives. Upon the death of parents and the child is unwilling to marry because it had been arranged by his or her parents, the fine was heaviest. The dowry the parents had received was returned and nothing more. If the parents were living, they paid the fine, because it was assumed that it had been their design to separate the children. WORSHIP OF THE TAGALOGS There are no temples consecrated to the performing of sacrifices. Simbahan – place or temple of adoration. Pandot – means worship They celebrate the pandot in the house of the chief. They construct a temporary shed on each side of the house with a roof called sibi to protect people from rain. Sorihile – small lamps placed on the posts of the house. Nagaanitos – worship made by the whole barangay or family in the house known as the temple. Bathala – ―all powerful‖ or ―maker of all things‖. They also worship: o Sun – for its beauty; respected and honoured. o Moon – especially when it was new: with rejoicing, adoration and welcoming it. o Stars – even if they do not know the names. o Tala – morning star. o Seven little goats – The Pleiades Lic-ha – images with different shapes.

Dian Masalanta – patron of lovers and generation. Lacapati and Idianale – patrons of the cultivated lands and of husbandry. Buaya or crocodiles – water-lizards revered because of fear of being harmed by them. The distinctions made among the priests of the devil were as follows: 1. Catolonan – a man or a woman; honourable position among natives; held by people of rank. 2. Mangagauay – witches who pretend to heal the sick; induces sickness; can cause death; can kill someone at once if they want; can prolong life for a year by binding to the waist a live serpent (believed to be the devil). 3. Manyisalat – same as mangagauay; power of applying remedies to lovers so they will abandon and despise their own wives, not have intercourse with their wives. The wife, if abandoned, would get sick, discharge blood and matter. 4. Mancocolam – emits fire from himself at night, once or more each month. Fire could not be extinguished nor emitted except as the priest wallowed in the ordure and filth which falls from the houses. 5. Hocloban – greater efficacy than the mangagauay; not using medicine but by saluting or raising the hand, can kill whom they chose. They can also heal those they made ill. Can destroy the house of someone hostile to them without the aid of instruments. This was in Catanduanes. 6. Silagan – tears out the liver and eats it, causing the death of anyone clothed in white. This is also in Catanduanes. Fray Juan de Merida said that a Spanish notary’s intestines were torn through the anus and body was buried in Calilaya (Caliraya -Bicol). 7. Magtatangal – shows himself at night to many persons without his head or insides. Walks about, carried or pretended to carry his head to different places and in the morning, returns to his body as before, alive. This is also in Catanduanes. Natives affirm that they have seen it. 8. Osuang – equal to a sorcerer; natives claiming this priest can fly, murder men and eat their flesh. This is true among the Visayan Islands but not to the Tagalogs. 9. Mangagayoma – makes charms for lovers out of herbs, stones, and wood which would infuse the heart with love. They deceive people with the help of the devil and achieve their ends.

10. Sonat – ―preacher‖; helps the dying at which time he predicts the salvation or condemnation of the soul. High standing people are the ones who hold this position. 11. Pangatahojan – soothsayer who predicts the future. 12. Bayoguin – cotquean; man whose nature inclined toward that of a woman. BURIAL ¤ Deceased was buried beside his house. ¤ If he was a chief, he will be placed beneath a little house or porch built for this purpose. Mourning lasts 4 days. He will be laid on a boat which serves as a coffin or bier, placing this beneath the porch with a slave guarding it. Instead of rowers, various animals were placed within the boat, each one being assigned a place at the oar by twos—-male and female of each species being together—-as for example two goats, two deer, or two fowls. It was the slave’s care to see that they were fed. ¤ If the deceased had been a warrior, a living slave was tied beneath his body until in this wretched way he died. In course of time, all suffered decay; and for many days the relatives of the dead man bewailed him, singing laments, and praises of his good qualities, until finally they wearied of it. ¤ This grief was also accompanied by eating and drinking. This was a custom of the Tagalos. ¤ Maca – paradise or village of rest; place where the just, valiant and those who lived without doing harm and those who possessed moral virtues go. ¤ Casanaan – place of punishment, grief and affliction; place of anguish. ¤ Only Bathala dwelt in heaven, no one would go there. ¤ Sitan – demons; dwells in casanaan where the wicked go to. ¤ Vibit – ghosts ¤ Tigbalaang – phantoms ¤ They had another deception—-namely, that if any woman died in childbirth, she and the child suffered punishment; and that, at night, she could be heard lamenting. This was called patianac. May the honor and glory be God our Lord’s, that among all the Tagalos not a trace of this is left; and that those who are now marrying do not even know what it is, thanks to the preaching of the holy gospel, which has banished it. RELEVANCE ♪ This work is a famous primary source because it vividly describes the pre-colonial peoples’

way of life. ♪ It covers numerous topics relevant to many disciplines. ♪ Contains info about social classes, political stratifications and legal system of the Tagalog region. ♪ Many info about what we know came from this source. ♪ It discusses property rights, marriage rituals, burial practices and manner by which justice is dispensed. ♪ It preserves and popularizes the unwritten customs, traditions and religious and superstitious beliefs of the Filipinos. ♪ Knowledge about mananaggal, aswang, hukluban, gayuma came from this work. ♪ Priests read Plasencia’s works because it helps and inspires them to be effective evangelizers. ♪ They realized that they need to master the local language and study the culture of the people to be successful missionaries. ♪ Preaching should be accompanied with reading materials that contain the basic elements of faith. ♪ These readings will serve as guide and reference when the missionaries are no longer around. ♪ Plasencia’s writings disproved the claim of some Spaniards that pre-colonial Filipinos were uncivilized and lacking in culture. ♪ As seen, Filipinos were already politically and economically organized: With functioning government Tax system Set of laws Criminal justice system Indigenous calendar Long-standing customs and traditions ♪ Filipinos had a concept of a supreme being, practiced burial customs and believes in life after death. ♪ Prior to the coming of the Spaniards, Filipinos were already civilized and maintained a lifestyle that was on par with or even better than that of the people from other countries in Southeast Asian....