In the field of performing arts, the Tedurays, like many Mindanao Lumad groups, use the agong in their ensemble. Their kelo-agong or kalatong ensemble has five shallow embossed gongs in graduated sizes, producing delicate sounds. The smallest of the gongs, called segarun, leads off with a steady beat, while the four others join in with their own rhythms. The kelo-agong is used on various occasions, such as agricultural rituals, weddings, community gatherings, victory celebrations, curing rites, rituals for the dead and entertainment of visitors. The musical pieces played on the kelo-agong includes antibay, fat moto, liwan-kanrewan, turambes and tunggol bandera.
There are other several musical instruments used by the Teduray in everyday and ritual occasions. The kubing is a jaw harp made from a special variety of bamboo. Among the Teduray, the kubing is used for courting as well as for entertainment.
The togo is a five-stringed bamboo tube zither which may play the same pieces heard on the gong ensemble. It is a solo instrument, but several zithers are often played all at once. Two women play the instrument. One holds one end of the bamboo tube as she plays a melody on the strings. The other holds the other end, and plays on the other two strings. This instrument is important because it can substitute for the kelo-agong. It shares a similar function and may be heard during the same occasions when the kelo-agong is played. In addition the togo accompanies songs and dances.
The fegerong is a two-stringed lute with five to seven frets. This instrument is used for courtship and entertainment. Among the repertoire played on the fegerong are the music pieces laminggang and makigidawgidaw.
The two bamboo flutes of the Teduray are the falendag and suling. Both have three fingerholes and a thumbhole. The falendag is the lip valley or deep-notched bamboo flute. Its construction makes possible lip control of the air flowing into the tube, allowing for a degree of tonal control and sensitivity not possible with flutes of similar dimension but with differently shaped blowing holes, such as the suling or short ring flute. The suling is also called by this name among the Maguindanao, Manobo, Bukidnon, Tausug and the Palawan. It is a duct flute, the sound of which is produced by adjusting the ring on the mouthpiece in relation to the blowing hole. The pitch of the suling has a higher range than the falendag’s and can similarly express specific emotions, such as the sobbing of a girl who has just been told by the parents that she is about to be married.
The Teduray have a wide range of songs for various occasions. The balikata is a song with improvised text, sung to the traditional melodies. It could be a melodic pattern used for debates, for pleading causes, or for plain conversation. The balikata bae is a common lullaby in which the mother tells the child to sleep soundly and grow up as strong as the rattan vine. The lendugan also describe the lifeways of the Teduray. The binuaya is a narrative song that tells stories of great events in the distant past. The siasid is a sung prayer invoking the blessings of god Lagey Lengkuwos and the nature spirits Serong and Remoger. The foto moto is a teasing song performed during weddings. The meka meka is a song of loyalty sung by a wife to her husband. The melodies of songs like foto moto and meka meka are foten rendered on the kelo-agong and other instruments.
One of the more notable Teduray dances is the magasik, literally “to sow seeds”. The dance begins with a large piece of bright-colored cloth or material placed on the ground or on the middle of the floor. The women go around the cloth with small heavy steps, their arms and hands moving about in graceful fashion. The dancers wear tight long-sleeved blouses of shiny material, in various colors and with a peplum along the waist. Teduray women favor bright yellow, red, blue, orange, purple and black. They wear the patadyong, a skirt that goes all the way down to their anklets. They may also wear a necklace made of gold beads or old silver coins which goes all around their necks and reaches down to the waist. They also wear rich metal belts about 15 centimeters wide. The saronghangs on the left shoulders of the dancers and only their lower lips are painted.
The two other types of Teduray dances are the kefesayaw teilawan, in which the dancers imitate bird movements, and the tingle, a war dance in which two rival suitors fight for the affection of a maiden. Both dances are performed during wedding celebrations and other festivities.
Early Teduray costumes, including the weaponry which form part of their accoutrements, differ according to the place of habitation. Men of the downstream people who live near the towns and the Maguindanao population wear long trousers and waist-length shirts. Their weapons consist of a kris carried at the side, a spear held like a walking stick, a fegoto (wide bladed kris) slung over the shoulders, a dagger tucked at the waist, and either a round shield called taming or an elongated one called kelung. Those who live along the coast wear G-strings and shirts. Their weaponry consist of kemongen, a blade similar to the kris but smaller than the fegoto, a spear, a bow and a quiver of arrows (which even children carry around). These arrows are tipped with kemendag, the poisonous sap of a certain tree. The men from the mountains wear short trousers and the same cut of shirt as the other groups. Although they tend to have less body covering despite their mountain residence. Their weapons consist of the kris, spear, bows and arrows.
Teduray women in general wear a sarong called emut, made form abaca fiber. They wear shirt similar to those of the men, which is nearly of the same general cut, except that the women’s blouse is form fitting, while the men’s hang more loosely. Since Teduray women never developed the art of weaving cloth, their dress materials come from outside sources. The women also wear rinti, a series of brass bracelets of different sizes, extending from the wrist and up the forearm; a brass cord and belt decorated with small jingling bells which they wear around the wrists; brass anklet rings, necklaces of glass beads and colored crystals, and the kemagi, a necklace made of gold. They also sport wire earrings from which they hang small shell ornaments. The Teduray women are never without a knife and a small basket, which they carry wherever they go.
Both men and women wear the sayaf, a shallow conical hat made from buri, worn for protection against the sun (Schlegel 1970).
(Blogger’s note: This post is the last part of a nine-part series on the Teduray people. Each part is posted every Monday starting October 6, 2014. The text is copied as it appears in Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao. The book, published by a consortium of non-government organizations, has an “anti-copyright” notice and may thus be freely reproduced.)
Showing posts with label Defending the Land. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Defending the Land. Show all posts
Monday, December 1, 2014
Monday, November 24, 2014
Teduray Kinship and Social Ties
Four overlapping social groups may be identified among traditional Teduray: the neighborhood, the settlement, the household and the nuclear family. The family is determined by kin ties, the household and settlement are spatially identified, and the nuclear family [neighborhood?] is a matter of ongoing social ties related to cooperation in day to day subsistence work.
The neighborhood or inged is the largest social unit with discrete boundaries. A neighborhood consists of a number of families, usually living in several settlements, which regularly assist each other in their farming activities and rituals. The inged is basically a subsistence cooperative group. It is not a distinctive attribute of a traditional Teduray neighborhood that its members should all be linked by kinship ties, but it is often the case that such ties pervade the inged.
Neighborhoods vary widely in overall population and in the number of settlements, households and families that they include. Persons living in any household do not normally reside in a single central village but in settlements called denowon—small dispersed hamlets of one to ten or more households.
Every swidden farmer must necessarily associate his family with others in a neighborhood to be part of the needed cooperative work group, but he need not live in company of other families in a settlement. In general, any family is free to establish its residence in any settlement it wishes, and no rules exist to structure a settlement according to any kinship principle. Nonetheless, some relationship, either by blood or affinity, will commonly link the families that settle together on the same hamlet.
Settlements are generally situated near the source of water and are regularly named after prominent nearby geographical features. A neighborhood generally takes its name from its principal settlement. If asked where they are from, a Teduray always replies with the name of their neighborhood, not that of their settlement. The latter does not have the stability of location or family composition that a neighborhood has, and tends to shift around as the people look for better spots or abandon a location which have come to be associated with illness or death. Neighborhoods, not settlements, are the important and relatively stable territorial units.
Much sharing goes on among the households of a neighborhood. Fish caught in the river in any number are always shared with all other inged families, as are snack foods such as fruits or roasted corn. Chickens, eggs and rice, on the other hand are not shared, except in ritual meals or with visitors, as they symbolize the discreetness of every household. In contrast, the flesh of a deer or wild pig caught in hunting is always shared with the entire neighborhood, with each household receiving a carefully measured equal share. This signifies the cooperative unity of the neighborhood, a unity also expressed in the rice exchanges characteristic of neighborhood ritual feasts.
Relations between household may be by kinship or bride price or swidden cooperation. But the households are generally independent, self-determining units. Aside from his membership in such social groups as the family, household, settlement and neighborhood, every Teduray is the center point of a personal kindred which, reckoned bilaterally, includes all the descendants of his four pairs of his great-grandparents and reaches laterally to include all second cousins. Spouses married into one’s kindred are not included in it. The kindred have important responsibilities, and members are mobilized on one’s behalf in disputes, in the establishment of a family through marriage, and in its dissolution through death or divorce. The kindred on the other hand are not involved in any direct way with subsistence activities.
The largest social unit is the inged, which usually comprises several settlements. The household belonging to the inged render mutual assistance among themselves in all swidden related activities as well as in all the community rituals. Ordinarily, almost all members of the inged are linked to one another either by blood through marriage ties.
The Tedurays communities [sic] are also organized in settlements of five to ten families called dengonon. These are actually small, dispersed hamlets, spread out over an area.
The basic residential unit is a nuclear family, composed of the iboh (father), ideng (mother) and the inga (children), unmarried or married, who have not yet put up their own dwellings. In some cases, unmarried and dependent elders would form part of the household, which also includes the other wives of the household head. The Teduray word for family is kureng, which means “pot”, i.e., a family is deemed as a group of persons living together and eating from the same pot.
In earlier times, members of a neighborhood shared a single large house. This seems to have been the rule in periods of political instability, on account of tribal wars. Starting from the American occupation, with the territory more or less pacified through military control, Teduray families started living in individual houses. The term setifon, which means “of one house” is still used to refer to all members of one neighborhood. The one large house in the inged is where the kefeduwan normally stays.
The head of the kureng follows the strict code of responsibility for feeding and provisioning the household, whether he is monogynous or polygenous [sic]. All property, money and crops are jointly owned by the household, with the wife seeing to it that economic tasks, responsibilities and rights are properly adhered to within the kureng. A polygynous marriage can be allowed if the first wife gives her consent. Furthermore, the senior wife becomes the “first among equals”, acting as chief spokesperson for all the other wives with regard to their rights and duties within the household.
In Teduray society, marriage takes place when the man’s relatives have succeeded in accumulating the bride price called tamuk, delivered to the parents of the bride. During marriage, relatives of the groom are called upon to contribute their share of items making up the bride price. The kefeduwans and their families are enjoined to assist in performing the marriage rites. The role of the bride’s relatives is to help in the determination and distribution of the bride price.
The kinship terminology follows the generational structure and is reckoned bilaterally from the father’s and mother’s lineage. The kinship terms used are eboh (father), ideng (mother), ofo (older sibling), tuwarey (younger sibling) and inga (children). After marriage, brothers are likely to combine or join their families together into one household. The same practice holds true for sisters who get married. In the old days, child marriages were common.
Inside the kureng, the closest relationship possible is that between husband and wife. Their children will eventually grow up, have their own spouses and set up their own kureng. So long as their marriage lasts, they will live permanently together in the same “pot”. The closeness of man and woman in marriage is partly explained by the division of labor between man’s work and woman’s work in the Teduray swidden. It becomes very necessary that every farmer has an active wife and that each adult and active woman is wedded to a worker husband. This is why selamfa, eloping with a married person, is considered a grave transgression against Teduray society; the very fabric holding it together is threatened.
It is acceptable to have a duwoy, a co-wife, which could be more than one. There are several reasons for a polygamous relationship. The most common is the death of a relative who lives behind a widow. The man is allowed to accept the widow into his kureng. Or, a man may decide to add on to their social prestige by taking on an additional wife, particularly a young woman. Another acceptable reason is the need to sire children, if the first wife cannot bear him any. The one condition is that the tafay bawag, the senior or first wife, must give her consent. While she can always prevent her bawag (husband) from marrying another wife or any number of wives, in practice, it is in the woman who often suggests that her man take in a duwoy, because of the advantage she perceives in the arrangement. She will have another person with whom to share the burden of so much work in the house and in the swidden. The tafay bawag exercises clear authority over the other wives. She assigns to them a share of the work in her husband’s fields. Everything that they produce is shared. The first wife sees to it that all of the duwoy’s pots receive an equitable share of food.
Socialization for the children starts at an early age. They are suckled by their mothers up to the age of two or three, or as long as no new baby has arrived. But once they are able to walk, they are allowed to play around the village, without any supervision from the elders. When they reach the age of six, they become little helpers in the swidden fields. Boys are assigned the tasks of gathering firewood, tending the farm animals, hunting wild birds with their little blowguns, and guarding the fields from marauding monkeys. The girls on the other hand help in pounding the rice, weaving rattan baskets, fetching water and washing clothes. In working, the Teduray children learn all there is to know about surviving in their society so that by the time they are adolescents, they can do the same work as their parents and have absorbed the skills they need to function as Teduray adults.
(Blogger’s note: This post is the eighth part of a nine-part series on the Teduray people. Each part is posted every Monday starting October 6, 2014. The text is copied as it appears in Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao. The book, published by a consortium of non-government organizations, has an “anti-copyright” notice and may thus be freely reproduced.)
The neighborhood or inged is the largest social unit with discrete boundaries. A neighborhood consists of a number of families, usually living in several settlements, which regularly assist each other in their farming activities and rituals. The inged is basically a subsistence cooperative group. It is not a distinctive attribute of a traditional Teduray neighborhood that its members should all be linked by kinship ties, but it is often the case that such ties pervade the inged.
Neighborhoods vary widely in overall population and in the number of settlements, households and families that they include. Persons living in any household do not normally reside in a single central village but in settlements called denowon—small dispersed hamlets of one to ten or more households.
Every swidden farmer must necessarily associate his family with others in a neighborhood to be part of the needed cooperative work group, but he need not live in company of other families in a settlement. In general, any family is free to establish its residence in any settlement it wishes, and no rules exist to structure a settlement according to any kinship principle. Nonetheless, some relationship, either by blood or affinity, will commonly link the families that settle together on the same hamlet.
Settlements are generally situated near the source of water and are regularly named after prominent nearby geographical features. A neighborhood generally takes its name from its principal settlement. If asked where they are from, a Teduray always replies with the name of their neighborhood, not that of their settlement. The latter does not have the stability of location or family composition that a neighborhood has, and tends to shift around as the people look for better spots or abandon a location which have come to be associated with illness or death. Neighborhoods, not settlements, are the important and relatively stable territorial units.
Much sharing goes on among the households of a neighborhood. Fish caught in the river in any number are always shared with all other inged families, as are snack foods such as fruits or roasted corn. Chickens, eggs and rice, on the other hand are not shared, except in ritual meals or with visitors, as they symbolize the discreetness of every household. In contrast, the flesh of a deer or wild pig caught in hunting is always shared with the entire neighborhood, with each household receiving a carefully measured equal share. This signifies the cooperative unity of the neighborhood, a unity also expressed in the rice exchanges characteristic of neighborhood ritual feasts.
Relations between household may be by kinship or bride price or swidden cooperation. But the households are generally independent, self-determining units. Aside from his membership in such social groups as the family, household, settlement and neighborhood, every Teduray is the center point of a personal kindred which, reckoned bilaterally, includes all the descendants of his four pairs of his great-grandparents and reaches laterally to include all second cousins. Spouses married into one’s kindred are not included in it. The kindred have important responsibilities, and members are mobilized on one’s behalf in disputes, in the establishment of a family through marriage, and in its dissolution through death or divorce. The kindred on the other hand are not involved in any direct way with subsistence activities.
The largest social unit is the inged, which usually comprises several settlements. The household belonging to the inged render mutual assistance among themselves in all swidden related activities as well as in all the community rituals. Ordinarily, almost all members of the inged are linked to one another either by blood through marriage ties.
The Tedurays communities [sic] are also organized in settlements of five to ten families called dengonon. These are actually small, dispersed hamlets, spread out over an area.
The basic residential unit is a nuclear family, composed of the iboh (father), ideng (mother) and the inga (children), unmarried or married, who have not yet put up their own dwellings. In some cases, unmarried and dependent elders would form part of the household, which also includes the other wives of the household head. The Teduray word for family is kureng, which means “pot”, i.e., a family is deemed as a group of persons living together and eating from the same pot.
In earlier times, members of a neighborhood shared a single large house. This seems to have been the rule in periods of political instability, on account of tribal wars. Starting from the American occupation, with the territory more or less pacified through military control, Teduray families started living in individual houses. The term setifon, which means “of one house” is still used to refer to all members of one neighborhood. The one large house in the inged is where the kefeduwan normally stays.
The head of the kureng follows the strict code of responsibility for feeding and provisioning the household, whether he is monogynous or polygenous [sic]. All property, money and crops are jointly owned by the household, with the wife seeing to it that economic tasks, responsibilities and rights are properly adhered to within the kureng. A polygynous marriage can be allowed if the first wife gives her consent. Furthermore, the senior wife becomes the “first among equals”, acting as chief spokesperson for all the other wives with regard to their rights and duties within the household.
In Teduray society, marriage takes place when the man’s relatives have succeeded in accumulating the bride price called tamuk, delivered to the parents of the bride. During marriage, relatives of the groom are called upon to contribute their share of items making up the bride price. The kefeduwans and their families are enjoined to assist in performing the marriage rites. The role of the bride’s relatives is to help in the determination and distribution of the bride price.
The kinship terminology follows the generational structure and is reckoned bilaterally from the father’s and mother’s lineage. The kinship terms used are eboh (father), ideng (mother), ofo (older sibling), tuwarey (younger sibling) and inga (children). After marriage, brothers are likely to combine or join their families together into one household. The same practice holds true for sisters who get married. In the old days, child marriages were common.
Inside the kureng, the closest relationship possible is that between husband and wife. Their children will eventually grow up, have their own spouses and set up their own kureng. So long as their marriage lasts, they will live permanently together in the same “pot”. The closeness of man and woman in marriage is partly explained by the division of labor between man’s work and woman’s work in the Teduray swidden. It becomes very necessary that every farmer has an active wife and that each adult and active woman is wedded to a worker husband. This is why selamfa, eloping with a married person, is considered a grave transgression against Teduray society; the very fabric holding it together is threatened.
It is acceptable to have a duwoy, a co-wife, which could be more than one. There are several reasons for a polygamous relationship. The most common is the death of a relative who lives behind a widow. The man is allowed to accept the widow into his kureng. Or, a man may decide to add on to their social prestige by taking on an additional wife, particularly a young woman. Another acceptable reason is the need to sire children, if the first wife cannot bear him any. The one condition is that the tafay bawag, the senior or first wife, must give her consent. While she can always prevent her bawag (husband) from marrying another wife or any number of wives, in practice, it is in the woman who often suggests that her man take in a duwoy, because of the advantage she perceives in the arrangement. She will have another person with whom to share the burden of so much work in the house and in the swidden. The tafay bawag exercises clear authority over the other wives. She assigns to them a share of the work in her husband’s fields. Everything that they produce is shared. The first wife sees to it that all of the duwoy’s pots receive an equitable share of food.
Socialization for the children starts at an early age. They are suckled by their mothers up to the age of two or three, or as long as no new baby has arrived. But once they are able to walk, they are allowed to play around the village, without any supervision from the elders. When they reach the age of six, they become little helpers in the swidden fields. Boys are assigned the tasks of gathering firewood, tending the farm animals, hunting wild birds with their little blowguns, and guarding the fields from marauding monkeys. The girls on the other hand help in pounding the rice, weaving rattan baskets, fetching water and washing clothes. In working, the Teduray children learn all there is to know about surviving in their society so that by the time they are adolescents, they can do the same work as their parents and have absorbed the skills they need to function as Teduray adults.
(Blogger’s note: This post is the eighth part of a nine-part series on the Teduray people. Each part is posted every Monday starting October 6, 2014. The text is copied as it appears in Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao. The book, published by a consortium of non-government organizations, has an “anti-copyright” notice and may thus be freely reproduced.)
Monday, November 17, 2014
The Teduray and Their Polity
The political organization in Teduray society is not hierarchical. Each inged (neighborhood) of subsistence groups may have a leader who sees to the clearing of the swidden, the planting and harvesting of crops, and the equal sharing of the rice or any other food produced from the land. The leader or head also determines, in consultation with the beliyan, when to move and clear another swidden settlement.
Teduray society is governed and kept together by their adat or customary law, and by an indigenous legal and justice system designed to uphold the adat. An acknowledged expert in customary law, the kefeduwan, exercises legal and moral authority. The expert presides over the tiyawan, the formal adjudicatory discussion before which cases are brought involving members of the community, for deliberation and settlement.
The kefeduwan’s position is not based on wealth, as there is hardly any economic stratification among the traditional Teduray. It is not a separate position or profession, because he continues to carry on the usual economic activities of other menfolk in the community. The most learned in Teduray customs and laws, possessing a skill for reasoning, a remarkable memory and an aptitude for calmness in debate, and “who learns to speak in the highly metaphorical rhetoric of a tiyawan,” is apt to be acknowledged as a kefeduwan.
In one inged, there may be more than one kefeduwan, and several more minor kefeduwan. The main responsibility of a kefeduwan in Teduray society is to see to it that the respective rights and the feelings of all the people involved in a case up for settlement are respected and satisfied. The central goal in the Teduray justice system, according to Schlegel, is for everyone to have a “good fedew”, which means “one’s state of mind or rational feelings, one’s condition of desiring or intending.” The legal and moral authority of the kefeduwan exists for this social goal. Thus, the administration of justice is geared towards the satisfaction not only of one party in a case submitted to adjudication, but of both sides. This institution has made possible a significant development in the Teduray justice system. In the past, retaliation was deemed the acceptable means of seeking justice. But with the ascendancy of the tiyawan, retribution has been reduced to the payment of fine or damages.
This traditional system of justice is still followed, especially in the interior settlements where the old lifeways and practices persist. But like most of the other ethno-linguistic groups in the country, the Teduray are subject not only to the formal structures of local governments under national law, but also to the pressure of political change.
(Blogger’s note: This post is the seventh part of a nine-part series on the Teduray people. Each part is posted every Monday starting October 6, 2014. The text is copied as it appears in Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao. The book, published by a consortium of non-government organizations, has an “anti-copyright” notice and may thus be freely reproduced.)
Teduray society is governed and kept together by their adat or customary law, and by an indigenous legal and justice system designed to uphold the adat. An acknowledged expert in customary law, the kefeduwan, exercises legal and moral authority. The expert presides over the tiyawan, the formal adjudicatory discussion before which cases are brought involving members of the community, for deliberation and settlement.
The kefeduwan’s position is not based on wealth, as there is hardly any economic stratification among the traditional Teduray. It is not a separate position or profession, because he continues to carry on the usual economic activities of other menfolk in the community. The most learned in Teduray customs and laws, possessing a skill for reasoning, a remarkable memory and an aptitude for calmness in debate, and “who learns to speak in the highly metaphorical rhetoric of a tiyawan,” is apt to be acknowledged as a kefeduwan.
In one inged, there may be more than one kefeduwan, and several more minor kefeduwan. The main responsibility of a kefeduwan in Teduray society is to see to it that the respective rights and the feelings of all the people involved in a case up for settlement are respected and satisfied. The central goal in the Teduray justice system, according to Schlegel, is for everyone to have a “good fedew”, which means “one’s state of mind or rational feelings, one’s condition of desiring or intending.” The legal and moral authority of the kefeduwan exists for this social goal. Thus, the administration of justice is geared towards the satisfaction not only of one party in a case submitted to adjudication, but of both sides. This institution has made possible a significant development in the Teduray justice system. In the past, retaliation was deemed the acceptable means of seeking justice. But with the ascendancy of the tiyawan, retribution has been reduced to the payment of fine or damages.
This traditional system of justice is still followed, especially in the interior settlements where the old lifeways and practices persist. But like most of the other ethno-linguistic groups in the country, the Teduray are subject not only to the formal structures of local governments under national law, but also to the pressure of political change.
(Blogger’s note: This post is the seventh part of a nine-part series on the Teduray people. Each part is posted every Monday starting October 6, 2014. The text is copied as it appears in Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao. The book, published by a consortium of non-government organizations, has an “anti-copyright” notice and may thus be freely reproduced.)
Monday, November 10, 2014
The Teduray and Their Economy
For a long time, the Teduray practiced a subsistence system mainly based on traditional swidden cultivation. Supplemental food supplies were procured through hunting, fishing, and gathering. Other necessities of life, such as iron tools for slash and burn agriculture, household implements and personal items, were obtained through trade with the Maguindanao.
Weaving, blacksmithing and pottery are industries unknown to the Teduray. They used to wear hand-beaten bark cloth. Cotton material, particularly the sarong dress, only came in through trade activities. These articles were obtained by exchanging their rattan, almaciga, beeswax and tobacco.
Among the more populous settlements of the Teduray, internal trade goes on during market days. The traders are mainly menfolk, because the Teduray females are extremely shy and not much given to business transactions. It is they, however, who carry the barter products to the market for their husbands. Tobacco is the main crop cultivated for the barter market. But rice and corn are also grown, to be sold to buy basic needs such as knives, chickens and piglets.
Following an indigenous system of astronomy, the Teduray reckon the beginning of their swidden cycle by referring to the appearance of certain constellations in the night sky. By December or early January, swidden sites are ritually marked. Laborious clearing of the thick forest growth and cutting down of the big trees follows. All the menfolk of a settlement work on each household’s swidden site, until all the swidden are cleared and ready for burning by March or April. Corn and several varieties of rice are planted in the clearing with men and women working together. The women take charge of harvesting and storing the first corn in May or June and the first rice in August or September. The next phase is the planting of tobacco or a second crop of corn as well as more tubers, fruits, vegetables, spices and cotton.
Teduray upland farming is methodical, as are most other indigenous swidden methods. After harvest, the field will not be used until it has lain fallow for many years, so that the vital jungle vegetation may be reestablished.
The swidden cycle of the traditional Teduray is, in its essential stages and phases, similar to that of other slash and burn systems. Each year, each household selects and marks off an area of the forest where it intends to make a swidden. Working together as a team, the men in the neighborhood then move from one swidden to another, slashing away the undergrowth and felling trees. When the vegetative debris of the cutting operations is well dried, the site is burned. It is then planted, again cooperatively, with both men and women joining in the work. Corn is planted first on the swidden, then rice and then a large variety of non-grain crops. Finally, after the first corn and rice have been harvested, a second crop of corn is planted and an even greater number of vegetables, tubers, fruits and other plants. The multi-cropped swiddens are a rich source of food, and continue to yield long after the year’s cycle of work on them has ended and the family has begun to prepare another swidden in a different location in the forest. The former site is not worked again, however, but is allowed to return to forest. Traditional Teruray recognize very clearly the importance of the forest to their way of life, and carefully avoid over-exploitation practices which could lead to the forest’s being replaced by grasslands.
When the swidden fields have been planted to crops, there is not much work left for the menfolk except hunting, fishing and gathering food in the jungle. Aside from their skill at setting traps and snares, Teduray hunters are experts in using the blowgun, bow and arrow, spears and the homemade shotgun, this last weapon acquired after World War II.
Since ancient times, the Teduray have been known as skillful hunters and trappers. A total of 28 hunting methods have been recorded by Schlegel. The Teduray prepare their traps for deer and pig when their swidden crops have started growing on the hillside slopes, since the game are expected to come out of the forest to foray for food. The fresh shoots creeping out of a burnt clearing usually attracts the animals (Patanne 1977:511).
In recent years, the polarization of Teduray society into the traditional and the acculturated has been most pronounced in the differentiation of their subsistence systems. Two Teduray settlements were the basis for this observation by Schlegel. The first system, traditional swidden agriculture, characterizes the settlement of Figel, while the other, a peasant economy, describes the settlement of Kakaba-kaba. Schlegel describes the first as a system adapted to the tropical rainforest, consisting of slash and burn and shifting cultivation. It is augmented by hunting, fishing and food-gathering activities, and is only marginally dependent on trading with the coastal economy. He describes the second as consisting of plow farming in areas which have virtually lost the old forest cover with almost no exploitation of or dependence on forest resources and having an extensive involvement with the market economy of a rural lowland society (Schlegel 1979:164).
(Blogger’s note: This post is the sixth part of a nine-part series on the Teduray people. Each part is posted every Monday starting October 6, 2014. The text is copied as it appears in Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao. The book, published by a consortium of non-government organizations, has an “anti-copyright” notice and may thus be freely reproduced.)
Weaving, blacksmithing and pottery are industries unknown to the Teduray. They used to wear hand-beaten bark cloth. Cotton material, particularly the sarong dress, only came in through trade activities. These articles were obtained by exchanging their rattan, almaciga, beeswax and tobacco.
Among the more populous settlements of the Teduray, internal trade goes on during market days. The traders are mainly menfolk, because the Teduray females are extremely shy and not much given to business transactions. It is they, however, who carry the barter products to the market for their husbands. Tobacco is the main crop cultivated for the barter market. But rice and corn are also grown, to be sold to buy basic needs such as knives, chickens and piglets.
Following an indigenous system of astronomy, the Teduray reckon the beginning of their swidden cycle by referring to the appearance of certain constellations in the night sky. By December or early January, swidden sites are ritually marked. Laborious clearing of the thick forest growth and cutting down of the big trees follows. All the menfolk of a settlement work on each household’s swidden site, until all the swidden are cleared and ready for burning by March or April. Corn and several varieties of rice are planted in the clearing with men and women working together. The women take charge of harvesting and storing the first corn in May or June and the first rice in August or September. The next phase is the planting of tobacco or a second crop of corn as well as more tubers, fruits, vegetables, spices and cotton.
Teduray upland farming is methodical, as are most other indigenous swidden methods. After harvest, the field will not be used until it has lain fallow for many years, so that the vital jungle vegetation may be reestablished.
The swidden cycle of the traditional Teduray is, in its essential stages and phases, similar to that of other slash and burn systems. Each year, each household selects and marks off an area of the forest where it intends to make a swidden. Working together as a team, the men in the neighborhood then move from one swidden to another, slashing away the undergrowth and felling trees. When the vegetative debris of the cutting operations is well dried, the site is burned. It is then planted, again cooperatively, with both men and women joining in the work. Corn is planted first on the swidden, then rice and then a large variety of non-grain crops. Finally, after the first corn and rice have been harvested, a second crop of corn is planted and an even greater number of vegetables, tubers, fruits and other plants. The multi-cropped swiddens are a rich source of food, and continue to yield long after the year’s cycle of work on them has ended and the family has begun to prepare another swidden in a different location in the forest. The former site is not worked again, however, but is allowed to return to forest. Traditional Teruray recognize very clearly the importance of the forest to their way of life, and carefully avoid over-exploitation practices which could lead to the forest’s being replaced by grasslands.
When the swidden fields have been planted to crops, there is not much work left for the menfolk except hunting, fishing and gathering food in the jungle. Aside from their skill at setting traps and snares, Teduray hunters are experts in using the blowgun, bow and arrow, spears and the homemade shotgun, this last weapon acquired after World War II.
Since ancient times, the Teduray have been known as skillful hunters and trappers. A total of 28 hunting methods have been recorded by Schlegel. The Teduray prepare their traps for deer and pig when their swidden crops have started growing on the hillside slopes, since the game are expected to come out of the forest to foray for food. The fresh shoots creeping out of a burnt clearing usually attracts the animals (Patanne 1977:511).
In recent years, the polarization of Teduray society into the traditional and the acculturated has been most pronounced in the differentiation of their subsistence systems. Two Teduray settlements were the basis for this observation by Schlegel. The first system, traditional swidden agriculture, characterizes the settlement of Figel, while the other, a peasant economy, describes the settlement of Kakaba-kaba. Schlegel describes the first as a system adapted to the tropical rainforest, consisting of slash and burn and shifting cultivation. It is augmented by hunting, fishing and food-gathering activities, and is only marginally dependent on trading with the coastal economy. He describes the second as consisting of plow farming in areas which have virtually lost the old forest cover with almost no exploitation of or dependence on forest resources and having an extensive involvement with the market economy of a rural lowland society (Schlegel 1979:164).
(Blogger’s note: This post is the sixth part of a nine-part series on the Teduray people. Each part is posted every Monday starting October 6, 2014. The text is copied as it appears in Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao. The book, published by a consortium of non-government organizations, has an “anti-copyright” notice and may thus be freely reproduced.)
Monday, November 3, 2014
The Teduray and Their Views on Land
Understanding the Teduray concept of land necessitates a deeper insight into their view on property or user rights. This can be gleaned from the Teduray word gefe, which roughly corresponds to having exclusive right over a particular item’s present use. According to Schlegel, to be gefe of something is when a person not only has an emotional or even economic interest in any object, person or even a ceremony, but also has a legitimate personal oversight.
This same concept applies to the use of land, in the sense of right of usufruct. A swidden belongs to a person who is gefe until after harvest time, during which the site is lain to fallow and that person is no longer gefe over the site. Once it has been publicly marked through community rituals, a land selected by an individual for swidden is free for his use.
For the Teduray, the right to use the swidden site is not hereditary. After a single cropping cycle, the site reverts to public domain and cannot be inherited by descendants. In this context, the Teduray concept of land utilization is inextricably linked with their concept of use-right.
(Blogger’s note: This post is the fifth part of a nine-part series on the Teduray people. Each part is posted every Monday starting October 6, 2014. The text is copied as it appears in Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao. The book, published by a consortium of non-government organizations, has an “anti-copyright” notice and may thus be freely reproduced.)
This same concept applies to the use of land, in the sense of right of usufruct. A swidden belongs to a person who is gefe until after harvest time, during which the site is lain to fallow and that person is no longer gefe over the site. Once it has been publicly marked through community rituals, a land selected by an individual for swidden is free for his use.
For the Teduray, the right to use the swidden site is not hereditary. After a single cropping cycle, the site reverts to public domain and cannot be inherited by descendants. In this context, the Teduray concept of land utilization is inextricably linked with their concept of use-right.
(Blogger’s note: This post is the fifth part of a nine-part series on the Teduray people. Each part is posted every Monday starting October 6, 2014. The text is copied as it appears in Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao. The book, published by a consortium of non-government organizations, has an “anti-copyright” notice and may thus be freely reproduced.)
Monday, October 27, 2014
Tales of Teduray Ancestors
Teduray literature includes myths, legends and animal stories. The myth of the creation centers on a female deity called Minaden who shaped the world and the first creatures in it. She fashioned humans from mud; after doing this, she placed the sun between the earth and the sky, which brought forth light.
The sky world was believed to be divided into eight layers; the topmost was occupied by Tulus or Meketefu, who was Minaden’s brother. The first two human beings created by Minaden began to grow, but after some time they did not beget any offspring. Meketefu came down from the sky world and saw that the male reproductive organ was as small as a tiny red pepper and that of the female was as big as a snail shell. Besides, their noses were created upside down; whenever it rained, their noses caught water and the two humans got sick.
Meketefu decided to create his own clay figures of man and woman. Using an old bolo, he struck the female figure, wounding her where the legs joined together. As he did so, the handle of the bolo flew off and struck the middle part of the male clay figure. He also turned their noses right side up, so they would not take in rainwater. Soon the two creatures were able to bring forth a child. But no food was available to nourish them and the child eventually died.
The father begged Meketefu to give them some soil. Much later, various types of vegetation sprouted from the plot of earth where the child was buried. One part of the plot gave forth plants and lime for chewing. The child’s umbilical cord came out as a rice stalk, the intestines were transformed into sweet potatoes, and the head became the tubers. The hand turned into bananas, the nails to nuts, the teeth to corn, the brains into lime, the bones into cassava and the ears into betel leaf. (Patanne 1977:256 and Wood 1957:15–16)
(Blogger’s note: This post is the fourth part of a nine-part series on the Teduray people. Each part is posted every Monday starting October 6, 2014. The text is copied as it appears in Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao. The book, published by a consortium of non-government organizations, has an “anti-copyright” notice and may thus be freely reproduced.)
The sky world was believed to be divided into eight layers; the topmost was occupied by Tulus or Meketefu, who was Minaden’s brother. The first two human beings created by Minaden began to grow, but after some time they did not beget any offspring. Meketefu came down from the sky world and saw that the male reproductive organ was as small as a tiny red pepper and that of the female was as big as a snail shell. Besides, their noses were created upside down; whenever it rained, their noses caught water and the two humans got sick.
Meketefu decided to create his own clay figures of man and woman. Using an old bolo, he struck the female figure, wounding her where the legs joined together. As he did so, the handle of the bolo flew off and struck the middle part of the male clay figure. He also turned their noses right side up, so they would not take in rainwater. Soon the two creatures were able to bring forth a child. But no food was available to nourish them and the child eventually died.
The father begged Meketefu to give them some soil. Much later, various types of vegetation sprouted from the plot of earth where the child was buried. One part of the plot gave forth plants and lime for chewing. The child’s umbilical cord came out as a rice stalk, the intestines were transformed into sweet potatoes, and the head became the tubers. The hand turned into bananas, the nails to nuts, the teeth to corn, the brains into lime, the bones into cassava and the ears into betel leaf. (Patanne 1977:256 and Wood 1957:15–16)
(Blogger’s note: This post is the fourth part of a nine-part series on the Teduray people. Each part is posted every Monday starting October 6, 2014. The text is copied as it appears in Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao. The book, published by a consortium of non-government organizations, has an “anti-copyright” notice and may thus be freely reproduced.)
Monday, October 20, 2014
The Teduray and Their Beliefs
According to the Teduray, the world was created by the female deity Minaden, who had a brother named Tulus, also called Meketefu or Sualla. Tulus is the chief of all the good spirits who bestow gifts and favors upon human beings. He goes around with a retinue of messengers called telaki.
The universe according to the Teduray is the abode of the various types of etew or people. There are visible ones, or the ke-ilawan (human beings); and the invisible ones, or the meginalew (spirits). The latter may be seen, but only by those in this world possessing special powers or charisma. It is believed that the spirits live in tribes and perform tasks in the other world.
While good spirits abound in the world, there are also bad spirits who are called busaw. They live mostly in caves and feed on the remoger (soul) of any hapless human being who falls into their trap. At all times, the Teduray, young and old, are aware that the busaw must be avoided, and this can be successfully done if one possesses charms and amulets. With the good spirits, it is always necessary and beneficial to maintain lines of communication. But the ordinary human beings cannot do this, and so the Teduray must rely on the beliyan or religious leader.
The beliyan has the power to see and communicate with the spirits. If a person falls ill, and the spirits need to be supplicated, the beliyan conducts a spiritual tiyawan with them. Human illness, in so far as the Teduray is concerned, is the consequence of an altercation or a misunderstanding between people and unseen spirits. Formal negotiations are needed to restore the person’s health and harmonious relationship with the spirits. In effect, the beliyan, as a mediator between spirits and human beings, is a specially gifted and powerful kefeduwan.
In an account within the late 19th century by Sigayan (the first Christianized Teduray, christened Jose Tenorio) the beliyan was described as a person who could talk directly to Tulus and even share a meal with him. The beliyan would gather people in a tenines, a small house where the shaman stored the ritual rice, and tell them about his or her communication with Tulus. The beliyan would dance with a wooden kris in the right hand, small, jingling bells hanging from the wrist, and a decorated wooden shield held in the other hand. The shaman made the men and women dance, for that was the only way the people could worship Tulus. The beliyan also prepared the ritual offerings to Tulus and played the togo, a small drum, for the supreme being.
The ancient belief in Tulus and other cosmological beings has remained. And so has the belief in the efficacy of charms and omens. These are particularly relevant in hunting activities of the Teduray whose basic talisman is the ungit. This is fashioned from several kinds of mystically powerful leaves and grasses wrapped with cloth and bound with vine lashing. This is handed on from father to son, down the line. The kinds of plants that make up the charm are strictly kept between father and son, as revealing this to just anybody will cause the charm to lose its potency. The hunter carries the ungit on his body and rubs it all over his dog and horse. The ungit is believed efficacious not only in snaring or catching game, but also in attracting women sexually. If so used, however, it loses its power as a hunting charm.
Omens rule the life of hunters, for these presage misfortune. A hunter will not proceed on a hunt if any of these occurs: he hears a person sneeze as he is about to set out; he hears the call of a small house lizard; or he has a bad dream in which he gets wounded, falls or dies. He will also give up the hunt if he sees the animal he intends to catch while he is setting up the trap.
Rituals to establish good relations with the spirits accompany each significant stage of the Teduray agricultural cycle. Four times within the year, all the households belonging to an inged participate in a community ritual feast known as kanduli. Feasting on food, particularly glutinous rice and hard-boiled eggs, and making ritual offerings to the spirits are two characteristics of the celebration. The preparations for the feast are generally done in the major settlement within the inged, which is also the focal point of all activities. In the preparation of the food, a significant ritual act is already performed; the exchange of portions of the glutinous rice among all the families. When it is time to consume the ritual food, a family would then be actually partaking of some of the rice that has come from every other family in the whole neighborhood. The community’s bonding is strengthened through the food exchange. The significance is further underscored by the fact that, in the course of the cultivation cycle, each family in the neighborhood had contributed its labor to each field on which rice was grown. These communal meals thus give ritual expression to their interdependence. (Schlegel 1968: 64–65)
The four kanduli rituals of the agricultural cycle are: mara, or marking festival, which is held on the night of the last full moon before the marking of the swidden sites for the coming cycle; retus kama, or festival of the first corn harvest from a neighborhood swidden; retus farey, or festival of the first rice harvest, which is celebrated on the night following the first harvest from a swidden; and matun tuda, or harvest festival, which is held on the night of the first full moon when the rice harvest from all of the settlement’s swidden has been collected.
The inged families prepare small bamboo tubes filled with glutinous rice, which they will offer to the spirits at the ritual marking of the first swidden site. Men and women of the neighborhood congregate at a clearing and proceed in single line, as gongs are played to where the first swidden for the year will be marked for burning. Arriving at the site, they set up a small platform where they lay down the tubes of glutinous rice. Everyone listens attentively to the omen call of the temugen bird, which is believed to have the power to convey messages between human beings and the spirits. The first ritual marking is meant as a song of respect for the spirits of the forest, seeking permission to begin cutting down the trees.
The owner of the field interprets the omen call. There are bad signs and good signs, depending on the direction of the call. There are four good directions: selat (front), tereneken (45 degrees left), lekas takes (45 degrees right) and rotor (directly overhead). Any other direction is considered bad. The ritual laying of the food and the wait for the omen call is repeated around the four corners of the swidden until a good omen is heard.
(Blogger’s note: This post is the third part of a nine-part series on the Teduray people. Each part is posted every Monday starting October 6, 2014. The text is copied as it appears in Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao. The book, published by a consortium of non-government organizations, has an “anti-copyright” notice and may thus be freely reproduced.)
The universe according to the Teduray is the abode of the various types of etew or people. There are visible ones, or the ke-ilawan (human beings); and the invisible ones, or the meginalew (spirits). The latter may be seen, but only by those in this world possessing special powers or charisma. It is believed that the spirits live in tribes and perform tasks in the other world.
While good spirits abound in the world, there are also bad spirits who are called busaw. They live mostly in caves and feed on the remoger (soul) of any hapless human being who falls into their trap. At all times, the Teduray, young and old, are aware that the busaw must be avoided, and this can be successfully done if one possesses charms and amulets. With the good spirits, it is always necessary and beneficial to maintain lines of communication. But the ordinary human beings cannot do this, and so the Teduray must rely on the beliyan or religious leader.
The beliyan has the power to see and communicate with the spirits. If a person falls ill, and the spirits need to be supplicated, the beliyan conducts a spiritual tiyawan with them. Human illness, in so far as the Teduray is concerned, is the consequence of an altercation or a misunderstanding between people and unseen spirits. Formal negotiations are needed to restore the person’s health and harmonious relationship with the spirits. In effect, the beliyan, as a mediator between spirits and human beings, is a specially gifted and powerful kefeduwan.
In an account within the late 19th century by Sigayan (the first Christianized Teduray, christened Jose Tenorio) the beliyan was described as a person who could talk directly to Tulus and even share a meal with him. The beliyan would gather people in a tenines, a small house where the shaman stored the ritual rice, and tell them about his or her communication with Tulus. The beliyan would dance with a wooden kris in the right hand, small, jingling bells hanging from the wrist, and a decorated wooden shield held in the other hand. The shaman made the men and women dance, for that was the only way the people could worship Tulus. The beliyan also prepared the ritual offerings to Tulus and played the togo, a small drum, for the supreme being.
The ancient belief in Tulus and other cosmological beings has remained. And so has the belief in the efficacy of charms and omens. These are particularly relevant in hunting activities of the Teduray whose basic talisman is the ungit. This is fashioned from several kinds of mystically powerful leaves and grasses wrapped with cloth and bound with vine lashing. This is handed on from father to son, down the line. The kinds of plants that make up the charm are strictly kept between father and son, as revealing this to just anybody will cause the charm to lose its potency. The hunter carries the ungit on his body and rubs it all over his dog and horse. The ungit is believed efficacious not only in snaring or catching game, but also in attracting women sexually. If so used, however, it loses its power as a hunting charm.
Omens rule the life of hunters, for these presage misfortune. A hunter will not proceed on a hunt if any of these occurs: he hears a person sneeze as he is about to set out; he hears the call of a small house lizard; or he has a bad dream in which he gets wounded, falls or dies. He will also give up the hunt if he sees the animal he intends to catch while he is setting up the trap.
Rituals to establish good relations with the spirits accompany each significant stage of the Teduray agricultural cycle. Four times within the year, all the households belonging to an inged participate in a community ritual feast known as kanduli. Feasting on food, particularly glutinous rice and hard-boiled eggs, and making ritual offerings to the spirits are two characteristics of the celebration. The preparations for the feast are generally done in the major settlement within the inged, which is also the focal point of all activities. In the preparation of the food, a significant ritual act is already performed; the exchange of portions of the glutinous rice among all the families. When it is time to consume the ritual food, a family would then be actually partaking of some of the rice that has come from every other family in the whole neighborhood. The community’s bonding is strengthened through the food exchange. The significance is further underscored by the fact that, in the course of the cultivation cycle, each family in the neighborhood had contributed its labor to each field on which rice was grown. These communal meals thus give ritual expression to their interdependence. (Schlegel 1968: 64–65)
The four kanduli rituals of the agricultural cycle are: mara, or marking festival, which is held on the night of the last full moon before the marking of the swidden sites for the coming cycle; retus kama, or festival of the first corn harvest from a neighborhood swidden; retus farey, or festival of the first rice harvest, which is celebrated on the night following the first harvest from a swidden; and matun tuda, or harvest festival, which is held on the night of the first full moon when the rice harvest from all of the settlement’s swidden has been collected.
The inged families prepare small bamboo tubes filled with glutinous rice, which they will offer to the spirits at the ritual marking of the first swidden site. Men and women of the neighborhood congregate at a clearing and proceed in single line, as gongs are played to where the first swidden for the year will be marked for burning. Arriving at the site, they set up a small platform where they lay down the tubes of glutinous rice. Everyone listens attentively to the omen call of the temugen bird, which is believed to have the power to convey messages between human beings and the spirits. The first ritual marking is meant as a song of respect for the spirits of the forest, seeking permission to begin cutting down the trees.
The owner of the field interprets the omen call. There are bad signs and good signs, depending on the direction of the call. There are four good directions: selat (front), tereneken (45 degrees left), lekas takes (45 degrees right) and rotor (directly overhead). Any other direction is considered bad. The ritual laying of the food and the wait for the omen call is repeated around the four corners of the swidden until a good omen is heard.
(Blogger’s note: This post is the third part of a nine-part series on the Teduray people. Each part is posted every Monday starting October 6, 2014. The text is copied as it appears in Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao. The book, published by a consortium of non-government organizations, has an “anti-copyright” notice and may thus be freely reproduced.)
Monday, October 13, 2014
The Teduray and Their History
The history of the Teduray is shared by the Maguindanao, as they were once one and the same people. These two peoples believe that they were descended from two brothers—Mamalo and Tabunaway.
During the Islamization of Mindanao, Mamalo the elder refused to be converted, while younger brother Tabunaway embraced the Islamic faith. With this major turning point in their lives, the brothers made a pact: Mamalo would go to the mountains, Tabunaway would make his living near the lowlands and delta of the big river now known as the Rio Grande, and their peoples would trade.
The brothers thus went their separate ways, with their respective followers. This happened around the 13th century. From the elder brother came the Teduray and from the younger brother came the Maguindanao.
Historically, institutionalized trading pacts did exist between the Teduray headsmen and the Maguindanao datus of the coastal area and valley. During the pre-Spanish period, a system of trade between the Teduray and the Maguindanao flourished. The former traded tobacco, beeswax, rattan, gutta percha (sap from the tree that the Teduray called tefedus, used as ingredient for insulation), almaciga and crops. The Maguindanao traded clothing materials, iron tools, and salt. This trading relationship may have originated from the early ties of these two peoples based on the legend.
Based on later developments, it seems that the Tedurays’ trading arrangement with the Maguindanao had inhibited the development of manufacturing among the Teduray. Very much unlike the other peoples in Mindanao, the Tedurays have no weaving, pottery or metal works. These basic needs were secured through the trading system with the Maguindanao.
Spanish influence in the area occupied by the Teduray came rather late. It was only sometime in the 19th century, towards the end of Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines, that the central government in Manila and the Roman Catholic church were able to establish a stronghold in Cotabato, when a Jesuit school and mission were built near Awang close to the mountain region. The Spaniards were able to convert a number of Tedurays to Catholicism.
The outbreak of war between the American occupation forces and the Muslim people of Mindanao in the early part of the 1900’s signaled the beginning of another phase of colonization. The Americans, through the efforts of a Philippine constabulary officer named Irving Edwards who had married a Teduray, built a school in Awang in 1916 and an agricultural school in Upi in 1919. The building of roads which ran into Teduray territory opened up the region to numerous lowland Christian settlers, mostly Ilocano and Visayan. Upi Valley became the site of many homesteads—a program the Americans introduced perhaps to “tame” Mindanao.
In time, many Tedurays were persuaded to give up their traditional slash and burn methods of cultivation and shifted to farming with plow and carabao. This was the beginning of the dichotomy in Teduray culture; many Teduray refused to be acculturated and retreated deeper into their ancestral mountain habitat, while others resettled in the Upi Valley and became peasants. Many of the resettled and modernized Teduray had been converted to Christianity as a result of years of evangelization work by American missionaries, Filipino clergy from Luzon, or profoundly westernized Tedurays (Schlegel 1970:9).
During the centuries of fighting between the Spaniards and the Moro people, some of the latter fled to the neighboring heights and joined the Tedurays there. The Spaniards and later the Americans sought to contain the Moro influence by making the Teduray Christian and sedentary through missions and schools and protected them with soldiery. They also established plantations along the coasts and used Teduray labor on them. Since 1900, Christian Filipinos, land speculators and logging interests have entered the Teduray uplands along with Chinese storekeepers in the valley.
Today the Teduray share a common fate with many ethnic peoples in Mindanao. The rapid change in their social and physical environment, brought about by the onslaught of different cultures, has changed their way of life. Tedurays who have settled in the valleys and maintained intense contact with both Christian and Muslim lowlanders have been assimilated. Their adoption of sedentary agriculture has necessarily drawn them deeper into the market and cash economy typical of the rural economy of the entire country.
Teduray peasants are rural, yet live in relation to market systems. (Krober 1948:284) Although they still have some loyalty to their distinctive ethnic identity, they have become constituent elements of some larger political integration. They usually must speak some language other than their own to get along in the larger social whole, of which their society is merely a part. Many of them have had formal education, and a number of them have settled in the cities and nearby provinces to seek greener pastures. Little by little, they are aspiring for leading roles in local governance, although they still constitute the constituency of those Maguindanao who have, through the years, made their presence felt in local politics.
A glaring contrast to the acculturated Teduray are those who refused to embrace these changes and were forced to go deeper in the mountains due to the onslaught of logging and other economic interests. These Teduray continue to practice and preserve the beliefs and culture that define their community.
(Blogger’s note: This post is the second part of a nine-part series on the Teduray people. Each part is posted every Monday starting October 6, 2014. The text is copied as it appears in Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao. The book, published by a consortium of non-government organizations, has an “anti-copyright” notice and may thus be freely reproduced.)
During the Islamization of Mindanao, Mamalo the elder refused to be converted, while younger brother Tabunaway embraced the Islamic faith. With this major turning point in their lives, the brothers made a pact: Mamalo would go to the mountains, Tabunaway would make his living near the lowlands and delta of the big river now known as the Rio Grande, and their peoples would trade.
The brothers thus went their separate ways, with their respective followers. This happened around the 13th century. From the elder brother came the Teduray and from the younger brother came the Maguindanao.
Historically, institutionalized trading pacts did exist between the Teduray headsmen and the Maguindanao datus of the coastal area and valley. During the pre-Spanish period, a system of trade between the Teduray and the Maguindanao flourished. The former traded tobacco, beeswax, rattan, gutta percha (sap from the tree that the Teduray called tefedus, used as ingredient for insulation), almaciga and crops. The Maguindanao traded clothing materials, iron tools, and salt. This trading relationship may have originated from the early ties of these two peoples based on the legend.
Based on later developments, it seems that the Tedurays’ trading arrangement with the Maguindanao had inhibited the development of manufacturing among the Teduray. Very much unlike the other peoples in Mindanao, the Tedurays have no weaving, pottery or metal works. These basic needs were secured through the trading system with the Maguindanao.
Spanish influence in the area occupied by the Teduray came rather late. It was only sometime in the 19th century, towards the end of Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines, that the central government in Manila and the Roman Catholic church were able to establish a stronghold in Cotabato, when a Jesuit school and mission were built near Awang close to the mountain region. The Spaniards were able to convert a number of Tedurays to Catholicism.
The outbreak of war between the American occupation forces and the Muslim people of Mindanao in the early part of the 1900’s signaled the beginning of another phase of colonization. The Americans, through the efforts of a Philippine constabulary officer named Irving Edwards who had married a Teduray, built a school in Awang in 1916 and an agricultural school in Upi in 1919. The building of roads which ran into Teduray territory opened up the region to numerous lowland Christian settlers, mostly Ilocano and Visayan. Upi Valley became the site of many homesteads—a program the Americans introduced perhaps to “tame” Mindanao.
In time, many Tedurays were persuaded to give up their traditional slash and burn methods of cultivation and shifted to farming with plow and carabao. This was the beginning of the dichotomy in Teduray culture; many Teduray refused to be acculturated and retreated deeper into their ancestral mountain habitat, while others resettled in the Upi Valley and became peasants. Many of the resettled and modernized Teduray had been converted to Christianity as a result of years of evangelization work by American missionaries, Filipino clergy from Luzon, or profoundly westernized Tedurays (Schlegel 1970:9).
During the centuries of fighting between the Spaniards and the Moro people, some of the latter fled to the neighboring heights and joined the Tedurays there. The Spaniards and later the Americans sought to contain the Moro influence by making the Teduray Christian and sedentary through missions and schools and protected them with soldiery. They also established plantations along the coasts and used Teduray labor on them. Since 1900, Christian Filipinos, land speculators and logging interests have entered the Teduray uplands along with Chinese storekeepers in the valley.
Today the Teduray share a common fate with many ethnic peoples in Mindanao. The rapid change in their social and physical environment, brought about by the onslaught of different cultures, has changed their way of life. Tedurays who have settled in the valleys and maintained intense contact with both Christian and Muslim lowlanders have been assimilated. Their adoption of sedentary agriculture has necessarily drawn them deeper into the market and cash economy typical of the rural economy of the entire country.
Teduray peasants are rural, yet live in relation to market systems. (Krober 1948:284) Although they still have some loyalty to their distinctive ethnic identity, they have become constituent elements of some larger political integration. They usually must speak some language other than their own to get along in the larger social whole, of which their society is merely a part. Many of them have had formal education, and a number of them have settled in the cities and nearby provinces to seek greener pastures. Little by little, they are aspiring for leading roles in local governance, although they still constitute the constituency of those Maguindanao who have, through the years, made their presence felt in local politics.
A glaring contrast to the acculturated Teduray are those who refused to embrace these changes and were forced to go deeper in the mountains due to the onslaught of logging and other economic interests. These Teduray continue to practice and preserve the beliefs and culture that define their community.
(Blogger’s note: This post is the second part of a nine-part series on the Teduray people. Each part is posted every Monday starting October 6, 2014. The text is copied as it appears in Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao. The book, published by a consortium of non-government organizations, has an “anti-copyright” notice and may thus be freely reproduced.)
Monday, October 6, 2014
The Teduray and Their Ancestral Domain
The Teduray are traditionally hill people of southwestern Mindanao. They originally lived in the upper portion of a river that drained into Cotabato.
Malay in physical features, with a dialect structurally related to those of the Malayo-Polynesian family (Schlegel 1970:5), the Tedurays call themselves etew teduray or Teduray people. But they also classify themselves according to their geographical location. The etew rotor are mountain people and the etew dogot, coastal people. The etew tran dwell along the embankment of Tran River and etew Ufi are those who live within and near the town center.
Historically, the traditional territory of the Teduray and Lambangian communities encompasses the area from Tuduk Tawan-tawan (now PC Hills [sic] in Cotabato City) down to the Slongon plain (Esteros–Tamontaka) to the Awang-Drikan mountain ranges in Datu Odin Sinsuat municipality; Dohon in Talayan; Firis in Maganoy, portions of Kawran in Ampatuan; and the entirety of Upi (north and south)—all in Maguindanao province. In addition, the Tedurays claim as their ancestral home Buayan in Esperanza and Binusugan in Lebak, both in the province of Sultan Kudarat.
This claim is based on the covenant made by Mamalo and Tabunaway, believed to have been done after the coming of Shariph Mohamad Kabunsuan in the twelfth century. The covenant was sacred and binding, and was thus strictly followed by the descendants of Mamalo, who remained as indigenous people or Lumads, and those of Tabunaway, who embraced Islam.
The Mamalo Descendants Organization filed their petition for the recognition of their ancestral domain for an approximate area of 57,850 hectares on February 15, 1996. Twenty-five community organizations of the Teduray and Lambangian groupings in the municipalities of North and South Upi in Maguindanao filed the claim, constituting only about ten percent (10%) of their traditional territory.
The Tedurays and Lambangians who constitute the leadership of the Mamalo Descendants Organization assert that they and their ancestors have lived in North and South Upi, Maguindanao since anyone of them can remember. The territory included natural and traditionally recognized boundaries, starting with Sitios Lantang and Keguko of Barangay Meteber in the south to Tuka Rubong of Barangay Resa in the west; from Tuka Rubong to Barangay Lagitan in the north, to Sitio Kenekar in the east; and finally back to Barangay Meteber in the south.
The ancestral domain is still rich in natural resources such as forests and minerals. But continued exploitation by big landlords and business concessions granted permits for mining operations may eradicate all these in time. For generations, the national government has exacted revenues from this extractive practice. Yet these profits were never translated into programs for consistent and efficient delivery of basic services to the Tedurays and Lambangian people.
(Blogger’s note: This post is the first part of a nine-part series on the Teduray people. Each part is posted every Monday starting October 6, 2014. The text is copied as it appears in Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao. The book, published by a consortium of non-government organizations, has an “anti-copyright” notice and may thus be freely reproduced.)
Malay in physical features, with a dialect structurally related to those of the Malayo-Polynesian family (Schlegel 1970:5), the Tedurays call themselves etew teduray or Teduray people. But they also classify themselves according to their geographical location. The etew rotor are mountain people and the etew dogot, coastal people. The etew tran dwell along the embankment of Tran River and etew Ufi are those who live within and near the town center.
Historically, the traditional territory of the Teduray and Lambangian communities encompasses the area from Tuduk Tawan-tawan (now PC Hills [sic] in Cotabato City) down to the Slongon plain (Esteros–Tamontaka) to the Awang-Drikan mountain ranges in Datu Odin Sinsuat municipality; Dohon in Talayan; Firis in Maganoy, portions of Kawran in Ampatuan; and the entirety of Upi (north and south)—all in Maguindanao province. In addition, the Tedurays claim as their ancestral home Buayan in Esperanza and Binusugan in Lebak, both in the province of Sultan Kudarat.
This claim is based on the covenant made by Mamalo and Tabunaway, believed to have been done after the coming of Shariph Mohamad Kabunsuan in the twelfth century. The covenant was sacred and binding, and was thus strictly followed by the descendants of Mamalo, who remained as indigenous people or Lumads, and those of Tabunaway, who embraced Islam.
The Mamalo Descendants Organization filed their petition for the recognition of their ancestral domain for an approximate area of 57,850 hectares on February 15, 1996. Twenty-five community organizations of the Teduray and Lambangian groupings in the municipalities of North and South Upi in Maguindanao filed the claim, constituting only about ten percent (10%) of their traditional territory.
The Tedurays and Lambangians who constitute the leadership of the Mamalo Descendants Organization assert that they and their ancestors have lived in North and South Upi, Maguindanao since anyone of them can remember. The territory included natural and traditionally recognized boundaries, starting with Sitios Lantang and Keguko of Barangay Meteber in the south to Tuka Rubong of Barangay Resa in the west; from Tuka Rubong to Barangay Lagitan in the north, to Sitio Kenekar in the east; and finally back to Barangay Meteber in the south.
The ancestral domain is still rich in natural resources such as forests and minerals. But continued exploitation by big landlords and business concessions granted permits for mining operations may eradicate all these in time. For generations, the national government has exacted revenues from this extractive practice. Yet these profits were never translated into programs for consistent and efficient delivery of basic services to the Tedurays and Lambangian people.
(Blogger’s note: This post is the first part of a nine-part series on the Teduray people. Each part is posted every Monday starting October 6, 2014. The text is copied as it appears in Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao. The book, published by a consortium of non-government organizations, has an “anti-copyright” notice and may thus be freely reproduced.)
Monday, February 10, 2014
The Manoba in Lumad Society
(Blogger’s note: The following is an excerpt from Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao, specifically pp. 119–121. The publishers welcome and even encourage the reproduction of the book in part or in its entirety, so I am posting this excerpt here without prior permission. Not a single word has been changed, and the style of the text as they appear on the book has been preserved. For citation details about the book, see Webliography.)
Lumad women face similar problems and constraints as do other Filipino women. They, too, grapple with issues of double burden, non-recognition, and disempowerment. Lumad women, however, do face more difficulties than do other Filipinas; the culture and tradition that characterize Lumad societies often limit the options, roles and status that Lumad women can take on in their communities. One case in point is that of the women in Manobo society.
The Manobo family is characteristically patriarchal. The male dominates in all facets of family and community life. He shares very little interest in household responsibilities with his wife. He spends his time smoking, chewing betel nut, gambling or drinking and leaves practically all chores to her, including her preparing the ingredients for his betel chewing.
Plowing the field is man’s work of course, but the attendant hilamon (clearing of the field) is the woman’s responsibility. Husband and wife work together in planning or harvesting the crops, unless she is heavy with child. When she is pregnant, he will ask a young son or a male nephew to do her tasks.
In public gatherings, Manobo women are mere observers. Their role is to serve food to the guests or entertain women visitors. They do not participate in the discussions, though sometimes they give advice to their male kin behind the scene.
It is a common sight for a Dulangan Manoba to sling her child in a malong around her shoulder while going up and down the house to gather firewood. The Manoba does the household chores despite how tired she is; in contrast, the husband is often a few meters away, perhaps playing cards with other males. She fetches water from a spring or creek no matter how heavy the container is or how far the source of water would be.
The Manoba is not free to go anywhere she wants without permission of the husband. If the wife leaves the household due to marital spat, she waits for him to fetch her. Her father may intervene and ask her to return home while imposing a fine on the husband. But if she refuses to return, her family must return the dowry. If the family cannot return the entire amount, the husband may opt to replace her with her younger sister. However, he must not touch her if she is a mere wisp of a girl. These means of resolution are the result of antang-antang.
The females in the community hardly participate in any social gathering or meeting. When she makes an appearance, the males around hardly notice her presence. If she responds to queries that males failed to answer properly, she does not get recognition. In responding, she does it almost inaudibly and outside the circle of male Manobo respondents.
Sometimes she simply makes her inaudible comments while in the kitchen or squatting on the ground outside the hut. The Manoba is only able to freely express her ideas in the presence of other Manobas or with children.
The lowly status of the wife may be because the Manobos marry through parental arrangement, where dowry or bride payment changes hands. Dowry in effect relegates the bride to being treated as a commodity. Such lack of esteem for the women sometimes takes the form of using the wife as a guarantee for the husband’s gambling debt. In such cases, he deposits her in the abode of the sultan or the datu until he pays the debt.
Lately, there are improvements in the Manoba’s awareness of her role in the community. It is not a big leap, but it is a start says Ida Dakias, the fifth wife and widow of the late Sultan Tagenek Dakias of Kulaman. Ida attended seminars on women’s concerns in semi-urban centers such as Tacurong and Isulan. She echoed the subjects of help and herbal medicine to the other Manobas and even injected some radical ideas on women’s rights. Now, Manobas start to react to male dominance in the household and in community affairs. Yet they understand that the cultural practice, being deeply imbedded, may take some time to change. This new realization will hopefully allow them to get the respect and dignity they deserve from their community.
Lumad women face similar problems and constraints as do other Filipino women. They, too, grapple with issues of double burden, non-recognition, and disempowerment. Lumad women, however, do face more difficulties than do other Filipinas; the culture and tradition that characterize Lumad societies often limit the options, roles and status that Lumad women can take on in their communities. One case in point is that of the women in Manobo society.
The Manobo family is characteristically patriarchal. The male dominates in all facets of family and community life. He shares very little interest in household responsibilities with his wife. He spends his time smoking, chewing betel nut, gambling or drinking and leaves practically all chores to her, including her preparing the ingredients for his betel chewing.
Plowing the field is man’s work of course, but the attendant hilamon (clearing of the field) is the woman’s responsibility. Husband and wife work together in planning or harvesting the crops, unless she is heavy with child. When she is pregnant, he will ask a young son or a male nephew to do her tasks.
In public gatherings, Manobo women are mere observers. Their role is to serve food to the guests or entertain women visitors. They do not participate in the discussions, though sometimes they give advice to their male kin behind the scene.
It is a common sight for a Dulangan Manoba to sling her child in a malong around her shoulder while going up and down the house to gather firewood. The Manoba does the household chores despite how tired she is; in contrast, the husband is often a few meters away, perhaps playing cards with other males. She fetches water from a spring or creek no matter how heavy the container is or how far the source of water would be.
The Manoba is not free to go anywhere she wants without permission of the husband. If the wife leaves the household due to marital spat, she waits for him to fetch her. Her father may intervene and ask her to return home while imposing a fine on the husband. But if she refuses to return, her family must return the dowry. If the family cannot return the entire amount, the husband may opt to replace her with her younger sister. However, he must not touch her if she is a mere wisp of a girl. These means of resolution are the result of antang-antang.
The females in the community hardly participate in any social gathering or meeting. When she makes an appearance, the males around hardly notice her presence. If she responds to queries that males failed to answer properly, she does not get recognition. In responding, she does it almost inaudibly and outside the circle of male Manobo respondents.
Sometimes she simply makes her inaudible comments while in the kitchen or squatting on the ground outside the hut. The Manoba is only able to freely express her ideas in the presence of other Manobas or with children.
The lowly status of the wife may be because the Manobos marry through parental arrangement, where dowry or bride payment changes hands. Dowry in effect relegates the bride to being treated as a commodity. Such lack of esteem for the women sometimes takes the form of using the wife as a guarantee for the husband’s gambling debt. In such cases, he deposits her in the abode of the sultan or the datu until he pays the debt.
Lately, there are improvements in the Manoba’s awareness of her role in the community. It is not a big leap, but it is a start says Ida Dakias, the fifth wife and widow of the late Sultan Tagenek Dakias of Kulaman. Ida attended seminars on women’s concerns in semi-urban centers such as Tacurong and Isulan. She echoed the subjects of help and herbal medicine to the other Manobas and even injected some radical ideas on women’s rights. Now, Manobas start to react to male dominance in the household and in community affairs. Yet they understand that the cultural practice, being deeply imbedded, may take some time to change. This new realization will hopefully allow them to get the respect and dignity they deserve from their community.
Monday, January 27, 2014
Polity of the Dulangan Manobo (Part 1 of 2)
(Blogger’s note: The following is an excerpt from Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao, specifically pp. 114–17. The publishers welcome and even encourage the reproduction of the book in part or in its entirety, so I am posting this excerpt here without prior permission. Not a single word has been changed, and the style of the text as they appear on the book has been preserved. For citation details about the book, see Webliography.)
The Moro sultanate tradition strongly influenced the social and political order of the Dulangan Manobos of Lebak. However, in the modification of their traditional systems, hierarchical representation is not too evident among Dulangans as compared to the Moro socio-political system.
The Sultan functions as the supreme leader of the territory. With him are tribal council members who are mostly Datus or elders representing a community or clan. A regular consultation between the Sultan and his coordinates (Antang-antang) also takes place, where everyone confers to reach a moral decision concerning highly complicated cases of clan or tribal conflict. The sultan, together with the tribal council, may make and amend laws. But without the final approval of the Sultan, all resolutions are null and void. He also serves as the highest judiciary, especially in resolving complex cases of conflict.
Famous traditional leaders of Dulangan Manobo in Mebo and Abogado include Datus Tamyeg, Glet, Uba, Sultan Suyuy Uba and Sultan Kandi Uba. In Bagayan, famous leaders are Sultans Kadayunan, Agat, Tunas and Kulam, who ruled in succession and reigned successfully in their communities. Sultans Liwas Bungo, Tuna, Salita, Apis and Datu Dewig, are also famous tribal leaders of Megaga.
The political function of the Datu or Lukes centers on the implementation of the edicts and administration of power. A Datu or Lukes may likewise perform specific functions in the community.
Another practice noted among the Dulangan Manobos of Lebak is their inclinations to violent means of resolving conflicts. As traditional headhunters, they wage “pangayaw” (tribal wars or headhunting expeditions) to defend their communities against transgression of honor and dignity, and from humiliation and disgrace. As in most cases, these often arise from failed agreements such as in marriage, trade and politics.
The Kulaman Manobos are generally peace loving, friendly, respectful, loving and communitarian people. With such traits, they hardly ever come into conflict with others, even with the Christians in the area. It was their attempt to live in peace and avoidance of conflict that made them move on to higher grounds when settlers arrived in the early 70’s.
Still, some infractions of ethical behavior or normal relationships arise, common of which are coveting another man’s wife, theft, wounding or killing, and land conflict between a Manobo and non-Manobo. Such infractions usually get the attention of the Sultan or datu who tries to settle the problem by bringing the parties together to arrive at some solution.
The penalty for a minor infraction is a multa or fine, consisting of some amount of money or some property, such as a carabo, horse or agong. The amount of money or the number of items to be paid depends on the gravity of the offense.
In the case of an offense involving the abduction of a wife, the woman has to choose between her lover and the husband. If she chooses the former, her family has to return the entire quantity of the dowry to the husband and refunds the expenses incurred during the wedding celebration.
There is no divorce among the Manobos, in the strict sense of the term, although a couple may separate and marry another. The male may have two or three wives at the same time, but the female can only have one husband, until she decides to leave him for another.
Disrespect for elders is punishable under the Manobos’ judicial system.
In a minor offense such as stealing from a relative for emergency use, the culprit can explain the nature of the crime and ask apology from the victim.
Serious offenses such as killing and repetition of the same offense are punishable with death. The offended party may kill the offender with a bow and arrow or by any means within his power. However, such penalty seldom happens as they try to avoid committing the offense.
In seeking grievances, the offended party informs the sultan or datu of the place where the offender resides where he committed the offense. The sultan or datu asks the presence of the offender and verifies the complaint and its nature. He will call the parents of the offender, ask them to help settle the matter in an amicable atmosphere, and then imposes the sanction on the offender.
If the offender resides in a place other than where the offense occurred, the datu where the offended party resides informs the offender about the complaint. The two datus of both places will sit down in an antang-antang (conference) in the presence of both parties to discuss and resolve the matter at hand. At times, the Datu of the place where the offender resides takes into custody the offender for his safety.
They do not bring this matter to the attention of the civil authorities composed mostly of Christian settlers, unless one of the parties is a non-Manobo. In a Manobo-Christian conflict, the judicial system of the Christian may apply, as the Christian may not subscribe to the Manobo judicial system.
The Moro sultanate tradition strongly influenced the social and political order of the Dulangan Manobos of Lebak. However, in the modification of their traditional systems, hierarchical representation is not too evident among Dulangans as compared to the Moro socio-political system.
The Sultan functions as the supreme leader of the territory. With him are tribal council members who are mostly Datus or elders representing a community or clan. A regular consultation between the Sultan and his coordinates (Antang-antang) also takes place, where everyone confers to reach a moral decision concerning highly complicated cases of clan or tribal conflict. The sultan, together with the tribal council, may make and amend laws. But without the final approval of the Sultan, all resolutions are null and void. He also serves as the highest judiciary, especially in resolving complex cases of conflict.
Famous traditional leaders of Dulangan Manobo in Mebo and Abogado include Datus Tamyeg, Glet, Uba, Sultan Suyuy Uba and Sultan Kandi Uba. In Bagayan, famous leaders are Sultans Kadayunan, Agat, Tunas and Kulam, who ruled in succession and reigned successfully in their communities. Sultans Liwas Bungo, Tuna, Salita, Apis and Datu Dewig, are also famous tribal leaders of Megaga.
The political function of the Datu or Lukes centers on the implementation of the edicts and administration of power. A Datu or Lukes may likewise perform specific functions in the community.
Another practice noted among the Dulangan Manobos of Lebak is their inclinations to violent means of resolving conflicts. As traditional headhunters, they wage “pangayaw” (tribal wars or headhunting expeditions) to defend their communities against transgression of honor and dignity, and from humiliation and disgrace. As in most cases, these often arise from failed agreements such as in marriage, trade and politics.
The Kulaman Manobos are generally peace loving, friendly, respectful, loving and communitarian people. With such traits, they hardly ever come into conflict with others, even with the Christians in the area. It was their attempt to live in peace and avoidance of conflict that made them move on to higher grounds when settlers arrived in the early 70’s.
Still, some infractions of ethical behavior or normal relationships arise, common of which are coveting another man’s wife, theft, wounding or killing, and land conflict between a Manobo and non-Manobo. Such infractions usually get the attention of the Sultan or datu who tries to settle the problem by bringing the parties together to arrive at some solution.
The penalty for a minor infraction is a multa or fine, consisting of some amount of money or some property, such as a carabo, horse or agong. The amount of money or the number of items to be paid depends on the gravity of the offense.
In the case of an offense involving the abduction of a wife, the woman has to choose between her lover and the husband. If she chooses the former, her family has to return the entire quantity of the dowry to the husband and refunds the expenses incurred during the wedding celebration.
There is no divorce among the Manobos, in the strict sense of the term, although a couple may separate and marry another. The male may have two or three wives at the same time, but the female can only have one husband, until she decides to leave him for another.
Disrespect for elders is punishable under the Manobos’ judicial system.
In a minor offense such as stealing from a relative for emergency use, the culprit can explain the nature of the crime and ask apology from the victim.
Serious offenses such as killing and repetition of the same offense are punishable with death. The offended party may kill the offender with a bow and arrow or by any means within his power. However, such penalty seldom happens as they try to avoid committing the offense.
In seeking grievances, the offended party informs the sultan or datu of the place where the offender resides where he committed the offense. The sultan or datu asks the presence of the offender and verifies the complaint and its nature. He will call the parents of the offender, ask them to help settle the matter in an amicable atmosphere, and then imposes the sanction on the offender.
If the offender resides in a place other than where the offense occurred, the datu where the offended party resides informs the offender about the complaint. The two datus of both places will sit down in an antang-antang (conference) in the presence of both parties to discuss and resolve the matter at hand. At times, the Datu of the place where the offender resides takes into custody the offender for his safety.
They do not bring this matter to the attention of the civil authorities composed mostly of Christian settlers, unless one of the parties is a non-Manobo. In a Manobo-Christian conflict, the judicial system of the Christian may apply, as the Christian may not subscribe to the Manobo judicial system.
Monday, January 20, 2014
Beliefs and Practices of the Dulangan Manobo
(Blogger’s note: The following is an excerpt from Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao, specifically pp. 112–14. The publishers welcome and even encourage the reproduction of the book in part or in its entirety, so I am posting this excerpt here without prior permission. Not a single word has been changed, and the style of the text as they appear on the book has been preserved. For citation details about the book, see Webliography.)
Datu Tunas Kulam of Lebak Sultan Kudarat says that the Dulangan Manobos believe in a Supreme God who created all things including man. This god is called Namula. There are other gods besides Namula: the effi, who are good supernaturals and the owners of the forests, the Babae Pongalubing, the Babae Bugkoglukos, the Kabingebinge, the busao—all of whom are allegedly evil by nature. They all inhabit the earth, except for Namula who inhabits the sky.
The gods communicate with mortal men through dreams, although some special people have been endowed with gifts for communicating with the gods. These are the balyan. (Gloria, 1997, p. 170–2)
Unlike the clans in Lebak, the Manobos of Kulaman are not familiar with the above facts on Manobo gods, and may have lost track of their ancient beliefs. This may be due to their long contact with the Christian settlers in the municipality or with their loss of contact with other Manobos in nearby municipalities such as Lebak.
Unlike many Lumads, the Manobos believe in the existence of the soul and of life after death. They believe that the good souls pass through a narrow path guarded by a deity called Boy Baya who guides the soul to a place of eternal happiness.
The bad soul, will pass though a wider path guarded by Datu Pangading, the equivalent to Satan who guides the soul to an evil place called Bop Mlow. This place has eternal boiling water that torments the bad souls.
The Manobos of Sitio Bagsing, Baranagay Gapok, Kulaman, Sultan Kudarat cling to their old customs and traditions. They still believe that good souls go on to Baya, while the bad ones to Moyar Kling or Afitan (hell). They have no deity to pray to and they live by the basic moral code of not doing evil to their fellow Lumads.
The natives consider most caves (Takob or Ilib) as sacred grounds. They believe that a deity named Batua (king of fairies) guard these caves. Noted caves are Makyumang in Barangay Bulalawan and the Ilib Masabak.
The Kulaman burial practice is done by storing their dead in a hollow trunk of a tree. They scoop away the middle portion where they deposit the body. The other half covers the corpse. Pasting the joints with camote tops and ashes prevent the foul smell from leaking. A future burial may be done after several weeks, months or even years. Often, mass burial of a dozen or more bodies at the same time and in the same grave takes place.
Such burials have now become an occasion to hold a long celebration by the community. Playing musical instruments, dancing, singing, and even gambling, cockfighting and drinking take place in the celebration. The gambling may be an occasion to raise funds to cover the expenses of the gathering. The celebration may last for a week or a month depending on the wishes of the dead person’s relatives and on the reputation of the dead.
It is noteworthy that the Manobos do not even pray for the repose of the soul of the dead as Christians do. They assume that the soul goes either to Boy Baya where the good souls go or to Bop Mlow, the domain of the bad soul. The destination depends on how the people lived while on earth.
In contemporary times, some barangay or sitio residents bury their dead in the site chosen for the purpose by the sitio or barangay officials, obviously an influence of the Christian practice. Still some others bury their dead in a day or two, in the same site where the person dies. A makeshift box serves as coffin. Among economically distressed families, wrapping the dead with an ordinary mat will do.
The Manobos of Baranagay Sewod still practice their ancient customs and traditions. They still keep their dead in hollow trunks of trees and keep them there for a long time before burying them.
Traditional healing sessions are customarily practiced not only among Dulangan Manobos but among other tribes all over Mindanao. These consist of a preparation of a local concoction of rice and egg placed inside a bowl, known as langa. The lukes recite prayers before incense and ask the deities for the quick recovery of an ailing individual.
The Dulangan Manobos of Lebak worship a pantheon of deities and perform rituals based on their beliefs. They believe in Namola as the supreme deity who created the earth. Deities are guardian spirits of the essential elements on earth to which the natives can relate.
Datu Tunas Kulam of Lebak Sultan Kudarat says that the Dulangan Manobos believe in a Supreme God who created all things including man. This god is called Namula. There are other gods besides Namula: the effi, who are good supernaturals and the owners of the forests, the Babae Pongalubing, the Babae Bugkoglukos, the Kabingebinge, the busao—all of whom are allegedly evil by nature. They all inhabit the earth, except for Namula who inhabits the sky.
The gods communicate with mortal men through dreams, although some special people have been endowed with gifts for communicating with the gods. These are the balyan. (Gloria, 1997, p. 170–2)
Unlike the clans in Lebak, the Manobos of Kulaman are not familiar with the above facts on Manobo gods, and may have lost track of their ancient beliefs. This may be due to their long contact with the Christian settlers in the municipality or with their loss of contact with other Manobos in nearby municipalities such as Lebak.
Unlike many Lumads, the Manobos believe in the existence of the soul and of life after death. They believe that the good souls pass through a narrow path guarded by a deity called Boy Baya who guides the soul to a place of eternal happiness.
The bad soul, will pass though a wider path guarded by Datu Pangading, the equivalent to Satan who guides the soul to an evil place called Bop Mlow. This place has eternal boiling water that torments the bad souls.
The Manobos of Sitio Bagsing, Baranagay Gapok, Kulaman, Sultan Kudarat cling to their old customs and traditions. They still believe that good souls go on to Baya, while the bad ones to Moyar Kling or Afitan (hell). They have no deity to pray to and they live by the basic moral code of not doing evil to their fellow Lumads.
The natives consider most caves (Takob or Ilib) as sacred grounds. They believe that a deity named Batua (king of fairies) guard these caves. Noted caves are Makyumang in Barangay Bulalawan and the Ilib Masabak.
The Kulaman burial practice is done by storing their dead in a hollow trunk of a tree. They scoop away the middle portion where they deposit the body. The other half covers the corpse. Pasting the joints with camote tops and ashes prevent the foul smell from leaking. A future burial may be done after several weeks, months or even years. Often, mass burial of a dozen or more bodies at the same time and in the same grave takes place.
Such burials have now become an occasion to hold a long celebration by the community. Playing musical instruments, dancing, singing, and even gambling, cockfighting and drinking take place in the celebration. The gambling may be an occasion to raise funds to cover the expenses of the gathering. The celebration may last for a week or a month depending on the wishes of the dead person’s relatives and on the reputation of the dead.
It is noteworthy that the Manobos do not even pray for the repose of the soul of the dead as Christians do. They assume that the soul goes either to Boy Baya where the good souls go or to Bop Mlow, the domain of the bad soul. The destination depends on how the people lived while on earth.
In contemporary times, some barangay or sitio residents bury their dead in the site chosen for the purpose by the sitio or barangay officials, obviously an influence of the Christian practice. Still some others bury their dead in a day or two, in the same site where the person dies. A makeshift box serves as coffin. Among economically distressed families, wrapping the dead with an ordinary mat will do.
The Manobos of Baranagay Sewod still practice their ancient customs and traditions. They still keep their dead in hollow trunks of trees and keep them there for a long time before burying them.
Traditional healing sessions are customarily practiced not only among Dulangan Manobos but among other tribes all over Mindanao. These consist of a preparation of a local concoction of rice and egg placed inside a bowl, known as langa. The lukes recite prayers before incense and ask the deities for the quick recovery of an ailing individual.
The Dulangan Manobos of Lebak worship a pantheon of deities and perform rituals based on their beliefs. They believe in Namola as the supreme deity who created the earth. Deities are guardian spirits of the essential elements on earth to which the natives can relate.
Monday, January 13, 2014
Kinship and Social Ties of the Dulangan Manobo
(Blogger’s note: The following is an excerpt from Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao, specifically pp. 111–12. The publishers welcome and even encourage the reproduction of the book in part or in its entirety, so I am posting this excerpt here without prior permission. Not a single word has been changed, and the style of the text as they appear on the book has been preserved. For citation details about the book, see Webliography.)
Marital arrangements among the Kulaman Manobos are similar to those of other Lumad and Moro tribes, but they mostly differ in wedding rite practices.
The Kulaman Dulangan Manobo parents arrange the future marital alliances of the offspring—be they adolescents or as young as five years old. They may pair a little girl with an older male, married or unmarried. This explains why Manobas hardly reach fourth year high school, if they ever go to school. Many times, girls simply drop school in the middle of their second year to marry their betrothed.
A balyan or a datu traditionally officiates the wedding. Today, however, with the balyan getting less recognized and functional, marriages are commonly officiated by the datu. The datu also acts as an antang-antang for the setting of the dowry consisting of a few heads of horses, carabaos, agongs, kampilan, spears, and a mosquito net. The number of items depends on the capacity of the groom’s party to pay.
The datu or some relatives of the groom may offer to give items that the groom’s family can not afford. The groom becomes indebted to both the datu and the relatives and promises to pay in the future. Otherwise, he volunteers to perform tasks in the household of his patrons until he pays the debt.
In a wedding ceremony, a mast is spread in the center of the room. The bride and groom sit on pillows set facing each other. In the corner of the mat they put food in two plates. The groom gets a small quantity of food from the plate and offers it to the bride, then the bride does her turn. Finally, the balyan or the datu lightly holds their heads and lets their foreheads touch a number of times, signifying oneness. The ceremony ends with the balyan’s blessings for the couple.
The bride’s family, with help from the groom’s party, prepares the food for the reception. The menu generally consists of chicken and pork. When wild pigs were abundant, this was a special offering. The servers offer food to the datu or the balyan first, then to the newly wedded couple, and finally to the guests.
The Lebak Dulangan Manobo parents also arrange the marriages of their children. Even at an early age, engagement follows an agreement between parents. A common practice of arranging marriages involves the offering of Sunggod (bride price or dowry) which both parents settle before the engagement of the couple.
Parents usually negotiate for seven items as bride price, and the groom must agree to give them the items. These usually consist of musical instruments such as an agong, working animals such as a horse, weapons such as kris, patakya, bangkong, tabas, panan, and other treasures.
An engaged girl must not allow courtship from another man as the parents prepare for the eventual wedding of the engaged couple. If an engaged individual dies, the family provides for a substitute. Substitute marriage is still prevalent among the Lebak Dulangan Manobo.
As a tradition, the Lukes (elders) or a known Datu solemnizes the marriage. A simple ceremony includes feeding one another from a single plate and drinking from a single cup while kneeling on a mat. After some incantations, the ritual ends. Often, the couple holds the wedding rite at the bride’s place. After the wedding, the newlywed transfers to the house of the groom where they will eventually settle with the groom’s relatives.
Kinship institution in Dulangan Manobo society is extremely close and nuclear. A basic family consists of the mother, father and children, with elders often living with them. Extended families evolve as a married couple starts to establish their own family and live independently from other parents.
Inter-marriage among clans is also the basis of an extended family set-up. It also became the vital factor in strengthening and consolidating the integrity of the clan and community. In most cases, they settle conflicts between clans by marrying their respective children.
Marital arrangements among the Kulaman Manobos are similar to those of other Lumad and Moro tribes, but they mostly differ in wedding rite practices.
The Kulaman Dulangan Manobo parents arrange the future marital alliances of the offspring—be they adolescents or as young as five years old. They may pair a little girl with an older male, married or unmarried. This explains why Manobas hardly reach fourth year high school, if they ever go to school. Many times, girls simply drop school in the middle of their second year to marry their betrothed.
A balyan or a datu traditionally officiates the wedding. Today, however, with the balyan getting less recognized and functional, marriages are commonly officiated by the datu. The datu also acts as an antang-antang for the setting of the dowry consisting of a few heads of horses, carabaos, agongs, kampilan, spears, and a mosquito net. The number of items depends on the capacity of the groom’s party to pay.
The datu or some relatives of the groom may offer to give items that the groom’s family can not afford. The groom becomes indebted to both the datu and the relatives and promises to pay in the future. Otherwise, he volunteers to perform tasks in the household of his patrons until he pays the debt.
In a wedding ceremony, a mast is spread in the center of the room. The bride and groom sit on pillows set facing each other. In the corner of the mat they put food in two plates. The groom gets a small quantity of food from the plate and offers it to the bride, then the bride does her turn. Finally, the balyan or the datu lightly holds their heads and lets their foreheads touch a number of times, signifying oneness. The ceremony ends with the balyan’s blessings for the couple.
The bride’s family, with help from the groom’s party, prepares the food for the reception. The menu generally consists of chicken and pork. When wild pigs were abundant, this was a special offering. The servers offer food to the datu or the balyan first, then to the newly wedded couple, and finally to the guests.
The Lebak Dulangan Manobo parents also arrange the marriages of their children. Even at an early age, engagement follows an agreement between parents. A common practice of arranging marriages involves the offering of Sunggod (bride price or dowry) which both parents settle before the engagement of the couple.
Parents usually negotiate for seven items as bride price, and the groom must agree to give them the items. These usually consist of musical instruments such as an agong, working animals such as a horse, weapons such as kris, patakya, bangkong, tabas, panan, and other treasures.
An engaged girl must not allow courtship from another man as the parents prepare for the eventual wedding of the engaged couple. If an engaged individual dies, the family provides for a substitute. Substitute marriage is still prevalent among the Lebak Dulangan Manobo.
As a tradition, the Lukes (elders) or a known Datu solemnizes the marriage. A simple ceremony includes feeding one another from a single plate and drinking from a single cup while kneeling on a mat. After some incantations, the ritual ends. Often, the couple holds the wedding rite at the bride’s place. After the wedding, the newlywed transfers to the house of the groom where they will eventually settle with the groom’s relatives.
Kinship institution in Dulangan Manobo society is extremely close and nuclear. A basic family consists of the mother, father and children, with elders often living with them. Extended families evolve as a married couple starts to establish their own family and live independently from other parents.
Inter-marriage among clans is also the basis of an extended family set-up. It also became the vital factor in strengthening and consolidating the integrity of the clan and community. In most cases, they settle conflicts between clans by marrying their respective children.
Monday, January 6, 2014
Art and Culture of the Dulangan Manobo
(Blogger’s note: The following is an excerpt from Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao, specifically pp. 109–10. The publishers welcome and even encourage the reproduction of the book in part or in its entirety, so I am posting this excerpt here without prior permission. Not a single word has been changed, and the style of the text as they appear on the book has been preserved. For complete citation, please see Webliography.)
The Manobos of Kulaman do not normally wear their tribal costumes and adornments in their daily undertakings. They only wear these during special occasions and gatherings.
In their traditional wear, the Dulangan Manobas of Kulaman don a saya, often a patadyong, and a long sleeved figure hugging V-necklined blouse called kawal. They only wear an occasional bracelet, ligti, which they secure from the nearby T’boli villages. They adorn their necks with beads, in single or several layers, that they learn to make themselves. Some Manobo women are able to purchase more intricate necklaces from department stores in nearby semi-urban centers.
Betel chewing Manobas sling on their shoulders a small rectangular shaped cloth bag called solok, measuring 4 inches by 6 inches, containing the ingredients for chewing. They may also wear sigkil (anklets) on their legs. The males have similar cloth bags called fuyot, usually colored blue, and larger than the women’s solok. They sling this around their forehead even in plowing the field, to reach out to while resting from the task.
The datu has several rows of earrings called tunggal, some reaching the upper section of the earlobes. Many of the present day datus have stopped wearing this, probably influenced by the Christians who see this as an unusual sight.
The older datus wear their hair long and tie it into a bun, while younger generations of datus have shorter hair. The datus also wear a long sleeved shirt called kawal; the short sleeved shirt they call fotok.
One distinctive feature of the adult Manobo is the ever present tattoo on parts of their bodies, the most noticeable being those on the wrists or on the legs. There may also be tattoos on their waists or around their nipples, on both men and women.
The tattoo may be any design in accordance with the tattoo artist’s conception, ranging from connecting squares or rectangles to more elaborate ones. It is said to serve as an indication of their noble aspirations of keeping to the right path in their journey through life, a path that will lead them to a place called Baya, equivalent to the Christian’s heaven.
During the Spanish times, tattoos were done purely for ornamentation purposes, but later, this was utilized as form of identification to protect victims of kidnapping for slavery. When a victim was captured, it was customary to change the name as often as the victim was sold or resold. The only manner to identify said captive was by his tattoo marks on some parts of his body.
The Manobos of Kulaman have similar tattoo marks, no longer as indications of slavery, but now with purely spiritual intentions, as some kind of guidance to the other world, the baya. Children do not have tattoos on any part of their bodies.
The Manobos of Kulaman do not normally wear their tribal costumes and adornments in their daily undertakings. They only wear these during special occasions and gatherings.
In their traditional wear, the Dulangan Manobas of Kulaman don a saya, often a patadyong, and a long sleeved figure hugging V-necklined blouse called kawal. They only wear an occasional bracelet, ligti, which they secure from the nearby T’boli villages. They adorn their necks with beads, in single or several layers, that they learn to make themselves. Some Manobo women are able to purchase more intricate necklaces from department stores in nearby semi-urban centers.
Betel chewing Manobas sling on their shoulders a small rectangular shaped cloth bag called solok, measuring 4 inches by 6 inches, containing the ingredients for chewing. They may also wear sigkil (anklets) on their legs. The males have similar cloth bags called fuyot, usually colored blue, and larger than the women’s solok. They sling this around their forehead even in plowing the field, to reach out to while resting from the task.
The datu has several rows of earrings called tunggal, some reaching the upper section of the earlobes. Many of the present day datus have stopped wearing this, probably influenced by the Christians who see this as an unusual sight.
The older datus wear their hair long and tie it into a bun, while younger generations of datus have shorter hair. The datus also wear a long sleeved shirt called kawal; the short sleeved shirt they call fotok.
One distinctive feature of the adult Manobo is the ever present tattoo on parts of their bodies, the most noticeable being those on the wrists or on the legs. There may also be tattoos on their waists or around their nipples, on both men and women.
The tattoo may be any design in accordance with the tattoo artist’s conception, ranging from connecting squares or rectangles to more elaborate ones. It is said to serve as an indication of their noble aspirations of keeping to the right path in their journey through life, a path that will lead them to a place called Baya, equivalent to the Christian’s heaven.
During the Spanish times, tattoos were done purely for ornamentation purposes, but later, this was utilized as form of identification to protect victims of kidnapping for slavery. When a victim was captured, it was customary to change the name as often as the victim was sold or resold. The only manner to identify said captive was by his tattoo marks on some parts of his body.
The Manobos of Kulaman have similar tattoo marks, no longer as indications of slavery, but now with purely spiritual intentions, as some kind of guidance to the other world, the baya. Children do not have tattoos on any part of their bodies.
Monday, December 30, 2013
Economy of the Dulangan Manobo
(Blogger’s note: The following is an excerpt from the book Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao, specifically pp. 108–9. The publishers welcome and even encourage the reproduction of the book in part or in its entirety, so I am posting this excerpt here without prior permission. To cite the book, please see Webliography.)
As native inhabitants of Mindanao, Manobo communities lived in subsistence. From the lush forests, they hunted for wild animals and gathered wild fruits. The forests also provided them with abundant supply of forest products, including timber for building their settlements.
The Dulangan Manobos of Lebak developed various methods in pangayam or hunting, being proficient hunters. They utilize special contraptions for specific preys: balatik for trapping wild boars and deer, eti for fishing, katupid for catching monkeys, and tukob for rats.
Slash and burn methods of farming has long been a common practice among the Dulangan Manobos of Lebak. They are aware that maintaining soil fertility ensures efficiency in agricultural production, so they maintain several farming grounds. They avoid cultivating the same ground by transferring to another. They grow rice, corn and various root crops in the fertile lands of Abogado, Kibetek, Dulaw and Megaga.
Sawitan or sawit is a bayanihan type of farming endemic to the natives. It is a community practice of communal farming and harvesting. They share all produce equally, even with those who were unable to participate.
In farming, the Dulangan Manobos of Lebak perform rituals to ensure a fruitful harvest. To the deities, they make offerings of rice, chicken, tobacco and betel nut that they place on top of an altar or on holy ground.
In foretelling a planting season, the natives refer to nature, mostly to the singing of the bird Alimukon. It is a bad omen if Alimukon begins to sing before planting. The natives also resort to astrological indications. If and when they see three stars closely linked in the heavens, they immediately start planting.
Kailawan is the ritual for the first harvest. This relates to Namola how fruitful the harvest has been.
As native inhabitants of Mindanao, Manobo communities lived in subsistence. From the lush forests, they hunted for wild animals and gathered wild fruits. The forests also provided them with abundant supply of forest products, including timber for building their settlements.
The Dulangan Manobos of Lebak developed various methods in pangayam or hunting, being proficient hunters. They utilize special contraptions for specific preys: balatik for trapping wild boars and deer, eti for fishing, katupid for catching monkeys, and tukob for rats.
Slash and burn methods of farming has long been a common practice among the Dulangan Manobos of Lebak. They are aware that maintaining soil fertility ensures efficiency in agricultural production, so they maintain several farming grounds. They avoid cultivating the same ground by transferring to another. They grow rice, corn and various root crops in the fertile lands of Abogado, Kibetek, Dulaw and Megaga.
Sawitan or sawit is a bayanihan type of farming endemic to the natives. It is a community practice of communal farming and harvesting. They share all produce equally, even with those who were unable to participate.
In farming, the Dulangan Manobos of Lebak perform rituals to ensure a fruitful harvest. To the deities, they make offerings of rice, chicken, tobacco and betel nut that they place on top of an altar or on holy ground.
In foretelling a planting season, the natives refer to nature, mostly to the singing of the bird Alimukon. It is a bad omen if Alimukon begins to sing before planting. The natives also resort to astrological indications. If and when they see three stars closely linked in the heavens, they immediately start planting.
Kailawan is the ritual for the first harvest. This relates to Namola how fruitful the harvest has been.
Monday, December 23, 2013
The Manobo of Mongkil and Kulaman
(Blogger’s note: The following is an excerpt from the book Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao, specifically pp. 107–8. The publishers welcome and even encourage the reproduction of the book in part or in its entirety, so I am posting this excerpt here without prior permission. To cite the book, please see Webliography.)
According to Datu Ismael Sakudal, Datu Talihop Kaf’d and Bise Palawan of Sitio Mongkil, Barangay Basag in Kulaman, the Manobos had always lived in the area as far back as anyone can remember. The area was one huge forest teeming with wild animals. The Visayans arrived sometime in 1960, starting with some 30 Ilonggo families scattering themselves in the vast expanse. More settlers moved in later, with the Ilocanos and Cebuanos joining the migration in the later part of the 70’s, bringing the number of non-Lumads to 200 families. The Christians bought, leased and squatted on some lands tilled by the Manobos. They were able to acquire titles to lands once belonging to the Lumads. Eventually the Lumads realized what was happening to their property but could not do anything, ignorant as they were of the legal processes of land possession.
Lambak became a barangay sometime in 1991. The barangay officials are largely settlers. In time, much of the Manobo culture started to vanish, as they hardly had time to get together to maintain their cultural practices. Antang-antang is now almost a thing of the past. They bury their dead almost immediately, with little more than a sheer box to contain the dead, as there are no more trees to fell for the trunk-coffin. With Christian dominance firmly established in the place, the Manobos are pessimistic that they can still retrieve what they had lost over the years.
Barangay Kulaman, more popularly known as the Manobo Village, is at the edge of the municipality. It is home for the Manobos from different sitios and barangays when they get into town. There are a hundred families in the village, but each of them have [sic] a farm in one of the outlying sitios or barangays. The idea of having a village for the Manobos in the municipality was a brainchild of the late Sultan Tagenek Dakias, and approved by the office of the former PANAMIN. It became a reality sometime in 1978. The village consisted of 178 lots, each with an area of 600 square meters. At the village, government officials, provincial or municipal, meet with the datus and Sultan to discuss various concerns. It also became the residence of the present “sultan” of the Manobos, “Sultan” Rey Dakias. The apostrophe [sic] indicates that the community of datus have not confirmed him yet officially as Sultan. The village also served as a haven of the Manobos, especially those who bring their sick to the municipal clinic. Those taking a break from their hectic farm work or who wish to while away their time between planting and harvesting of their crops also stay at the village.
According to Datu Ismael Sakudal, Datu Talihop Kaf’d and Bise Palawan of Sitio Mongkil, Barangay Basag in Kulaman, the Manobos had always lived in the area as far back as anyone can remember. The area was one huge forest teeming with wild animals. The Visayans arrived sometime in 1960, starting with some 30 Ilonggo families scattering themselves in the vast expanse. More settlers moved in later, with the Ilocanos and Cebuanos joining the migration in the later part of the 70’s, bringing the number of non-Lumads to 200 families. The Christians bought, leased and squatted on some lands tilled by the Manobos. They were able to acquire titles to lands once belonging to the Lumads. Eventually the Lumads realized what was happening to their property but could not do anything, ignorant as they were of the legal processes of land possession.
Lambak became a barangay sometime in 1991. The barangay officials are largely settlers. In time, much of the Manobo culture started to vanish, as they hardly had time to get together to maintain their cultural practices. Antang-antang is now almost a thing of the past. They bury their dead almost immediately, with little more than a sheer box to contain the dead, as there are no more trees to fell for the trunk-coffin. With Christian dominance firmly established in the place, the Manobos are pessimistic that they can still retrieve what they had lost over the years.
Barangay Kulaman, more popularly known as the Manobo Village, is at the edge of the municipality. It is home for the Manobos from different sitios and barangays when they get into town. There are a hundred families in the village, but each of them have [sic] a farm in one of the outlying sitios or barangays. The idea of having a village for the Manobos in the municipality was a brainchild of the late Sultan Tagenek Dakias, and approved by the office of the former PANAMIN. It became a reality sometime in 1978. The village consisted of 178 lots, each with an area of 600 square meters. At the village, government officials, provincial or municipal, meet with the datus and Sultan to discuss various concerns. It also became the residence of the present “sultan” of the Manobos, “Sultan” Rey Dakias. The apostrophe [sic] indicates that the community of datus have not confirmed him yet officially as Sultan. The village also served as a haven of the Manobos, especially those who bring their sick to the municipal clinic. Those taking a break from their hectic farm work or who wish to while away their time between planting and harvesting of their crops also stay at the village.
Monday, December 16, 2013
The Manobo of Nati and Sewod
(Blogger’s note: The following is an excerpt from the book Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao, specifically pp. 106–7. The publishers welcome and even encourage the reproduction of the book in part or in its entirety, so I am posting this excerpt here without prior permission. To cite the book, please see Webliography.)
Informants Datu Embeng, Colon Manguda and Alberto Dakias of Barangay Nati said the non-Manobos (Ilocanos) started trekking into the place as early as 1952. The fertility of the soil and the prospects of setting up commercial establishments attracted them to the Manobo lands. The Resurreccion, Nacional, Labrador, Narvaez, Marcos, Difuntorum and Paluta families were the first, and their descendants remain here to this day. The Manobos retreated into the hillsides to avoid contact with the new arrivals, who became the dominant and prominent residents in the lowlands.
The sitiobecame a barangay in 1989, with a certain Pepito de Ramos as the appointed baranagy captain. During his tenure, he opened a primary school in the area, though Kulaman is only three kilometers away. The barangay has a total population of 970 families, with the Manobos numbering 200 households. They still largely depend on kaingin for their livelihood, planting rice, corn and coffee. As there are no more forests to hunt, and as the streams have few fish, they learned to irrigate their ricefields.
They still practice most of the Lumad rituals, but the role of the Balian is diminishing as some of the Manobos converted to the Protestant faith. They still adhere to the authority of the datus to settle conflicts among themselves and among members of the family. They look forward to the regular antang-antang where the community discusses important issues.
Barangay Sewod got its name from an old datu named Datu Sewod. He was a renowned and respected leader of the community. He married four women, namely Takong, Hagfa, Langgal and Kadi. The last two wives bear the names of present day barangays in the municipality.
According to the informants Datu Mantiko Watamama, Datu Agiro Sedteng, Datu Ungan Ange and Rumbalay Itang, four Ilonggo families arrived in Baranagay Sewod sometime in 1952 and stayed a while with some Manobo families. At that time, there were only about 12 Manobo households.
Now, Christian settlers in Sewod number more than 2,000 individuals. The newcomers grabbed the parcels of land they once borrowed from the Manobos. Later on they had these parcels of land titled in their favor. They greatly outnumbered and outsmarted the Lumads in the latter’s own stronghold. No Lumad rose to the rank of political leader.
Informants Datu Embeng, Colon Manguda and Alberto Dakias of Barangay Nati said the non-Manobos (Ilocanos) started trekking into the place as early as 1952. The fertility of the soil and the prospects of setting up commercial establishments attracted them to the Manobo lands. The Resurreccion, Nacional, Labrador, Narvaez, Marcos, Difuntorum and Paluta families were the first, and their descendants remain here to this day. The Manobos retreated into the hillsides to avoid contact with the new arrivals, who became the dominant and prominent residents in the lowlands.
The sitiobecame a barangay in 1989, with a certain Pepito de Ramos as the appointed baranagy captain. During his tenure, he opened a primary school in the area, though Kulaman is only three kilometers away. The barangay has a total population of 970 families, with the Manobos numbering 200 households. They still largely depend on kaingin for their livelihood, planting rice, corn and coffee. As there are no more forests to hunt, and as the streams have few fish, they learned to irrigate their ricefields.
They still practice most of the Lumad rituals, but the role of the Balian is diminishing as some of the Manobos converted to the Protestant faith. They still adhere to the authority of the datus to settle conflicts among themselves and among members of the family. They look forward to the regular antang-antang where the community discusses important issues.
Barangay Sewod got its name from an old datu named Datu Sewod. He was a renowned and respected leader of the community. He married four women, namely Takong, Hagfa, Langgal and Kadi. The last two wives bear the names of present day barangays in the municipality.
According to the informants Datu Mantiko Watamama, Datu Agiro Sedteng, Datu Ungan Ange and Rumbalay Itang, four Ilonggo families arrived in Baranagay Sewod sometime in 1952 and stayed a while with some Manobo families. At that time, there were only about 12 Manobo households.
Now, Christian settlers in Sewod number more than 2,000 individuals. The newcomers grabbed the parcels of land they once borrowed from the Manobos. Later on they had these parcels of land titled in their favor. They greatly outnumbered and outsmarted the Lumads in the latter’s own stronghold. No Lumad rose to the rank of political leader.
Monday, December 9, 2013
The Manobo of Midpanga and Midtungok
(Blogger’s note: The following is an excerpt from the book Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao, specifically pp. 105–6. The publishers welcome and even encourage the reproduction of the book in part or in its entirety, so I am posting this excerpt here without prior permission. To cite the book, please see Webliography.)
Sitio Midpanga of Barangay Kuden is two and a half kilometers away from the barangay. The rolling terrain made the place unreachable, except by carabao and horses.
According to Datu Kulap Manguda, he is the oldest person in the community. He came from Landingan, Kulaman and moved here long before the Second World War. They are the only family in the area who lived there for a long time, until other Manobos arrived in the 1960s. The area now has 63 Manobo households or some 90 families.
The Manobos still plant corn, upland rice and coffee, evident in the fields dotting the hillsides. Most of the Manobo residents built their huts on hilltops or on the hillsides, offering a breathtaking view of the slopes below. Christian settlers did not bother them, but they say they will feel more secure if the land is theirs to keep without risk of encroachment.
The Manobos lived in Barangay Midtungok since time immemorial. The place had once been lush forest, with wild animals aplenty for hunting. No Manobo table was without roasted deer or pig or monkey, even birds, as the Manobos were good hunters. Their means of livelihood, in addition to hunting in the forest and fishing in the Kulaman River, was planting rice, corn, camote and camoteng kahoy.
Informants Datu Angkay Omot, Datu Mog Pandim, Kagawad Teb Pangki, Danny Salaya said the Ilocanos started arriving in the early part of the 1950s, the first being led by the Narvaez, Nacional and Erpos families. The Ilonggos followed suit in the 1970s. Shortly after the arrival of the Christians, the sitio opened a primary school. Lately, they added Grade V classes, and there is a plan to open Grade VI classes in 1998.
Many Manobos occupy the central portion of the barangay. There are some fifty Manobo families, with more than 500 registered voters. There are about four hundred Christian families in the area.
The election of two Manobos in the barangay—Teb Pangki and Kapali Sonap implies the Christians’ acceptance and recognition of their leadership. Ted Pangki even emerged as number one kagawad in the last elections. There are also four datus in the community: Datus Angkay Omot, Mog Pandim, Abung Ateng and Dyanon Sasa.
Sitio Midpanga of Barangay Kuden is two and a half kilometers away from the barangay. The rolling terrain made the place unreachable, except by carabao and horses.
According to Datu Kulap Manguda, he is the oldest person in the community. He came from Landingan, Kulaman and moved here long before the Second World War. They are the only family in the area who lived there for a long time, until other Manobos arrived in the 1960s. The area now has 63 Manobo households or some 90 families.
The Manobos still plant corn, upland rice and coffee, evident in the fields dotting the hillsides. Most of the Manobo residents built their huts on hilltops or on the hillsides, offering a breathtaking view of the slopes below. Christian settlers did not bother them, but they say they will feel more secure if the land is theirs to keep without risk of encroachment.
The Manobos lived in Barangay Midtungok since time immemorial. The place had once been lush forest, with wild animals aplenty for hunting. No Manobo table was without roasted deer or pig or monkey, even birds, as the Manobos were good hunters. Their means of livelihood, in addition to hunting in the forest and fishing in the Kulaman River, was planting rice, corn, camote and camoteng kahoy.
Informants Datu Angkay Omot, Datu Mog Pandim, Kagawad Teb Pangki, Danny Salaya said the Ilocanos started arriving in the early part of the 1950s, the first being led by the Narvaez, Nacional and Erpos families. The Ilonggos followed suit in the 1970s. Shortly after the arrival of the Christians, the sitio opened a primary school. Lately, they added Grade V classes, and there is a plan to open Grade VI classes in 1998.
Many Manobos occupy the central portion of the barangay. There are some fifty Manobo families, with more than 500 registered voters. There are about four hundred Christian families in the area.
The election of two Manobos in the barangay—Teb Pangki and Kapali Sonap implies the Christians’ acceptance and recognition of their leadership. Ted Pangki even emerged as number one kagawad in the last elections. There are also four datus in the community: Datus Angkay Omot, Mog Pandim, Abung Ateng and Dyanon Sasa.
Monday, December 2, 2013
The Manobo of Bagsing and Lagubang
(Blogger’s note: The following is an excerpt from the book Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao, specifically pp. 104–5. The publishers encourage free reproduction of the book, so I’m posting this excerpt without prior permission. For the complete citation, see Webliography.)
The ancestors of the present Manobos of Sitio Bagsing, Barangay Gapok lived here since time immemorial. They were the first known residents of the area. The name of Sitio Bagsing is both the name of the first known datu and a creek nearby. The sitio used to be virgin forest, teeming with wild animals, deer, wild pigs, monkeys, and wild fowls; the creek also teemed with fishes. The Manobos hunted with bows and arrows, spears, and the luba (pointed bamboo) for wild pig. They also engaged in kaingin system of agriculture, cutting down trees in the process, to plant corn and rice for household consumption.
Informants Datu Samagka Mandaw, Datu Ali Ulan, Datu Langgal Lape and Datu Kafay Gogo said the Ilonggo settlers came in small groups sometime in the 1950’s. Now, they number about 40 families. They worked on the Manobos’ kaingins, promising to leave after harvest. They never did.
The Manobos’ current means of livelihood is planting rice and corn. The excess of their family consumption goes for sale, either at the center or at Kulaman, about 22 kilometers away.
The Manobos of Lagubang have been in the place for as long as anyone can remember. Their early means of livelihood was hunting in the lush forest for wild pigs, deer, monkey, pythons, and monitor lizard (halo). Fishing in the nearby river and planting banana, corn, rice, root crops and sugar cane are their main source of subsistence.
According to Datu Eyet Enggew, Datu Talo Empet, Datu Sakay Salaman, Ernesto Kantim, Ebe Solot and Palot Dangya, the Ilonggos arrived in 1983, in the course of an evacuation. They chanced upon the place and decided to settle there after the evacuation. They secured pieces of land through borrowing or mortgaging some lots from the Manobo residents.
Lagubang became a barangay in 1991, with a certain Leopoldo Deoric as first appointed barangay captain. The next barangay captain was Elmerto Cordero,a nd the latest was Daane Datoon. All three barangay captains were non-Manobos. Buagas Enggew, Mapel Owag and Gomer Ugat are Manobo kagawads in the community. At present, there may be a thousand families in the length and breadth of Lagubang, with the non-Manobo settlers numbering some 70 families and occupying the central portion. The Manobos reside in the periphery of the poblacion and in the hillsides.
The ancestors of the present Manobos of Sitio Bagsing, Barangay Gapok lived here since time immemorial. They were the first known residents of the area. The name of Sitio Bagsing is both the name of the first known datu and a creek nearby. The sitio used to be virgin forest, teeming with wild animals, deer, wild pigs, monkeys, and wild fowls; the creek also teemed with fishes. The Manobos hunted with bows and arrows, spears, and the luba (pointed bamboo) for wild pig. They also engaged in kaingin system of agriculture, cutting down trees in the process, to plant corn and rice for household consumption.
Informants Datu Samagka Mandaw, Datu Ali Ulan, Datu Langgal Lape and Datu Kafay Gogo said the Ilonggo settlers came in small groups sometime in the 1950’s. Now, they number about 40 families. They worked on the Manobos’ kaingins, promising to leave after harvest. They never did.
The Manobos’ current means of livelihood is planting rice and corn. The excess of their family consumption goes for sale, either at the center or at Kulaman, about 22 kilometers away.
The Manobos of Lagubang have been in the place for as long as anyone can remember. Their early means of livelihood was hunting in the lush forest for wild pigs, deer, monkey, pythons, and monitor lizard (halo). Fishing in the nearby river and planting banana, corn, rice, root crops and sugar cane are their main source of subsistence.
According to Datu Eyet Enggew, Datu Talo Empet, Datu Sakay Salaman, Ernesto Kantim, Ebe Solot and Palot Dangya, the Ilonggos arrived in 1983, in the course of an evacuation. They chanced upon the place and decided to settle there after the evacuation. They secured pieces of land through borrowing or mortgaging some lots from the Manobo residents.
Lagubang became a barangay in 1991, with a certain Leopoldo Deoric as first appointed barangay captain. The next barangay captain was Elmerto Cordero,a nd the latest was Daane Datoon. All three barangay captains were non-Manobos. Buagas Enggew, Mapel Owag and Gomer Ugat are Manobo kagawads in the community. At present, there may be a thousand families in the length and breadth of Lagubang, with the non-Manobo settlers numbering some 70 families and occupying the central portion. The Manobos reside in the periphery of the poblacion and in the hillsides.
Monday, November 25, 2013
The Dulangan Manobo and Their Domain: Kulaman
(Blogger’s note: The following is an excerpt from the book Defending the Land: Lumad and Moro People’s Struggle for Ancestral Domain in Mindanao, specifically pp. 103–4. The publishers welcome and even encourage the reproduction of the book in part or in its entirety, so I am posting this excerpt here. To cite the book, please see Webliography.
Except for inserting a minor correction, enclosed in brackets, I did not change a single word and kept the style of the text as it appears on the source. Note, however, that some descriptions of geographical locations in this excerpt are not accurate. For a disambiguation of the term Kulaman, see the blog page About Kulaman.)
In Kulaman (now Ninoy Aquino), Sultan Kudarat, the names of sitios, barangays and other places were often derived from the names of people such as their ancestors, events or things. For example, Lambak is the other name of a place called Basag, a term used referring to the soil in the middle of the forest. It also referred to the core (ubod) of a Tapican (palm variety) abundant in the vicinity.
According to the informants, Datu Keson Mamo, Eddie Labe and Jessie Andang, at first there were twenty Manobo families in the area. When the Visayans started arriving in 1974, only ten Manobo families stayed in the area. Their means of livelihood consisted of hunting wild animals, which were plentiful in the virgin forest; fishing in the nearby river or stream; and engaging in kaingin agriculture. As with the other Manobos, they subsisted mainly on dagmay (gabi), sugar cane, sweet potatoes, cassava, corn and rice. Later, they also planted coffee.
The barangay officials of the poblacion of Bugso set a reservation for the Manobos comprising 42 hectares. There is also a proposal by the same officials to make the sitio a separate barangay by itself.
The name of Sitio Todog of Barangay Bugso came from the name of a hunter from Malegdeg who rested and died under the shade of a large tree. The sitio is eight kilometers away from the Municipality of Sen. Ninoy Aquino or Kulaman, and three kilometers from the center of Brgy. Bugso. Its view is splendid, with hills similar to Bohol’s Chocolate Hills, though fields dot the hillsides.
Later, a Manobo named Dipunto Kalay, claimed some 1,500 hectares of land for the use of his family, much to the consternation of the other Manobos. The clan numbered about 30 families, with a population of more than a hundred, including children.
The name of Barangay Lagubang is derived from the oldest resident of the area. A nearby sitio also bears the name of his wife Kapatagan.
Barangay Midpanga was named in honor of a certain datu who went hunting in the lush forest one morning and never returned. His family and relatives went searching and found him dead under a big tree, apparently killed by a falling branch (sanga). Since then they called the place where they found him Midpanga.
Barangay Midtungok got its name from a creek where a mother and a child drowned during a [raging] flood. The child rushed to save his mother who was carried downstream by the strong current. Both disappeared in the swirling waters, their bodies found a couple of days later.
Baranagay Nati was named after the first known leader of the community who died by drowning during a devastating flood long before the Spanish and American colonization.
Except for inserting a minor correction, enclosed in brackets, I did not change a single word and kept the style of the text as it appears on the source. Note, however, that some descriptions of geographical locations in this excerpt are not accurate. For a disambiguation of the term Kulaman, see the blog page About Kulaman.)
In Kulaman (now Ninoy Aquino), Sultan Kudarat, the names of sitios, barangays and other places were often derived from the names of people such as their ancestors, events or things. For example, Lambak is the other name of a place called Basag, a term used referring to the soil in the middle of the forest. It also referred to the core (ubod) of a Tapican (palm variety) abundant in the vicinity.
According to the informants, Datu Keson Mamo, Eddie Labe and Jessie Andang, at first there were twenty Manobo families in the area. When the Visayans started arriving in 1974, only ten Manobo families stayed in the area. Their means of livelihood consisted of hunting wild animals, which were plentiful in the virgin forest; fishing in the nearby river or stream; and engaging in kaingin agriculture. As with the other Manobos, they subsisted mainly on dagmay (gabi), sugar cane, sweet potatoes, cassava, corn and rice. Later, they also planted coffee.
The barangay officials of the poblacion of Bugso set a reservation for the Manobos comprising 42 hectares. There is also a proposal by the same officials to make the sitio a separate barangay by itself.
The name of Sitio Todog of Barangay Bugso came from the name of a hunter from Malegdeg who rested and died under the shade of a large tree. The sitio is eight kilometers away from the Municipality of Sen. Ninoy Aquino or Kulaman, and three kilometers from the center of Brgy. Bugso. Its view is splendid, with hills similar to Bohol’s Chocolate Hills, though fields dot the hillsides.
Later, a Manobo named Dipunto Kalay, claimed some 1,500 hectares of land for the use of his family, much to the consternation of the other Manobos. The clan numbered about 30 families, with a population of more than a hundred, including children.
The name of Barangay Lagubang is derived from the oldest resident of the area. A nearby sitio also bears the name of his wife Kapatagan.
Barangay Midpanga was named in honor of a certain datu who went hunting in the lush forest one morning and never returned. His family and relatives went searching and found him dead under a big tree, apparently killed by a falling branch (sanga). Since then they called the place where they found him Midpanga.
Barangay Midtungok got its name from a creek where a mother and a child drowned during a [raging] flood. The child rushed to save his mother who was carried downstream by the strong current. Both disappeared in the swirling waters, their bodies found a couple of days later.
Baranagay Nati was named after the first known leader of the community who died by drowning during a devastating flood long before the Spanish and American colonization.
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