Painting the Brown Face Red
by Leny Strobel
grateful for the invitation
i entered the arbor and sacred ceremony
honoring maiden, matron, elder.
saying prayers to the four directions
in my mind's eye, i was bowing
palms together in front of my chest
I say silently:
I am Asian. Filipino.
holding the talking stick
i share my answer to the question:
what has been your burden this past year?
how did you heal?
i listened to everyone else's answer to same.
after the talking stick made its round
i wished to respond
to go deeper into intimacy
i say silently: I am Filipino.
I want more Kapwa.
drumbeats accompanied wailing time
sage purifying, healing, honoring
after the tears
a holy silence.
drumming began again
i feel the earth vibrate
shy at first, we dance in a circle.
my mind returns to Iloilo
dancing with my tribes
i wished to be back there
with my kin.
but i am in indian canyon
with native sisters
with white women
with black women
we say: it's all good.
it is what it is.
then someone interrupts:
it's not all good. sometimes it sucks.
sometimes it hurts.
the elders pontificate around the fire
wisdom we need to hear
advice on sex and death
on learning to listen.
the wind was howling
we were freezing even around the fire
then before midnite we say
goodbye and thank you
we walk back to camp
pitch dark, the stars are almost within reach.
our hearts are large
our souls feel blessed.
as for the things i didn't say ...
as for the things i didn't understand ...
as for the unaswered curiosities ...
as for the feeling of uncertainty...
as for the longing for more...
the next night i dreamt of a long-absent lover
who has returned to marry me.
oh what bliss!
Link accessed 7/19/2009
Showing posts with label Definitions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Definitions. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Conversations - Landscape: Silencing the babaylan
First in a series, posted in 2008 at Global Balita
Landscape
by Gemma Cruz Araneta
Silencing the babaylan
The BABAYLAN, a native priestess or spiritual leader in the days of datus and rajahs, has always been a subject of fascination to latter day Filipina feminists. There is no self-respecting conference on the empowerment of women that does not conjure the spirit of the babaylan directly after the national anthem is sang. So beguiling is the babaylan, members of the gay population insist that they are the rightful descendants and heirs of those enchanted women , a contention belied by a variety of historical evidence ranging from ancient epics and ritualistic formulae to the travel chronicles of Pigafetta and de Loarca who came to these shores with Magellan and Legazpi, respectively.
Antonio Pigafetta did not know they were called babaylan and referred to them as “viejas”, old women, because that was what they were. By the time a woman became a full-fledged babaylan, she was already middle-aged and menopausal for it took almost a lifetime to master that gift those sacred rituals and songs and to assimilate the wealth of ancient wisdom. That being the case, self-styled modern day babaylans like dancer Myra C. Beltran and singer Grace Nono, are probably too green to
aspire for such prominence. After all, the babaylan was a pillar of native society together with the datu, the panday and
bayani ( warrior); they were not only spiritual leaders but also guardians and harbingers of culture values and tradition.
Pigafetta wrote about how the “viejas” danced on a cambay cloth, chanting and drinking wine, playing reed trumpets (flutes probably) to pay homage to the sun . One of them sacrificed a pig, which revolted Pigafetta, and dipped the tip of her reed flute in the pig’s blood and marked the forehead of her busband, companions and community members...The vieja (babaylan) did not mark the Spaniards with pig’s blood, a bold and meaningful statement that went above Pigafetta’s head.
Complete text available on in the Global Balita archive.
Links accessed 7/19/2009
Landscape
by Gemma Cruz Araneta
Silencing the babaylan
The BABAYLAN, a native priestess or spiritual leader in the days of datus and rajahs, has always been a subject of fascination to latter day Filipina feminists. There is no self-respecting conference on the empowerment of women that does not conjure the spirit of the babaylan directly after the national anthem is sang. So beguiling is the babaylan, members of the gay population insist that they are the rightful descendants and heirs of those enchanted women , a contention belied by a variety of historical evidence ranging from ancient epics and ritualistic formulae to the travel chronicles of Pigafetta and de Loarca who came to these shores with Magellan and Legazpi, respectively.
Antonio Pigafetta did not know they were called babaylan and referred to them as “viejas”, old women, because that was what they were. By the time a woman became a full-fledged babaylan, she was already middle-aged and menopausal for it took almost a lifetime to master that gift those sacred rituals and songs and to assimilate the wealth of ancient wisdom. That being the case, self-styled modern day babaylans like dancer Myra C. Beltran and singer Grace Nono, are probably too green to
aspire for such prominence. After all, the babaylan was a pillar of native society together with the datu, the panday and
bayani ( warrior); they were not only spiritual leaders but also guardians and harbingers of culture values and tradition.
Pigafetta wrote about how the “viejas” danced on a cambay cloth, chanting and drinking wine, playing reed trumpets (flutes probably) to pay homage to the sun . One of them sacrificed a pig, which revolted Pigafetta, and dipped the tip of her reed flute in the pig’s blood and marked the forehead of her busband, companions and community members...The vieja (babaylan) did not mark the Spaniards with pig’s blood, a bold and meaningful statement that went above Pigafetta’s head.
Complete text available on in the Global Balita archive.
Links accessed 7/19/2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Conversations - Signs and Symptoms of Decolonized Filipinas in the US
Signs and Symptoms of Decolonized Filipinas in the US
by Leny Strobel
1. She understands European and American colonial history and its psychic and epistemic violence on herself and her people.
2. She understands that her presence in the US is a product of this history. The narration of US history as it relates to the Philippines should be understood as an imperial and colonial narrative in need of critique and revision.
3. She does archeological psychic work to uncover, discover, or reimagine, what her Filipina indigenous memory is trying to teach or reveal to her.
4. Filipino indigenous memory reveals intuitive knowledge about who she is as an indigenous woman. Indigenous Filipino theorizing includes language-based concepts like Kapwa, Loob, Damdamin, Diwa, Dangal, Paninindigan -- that gives a decolonized Filipina a narrative that anchors her identity and her life work in Filipino values.
5. She recognizes that the framework of indigeneity and decolonization can serve as a powerful critique of modernity and its discontents. After all, modernity is the newbie on the block (only 500 years old and yet has brought more havoc on the planet than anything before it).
6. A decolonized Filipina knows herself as a "self-in-relation" (kapwa) rather than the product of the western and liberal notion of the self as an "individual with free will" acting out of its self-interest.
7. A decolonized Filipina understands that the location and position of her Fil Am community need to be reframed away from the model of assimilation into US society. The assimilationist model has long been debunked as an unviable and an unsustainable one.
8. A decolonized Filipina in the US understands that she lives on stolen land from indigenous peoples on this continent. What are the implications of such realization? What is the connection between the taking of the Philippines by colonizers and the taking of this continent?
9. A decolonized Filipina understands the uses of history in order to be an effective and powerful woman in the US context. If NVM Gonzalez is correct in saying, "To be a good American, you must be a good Filipina first," how does a US-born Filipina begin to articulate what it means for her to be a good Filipina?
10. A decolonized Filipina has a global perspective that is informed by what the rest of the planet has to say and not just the US perspective.
Link accessed 7/19/2009, backdated for archive purposes.
by Leny Strobel
1. She understands European and American colonial history and its psychic and epistemic violence on herself and her people.
2. She understands that her presence in the US is a product of this history. The narration of US history as it relates to the Philippines should be understood as an imperial and colonial narrative in need of critique and revision.
3. She does archeological psychic work to uncover, discover, or reimagine, what her Filipina indigenous memory is trying to teach or reveal to her.
4. Filipino indigenous memory reveals intuitive knowledge about who she is as an indigenous woman. Indigenous Filipino theorizing includes language-based concepts like Kapwa, Loob, Damdamin, Diwa, Dangal, Paninindigan -- that gives a decolonized Filipina a narrative that anchors her identity and her life work in Filipino values.
5. She recognizes that the framework of indigeneity and decolonization can serve as a powerful critique of modernity and its discontents. After all, modernity is the newbie on the block (only 500 years old and yet has brought more havoc on the planet than anything before it).
6. A decolonized Filipina knows herself as a "self-in-relation" (kapwa) rather than the product of the western and liberal notion of the self as an "individual with free will" acting out of its self-interest.
7. A decolonized Filipina understands that the location and position of her Fil Am community need to be reframed away from the model of assimilation into US society. The assimilationist model has long been debunked as an unviable and an unsustainable one.
8. A decolonized Filipina in the US understands that she lives on stolen land from indigenous peoples on this continent. What are the implications of such realization? What is the connection between the taking of the Philippines by colonizers and the taking of this continent?
9. A decolonized Filipina understands the uses of history in order to be an effective and powerful woman in the US context. If NVM Gonzalez is correct in saying, "To be a good American, you must be a good Filipina first," how does a US-born Filipina begin to articulate what it means for her to be a good Filipina?
10. A decolonized Filipina has a global perspective that is informed by what the rest of the planet has to say and not just the US perspective.
Link accessed 7/19/2009, backdated for archive purposes.
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Definitions: Decolonization
In 2007, Leny Strobel developed a list of traits possessed by individuals who have awakened into a different sense of being, often as part of their reconnection with their Filipino heritage and growing awareness of babaylan practices.
Signs and Symptoms of Decolonized Filipinas in the US:
1. She understands European and American colonial history and its psychic and epistemic violence on herself and her people.
2. She understands that her presence in the US is a product of this history. The narration of US history as it relates to the Philippines should be understood as an imperial and colonial narrative in need of critique and revision.
3. She does archeological psychic work to uncover, discover, or reimagine, what her Filipina indigenous memory is trying to teach or reveal to her.
4. Filipino indigenous memory reveals intuitive knowledge about who she is as an indigenous woman. Indigenous Filipino theorizing includes language-based concepts like Kapwa, Loob, Damdamin, Diwa, Dangal, Paninindigan -- that gives a decolonized Filipina a narrative that anchors her identity and her life work in Filipino values.
5. She recognizes that the framework of indigeneity and decolonization can serve as a powerful critique of modernity and its discontents. After all, modernity is the newbie on the block (only 500 years old and yet has brought more havoc on the planet than anything before it).
6. A decolonized Filipina knows herself as a "self-in-relation" (kapwa) rather than the product of the western and liberal notion of the self as an "individual with free will" acting out of its self-interest.
7. A decolonized Filipina understands that the location and position of her Fil Am community need to be reframed away from the model of assimilation into US society. The assimilationist model has long been debunked as an unviable and an unsustainable one.
8. A decolonized Filipina in the US understands that she lives on stolen land from indigenous peoples on this continent. What are the implications of such realization? What is the connection between the taking of the Philippines by colonizers and the taking of this continent?
9. A decolonized Filipina understands the uses of history in order to be an effective and powerful woman in the US context. If NVM Gonzalez is correct in saying, "To be a good American, you must be a good Filipina first," how does a US-born Filipina begin to articulate what it means for her to be a good Filipina?
10. A decolonized Filipina has a global perspective that is informed by what the rest of the planet has to say and not just the US perspective.
Contributed by Leny Strobel, originally posted on Kathang-Pinay, 24 October 2007.
Links accessed 7/5/09.
Signs and Symptoms of Decolonized Filipinas in the US:
1. She understands European and American colonial history and its psychic and epistemic violence on herself and her people.
2. She understands that her presence in the US is a product of this history. The narration of US history as it relates to the Philippines should be understood as an imperial and colonial narrative in need of critique and revision.
3. She does archeological psychic work to uncover, discover, or reimagine, what her Filipina indigenous memory is trying to teach or reveal to her.
4. Filipino indigenous memory reveals intuitive knowledge about who she is as an indigenous woman. Indigenous Filipino theorizing includes language-based concepts like Kapwa, Loob, Damdamin, Diwa, Dangal, Paninindigan -- that gives a decolonized Filipina a narrative that anchors her identity and her life work in Filipino values.
5. She recognizes that the framework of indigeneity and decolonization can serve as a powerful critique of modernity and its discontents. After all, modernity is the newbie on the block (only 500 years old and yet has brought more havoc on the planet than anything before it).
6. A decolonized Filipina knows herself as a "self-in-relation" (kapwa) rather than the product of the western and liberal notion of the self as an "individual with free will" acting out of its self-interest.
7. A decolonized Filipina understands that the location and position of her Fil Am community need to be reframed away from the model of assimilation into US society. The assimilationist model has long been debunked as an unviable and an unsustainable one.
8. A decolonized Filipina in the US understands that she lives on stolen land from indigenous peoples on this continent. What are the implications of such realization? What is the connection between the taking of the Philippines by colonizers and the taking of this continent?
9. A decolonized Filipina understands the uses of history in order to be an effective and powerful woman in the US context. If NVM Gonzalez is correct in saying, "To be a good American, you must be a good Filipina first," how does a US-born Filipina begin to articulate what it means for her to be a good Filipina?
10. A decolonized Filipina has a global perspective that is informed by what the rest of the planet has to say and not just the US perspective.
Contributed by Leny Strobel, originally posted on Kathang-Pinay, 24 October 2007.
Links accessed 7/5/09.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Definitions - Kalayaan (freedom)
In her talk Indigenous Filipino Values: A Foundation for a Culture of Non-Violence" prepared for the forum "Towards a Culture of Non-Violence," Katrin de Guia defines several key concepts which underpin babaylan practices.
KALAYAAN (FREEDOM, INDEPENDENCE, THINKING OUTSIDE OF THE BOX)
Kalayaan— freedom, liberty and independence is a sine qua non for Filipino personhood. To understand this ancestral Filipino (human) value is important for a culture of non-violence. Why? Because violence usually arises from the attempts of one person or group to control another person or group. But control runs counter to the kapwa orientations where the norm is voluntary giving, including and sharing; where problems are resolved through consensus building and mediating rather than through fist or force.
Emancipation may be the best word to describe what the Filipino value kalayaan is all about. Reynaldo Ileto, who studied the pre-Spanish Filipino writings, concluded that Filipino children enjoyed traditionally great freedom while growing up. Indulged by their parents, they were allowed to learn at their own speed, experiment with life as saling pusa, and slowly discover and mold who they really were as human beings (kapwa tao).
Basically it’s a fine thing, this training towards openness, creativity and freedom. However, the underlying assumption of such a training towards self-determination is that a child, who had been indulged by the whole clan, would grow up to be a tolerant, emancipated and open-minded adult. True— when the setting is the kapwa culture! However, without training in such things as respect, propriety, humility and compassion (kapwa), the liberties bestowed on a child can mold it into an irresponsible and permissive adult, someone ruled by outright selfishness. A pampered child, without the self-regulating mechanism of sensitivity towards others (pakiramdam) becomes spoiled rotten. This is what happened to many illustrado and mestizo kids, who were raised in an atmosphere of materialistic indulgence, paired with the imperialist values of ego-hood. John Lennon made a song about that “I – Me – Mine.” That is where today’s “unbridled greed” has its footing. Instead of the Shared Self, we face the Expanded Ego.
While the Shared Self is soft like water, the Expanded Ego is hard as stone. There is no long lasting impact when water meets water. But when stone meets stone you have a violent reaction. Something will break!
Katrin M. de Guia performed her pioneering research on the Filipino culture-bearer artists all over the country while earning her PhD in Filipino Psychology (Sikolohiyang Pilipino) at the Unversity of the Philippines. She will be a featured speaker at the Center for Babaylan Studies 2010 Conference
Links accessed 6/24/09
KALAYAAN (FREEDOM, INDEPENDENCE, THINKING OUTSIDE OF THE BOX)
Kalayaan— freedom, liberty and independence is a sine qua non for Filipino personhood. To understand this ancestral Filipino (human) value is important for a culture of non-violence. Why? Because violence usually arises from the attempts of one person or group to control another person or group. But control runs counter to the kapwa orientations where the norm is voluntary giving, including and sharing; where problems are resolved through consensus building and mediating rather than through fist or force.
Emancipation may be the best word to describe what the Filipino value kalayaan is all about. Reynaldo Ileto, who studied the pre-Spanish Filipino writings, concluded that Filipino children enjoyed traditionally great freedom while growing up. Indulged by their parents, they were allowed to learn at their own speed, experiment with life as saling pusa, and slowly discover and mold who they really were as human beings (kapwa tao).
Basically it’s a fine thing, this training towards openness, creativity and freedom. However, the underlying assumption of such a training towards self-determination is that a child, who had been indulged by the whole clan, would grow up to be a tolerant, emancipated and open-minded adult. True— when the setting is the kapwa culture! However, without training in such things as respect, propriety, humility and compassion (kapwa), the liberties bestowed on a child can mold it into an irresponsible and permissive adult, someone ruled by outright selfishness. A pampered child, without the self-regulating mechanism of sensitivity towards others (pakiramdam) becomes spoiled rotten. This is what happened to many illustrado and mestizo kids, who were raised in an atmosphere of materialistic indulgence, paired with the imperialist values of ego-hood. John Lennon made a song about that “I – Me – Mine.” That is where today’s “unbridled greed” has its footing. Instead of the Shared Self, we face the Expanded Ego.
While the Shared Self is soft like water, the Expanded Ego is hard as stone. There is no long lasting impact when water meets water. But when stone meets stone you have a violent reaction. Something will break!
Katrin M. de Guia performed her pioneering research on the Filipino culture-bearer artists all over the country while earning her PhD in Filipino Psychology (Sikolohiyang Pilipino) at the Unversity of the Philippines. She will be a featured speaker at the Center for Babaylan Studies 2010 Conference
Links accessed 6/24/09
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Definitions - Kagandahang-Loob (shared nobility)
In her talk Indigenous Filipino Values: A Foundation for a Culture of Non-Violence" prepared for the forum "Towards a Culture of Non-Violence," Katrin de Guia defines several key concepts which underpin babaylan practices.
KAGANDAHANG LOOB
The last core-value of the Filipino personhood is kagandahang-loob or “shared nobility.” The dictionary renders the term kagandahang-loob as a very general concept that emphasizes the beauty of something. It’s meaning is so broad that the notion stands for “anything good about something”. It is also translated as generosity. Kagandahang-loob acts like an anchor that grounds kapwa and pakiramdam in the enduring ancestral beliefs and convictions of Filipino IKSP. These are basically: God is good. Life is about learning, creating and sharing. It is good, even if there are hardships. Every sunrise brings a new day, a new horizon. There is always hope.
Kagandahang-loob, this “shared inner nobility” or “shared humanity” is a Filipino value that would nudge a person towards genuine acts of generosity; towards a nurturing that has its origin in genuine feeling for others-- empathy.
The Philippine historian Reynaldo Ileto pointed out how important the strife for a noble character was among the historical Filipino heroes.
He wrote that these bayanis reminded their followers that nobility had to be re-won every day. They also taught that it was ok to be rich, as long as the external signs of power were matched by an equally beautiful character.
How does nobility translate into every day activities? An unobtrusive kindness and caring? A sense of feeling responsibility for others? A compassion for all living beings? Are these characteristics important for cultivating a culture of non-violence? What do you think?
In summary, the three core-concepts of the value-structure of the Philippine personality theory are kapwa, pakiramdam and kagandahang-loob, interpreted as Shared Identity, Shared Inner Perception, and Shared Humanity. These values outline the profound humanistic inclination of the Filipino. And it is plain to see how such values are a seedbed for a culture of non-violence.
As for the other values of Enriquez’ Value System Of Philippine Psychology, we will skip most of them. But there is that one societal value kalayaan, which merits attention. This value stands for the untamed need of all living species to be free.
What are societal values? These are convictions that are deeply rooted in the ancestral heritage of a people. Such dispositions direct the personal values of an individual in profound and unquestioned ways.
Katrin M. de Guia performed her pioneering research on the Filipino culture-bearer artists all over the country while earning her PhD in Filipino Psychology (Sikolohiyang Pilipino) at the Unversity of the Philippines. She will be a featured speaker at the Center for Babaylan Studies 2010 Conference
Links accessed 6/24/2009
KAGANDAHANG LOOB
The last core-value of the Filipino personhood is kagandahang-loob or “shared nobility.” The dictionary renders the term kagandahang-loob as a very general concept that emphasizes the beauty of something. It’s meaning is so broad that the notion stands for “anything good about something”. It is also translated as generosity. Kagandahang-loob acts like an anchor that grounds kapwa and pakiramdam in the enduring ancestral beliefs and convictions of Filipino IKSP. These are basically: God is good. Life is about learning, creating and sharing. It is good, even if there are hardships. Every sunrise brings a new day, a new horizon. There is always hope.
Kagandahang-loob, this “shared inner nobility” or “shared humanity” is a Filipino value that would nudge a person towards genuine acts of generosity; towards a nurturing that has its origin in genuine feeling for others-- empathy.
The Philippine historian Reynaldo Ileto pointed out how important the strife for a noble character was among the historical Filipino heroes.
He wrote that these bayanis reminded their followers that nobility had to be re-won every day. They also taught that it was ok to be rich, as long as the external signs of power were matched by an equally beautiful character.
How does nobility translate into every day activities? An unobtrusive kindness and caring? A sense of feeling responsibility for others? A compassion for all living beings? Are these characteristics important for cultivating a culture of non-violence? What do you think?
In summary, the three core-concepts of the value-structure of the Philippine personality theory are kapwa, pakiramdam and kagandahang-loob, interpreted as Shared Identity, Shared Inner Perception, and Shared Humanity. These values outline the profound humanistic inclination of the Filipino. And it is plain to see how such values are a seedbed for a culture of non-violence.
As for the other values of Enriquez’ Value System Of Philippine Psychology, we will skip most of them. But there is that one societal value kalayaan, which merits attention. This value stands for the untamed need of all living species to be free.
What are societal values? These are convictions that are deeply rooted in the ancestral heritage of a people. Such dispositions direct the personal values of an individual in profound and unquestioned ways.
Katrin M. de Guia performed her pioneering research on the Filipino culture-bearer artists all over the country while earning her PhD in Filipino Psychology (Sikolohiyang Pilipino) at the Unversity of the Philippines. She will be a featured speaker at the Center for Babaylan Studies 2010 Conference
Links accessed 6/24/2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Definitions - Pakiramdam (knowing though feeling)
In her talk Indigenous Filipino Values: A Foundation for a Culture of Non-Violence" prepared for the forum "Towards a Culture of Non-Violence," Katrin de Guia defines several key concepts which underpin babaylan practices.
PAKIKIRAMDAM (KNOWING THROUGH FEELING)
Pakiramdam is often described as an all-important “shared inner perception” that compliments the “shared identity” of kapwa. It is an emotional a priori that goes with the Filipino personhood (as Enriquez called the Kapwa Personality). Pakiramdam operates behind all Filipino values. This steering emotion triggers the spontaneous voluntary actions that come with the sharing of the Self. It is the keen deep inner feeling that initiates all deeds.
Because of kapwa, this Pinoy feeling— pakikiramdam— is a participatory process, where emotions tend to be experienced mutually. Since most Pinoys can boast a “heightened awareness and sensitivity”, Enriquez’ student Rita Mataragnon declared pakiramdam a Filipino “emotional a-priori.” Filipinos are good in sensing cues (magaling makiramdam), she said and pointed out that both, the empathic “feeling for another,” or the talent of “sizing up each other” were active emotional processes that involved great attention to the subtleties non-verbal behavior.
Heightened sensitivity is a good survival tool in a society where not all social interactions are carried out with words. Here, only the carefully feeling out another can help one navigate the ambiguities of life’s encounters— like knowing when to join a group or how to blend in with people. Pakiramdam provides the tacit leads how to act appropriately in such situations and may well be regarded as the cognitive style of Filipinos— a unique social skill that is intrinsic to the Filipino personhood.
Katrin M. de Guia performed her pioneering research on the Filipino culture-bearer artists all over the country while earning her PhD in Filipino Psychology (Sikolohiyang Pilipino) at the Unversity of the Philippines. She will be a featured speaker at the Center for Babaylan Studies 2010 Conference
Links accessed 6/24/2009
PAKIKIRAMDAM (KNOWING THROUGH FEELING)
Pakiramdam is often described as an all-important “shared inner perception” that compliments the “shared identity” of kapwa. It is an emotional a priori that goes with the Filipino personhood (as Enriquez called the Kapwa Personality). Pakiramdam operates behind all Filipino values. This steering emotion triggers the spontaneous voluntary actions that come with the sharing of the Self. It is the keen deep inner feeling that initiates all deeds.
Because of kapwa, this Pinoy feeling— pakikiramdam— is a participatory process, where emotions tend to be experienced mutually. Since most Pinoys can boast a “heightened awareness and sensitivity”, Enriquez’ student Rita Mataragnon declared pakiramdam a Filipino “emotional a-priori.” Filipinos are good in sensing cues (magaling makiramdam), she said and pointed out that both, the empathic “feeling for another,” or the talent of “sizing up each other” were active emotional processes that involved great attention to the subtleties non-verbal behavior.
Heightened sensitivity is a good survival tool in a society where not all social interactions are carried out with words. Here, only the carefully feeling out another can help one navigate the ambiguities of life’s encounters— like knowing when to join a group or how to blend in with people. Pakiramdam provides the tacit leads how to act appropriately in such situations and may well be regarded as the cognitive style of Filipinos— a unique social skill that is intrinsic to the Filipino personhood.
Katrin M. de Guia performed her pioneering research on the Filipino culture-bearer artists all over the country while earning her PhD in Filipino Psychology (Sikolohiyang Pilipino) at the Unversity of the Philippines. She will be a featured speaker at the Center for Babaylan Studies 2010 Conference
Links accessed 6/24/2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Kapwa People
In her talk Indigenous Filipino Values: A Foundation for a Culture of Non-Violence" prepared for the forum "Towards a Culture of Non-Violence," Katrin de Guia defines several key concepts which underpin babaylan practices.
KAPWA PEOPLE
People, who practice kapwa in their life can be recognized by their genuine, people-centered orientation (magkatao), their service to others around them (matipon, matulungin), and by their commitment to their communities (pamathalaan). Among their barkada, they often are inspiring leaders and community organizers. As foot soldiers, they are the reliable ones, the ones who step forward to volunteer. They are quick to lend a hand and share their skills and knowledge freely (i.e. by teaching children, working with the urban poor, or facilitating community workshops on crafts, etc.) Their help usually comes with a big, gratis smile.
Community building and peace building is second nature to the people of such a bearing, as kapwa inspires them to facilitate at meetings, organize events and actively participate in civic affairs. How this kapwa works on a global scale can be seen in the people’s movements that unseated corrupt leaders— especially the People Power in 1986, which garnered for the Philippines the first-ever nomination of a whole country for the Peace Nobel Prize in 2000.But the same kapwa orientation also won the Philippine-Spanish War for Filipinos (even if it was followed by betrayal— the abuse of the trust that often invades the openness of kapwa.)
A notion of war may not fit into a forum on peace keeping and a Culture of Non Violence. But as historical figures like Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King or the Dalai Lama show—for the non-violent peace process you truly need the abilities to create networks, to build consent and to mobilize masses. And the kapwa orientation can come in mighty handy when you do that! Only if you manage to spread your peace ideas in a non-forceful manner (where you don’t buy or bully people, but where you motivate them with your good intentions and convictions) you will be effective in promoting a culture of non-violence. Then you are like running water hollowing out solid stone.
Back to kapwa: As the heart is central to the body, the shared Self nurtures the Filipino personality (or personhood.) But kapwa does not reside alone at the core. It manifests in pakiramdam, the pivotal interpersonal value that characterizes Filipino emotion. Enriquez named this emotional quality “shared perception.”
What is such a shared awareness all about? Pakiramdam matches the ocean-like expanse of kapwa with an equally large field of sensitive awareness.
Katrin M. de Guia performed her pioneering research on the Filipino culture-bearer artists all over the country while earning her PhD in Filipino Psychology (Sikolohiyang Pilipino) at the Unversity of the Philippines. She will be a featured speaker at the Center for Babaylan Studies 2010 Conference
Link accessed 6/24/2009
KAPWA PEOPLE
People, who practice kapwa in their life can be recognized by their genuine, people-centered orientation (magkatao), their service to others around them (matipon, matulungin), and by their commitment to their communities (pamathalaan). Among their barkada, they often are inspiring leaders and community organizers. As foot soldiers, they are the reliable ones, the ones who step forward to volunteer. They are quick to lend a hand and share their skills and knowledge freely (i.e. by teaching children, working with the urban poor, or facilitating community workshops on crafts, etc.) Their help usually comes with a big, gratis smile.
Community building and peace building is second nature to the people of such a bearing, as kapwa inspires them to facilitate at meetings, organize events and actively participate in civic affairs. How this kapwa works on a global scale can be seen in the people’s movements that unseated corrupt leaders— especially the People Power in 1986, which garnered for the Philippines the first-ever nomination of a whole country for the Peace Nobel Prize in 2000.But the same kapwa orientation also won the Philippine-Spanish War for Filipinos (even if it was followed by betrayal— the abuse of the trust that often invades the openness of kapwa.)
A notion of war may not fit into a forum on peace keeping and a Culture of Non Violence. But as historical figures like Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King or the Dalai Lama show—for the non-violent peace process you truly need the abilities to create networks, to build consent and to mobilize masses. And the kapwa orientation can come in mighty handy when you do that! Only if you manage to spread your peace ideas in a non-forceful manner (where you don’t buy or bully people, but where you motivate them with your good intentions and convictions) you will be effective in promoting a culture of non-violence. Then you are like running water hollowing out solid stone.
Back to kapwa: As the heart is central to the body, the shared Self nurtures the Filipino personality (or personhood.) But kapwa does not reside alone at the core. It manifests in pakiramdam, the pivotal interpersonal value that characterizes Filipino emotion. Enriquez named this emotional quality “shared perception.”
What is such a shared awareness all about? Pakiramdam matches the ocean-like expanse of kapwa with an equally large field of sensitive awareness.
Katrin M. de Guia performed her pioneering research on the Filipino culture-bearer artists all over the country while earning her PhD in Filipino Psychology (Sikolohiyang Pilipino) at the Unversity of the Philippines. She will be a featured speaker at the Center for Babaylan Studies 2010 Conference
Link accessed 6/24/2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Definitions - Pakikipag-Kapwa (Shared Identity)
In her talk Indigenous Filipino Values: A Foundation for a Culture of Non-Violence" prepared for the forum "Towards a Culture of Non-Violence," Katrin de Guia defines several key concepts which underpin babaylan practices.
PAKIKIPAG-KAPWA (SHARED IDENTITY)
The core value of Filipino personhood is kapwa. This idea of a “shared self” opens up the heart-doors of the I to include the Other. It bridges the deepest individual recess of a person with anyone outside him or herself, even total strangers. Here, it is not important if you are rich or poor, or status in society. “People are just people in spite of their age, clothes, diplomas, color or affiliations” said the Visayan artist Perry Argel.
Kapwa is the “unity of the one-of-us-and-the-other”, according to Virgilio Enriquez, who declared the concept as a Filipino core value. He upheld that kapwa implied moral and normative aspects that obliged a person to treat one another as fellow human being and therefore as equal. Such a position was “definitely inconsistent with exploitative human interactions,” he insited. But he also foresaw that this Filipino core value was threatened by spreading Western influences, when he wrote: “...once AKO starts thinking of himself as separate from KAPWA, the Filipino ‘self’ gets to be individuated as in the Western sense and, in effect, denies the status of KAPWA to the other.”
Today, most people who hear the word “kapwa” think of their neighbor. But standard Tagalog dictionaries like Vito Santos’ render kapwa as “fellow being” and “other person.” And older, Spanish dictionaries translate kapuwa as “both” and “the one and the other”, or “others.”
From all these, Enriquez concluded that the original Filipino idea of “others” was inclusive. He wrote: “The English “others” is actually used in opposition to the “self,” and implies the recognition of the self as a separate entity. In contrast, kapwa is a recognition of a shared identity, an inner self shared with others.”
He also said: “A person starts having a kapwa not so much because of a recognition of status given him by others but more so because of his awareness of shared identity. The ako (ego) and the iba-sa-akin (others) are one and the same in kapwa psychology.”
This Filipino linguistic unity of the self and the other is unique and unlike in most modern languages. Why? Because implied in such inclusiveness is the moral obligation to treat one another as equal fellow human beings. If we can do this— even starting in our own family or our circle of friends— we are on the way to practice peace. We are Kapwa People.
Katrin M. de Guia performed her pioneering research on the Filipino culture-bearer artists all over the country while earning her PhD in Filipino Psychology (Sikolohiyang Pilipino) at the Unversity of the Philippines. She will be a featured speaker at the Center for Babaylan Studies 2010 Conference
Link accessed 6/24/2009
PAKIKIPAG-KAPWA (SHARED IDENTITY)
The core value of Filipino personhood is kapwa. This idea of a “shared self” opens up the heart-doors of the I to include the Other. It bridges the deepest individual recess of a person with anyone outside him or herself, even total strangers. Here, it is not important if you are rich or poor, or status in society. “People are just people in spite of their age, clothes, diplomas, color or affiliations” said the Visayan artist Perry Argel.
Kapwa is the “unity of the one-of-us-and-the-other”, according to Virgilio Enriquez, who declared the concept as a Filipino core value. He upheld that kapwa implied moral and normative aspects that obliged a person to treat one another as fellow human being and therefore as equal. Such a position was “definitely inconsistent with exploitative human interactions,” he insited. But he also foresaw that this Filipino core value was threatened by spreading Western influences, when he wrote: “...once AKO starts thinking of himself as separate from KAPWA, the Filipino ‘self’ gets to be individuated as in the Western sense and, in effect, denies the status of KAPWA to the other.”
Today, most people who hear the word “kapwa” think of their neighbor. But standard Tagalog dictionaries like Vito Santos’ render kapwa as “fellow being” and “other person.” And older, Spanish dictionaries translate kapuwa as “both” and “the one and the other”, or “others.”
From all these, Enriquez concluded that the original Filipino idea of “others” was inclusive. He wrote: “The English “others” is actually used in opposition to the “self,” and implies the recognition of the self as a separate entity. In contrast, kapwa is a recognition of a shared identity, an inner self shared with others.”
He also said: “A person starts having a kapwa not so much because of a recognition of status given him by others but more so because of his awareness of shared identity. The ako (ego) and the iba-sa-akin (others) are one and the same in kapwa psychology.”
This Filipino linguistic unity of the self and the other is unique and unlike in most modern languages. Why? Because implied in such inclusiveness is the moral obligation to treat one another as equal fellow human beings. If we can do this— even starting in our own family or our circle of friends— we are on the way to practice peace. We are Kapwa People.
Katrin M. de Guia performed her pioneering research on the Filipino culture-bearer artists all over the country while earning her PhD in Filipino Psychology (Sikolohiyang Pilipino) at the Unversity of the Philippines. She will be a featured speaker at the Center for Babaylan Studies 2010 Conference
Link accessed 6/24/2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Modern Practices - Pagtatawid: Praying and Crossing Beyond
Praying and Crossing Beyond (exerpt, August 28, 2007 post)
by M. Villariba in Living and Learning Together
Q : Did you learn the word “pagtatawid” from your mother or grandmother?
At first I learned the use of the word “pagtatawid”, which is literally means crossing from grassroots women in Bay, Laguna who described the role of parents and elders in guiding the young to make the journey from birth to womb, from infancy to adulthood, from life to death. Pagtatawid has three stages: guiding a baby, as a parent, to become a human being, “maging tao”; guiding a person to be a good person , “maging mabuting tao” and assisting the person to complete one’s journey on this life to the next life, paglalakbay tungo sa kabilang buhay.
Q: Do you practice pagtatawid ?
A: Yes, but it took all of 50 years to learn, understand and do it! I will describe recent experiences in pagtatawid with faith, hope and love.
My formation categories are informed by the roles of pre-colonial settlements, when the Philippines was not yet a state. These are the roles of Babaylan, Datu, Panday at Kawal-Bayani. [1] As my experiences deepened, I realized that the babaylan had to develop the attitudes and skills of a datu, panday and kawal-bayani especially when they had to practice pag-uugnay and pagtatawid.
Learning from my grandmother Maria and mother Flotilda how to prepare family and kin during birthing to dying was a key to my discovery of pagtatawid. Then I became a feminist in the early 70s with three of my classmates in Ateneo graduate school tutoring me on what it meant to be a woman, sensuous and erotic. I read all kinds of literature on philosophy, religion, sociology, history and observed rural and urban families. I took a special course on paranormal psychology and trained under Fr. Jaime Bulatao, SJ, in Ateneo. He showed me how exorcism was done.
Q: Did your feminism help in becoming a babaylan?
For three decades from the early 70’s to the 90’s, I worked on my feminism. I believed in developing the wholeness of women, the pagkatao (being human) at pagkababae (being woman ) and liberating women from oppressive power relations, the pagpapalaya. But the feminist discourse was largely informed by radical and liberal Western ideas and it took me time to discover the indigenous, nonpatriarchal paradigm of Filipinos – kapwa-tao, the concepts of loob at labas na tao.
The feminist debates I got involved with did not initially articulate spirituality. I was part of the nationalist movement and the discourse was mainly Marxist, Maoist, and secular. I could not articulate the sacred coherently because I did not belong to a community who could affirm and validate my spirituality, a community with an epistemological authority. It was only when I conducted regular women’s education in the early 80’s that I realized the time was ripe for women to be openly spiritual. I found friends like Sr. Mary John Mananzan, Sr. Lydia Lascano and Sr. Rosario Battung who shared mystical experiences . When I turned 50 years old in 2000, there was enough epistemological evidence to pursue “babaylanship.” Women in my solidarity circles were already conversant with babaylan work.
When Ed and I lived in Europe in the late 80s ,I started my journals so that I could distill the lessons.
I observed women and men who were migrant datu, panday, kawal and babaylan across races and ethnicities. I explored the approach of reading people as living books. I developed active meditation. I practised shibashi, chi qong and much recently, tetada kalimasada – eastern disciplines of cultivating inner energy.
Q: Can you elaborate ?
A: The practice of pag-uugnay/ pagtatawid (connecting and crossing) is a sacred task.
Pagtatawid starts with pag-uugnay because the babaylan must first be conscious of the Divine Presence. It demands mindfulness and considerable energy. It is like studying geography, learning navigation, and organizing enough resources to get to where another life is and returning safely. If one were to sail beyond this world, you need a sacred seaworthy boat, become a one-person crew with a mastery of the currents, a good sense of direction, passion and faith to complete the trip. It is the babaylan who does the connecting where she dances her way into a divine web and when the Divine Artist-Creator gives her a sacred line, she prepares and assists the person to reach the crossing.
[1] Zeus A.Salazar, Ang Babaylan sa Kasaysayan ng Pilipinas, Bagong Kasaysayan, Blg., Unibersidad ng Pilipinas,1999.
Links accessed June 17, 2009.
by M. Villariba in Living and Learning Together
Q : Did you learn the word “pagtatawid” from your mother or grandmother?
At first I learned the use of the word “pagtatawid”, which is literally means crossing from grassroots women in Bay, Laguna who described the role of parents and elders in guiding the young to make the journey from birth to womb, from infancy to adulthood, from life to death. Pagtatawid has three stages: guiding a baby, as a parent, to become a human being, “maging tao”; guiding a person to be a good person , “maging mabuting tao” and assisting the person to complete one’s journey on this life to the next life, paglalakbay tungo sa kabilang buhay.
Q: Do you practice pagtatawid ?
A: Yes, but it took all of 50 years to learn, understand and do it! I will describe recent experiences in pagtatawid with faith, hope and love.
My formation categories are informed by the roles of pre-colonial settlements, when the Philippines was not yet a state. These are the roles of Babaylan, Datu, Panday at Kawal-Bayani. [1] As my experiences deepened, I realized that the babaylan had to develop the attitudes and skills of a datu, panday and kawal-bayani especially when they had to practice pag-uugnay and pagtatawid.
Learning from my grandmother Maria and mother Flotilda how to prepare family and kin during birthing to dying was a key to my discovery of pagtatawid. Then I became a feminist in the early 70s with three of my classmates in Ateneo graduate school tutoring me on what it meant to be a woman, sensuous and erotic. I read all kinds of literature on philosophy, religion, sociology, history and observed rural and urban families. I took a special course on paranormal psychology and trained under Fr. Jaime Bulatao, SJ, in Ateneo. He showed me how exorcism was done.
Q: Did your feminism help in becoming a babaylan?
For three decades from the early 70’s to the 90’s, I worked on my feminism. I believed in developing the wholeness of women, the pagkatao (being human) at pagkababae (being woman ) and liberating women from oppressive power relations, the pagpapalaya. But the feminist discourse was largely informed by radical and liberal Western ideas and it took me time to discover the indigenous, nonpatriarchal paradigm of Filipinos – kapwa-tao, the concepts of loob at labas na tao.
The feminist debates I got involved with did not initially articulate spirituality. I was part of the nationalist movement and the discourse was mainly Marxist, Maoist, and secular. I could not articulate the sacred coherently because I did not belong to a community who could affirm and validate my spirituality, a community with an epistemological authority. It was only when I conducted regular women’s education in the early 80’s that I realized the time was ripe for women to be openly spiritual. I found friends like Sr. Mary John Mananzan, Sr. Lydia Lascano and Sr. Rosario Battung who shared mystical experiences . When I turned 50 years old in 2000, there was enough epistemological evidence to pursue “babaylanship.” Women in my solidarity circles were already conversant with babaylan work.
When Ed and I lived in Europe in the late 80s ,I started my journals so that I could distill the lessons.
I observed women and men who were migrant datu, panday, kawal and babaylan across races and ethnicities. I explored the approach of reading people as living books. I developed active meditation. I practised shibashi, chi qong and much recently, tetada kalimasada – eastern disciplines of cultivating inner energy.
Q: Can you elaborate ?
A: The practice of pag-uugnay/ pagtatawid (connecting and crossing) is a sacred task.
Pagtatawid starts with pag-uugnay because the babaylan must first be conscious of the Divine Presence. It demands mindfulness and considerable energy. It is like studying geography, learning navigation, and organizing enough resources to get to where another life is and returning safely. If one were to sail beyond this world, you need a sacred seaworthy boat, become a one-person crew with a mastery of the currents, a good sense of direction, passion and faith to complete the trip. It is the babaylan who does the connecting where she dances her way into a divine web and when the Divine Artist-Creator gives her a sacred line, she prepares and assists the person to reach the crossing.
[1] Zeus A.Salazar, Ang Babaylan sa Kasaysayan ng Pilipinas, Bagong Kasaysayan, Blg., Unibersidad ng Pilipinas,1999.
Links accessed June 17, 2009.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Conversations - Cultural Foundations: Kapwa and Bayan
Filipino Community Portrait (excerpt)
by MC Canlas
Cultural Foundations: Kapwa and Bayan
A fundamental Filipino cultural concept is kapwa, the unity of "self " and "others," a sense of "fellow being," a recognition of shared identity or inner self shared with others. "Anyone looking for a core concept that would help explain Filipino interpersonal behavior cannot help but be struck by the super ordinate concept of kapwa," wrote Filipino psychologist Virgilio Enriquez.
The Filipino immigrant is fond of asking a newly introduced Filipino, "Taga saan ka sa atin?" The question, literally "Where are you from in the Philippines?" is an essential part of Filipino identity formation. The usual response consists of one’s family name and the community he or she belongs to or identifies with. In my case, for example: "I am Canlas of San Fernando, Pampanga, but we moved to Quezon City when I was in my teens."
The question, posed without malice or sense of intrusion, elicits a response that facilitates discovery of a common bond, or ka. Kababayan, for example, are town mates (ka + bayan, or town) and kamag-anak (ka + mag-anak, or family) are relatives. Filipinos naturally seek out levels and degrees of connectivity to build kapwa and sociocultural affinity that contextualizes their interaction and establish rapport.
Again, in my case, for example, likely follow-up questions would be, "Are you related to the Canlas of Santo Tomas?" " Do you know the Calalangs in San Fernando?" "Was your family ever in Tondo, Manila? My mother’s mother is from there and she’s a Canlas," and so on. Chances are the person asking me will discover that our grandparents were cousins or our parents attended the same school, for example, and say: "Ah, it’s a small world, we’re related!"
This emphasis on place of origin dates back to long before Filipinos were even known as Filipinos, a time when our ways of life, culture, and identity were tied to settlement patterns and environment. Settlements tended to be located along rivers, lakeshores, and seacoasts, and even those in the hinterlands tended to parallel mountain streams. In fact, names for various Filipino ethnolinguistic groups and geographical locations are derived from bodies of water. For example, Tagalog means "native of the river"; Kapampangan are "people of the riverbank," Cebu comes from Sugbu, meaning "riverbank," and Lanao, Maranao, Maguindanao, and Mindanao all come from danao, "lake of flooded areas." This water-based culture, coupled with a sacred view of the mountains, constituted the material basis of the beliefs, customs, and traditions of the ancestors of Filipinos. The houses (bahay) were usually located near people’s source of livelihood, along the shore in coastal communities, and closer to the fields in the interior. People lived together in barangays of thirty to a hundred families, and social organizations developed around kinship and neighborhood connections.
Their sense of community, or bayan, is deeply rooted in extended family relationships and neighborhood bonds. The core traditions of family-based communities as expressed in their language and culture, leadership, and governance structures, and spiritual and social life have persisted for centuries despite colonialism, social upheaval, and natural disasters.
The connection between family and community is transparent in the lexicon. The term bayan is relative. Today, it may mean "motherland," Inang Bayan; "nation-state," Bayang Pilipinas; "town" or "municipality," Bayan ng San Roque; "town center," kabayanan; people or fellow citizen or belonging to the same ethno-linguistic group or region, kabayan or kababayan. The protector of the community is Bayani, while bayanihan, usually symbolized by a group of people carrying a house to another place, is a valued practice of cooperation, self-help, and mutual support among neighbors and extended families. Balikbayan is community and family renewing, either physically or spiritually to one’s homeland. Filipino returnees and tourists in the Philippines are called balikbayans.
by MC Canlas
Cultural Foundations: Kapwa and Bayan
A fundamental Filipino cultural concept is kapwa, the unity of "self " and "others," a sense of "fellow being," a recognition of shared identity or inner self shared with others. "Anyone looking for a core concept that would help explain Filipino interpersonal behavior cannot help but be struck by the super ordinate concept of kapwa," wrote Filipino psychologist Virgilio Enriquez.
The Filipino immigrant is fond of asking a newly introduced Filipino, "Taga saan ka sa atin?" The question, literally "Where are you from in the Philippines?" is an essential part of Filipino identity formation. The usual response consists of one’s family name and the community he or she belongs to or identifies with. In my case, for example: "I am Canlas of San Fernando, Pampanga, but we moved to Quezon City when I was in my teens."
The question, posed without malice or sense of intrusion, elicits a response that facilitates discovery of a common bond, or ka. Kababayan, for example, are town mates (ka + bayan, or town) and kamag-anak (ka + mag-anak, or family) are relatives. Filipinos naturally seek out levels and degrees of connectivity to build kapwa and sociocultural affinity that contextualizes their interaction and establish rapport.
Again, in my case, for example, likely follow-up questions would be, "Are you related to the Canlas of Santo Tomas?" " Do you know the Calalangs in San Fernando?" "Was your family ever in Tondo, Manila? My mother’s mother is from there and she’s a Canlas," and so on. Chances are the person asking me will discover that our grandparents were cousins or our parents attended the same school, for example, and say: "Ah, it’s a small world, we’re related!"
This emphasis on place of origin dates back to long before Filipinos were even known as Filipinos, a time when our ways of life, culture, and identity were tied to settlement patterns and environment. Settlements tended to be located along rivers, lakeshores, and seacoasts, and even those in the hinterlands tended to parallel mountain streams. In fact, names for various Filipino ethnolinguistic groups and geographical locations are derived from bodies of water. For example, Tagalog means "native of the river"; Kapampangan are "people of the riverbank," Cebu comes from Sugbu, meaning "riverbank," and Lanao, Maranao, Maguindanao, and Mindanao all come from danao, "lake of flooded areas." This water-based culture, coupled with a sacred view of the mountains, constituted the material basis of the beliefs, customs, and traditions of the ancestors of Filipinos. The houses (bahay) were usually located near people’s source of livelihood, along the shore in coastal communities, and closer to the fields in the interior. People lived together in barangays of thirty to a hundred families, and social organizations developed around kinship and neighborhood connections.
Their sense of community, or bayan, is deeply rooted in extended family relationships and neighborhood bonds. The core traditions of family-based communities as expressed in their language and culture, leadership, and governance structures, and spiritual and social life have persisted for centuries despite colonialism, social upheaval, and natural disasters.
The connection between family and community is transparent in the lexicon. The term bayan is relative. Today, it may mean "motherland," Inang Bayan; "nation-state," Bayang Pilipinas; "town" or "municipality," Bayan ng San Roque; "town center," kabayanan; people or fellow citizen or belonging to the same ethno-linguistic group or region, kabayan or kababayan. The protector of the community is Bayani, while bayanihan, usually symbolized by a group of people carrying a house to another place, is a valued practice of cooperation, self-help, and mutual support among neighbors and extended families. Balikbayan is community and family renewing, either physically or spiritually to one’s homeland. Filipino returnees and tourists in the Philippines are called balikbayans.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
In The News: Filipino Women Power
Originally published in Filipinas Magazine in the March 2009 issue, reprinted with permission from the author
Filipino Women Power
by Allen Gaborro (Filipinas Magazine, pg. 45-47)
It was with the arrival of European colonialism in the 16th century that the high ideal of an indigenous Filipina woman and its practice was uprooted alongside much of the pre-colonial culture and society that it had been embedded in for centuries. One of those feminine ideals was that of the “Babaylan” which is akin to something along the lines of a spiritual leader. Several definitions have been attributed to the term Babaylan. It is said to be the Visayan word for either “priestess,” “shaman,” “medicine man/woman,” “miracle-worker,” “mystic,” or for all of the above.
While both males and females could be babaylans, it was women who made up the majority of them during the pre-colonial period. Not relegated to being simply spiritual leaders, babaylans also assumed specialized roles in their respective pre-modern communities. Babaylans performed as healers, as receptacles of knowledge, as skilled practitioners in shamanistic traditions, and as native philosophers and therapists. Other duties ascribed to the babaylans included social mediation and spiritual mediumship.
What is perhaps most fascinating about the responsibilities of a babaylan is the amount of political influence and power they wielded. There is a considerable amount of historical evidence showing that babaylan women functioned as important counselors in their tribal communities. Babaylan women in addition, were valued as political and economic administrators in the service of the ruling tribal chiefs (datus). They also acted as communal custodians, oracles of wisdom, and as authoritative leaders of their people. In short, the babaylan were a pillar of social stability, or more precisely one of the four pillars—datu (chief), bagani (warrior), panday (native technologist), babaylan—of the barangay community. Indeed, they were what one writer termed as their community’s “central personality.”
In a sign of the more egalitarian ethos they lived in, the babaylan women were afforded comparable, if not entirely equal, status with men in their community’s social hierarchy. In some cases, they found themselves even more powerful and influential than their male counterparts. In fact, few decisions were reached without the consent of the babaylan.
While most babaylans were female, their male versions deserve some mention. It is said that the babaylan was the symbolic manifestation of both female and male power, an approximation of the yin and yang principle. Interestingly, babaylan men were believed to have worn feminine attire. This goes back to the idea that some babaylans were androgynous in nature and that they were endowed with the sexual properties of both genders.
The process of becoming a babaylan involved supernatural occurrences and paranormal states. According to babaylanic traditions, a person can begin developing into a babaylan by experiencing dreams that express a sacred summons, or a “rukut,” emanating from a mystical being. It should be pointed out that a person can become a babaylan by way of inheritance. A descendant can transmit a babaylanic tradition down to their successors.
Sometimes a sacred summons comes to a person in a trance. This trance resembles somewhat the phenomena of spiritual possession. If a person receives such a summons, they are deemed to be especially chosen by supernatural spirits to be a babaylan.
The chosen ones are then escorted by a “surog” or a spirit guide on a spiritual expedition. This journey will take them to a transcendental endpoint where they will be able to communicate with ancestral spirits. The completion of this unworldly journey, as it is indicated by the surmounting of the trance stage, signals the chosen one’s readiness for interaction with supernatural entities.
Under the auspices of an active babaylan, the newly-discovered babaylan is immersed in the essentials of babaylanic rituals and practices. Once the babaylan finishes their training, they receive amulets and other small ornaments (“pangalap”) which they use for a variety of ritualistic customs. Typically, these rituals entail ancestral spirit worship. Babaylanic rituals also have therapeutic powers that are utilized for the benefit of the sick. Ritualistic chanting is conducted by babaylans whenever a community is hit with an emergency or with trouble of some kind. The babaylanic rituals are intended to mollify the spiritual entities that are believed to be the origin of the difficulty.
Why is the memory of the babaylan so faint in the collective Filipino historical consciousness, given the leading positions that they held in pre-colonial society? Probably a key reason was the advent of Spanish colonialism in the Philippines in the 1500’s. The Spanish colonizers brought with them notions of masculine vanity, a dominant patriarchical paradigm, and a Catholic clergy that cast aspersions on the babaylan. This foreign clergy would supplant the babaylan and their rituals and instill Christian teachings and sacraments in their place.
It was not beyond the Spanish to use unadulterated violence in repressing the babaylan. In her publication, “A Book of Her Own: Words and Images to Honor the Babaylan,” Professor Leny Mendoza Strobel writes that, as recounted by historian Mila Guerrero, babaylan women were physically slaughtered with wanton cruelty. Their bodies were consequently, in Strobel’s words, mutilated as well: “as if to make sure [the babaylan] bodies never return, their bodies were chopped and fed to crocodiles.”
The Spanish legitimized their pogrom against the babaylan by invoking the preeminence of Christianity in the new colony. The babaylan and their philosophy were seen as an anathema to the colonizers’ religious beliefs and therefore had to be eradicated for the sake of the Christian faith. As part of that strategy, the Spanish friars demonized the babaylans as the “monstrous feminine.” Accompanying this perception was the friars’ claim that the babaylan were malignant enchantresses who were endowed with black magic powers.
The Spanish onslaught on the babaylan disrupted the generational inheritance of babaylanic knowledge and traditions from babaylanic mothers to their daughters. Attempts to revive that inheritance with the defeat of the Spanish and the dawn of American colonialism were futile for the most part as the babaylans were regarded as heretical by American Protestants in the Philippines as they were by the Spanish Catholic friars.
At present, the babaylan tradition is being rejuvenated as a Filipina expression of feminine power, independence, and wisdom. As Neferti Xina M. Tadiar writes in her essay “Filipinas ‘Living in a Time of War,’” contemporary Filipinas are reinventing “the role of the babaylan.” This role, Tadiar suggests, encapsulates the power that Filipinas exert. She means both the “the power over life” and “the power for life” that Filipinas utilize “in struggle” against social and political repression.
This 21st century version of the babaylan is a fresh take on the tradition, one that keeps its followers engaged in the pre-modern understanding of the sagacious babaylan female. This version at once, espouses a babaylanic spirit that characterizes modern-day Filipinas’ collective empowerment and resistance against historical subjugation and inequity.
Filipina intellectuals and activists have divided Filipina women into two definitive archetypes: the Maria Clara type and the babaylan. The Maria Clara type is identified with the image of the submissive, compliant Filipina. In contrast, the babaylan type constitutes the politically-conscious, autonomous, and enlightened Filipina female.
Professor Leny Mendoza Strobel, through her writings and scholarship, has emphasized the postcolonial bearing that has been attached to the babaylan. Strobel reprises the babaylan as a revolutionary force, as a symbol for tearing down the psychological edifice of colonial dispossession and domination that has plagued Filipinos. She writes that by invoking the babaylan name, Filipinos everywhere can draw on its “power to heal” and its “power to call the wandering, colonized soul, back into its own body and home.” Strobel also tells us that babaylanic traditions “provide us a language for talking back to the [American] empire that we now paradoxically belong to.”
The babaylan ideal has been modified over the course of Philippine history. And yet, even in its evolved state, how the babaylan heritage is understood still revolves around its pre-modern past. That compelling and significant past is very much alive today thanks in part to the restoration of the babaylan tradition.
Filipino Women Power
by Allen Gaborro (Filipinas Magazine, pg. 45-47)
It was with the arrival of European colonialism in the 16th century that the high ideal of an indigenous Filipina woman and its practice was uprooted alongside much of the pre-colonial culture and society that it had been embedded in for centuries. One of those feminine ideals was that of the “Babaylan” which is akin to something along the lines of a spiritual leader. Several definitions have been attributed to the term Babaylan. It is said to be the Visayan word for either “priestess,” “shaman,” “medicine man/woman,” “miracle-worker,” “mystic,” or for all of the above.
While both males and females could be babaylans, it was women who made up the majority of them during the pre-colonial period. Not relegated to being simply spiritual leaders, babaylans also assumed specialized roles in their respective pre-modern communities. Babaylans performed as healers, as receptacles of knowledge, as skilled practitioners in shamanistic traditions, and as native philosophers and therapists. Other duties ascribed to the babaylans included social mediation and spiritual mediumship.
What is perhaps most fascinating about the responsibilities of a babaylan is the amount of political influence and power they wielded. There is a considerable amount of historical evidence showing that babaylan women functioned as important counselors in their tribal communities. Babaylan women in addition, were valued as political and economic administrators in the service of the ruling tribal chiefs (datus). They also acted as communal custodians, oracles of wisdom, and as authoritative leaders of their people. In short, the babaylan were a pillar of social stability, or more precisely one of the four pillars—datu (chief), bagani (warrior), panday (native technologist), babaylan—of the barangay community. Indeed, they were what one writer termed as their community’s “central personality.”
In a sign of the more egalitarian ethos they lived in, the babaylan women were afforded comparable, if not entirely equal, status with men in their community’s social hierarchy. In some cases, they found themselves even more powerful and influential than their male counterparts. In fact, few decisions were reached without the consent of the babaylan.
While most babaylans were female, their male versions deserve some mention. It is said that the babaylan was the symbolic manifestation of both female and male power, an approximation of the yin and yang principle. Interestingly, babaylan men were believed to have worn feminine attire. This goes back to the idea that some babaylans were androgynous in nature and that they were endowed with the sexual properties of both genders.
The process of becoming a babaylan involved supernatural occurrences and paranormal states. According to babaylanic traditions, a person can begin developing into a babaylan by experiencing dreams that express a sacred summons, or a “rukut,” emanating from a mystical being. It should be pointed out that a person can become a babaylan by way of inheritance. A descendant can transmit a babaylanic tradition down to their successors.
Sometimes a sacred summons comes to a person in a trance. This trance resembles somewhat the phenomena of spiritual possession. If a person receives such a summons, they are deemed to be especially chosen by supernatural spirits to be a babaylan.
The chosen ones are then escorted by a “surog” or a spirit guide on a spiritual expedition. This journey will take them to a transcendental endpoint where they will be able to communicate with ancestral spirits. The completion of this unworldly journey, as it is indicated by the surmounting of the trance stage, signals the chosen one’s readiness for interaction with supernatural entities.
Under the auspices of an active babaylan, the newly-discovered babaylan is immersed in the essentials of babaylanic rituals and practices. Once the babaylan finishes their training, they receive amulets and other small ornaments (“pangalap”) which they use for a variety of ritualistic customs. Typically, these rituals entail ancestral spirit worship. Babaylanic rituals also have therapeutic powers that are utilized for the benefit of the sick. Ritualistic chanting is conducted by babaylans whenever a community is hit with an emergency or with trouble of some kind. The babaylanic rituals are intended to mollify the spiritual entities that are believed to be the origin of the difficulty.
Why is the memory of the babaylan so faint in the collective Filipino historical consciousness, given the leading positions that they held in pre-colonial society? Probably a key reason was the advent of Spanish colonialism in the Philippines in the 1500’s. The Spanish colonizers brought with them notions of masculine vanity, a dominant patriarchical paradigm, and a Catholic clergy that cast aspersions on the babaylan. This foreign clergy would supplant the babaylan and their rituals and instill Christian teachings and sacraments in their place.
It was not beyond the Spanish to use unadulterated violence in repressing the babaylan. In her publication, “A Book of Her Own: Words and Images to Honor the Babaylan,” Professor Leny Mendoza Strobel writes that, as recounted by historian Mila Guerrero, babaylan women were physically slaughtered with wanton cruelty. Their bodies were consequently, in Strobel’s words, mutilated as well: “as if to make sure [the babaylan] bodies never return, their bodies were chopped and fed to crocodiles.”
The Spanish legitimized their pogrom against the babaylan by invoking the preeminence of Christianity in the new colony. The babaylan and their philosophy were seen as an anathema to the colonizers’ religious beliefs and therefore had to be eradicated for the sake of the Christian faith. As part of that strategy, the Spanish friars demonized the babaylans as the “monstrous feminine.” Accompanying this perception was the friars’ claim that the babaylan were malignant enchantresses who were endowed with black magic powers.
The Spanish onslaught on the babaylan disrupted the generational inheritance of babaylanic knowledge and traditions from babaylanic mothers to their daughters. Attempts to revive that inheritance with the defeat of the Spanish and the dawn of American colonialism were futile for the most part as the babaylans were regarded as heretical by American Protestants in the Philippines as they were by the Spanish Catholic friars.
At present, the babaylan tradition is being rejuvenated as a Filipina expression of feminine power, independence, and wisdom. As Neferti Xina M. Tadiar writes in her essay “Filipinas ‘Living in a Time of War,’” contemporary Filipinas are reinventing “the role of the babaylan.” This role, Tadiar suggests, encapsulates the power that Filipinas exert. She means both the “the power over life” and “the power for life” that Filipinas utilize “in struggle” against social and political repression.
This 21st century version of the babaylan is a fresh take on the tradition, one that keeps its followers engaged in the pre-modern understanding of the sagacious babaylan female. This version at once, espouses a babaylanic spirit that characterizes modern-day Filipinas’ collective empowerment and resistance against historical subjugation and inequity.
Filipina intellectuals and activists have divided Filipina women into two definitive archetypes: the Maria Clara type and the babaylan. The Maria Clara type is identified with the image of the submissive, compliant Filipina. In contrast, the babaylan type constitutes the politically-conscious, autonomous, and enlightened Filipina female.
Professor Leny Mendoza Strobel, through her writings and scholarship, has emphasized the postcolonial bearing that has been attached to the babaylan. Strobel reprises the babaylan as a revolutionary force, as a symbol for tearing down the psychological edifice of colonial dispossession and domination that has plagued Filipinos. She writes that by invoking the babaylan name, Filipinos everywhere can draw on its “power to heal” and its “power to call the wandering, colonized soul, back into its own body and home.” Strobel also tells us that babaylanic traditions “provide us a language for talking back to the [American] empire that we now paradoxically belong to.”
The babaylan ideal has been modified over the course of Philippine history. And yet, even in its evolved state, how the babaylan heritage is understood still revolves around its pre-modern past. That compelling and significant past is very much alive today thanks in part to the restoration of the babaylan tradition.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Features: Back from the Goddess Gathering - Part 3
Over the weekend of May 15, Letecia Layson attended the RCG-I Gathering of Priestesses and Goddess Women in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. There Leticia presented a workshop titled workshop "Babaylan - Past, Present and Future". The Center asked Letecia to share her experiences there. Part 1 of this article is her open letter to the Babaylan Yahoo group. Part 2 sets the context of her presentation. Part 3 is the resources she provided to workshop participants.
Here is some information to supplement what I shared about USA's historical role in colonialism and in the shaping of what is now the Philippines: Information on US Territories
Two authors who have books on the History of US that you might not have gotten in school:
The US History UnCensored by Carolyn Baker
The Peoples' History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Words of Power
As is the case of many cultures who have been colonized the original peoples of the land, indigenous people, are identified by 135+ distinct languages. Babaylan is the Visayan word, there were/are many words used in other tribes/languages. Common to these languages is only one pronoun. "..no gender pronouns or suffixes to denote sex." Carolyn Brewer, Holy Confrontation. Taking into account the varied creation stories a common theme is the co-creation of female and male. The most widely known creation story comes from the Visayan Islands of Magandas, the female (Beauty) and Malakas, the male (Strength). In the story, the human female and male emerge from a bamboo plant that was split. Regardless of which comes out first (in different versions of the story), Malakas bows to Maganda (as in strength bows to beauty) and they walk of hand in hand. The qualities of Strength and Beauty are cultivated in both males and females rather than gender assigning these attributes. You can read a version of the story here.
Ways of Knowing Tacit/Explicit
"Ancestral traditions are based on tacit modes of knowing. Examples are dreading body gestures, interpreting metaphors, deriving signs from complexities in nature. All these are aptitudes of this ancient way of understanding. Other skills are dreams interpretations, visualizations, trance techniques and more. Intergral to a lifestyle that is born from Filipino personhood, such pre-rational cognitive talents are universal and are found in every other corner of the world."
"Tacit knowing is assumed to be the older way of human understanding because it works with the primary processes of sensing, intuiting and feeling (pakiramdam) . Its function is to find order, closure and consistency in an overwhelmingly complex world."
"Explicit knowing evolved much later in our brains. Called the secondary process, it is seen to regulate the linear "either-or" operations at work when we make rational decisions. Its function is to regonize contrasts and to differentiate parts. This is also referred to as the "discovery process."
"Filipino person hood, after all, can be expected to differ from personality, because it is grounded in the tacit knowing (pakirmandam) rather than explicit knowing."
Note: Pakiramdam is "shared inner perception"
Quotes from KAPWA - the Self in the Other by Katrin de Guia
To facilitate the decolnization process and reference Filipinos back to their own her/history and culture Virgilio Enriquez developed Filipino Psychology or Sikolohiyang Plipino in 1975 . It is rooted in the experience, ideas and cultural orientation of Filipino http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Philippine_ Psychology A core value is KAPWA translated as 'the self in the other', the shared self or togetherness. Katrina de Guia has written a book entitled KAPWA - the Self in the Other (eds note: http://ugnayan.110mb.com/public_html/cnv%20stories/Indigenous%20Values.html - this link disabled as of 6/15/09).
This book includes Filipino culture bearers and by their livingness demonstrate and illustrate a living psychology of the people, not bound by western filters. The female and male are equally honored. The culture is about the children, unlike western culture that is focused on the adult male. One can see this reflected in the way Catholic Religion has adapted to the culture with Santo Nino and the strong female influence as in Suprema Isabel Suarez that Sr Mary John Mananzan writes about in her book Women, Religion and Spirituality in Asia. You can find some information out about Suprema Isabel Suarez [here] and [here]. According to Mananzan, the Ciudad Mistica De Dios was founded by Maria Bernarda Balitaan born in 1876. Her birth was considered to be the dawn of the Age of the Mother. An article is availabe for more info.
Filipino Community Portrait "..names for various Filipino ethnolinguistic groups and geographical locations are derived from bodies of water...This water-based culture, coupled with a sacred view of the mountains, constituded the material basis of the beliefs, costoms and traditions of the ancestors of the Filipino."
Holy Confrontation - Religion, Gender and Sexuality in the Philippines, 1521-1685 by Carolyn Brewer. Here is a review of the book and an article you can access on-line.
The Filipino Women;Before and After the Spanish Conquest of the Philippines (booklet) by Sr Mary John Mananzan
The Woman Question in the Philippines (booklet) by Sr Mary John Mananzan
Celebrating 100 years of feminism in the Philippines Sr Mary John Mananzan, Mother Superior of Saint Scolastica's College hosted a celebration and Babaylan Symposium with Agnes N. Miciat-Cacayan as the keynote speaker. Her presentation "Babaylan: She Dances in Wholeness can be accessed here. Dance as trance, dance as prayer, dance as healing are central to the work of the Babaylan. Agnes is the author of "The Shaman Woman's Dream - How can we worship god without the forest?"
Babaylan
Perla Daly writes at her website:
"Leadership is a sacred duty---not an act of self-aggrandizement . Let me put that in another way--- the most essential role of leadership is for survival, but the most sacred role of leadership is service."
"The Babaylan performed 4 main power roles in pre-hispanic Philippine village communities which were: Leader, Counselor, Healer, and Sage.
All those roles carried with it the qualities of community caretakers and bearers of wisdom.
Each role had a particular strength and spiritual principle that differentiated it from another.
The Leader embodied courage, making a stand and giving direction to a community. He or she was a leader and at times of conflict, a Warrior."
The Four Fold Way by Angeles Arrien reflect these primary babaylan roles.
I quoted from Marianita (Girlie) Villariba's article "Babaylan Women as Guide to a Life of Justice and Peace"
"Who is the Babaylan
Who is a babaylan? The babaylans, predominantly women, were mystical women who wielded social and spiritual power in pre-colonial Philippine society before the coming of the Spanish conquerors in the 16th century.
In his research on pre-colonial women, anthropologist Dr. Zeus Salazar described the babaylan as a specialist in the fields of culture, religion, medicine and all kinds of theoretical knowledge about the phenomenon of nature.
How did babaylans become babaylans?
Women had dreams and experienced life-altering events that led them to become babaylans of their specific communities. The traditional path in babaylan formation was to be called by a mystical source or to inherit the role from an elder babaylan. The sacred call would come in a dream or the person would experience a life-threatening illness, be healed by prayers and then experience a change of consciousness, or what is called sinasapian (a spirit possessing the self). But this possession is just a signal. What is important is the continuing transformation which gave the babaylan the ability to widen her circles of concern and learn her multiple functions in society.
In this writers interaction with members of Lumad communities in Mindanao, especially the Matigsalom, she learned that the practice of choosing a babaylan is a lifelong process. Any woman or man who could identify and solve the problems of the community can be chosen a babaylan. She had to demonstrate her leadership in solving its problems as they arise and mature. In other Lumad communities, a woman or man must be able to wield a sword or a weapon in defense of the community. Once proven as a warrior, she would develop further her role as a babaylan. The education of a babaylan is lifelong and she becomes a full fledged babaylan when she understands and embodies the multiple functions of priestess, healer, sage and seer. That is why babaylans are already in their maturing years when they assume the mantle of babaylanism. "
Filipino Goddesses
From the womb of Mebuyan (Mebuyan is an Earth Goddess) by Vivian Nobles, Agnes N Miclat-Cacayan, Sr Esperanza Clapano, Geejay Arriola
Reclaiming the Southeast Asian Goddess by Flaudette May V. Datuin
Contemporary Babaylan Movement International
The University of the Philippines Babaylan is the leading gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (lgbt) students' support group in all campuses of the State University, at the same time maintaining national and international linkages and presence.
Babaylan Denmark is an initiative of Philippine women's groups and women's desks in Europe, The Philippine Women's Network in Europe, came about as a result of the first Europewide conference of Filipinas held in Spain (Barcelona) on 23-26 September 1992. It was in response to a long felt need of Filipinas living and working in Europe to link together and forge unity to improve their situation, address specific issues affecting their lives as Filipinas, needing effective and liberating support for each other.
Babaylan - The Philippine Women's Network in Europe is an initiative of Philippine women's groups and women's desks in Europe. A result of the first Conference of Filipinas in Europe held in Barcelona on September 23-26, 1992, it is a response to a long felt need of Filipinas living and working in Europe to link together and forge unity to improve their situation, address specific issues affecting women. It seeks to develop an effective and liberating support system for Filipinas.
Contemporary Babaylan Movement and Arts in the USA
Evelie Delfino Sales Posch
Mary Ann Ubaldo. One of my favorite articles on the website is Mutya by Grace Odal.
Filipino Scripts
I am including additional information mentioned in the course of the content linking/bridging to other cultures:
Korean Shamanism Links
Kim Kumhwa
Invoking a Spirit of Peace
Shamans: The Next Generation
Gukmu (eds note: this site is in Korean.)
Dancing on Knives: An Introduction to the Politics of Sexuality and Gender in Korean Shamanism
Raindeer Ancestors - Elen of the Ways part 1 and part 2
European-inspired
Greenwood Tarot by Chesca Potter
Online Greenwood Tarot Handbook by Chesca Potter
Hawaiian-inspired
Hooponopono
Mabel Katz on Hooponopono
Self-Identity through Hooponopono, Mabel Katz
Filipino Bookshop Resources:
Philippine Expressions Bookshop - The Mail Order Bookshop dedicated to Filipino Americans in search of their roots.
2114 Trudie Drive
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275-2006, USA
Tel (310) 514-9139 FAX (310) 514-3485
e.mail: linda_nietes@ sbcglobal. net
We blazed the trail in promoting Philippine books in America. 2008 marks our 24th year of service to the Filipino American community. Thank you for your support. Mabuhay! Linda Nietes, a cultural activist, also owned Casalinda, the first all-Filipina bookshop in the Philippines, (Metro Manila,1972- 1983) and has provided a home for Philippine writings on both sides of the Pacific.
Arkipelago Books
ARKIPELAGO Philippine Books
953 Mission Street, San Francisco, Ca. 94103 U.S.A.
415/777-0108 Tel
415/777-0113 Fax
Besides Amazon.com I also use these online resources that compare pricing (both new and used) at FetchBook and BookFinder.
I think I covered all the material presented in the workshop. In closing I would like to invite you to visit The Center for Babaylan Studies to find out about a conference I am helping to organize in 2010. And be sure to stay in touch with the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology and their conference in 2010.
I look forward to our next connect. If I have left anything out, please remind me. I do not think all the women who were at the workshop wrote their email addresses down for me (due to me going a bit overtime). If you might pass this post on to them, I would be most grateful.
Love and Gratitude, Letecia
Republished with permission and gratitude. Links accessed 6/15/09.
Here is some information to supplement what I shared about USA's historical role in colonialism and in the shaping of what is now the Philippines: Information on US Territories
Two authors who have books on the History of US that you might not have gotten in school:
The US History UnCensored by Carolyn Baker
The Peoples' History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Words of Power
As is the case of many cultures who have been colonized the original peoples of the land, indigenous people, are identified by 135+ distinct languages. Babaylan is the Visayan word, there were/are many words used in other tribes/languages. Common to these languages is only one pronoun. "..no gender pronouns or suffixes to denote sex." Carolyn Brewer, Holy Confrontation. Taking into account the varied creation stories a common theme is the co-creation of female and male. The most widely known creation story comes from the Visayan Islands of Magandas, the female (Beauty) and Malakas, the male (Strength). In the story, the human female and male emerge from a bamboo plant that was split. Regardless of which comes out first (in different versions of the story), Malakas bows to Maganda (as in strength bows to beauty) and they walk of hand in hand. The qualities of Strength and Beauty are cultivated in both males and females rather than gender assigning these attributes. You can read a version of the story here.
Ways of Knowing Tacit/Explicit
"Ancestral traditions are based on tacit modes of knowing. Examples are dreading body gestures, interpreting metaphors, deriving signs from complexities in nature. All these are aptitudes of this ancient way of understanding. Other skills are dreams interpretations, visualizations, trance techniques and more. Intergral to a lifestyle that is born from Filipino personhood, such pre-rational cognitive talents are universal and are found in every other corner of the world."
"Tacit knowing is assumed to be the older way of human understanding because it works with the primary processes of sensing, intuiting and feeling (pakiramdam) . Its function is to find order, closure and consistency in an overwhelmingly complex world."
"Explicit knowing evolved much later in our brains. Called the secondary process, it is seen to regulate the linear "either-or" operations at work when we make rational decisions. Its function is to regonize contrasts and to differentiate parts. This is also referred to as the "discovery process."
"Filipino person hood, after all, can be expected to differ from personality, because it is grounded in the tacit knowing (pakirmandam) rather than explicit knowing."
Note: Pakiramdam is "shared inner perception"
Quotes from KAPWA - the Self in the Other by Katrin de Guia
To facilitate the decolnization process and reference Filipinos back to their own her/history and culture Virgilio Enriquez developed Filipino Psychology or Sikolohiyang Plipino in 1975 . It is rooted in the experience, ideas and cultural orientation of Filipino http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Philippine_ Psychology A core value is KAPWA translated as 'the self in the other', the shared self or togetherness. Katrina de Guia has written a book entitled KAPWA - the Self in the Other (eds note: http://ugnayan.110mb.com/public_html/cnv%20stories/Indigenous%20Values.html - this link disabled as of 6/15/09).
This book includes Filipino culture bearers and by their livingness demonstrate and illustrate a living psychology of the people, not bound by western filters. The female and male are equally honored. The culture is about the children, unlike western culture that is focused on the adult male. One can see this reflected in the way Catholic Religion has adapted to the culture with Santo Nino and the strong female influence as in Suprema Isabel Suarez that Sr Mary John Mananzan writes about in her book Women, Religion and Spirituality in Asia. You can find some information out about Suprema Isabel Suarez [here] and [here]. According to Mananzan, the Ciudad Mistica De Dios was founded by Maria Bernarda Balitaan born in 1876. Her birth was considered to be the dawn of the Age of the Mother. An article is availabe for more info.
Filipino Community Portrait "..names for various Filipino ethnolinguistic groups and geographical locations are derived from bodies of water...This water-based culture, coupled with a sacred view of the mountains, constituded the material basis of the beliefs, costoms and traditions of the ancestors of the Filipino."
Holy Confrontation - Religion, Gender and Sexuality in the Philippines, 1521-1685 by Carolyn Brewer. Here is a review of the book and an article you can access on-line.
The Filipino Women;Before and After the Spanish Conquest of the Philippines (booklet) by Sr Mary John Mananzan
The Woman Question in the Philippines (booklet) by Sr Mary John Mananzan
Celebrating 100 years of feminism in the Philippines Sr Mary John Mananzan, Mother Superior of Saint Scolastica's College hosted a celebration and Babaylan Symposium with Agnes N. Miciat-Cacayan as the keynote speaker. Her presentation "Babaylan: She Dances in Wholeness can be accessed here. Dance as trance, dance as prayer, dance as healing are central to the work of the Babaylan. Agnes is the author of "The Shaman Woman's Dream - How can we worship god without the forest?"
Babaylan
Perla Daly writes at her website:
"Leadership is a sacred duty---not an act of self-aggrandizement . Let me put that in another way--- the most essential role of leadership is for survival, but the most sacred role of leadership is service."
"The Babaylan performed 4 main power roles in pre-hispanic Philippine village communities which were: Leader, Counselor, Healer, and Sage.
All those roles carried with it the qualities of community caretakers and bearers of wisdom.
Each role had a particular strength and spiritual principle that differentiated it from another.
The Leader embodied courage, making a stand and giving direction to a community. He or she was a leader and at times of conflict, a Warrior."
The Four Fold Way by Angeles Arrien reflect these primary babaylan roles.
I quoted from Marianita (Girlie) Villariba's article "Babaylan Women as Guide to a Life of Justice and Peace"
"Who is the Babaylan
Who is a babaylan? The babaylans, predominantly women, were mystical women who wielded social and spiritual power in pre-colonial Philippine society before the coming of the Spanish conquerors in the 16th century.
In his research on pre-colonial women, anthropologist Dr. Zeus Salazar described the babaylan as a specialist in the fields of culture, religion, medicine and all kinds of theoretical knowledge about the phenomenon of nature.
How did babaylans become babaylans?
Women had dreams and experienced life-altering events that led them to become babaylans of their specific communities. The traditional path in babaylan formation was to be called by a mystical source or to inherit the role from an elder babaylan. The sacred call would come in a dream or the person would experience a life-threatening illness, be healed by prayers and then experience a change of consciousness, or what is called sinasapian (a spirit possessing the self). But this possession is just a signal. What is important is the continuing transformation which gave the babaylan the ability to widen her circles of concern and learn her multiple functions in society.
In this writers interaction with members of Lumad communities in Mindanao, especially the Matigsalom, she learned that the practice of choosing a babaylan is a lifelong process. Any woman or man who could identify and solve the problems of the community can be chosen a babaylan. She had to demonstrate her leadership in solving its problems as they arise and mature. In other Lumad communities, a woman or man must be able to wield a sword or a weapon in defense of the community. Once proven as a warrior, she would develop further her role as a babaylan. The education of a babaylan is lifelong and she becomes a full fledged babaylan when she understands and embodies the multiple functions of priestess, healer, sage and seer. That is why babaylans are already in their maturing years when they assume the mantle of babaylanism. "
Filipino Goddesses
From the womb of Mebuyan (Mebuyan is an Earth Goddess) by Vivian Nobles, Agnes N Miclat-Cacayan, Sr Esperanza Clapano, Geejay Arriola
Reclaiming the Southeast Asian Goddess by Flaudette May V. Datuin
Contemporary Babaylan Movement International
The University of the Philippines Babaylan is the leading gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (lgbt) students' support group in all campuses of the State University, at the same time maintaining national and international linkages and presence.
Babaylan Denmark is an initiative of Philippine women's groups and women's desks in Europe, The Philippine Women's Network in Europe, came about as a result of the first Europewide conference of Filipinas held in Spain (Barcelona) on 23-26 September 1992. It was in response to a long felt need of Filipinas living and working in Europe to link together and forge unity to improve their situation, address specific issues affecting their lives as Filipinas, needing effective and liberating support for each other.
Babaylan - The Philippine Women's Network in Europe is an initiative of Philippine women's groups and women's desks in Europe. A result of the first Conference of Filipinas in Europe held in Barcelona on September 23-26, 1992, it is a response to a long felt need of Filipinas living and working in Europe to link together and forge unity to improve their situation, address specific issues affecting women. It seeks to develop an effective and liberating support system for Filipinas.
Contemporary Babaylan Movement and Arts in the USA
Evelie Delfino Sales Posch
Mary Ann Ubaldo. One of my favorite articles on the website is Mutya by Grace Odal.
Filipino Scripts
I am including additional information mentioned in the course of the content linking/bridging to other cultures:
Korean Shamanism Links
Kim Kumhwa
Invoking a Spirit of Peace
Shamans: The Next Generation
Gukmu (eds note: this site is in Korean.)
Dancing on Knives: An Introduction to the Politics of Sexuality and Gender in Korean Shamanism
Raindeer Ancestors - Elen of the Ways part 1 and part 2
European-inspired
Greenwood Tarot by Chesca Potter
Online Greenwood Tarot Handbook by Chesca Potter
Hawaiian-inspired
Hooponopono
Mabel Katz on Hooponopono
Self-Identity through Hooponopono, Mabel Katz
Filipino Bookshop Resources:
Philippine Expressions Bookshop - The Mail Order Bookshop dedicated to Filipino Americans in search of their roots.
2114 Trudie Drive
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275-2006, USA
Tel (310) 514-9139 FAX (310) 514-3485
e.mail: linda_nietes@ sbcglobal. net
We blazed the trail in promoting Philippine books in America. 2008 marks our 24th year of service to the Filipino American community. Thank you for your support. Mabuhay! Linda Nietes, a cultural activist, also owned Casalinda, the first all-Filipina bookshop in the Philippines, (Metro Manila,1972- 1983) and has provided a home for Philippine writings on both sides of the Pacific.
Arkipelago Books
ARKIPELAGO Philippine Books
953 Mission Street, San Francisco, Ca. 94103 U.S.A.
415/777-0108 Tel
415/777-0113 Fax
Besides Amazon.com I also use these online resources that compare pricing (both new and used) at FetchBook and BookFinder.
I think I covered all the material presented in the workshop. In closing I would like to invite you to visit The Center for Babaylan Studies to find out about a conference I am helping to organize in 2010. And be sure to stay in touch with the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology and their conference in 2010.
I look forward to our next connect. If I have left anything out, please remind me. I do not think all the women who were at the workshop wrote their email addresses down for me (due to me going a bit overtime). If you might pass this post on to them, I would be most grateful.
Love and Gratitude, Letecia
Republished with permission and gratitude. Links accessed 6/15/09.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Features: Back from the Goddess Gathering - Part 2
Over the weekend of May 15, Letecia Layson attended the RCG-I Gathering of Priestesses and Goddess Women in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. There Leticia presented a workshop titled workshop "Babaylan - Past, Present and Future". The Center asked Letecia to share her experiences there. Part 1 of this article is her open letter to the Babaylan Yahoo group. Part 2 sets the context of her presentation. Part 3 is the resources she provided to workshop participants.
Greetings from Southern CA!
Thank you for attending my workshop at the RCGI Priestess and Goddesswomen gathering. Congratulations to the congregation for 25 years of service to women and the community. Congratulations to the four new ordained Priestesses! I feel fortunate to be a witness to so much joy, fun, laughter, deep sharing and a time capsule to be opened at the 50th - wow!!
I appreciate the patience you had for the technical difficulty, though you briefly were able to hear the voice of Mendung Sabal, who died a few months ago.
Mendung Sabal is one of the 10 Filipino Oralists interviewed in The Shared Voice - Chanted and spoken narratives from the Philippines by Grace Nono At the end of the post I am including (see part 3) resources where you might be able to find books I listed, or invite your local library to order them and have them on hand. Maybe you will be able to get them by way of interlibrary loans. Here are a a few of Grace's videos (eds note: the first few seconds of the Balaleng Video has a sharp teleprompter tone. Please be patient and wait through it, the video is well worth it.)
The time we had together seemed too short and I hope I did not overwhelm you with information. This workshop is inspired by the work co-presented at past gatherings with Deb Trent "She of Many Colors" It was my hope and intention to honor Deb with is work, our ancestors, our teachers, the ancestors of the land, the elements and the elementals.
It was is important to set a context from which the babaylan tradition lives in - yes, a living tradition that managed to exist through the 333 years of colonization by Spain and the 50 years of the USA's presence in the Philippines. "Without looking back at the past, one cannot go forward into the future." -- Jose Rizal. The challenge I had presenting the material is in the relam of the Sacred, the past is now, the future is now and the present in now. "The Geography of Thought" by Richard Nisbett shares insights into how culture affects thinking processes - the differences of Eastern and Western thought. Here is a review of the book.
"The Shared Voice" by Grace Nono also provides some good references regarding the oralist and the literate styles, recognizing the secondary oralist as one who bridges the two styles using both systems. Note: the book comes with a CD that has recordings of those interviewed with their music/songs with English translations in the book. To quote Grace:
"It is an enormous challenge for oral traditions to thrive in the era of globalization that has followed centuries of colonization. The survival of these traditions requires conscious effort, fortitude, and commitment, not for one, ten or a hundred, but of all Filipinos who are reawakened to the oralist calling."
"May we, secondary oralists, develop the habit of regular self-examination as well as a general attitude of humility in the face of our own frailties, and in acknowledgement of the inexhaustible source of wisdom from which we can draw guidance, hope, and inspiration in the course of our journey."
I shared two poems that nested the major content of the workshop, Recipe for Cooking Fear and We Are Born With Gifts, written by Leny Mendoza Strobel from A Book of Her Own - Words, Images to Honor the Babaylan. You can find links at Leny's website for her blog. Leny's first book, Coming Full Circle - THE PROCESS OF DECOLONIZATION AMONG POST-1965 FILIPINO AMERICANS identifies the experience of many Filipino Americans. While my experience being born to a Manong who arrived on the mainland in 1926 at age 16 and a WWII War Bride, who arrived on the mainland on 1947 (just as the Philippines was given its independence at the end of WWII) had many similarities as described in Coming Full Circle, I was raised with traditional Filipino values in the home.
Two streams of western Goddess Traditions and Filipino Spirituality/ religion came together in the first series of classes I took at Circle of Aradia in Feminist Witchcraft in the Dianic Tradition. At the end of the first class we were asked to research a Goddess from our ethnic background and if that was not something that worked for us, research a Goddess that called to us. The Coulorful Mandaya: Ethnic Tribe of Davao Oriental by Ursula Cinc Valderrama. The book is an ethnographic study of the people (you can read a bit about them here). In the chapter "The making of Baylan (the same as a babaylan)" the rituals, chants, etc are included. Any woman of the tribe can be a baylan (providing they qualify), a priestess. The diwatas show their acceptance by possessing the baylan becoming a channel, oracle, healer, visionary, etc. During the ordination ceremony, the woman would need to invoke and make tributes to Gamaogamao, believed to be a water goddess.
I spent the next five weeks meditating on/with Gamaogamao as part of the workshop series. I was to ask if there was something that She wanted share with the women of the class and what She wanted me to tell the women about her. The last class we were required to invoke and aspect (speak as) our Goddess. I invoked and spoke as Gamaogamao in that last class forever linking my two spiritual streams.
Republished with permission and gratitude. Links accessed 6/15/09.
Greetings from Southern CA!
Thank you for attending my workshop at the RCGI Priestess and Goddesswomen gathering. Congratulations to the congregation for 25 years of service to women and the community. Congratulations to the four new ordained Priestesses! I feel fortunate to be a witness to so much joy, fun, laughter, deep sharing and a time capsule to be opened at the 50th - wow!!
I appreciate the patience you had for the technical difficulty, though you briefly were able to hear the voice of Mendung Sabal, who died a few months ago.
Mendung Sabal is one of the 10 Filipino Oralists interviewed in The Shared Voice - Chanted and spoken narratives from the Philippines by Grace Nono At the end of the post I am including (see part 3) resources where you might be able to find books I listed, or invite your local library to order them and have them on hand. Maybe you will be able to get them by way of interlibrary loans. Here are a a few of Grace's videos (eds note: the first few seconds of the Balaleng Video has a sharp teleprompter tone. Please be patient and wait through it, the video is well worth it.)
The time we had together seemed too short and I hope I did not overwhelm you with information. This workshop is inspired by the work co-presented at past gatherings with Deb Trent "She of Many Colors" It was my hope and intention to honor Deb with is work, our ancestors, our teachers, the ancestors of the land, the elements and the elementals.
It was is important to set a context from which the babaylan tradition lives in - yes, a living tradition that managed to exist through the 333 years of colonization by Spain and the 50 years of the USA's presence in the Philippines. "Without looking back at the past, one cannot go forward into the future." -- Jose Rizal. The challenge I had presenting the material is in the relam of the Sacred, the past is now, the future is now and the present in now. "The Geography of Thought" by Richard Nisbett shares insights into how culture affects thinking processes - the differences of Eastern and Western thought. Here is a review of the book.
"The Shared Voice" by Grace Nono also provides some good references regarding the oralist and the literate styles, recognizing the secondary oralist as one who bridges the two styles using both systems. Note: the book comes with a CD that has recordings of those interviewed with their music/songs with English translations in the book. To quote Grace:
"It is an enormous challenge for oral traditions to thrive in the era of globalization that has followed centuries of colonization. The survival of these traditions requires conscious effort, fortitude, and commitment, not for one, ten or a hundred, but of all Filipinos who are reawakened to the oralist calling."
"May we, secondary oralists, develop the habit of regular self-examination as well as a general attitude of humility in the face of our own frailties, and in acknowledgement of the inexhaustible source of wisdom from which we can draw guidance, hope, and inspiration in the course of our journey."
I shared two poems that nested the major content of the workshop, Recipe for Cooking Fear and We Are Born With Gifts, written by Leny Mendoza Strobel from A Book of Her Own - Words, Images to Honor the Babaylan. You can find links at Leny's website for her blog. Leny's first book, Coming Full Circle - THE PROCESS OF DECOLONIZATION AMONG POST-1965 FILIPINO AMERICANS identifies the experience of many Filipino Americans. While my experience being born to a Manong who arrived on the mainland in 1926 at age 16 and a WWII War Bride, who arrived on the mainland on 1947 (just as the Philippines was given its independence at the end of WWII) had many similarities as described in Coming Full Circle, I was raised with traditional Filipino values in the home.
Two streams of western Goddess Traditions and Filipino Spirituality/ religion came together in the first series of classes I took at Circle of Aradia in Feminist Witchcraft in the Dianic Tradition. At the end of the first class we were asked to research a Goddess from our ethnic background and if that was not something that worked for us, research a Goddess that called to us. The Coulorful Mandaya: Ethnic Tribe of Davao Oriental by Ursula Cinc Valderrama. The book is an ethnographic study of the people (you can read a bit about them here). In the chapter "The making of Baylan (the same as a babaylan)" the rituals, chants, etc are included. Any woman of the tribe can be a baylan (providing they qualify), a priestess. The diwatas show their acceptance by possessing the baylan becoming a channel, oracle, healer, visionary, etc. During the ordination ceremony, the woman would need to invoke and make tributes to Gamaogamao, believed to be a water goddess.
I spent the next five weeks meditating on/with Gamaogamao as part of the workshop series. I was to ask if there was something that She wanted share with the women of the class and what She wanted me to tell the women about her. The last class we were required to invoke and aspect (speak as) our Goddess. I invoked and spoke as Gamaogamao in that last class forever linking my two spiritual streams.
Republished with permission and gratitude. Links accessed 6/15/09.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Conversations: Misuse of Semantics, Key to Miscues in Philippine Studies
Conversations highlight papers written about indigenous thought, babaylans, and/or include babaylan concepts.
In this essay Azurin, an anthropologist, looks at the language games and their uses/misuses in academic theorizing.
MISUSE OF SEMANTICS, KEY TO MISCUES IN PHILIPPINE STUDIES
by Arnold Molina Azurin
Research Fellow, Center for Integrative and Development Studies
University of the Philippines System
Introduction
The master semantic artist William Shakespeare mesmerized his theater patrons and audience with such unforgettable witticisms like “A rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet” and “If to say is as easy as to do, chapels would have been churches…” In all probability his drama actors must have delivered such enticing quips in a more vibrant manner, or my memory may have skipped a word or two. But either possibility is irrelevant to the point I wish to raise with a sense of alarm. Which is the fact that quite a few Filipino researchers engaged in cultural studies have been too mesmerized by their
semantic gambits even without the evocative profundity of Shakespeare’s style and cultural savvy.
To sharpen this point, let me underscore that this indulgence in semantic mumbojumbo is being given an aura of authenticity because it deploys native words from Philippine languages, as well as a gloss of scientific veracity by citing as one of its props
“comparative linguistics”. And nobody is expected to raise the question or the ticklish issue if it were truly comparative linguistics being harnessed when a litany of cognates found among Philippine languages – idy(ang) in Batanes, ili among Ilocanos and a portion of Igorot areas, ilihan in Bicol, iligan in north Mindanao, and ilihan in Agusan
which commonly refer to an old prime settlement or a fortified sanctuary is supposedly the basic evidence for the existence of an “estadong etniko” (a prehistoric ethnic state) across this archipelago.
Complete text found at: 9th Philippine Linguistics Congress (25-27 January 2006) Organized by the Department of Linguistics, University of the Philippines . Accessed May 21, 2009
In this essay Azurin, an anthropologist, looks at the language games and their uses/misuses in academic theorizing.
MISUSE OF SEMANTICS, KEY TO MISCUES IN PHILIPPINE STUDIES
by Arnold Molina Azurin
Research Fellow, Center for Integrative and Development Studies
University of the Philippines System
Introduction
The master semantic artist William Shakespeare mesmerized his theater patrons and audience with such unforgettable witticisms like “A rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet” and “If to say is as easy as to do, chapels would have been churches…” In all probability his drama actors must have delivered such enticing quips in a more vibrant manner, or my memory may have skipped a word or two. But either possibility is irrelevant to the point I wish to raise with a sense of alarm. Which is the fact that quite a few Filipino researchers engaged in cultural studies have been too mesmerized by their
semantic gambits even without the evocative profundity of Shakespeare’s style and cultural savvy.
To sharpen this point, let me underscore that this indulgence in semantic mumbojumbo is being given an aura of authenticity because it deploys native words from Philippine languages, as well as a gloss of scientific veracity by citing as one of its props
“comparative linguistics”. And nobody is expected to raise the question or the ticklish issue if it were truly comparative linguistics being harnessed when a litany of cognates found among Philippine languages – idy(ang) in Batanes, ili among Ilocanos and a portion of Igorot areas, ilihan in Bicol, iligan in north Mindanao, and ilihan in Agusan
which commonly refer to an old prime settlement or a fortified sanctuary is supposedly the basic evidence for the existence of an “estadong etniko” (a prehistoric ethnic state) across this archipelago.
Complete text found at: 9th Philippine Linguistics Congress (25-27 January 2006) Organized by the Department of Linguistics, University of the Philippines . Accessed May 21, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Babaylan Conference 2010 Trailer
Babaylan Conference of 2010
April 17 – 18, 2010 at the
Sonoma State University, CA
For more information please visit our website:
http://www.babaylan.net/index.html
The fiscal agent for Center for babaylan Studies Conference 2010 is:
International Humanities Center
http://ihcenter.org/groups/babaylancenter
Organizers of 2010 Conference:
Leny Strobel, Project Director
Perla Daly, Letecia Layson, Baylan Megino, Project Co-Directors.
April 17 – 18, 2010 at the
Sonoma State University, CA
For more information please visit our website:
http://www.babaylan.net/index.html
The fiscal agent for Center for babaylan Studies Conference 2010 is:
International Humanities Center
http://ihcenter.org/groups/babaylancenter
Organizers of 2010 Conference:
Leny Strobel, Project Director
Perla Daly, Letecia Layson, Baylan Megino, Project Co-Directors.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
The Power of Healing: Remembering our Babaylan Spirit
~~ In The News ~~
Human beings are not born violent: Associate Professor Leny Mendoza-Strobel
SAN PEDRO—"Perhaps if women had never lost parity with men and we live in a society that honors both genders equally, we wouldn’t even need an International Women’s Day," declared Dr. Leny Mendoza Strobel, an Associate Professor of American Multicultural Studies at Sonoma State University, and a cultural and community advocate.
The celebration of International Women’s Day, which began in 1911 and celebrated in 63 countries and 982 events this year, is a "gesture of multiculturalism in its conservative form," according to Dr. Strobel, who spoke at the Men Reading Women’s Writings luncheon held at the Ports of Call Restaurant in San Pedro on Saturday, March 28. Her speech was entitled The Power of Healing: Remembering our Babaylan Spirit.
"Human beings are not born violent, do you agree?" she began. "We now have access to accounts that tell us of prehistoric huntergatherer societies that lived in balance with nature and harmony with each other and with other species. They had conflicts, but they did not have war."
Dr. Strobel said that even today, according to Filipino author Katrin de Guia, in the Philippine island of Palawan, there are still indigenous peoples that do not have a word for war in their language. "When developers began to encroach on their ancestral domains, they mainly avoided the conflict by moving deeper into the forest."
Historians write that matriarchal societies ended at the beginning of the agricultural era 10,000 years ago. That era also marked the beginning of patriarchal civilizations. "Matriarchal societies," says Dr. Strobel, "are non-hierarchical, egalitarian and deemed the relationship to the universe and all species as sacred. With the rise and evolution of patriarchy, these feminine values and energies were repressed and exiled into the narrow spaces of expression under the control of patriarchal institutions and systems."
Philippine Society in general is under-guarded by an egalitarian, lateral kinship system, according to a talk by Filipino professor Jaime Veneracion, at a lecture he delivered to a group of Fullbright scholars that included Dr. Strobel. "This is the reason," says Dr. Strobel, "why we have a difficult time adjusting to the requirements of modernity because underneath all these modern impositions is a bilateral egalitarian system."
Dr. Strobel said she recently had a discussion with her Fil-Am classes At Sonoma State University in which they talked about the values of "kapwa" (fellow humans) and "Bathala na" (God’s will), the value of "loob" (inner self) and "dangal" (honor) and "pakikiramdam" (sensitivity). "Many of the white students remarked how beautiful these values are, and that they would like to live their lives being more in tune to those values," Dr. Strobel revealed. "Our modern lives dismember and fragment our lives by exiling our feminine or female energies in the bedroom and in the home and the service of men’s needs," Dr. Strobel asserts. "Men are dismembered by cultural values that tell them that they must not cry or show emotions, or that the only way to survive and make it in the world is through aggressive competition," she adds.
She said that the psychology of "kapwa" (self) is geared towards the "babaylan" (ancient healer/shaman) practice that each human embodies male and female energy. "That’s what makes a person whole," said Dr. Strobel.
Linda Nietes, owner of Philippines Expressions Bookshop, which organized the event, thanked the men for coming and for reading stories and poems written by Filipino women. The readers were Robert J. Little, Jr. (Linda Nietes’ husband); who read Love ‘Em, Leave ‘Em and Speak Up Woman!, A Dalaga’s Debut, from the book Twenty-Five Chickens and Pig for Bride, read by Stephen Adamu; To the Man Who Thinks He’s in the Market, poetry by Rowena Penaflor Festin and In the Name of the Mother:100 Years of Philippine Feminist Poetry, 1889-1989 by Lilia Quindoza Santiago, read by Robert J. Little, Jr., The Legend of Lola Amonita, poetry by Elvira S. Mabanglo, and Silence, a story by Marianne Villanueva, read by Craig Diamond; and Beauty and the Brit by Joselle Concio Harkin, from the book Speak Up, read by Steve Austin, and Fruit Stall from the book, The Kissing: A Collection of Short Stories by Melinda Bobis, read by Steven de la Vega.
"Men are present because in our last event last year, we had made it an all-woman activity. Now we thank the men for coming," Nietes said. "This is an advocacy that we women cannot do alone…; to be able to highlight the fact that men and women are partners in their journey in this life."
Published on April 4, 2009 in Asian Journal Los Angeles, p. A3, accessed 4/24/2009.
Contributed by Leny Mendoza-Strobel
Human beings are not born violent: Associate Professor Leny Mendoza-Strobel
SAN PEDRO—"Perhaps if women had never lost parity with men and we live in a society that honors both genders equally, we wouldn’t even need an International Women’s Day," declared Dr. Leny Mendoza Strobel, an Associate Professor of American Multicultural Studies at Sonoma State University, and a cultural and community advocate.
The celebration of International Women’s Day, which began in 1911 and celebrated in 63 countries and 982 events this year, is a "gesture of multiculturalism in its conservative form," according to Dr. Strobel, who spoke at the Men Reading Women’s Writings luncheon held at the Ports of Call Restaurant in San Pedro on Saturday, March 28. Her speech was entitled The Power of Healing: Remembering our Babaylan Spirit.
"Human beings are not born violent, do you agree?" she began. "We now have access to accounts that tell us of prehistoric huntergatherer societies that lived in balance with nature and harmony with each other and with other species. They had conflicts, but they did not have war."
Dr. Strobel said that even today, according to Filipino author Katrin de Guia, in the Philippine island of Palawan, there are still indigenous peoples that do not have a word for war in their language. "When developers began to encroach on their ancestral domains, they mainly avoided the conflict by moving deeper into the forest."
Historians write that matriarchal societies ended at the beginning of the agricultural era 10,000 years ago. That era also marked the beginning of patriarchal civilizations. "Matriarchal societies," says Dr. Strobel, "are non-hierarchical, egalitarian and deemed the relationship to the universe and all species as sacred. With the rise and evolution of patriarchy, these feminine values and energies were repressed and exiled into the narrow spaces of expression under the control of patriarchal institutions and systems."
Philippine Society in general is under-guarded by an egalitarian, lateral kinship system, according to a talk by Filipino professor Jaime Veneracion, at a lecture he delivered to a group of Fullbright scholars that included Dr. Strobel. "This is the reason," says Dr. Strobel, "why we have a difficult time adjusting to the requirements of modernity because underneath all these modern impositions is a bilateral egalitarian system."
Dr. Strobel said she recently had a discussion with her Fil-Am classes At Sonoma State University in which they talked about the values of "kapwa" (fellow humans) and "Bathala na" (God’s will), the value of "loob" (inner self) and "dangal" (honor) and "pakikiramdam" (sensitivity). "Many of the white students remarked how beautiful these values are, and that they would like to live their lives being more in tune to those values," Dr. Strobel revealed. "Our modern lives dismember and fragment our lives by exiling our feminine or female energies in the bedroom and in the home and the service of men’s needs," Dr. Strobel asserts. "Men are dismembered by cultural values that tell them that they must not cry or show emotions, or that the only way to survive and make it in the world is through aggressive competition," she adds.
She said that the psychology of "kapwa" (self) is geared towards the "babaylan" (ancient healer/shaman) practice that each human embodies male and female energy. "That’s what makes a person whole," said Dr. Strobel.
Linda Nietes, owner of Philippines Expressions Bookshop, which organized the event, thanked the men for coming and for reading stories and poems written by Filipino women. The readers were Robert J. Little, Jr. (Linda Nietes’ husband); who read Love ‘Em, Leave ‘Em and Speak Up Woman!, A Dalaga’s Debut, from the book Twenty-Five Chickens and Pig for Bride, read by Stephen Adamu; To the Man Who Thinks He’s in the Market, poetry by Rowena Penaflor Festin and In the Name of the Mother:100 Years of Philippine Feminist Poetry, 1889-1989 by Lilia Quindoza Santiago, read by Robert J. Little, Jr., The Legend of Lola Amonita, poetry by Elvira S. Mabanglo, and Silence, a story by Marianne Villanueva, read by Craig Diamond; and Beauty and the Brit by Joselle Concio Harkin, from the book Speak Up, read by Steve Austin, and Fruit Stall from the book, The Kissing: A Collection of Short Stories by Melinda Bobis, read by Steven de la Vega.
"Men are present because in our last event last year, we had made it an all-woman activity. Now we thank the men for coming," Nietes said. "This is an advocacy that we women cannot do alone…; to be able to highlight the fact that men and women are partners in their journey in this life."
Published on April 4, 2009 in Asian Journal Los Angeles, p. A3, accessed 4/24/2009.
Contributed by Leny Mendoza-Strobel
The Chieftain, The Artisan, and the Healer
DATU, PANDAY & BABAYLAN
"Through the use of myths and legends, old dictionaries, friar accounts and other historical and archaelogical records, the group, led by Dr. Zeus A. Salazar,* opened the way to access the ancient barangay's life form- it's economic and socio-political organization, including their non-material elements necessary for their existence."
ROOTS & PRESENCE, The Baybaylan Historico-Cultural Context, p. 22-23 in CENTENNIAL CROSSINGS, Readings on Babaylan Feminism in the Philippines, Edited by Fe B. Mangahas & Jenny R. Llaguno.
"Salazar* identified three figure of authority in the barangay: the datu, panday and babaylan. The datu, who was the local chieftain, took charge of the economic and political organization of the barangay. The importance of specialists with particular skills was emphasized by the bestowal of the title 'panday', in recognition of mastery of an art, an applied science. Skills in various materials were specified: panday-ginto (goldsmith), panday-bakal (blacksmith) or panday-anluwagi (builder-carpenter) . The babaylan, predominantly women (men had to be like women to perform this societal function), was the "specialist in the fields of culture, religion, medicine and all kinds of theoretical knowledge about the phenomenon of nature....a pro-scientist. .." Salazar later added a fourth figure - the bayani or bagani (chief warrior or hero) who took card of the maintenance of law and order, peace and stability of the barangay.
"The World of the Babaylan
What kind of physical and social world could possibly produce women with leadership qualities equal to men as datu & panday?"
GINTO, History wrought in Gold by Ramon Villegas.
* DATU, PANDAY & BABAYLAN "Bagong Kasaysayan" by Zeus A. Salazar & Mary Jane B. Rodriguez, UP Journal Series (1999).
Contributed by Mary Ann Ubaldo, Urduja Filipino Jewelry
"Through the use of myths and legends, old dictionaries, friar accounts and other historical and archaelogical records, the group, led by Dr. Zeus A. Salazar,* opened the way to access the ancient barangay's life form- it's economic and socio-political organization, including their non-material elements necessary for their existence."
ROOTS & PRESENCE, The Baybaylan Historico-Cultural Context, p. 22-23 in CENTENNIAL CROSSINGS, Readings on Babaylan Feminism in the Philippines, Edited by Fe B. Mangahas & Jenny R. Llaguno.
"Salazar* identified three figure of authority in the barangay: the datu, panday and babaylan. The datu, who was the local chieftain, took charge of the economic and political organization of the barangay. The importance of specialists with particular skills was emphasized by the bestowal of the title 'panday', in recognition of mastery of an art, an applied science. Skills in various materials were specified: panday-ginto (goldsmith), panday-bakal (blacksmith) or panday-anluwagi (builder-carpenter) . The babaylan, predominantly women (men had to be like women to perform this societal function), was the "specialist in the fields of culture, religion, medicine and all kinds of theoretical knowledge about the phenomenon of nature....a pro-scientist. .." Salazar later added a fourth figure - the bayani or bagani (chief warrior or hero) who took card of the maintenance of law and order, peace and stability of the barangay.
"The World of the Babaylan
What kind of physical and social world could possibly produce women with leadership qualities equal to men as datu & panday?"
GINTO, History wrought in Gold by Ramon Villegas.
* DATU, PANDAY & BABAYLAN "Bagong Kasaysayan" by Zeus A. Salazar & Mary Jane B. Rodriguez, UP Journal Series (1999).
Contributed by Mary Ann Ubaldo, Urduja Filipino Jewelry
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Defining Kapwa
Kapwa, meaning 'togetherness', is the core construct of Filipino Psychology. Kapwa has two categories, Ibang Tao (other people) and Hindi Ibang Tao (not other people). Wikipedia
(pronoun) kindred, both; fellow-being, equally (applied to one of a pair) - Kapwa dot Com
...the tendency to see the world with all its beings, both human and lower forms, as a holistic system where everything operates interdependently and inter-relatedly... It is a system where harmony with other people and the environment is a much-needed trait. - Henry F. Funtecha, Ph.D., The News Today, 7/4/2008
...the Tagalog word for "shared identity" or "brotherhood." - DavisWiki
One of the most important features of the Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices (IKSP) is the tendency to see the world with all its beings as a holistic system where things operate interdependently. Harmony with other people and the environment is a much-needed trait today in our shrinking global village. This orientation is called "kapwa"—the shared self — in the Filipino traditional value system, as expounded by Sikolohiyang Pilipino (SP). - Leny Strobel, 1/27/2008
One of the most difficult questions and tasks about dismantling privilege is this requirement to shift our understanding of the Self from the "I" to "We/kapwa." In the latter, we (privileged Americans) must begin to know and feel deeply that our affluent lifestyles have a social cost and a social burden that is carried by the poor of the world and the Earth. - Leny Strobel, 1/4/2008
I think the primary action of decolonization for me is this realization that I am not the artifact called 'Filipina,' but a Filipina - one who interacts and is constantly remade as a Filipina with every interaction, every relationship forged, every action I make which ties me to my heritage. Being Filipina isn't defined only by what I do as an individual, but by the living, breathingness of Kapwa that takes into account my environment, my choices, the choices of others, my fears and triumphs, all at the same time, all in constant motion. Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor
“Kapwa”—a Filipino cultural concept of interconnectedness whereby other people are not “others” but part of what one is. (from the opening page; emphasis in original). - Eileen Tabios, Blind Chatelaine's Keys
Shared identity; fellow being; neighbor; the shared, "including" the Self. - Katrin de Guia, p. 376 Kapwa: The Self in the Other (Anvil Publishing, Pasig City, 2005)
(pronoun) kindred, both; fellow-being, equally (applied to one of a pair) - Kapwa dot Com
...the tendency to see the world with all its beings, both human and lower forms, as a holistic system where everything operates interdependently and inter-relatedly... It is a system where harmony with other people and the environment is a much-needed trait. - Henry F. Funtecha, Ph.D., The News Today, 7/4/2008
...the Tagalog word for "shared identity" or "brotherhood." - DavisWiki
One of the most important features of the Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices (IKSP) is the tendency to see the world with all its beings as a holistic system where things operate interdependently. Harmony with other people and the environment is a much-needed trait today in our shrinking global village. This orientation is called "kapwa"—the shared self — in the Filipino traditional value system, as expounded by Sikolohiyang Pilipino (SP). - Leny Strobel, 1/27/2008
One of the most difficult questions and tasks about dismantling privilege is this requirement to shift our understanding of the Self from the "I" to "We/kapwa." In the latter, we (privileged Americans) must begin to know and feel deeply that our affluent lifestyles have a social cost and a social burden that is carried by the poor of the world and the Earth. - Leny Strobel, 1/4/2008
I think the primary action of decolonization for me is this realization that I am not the artifact called 'Filipina,' but a Filipina - one who interacts and is constantly remade as a Filipina with every interaction, every relationship forged, every action I make which ties me to my heritage. Being Filipina isn't defined only by what I do as an individual, but by the living, breathingness of Kapwa that takes into account my environment, my choices, the choices of others, my fears and triumphs, all at the same time, all in constant motion. Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor
“Kapwa”—a Filipino cultural concept of interconnectedness whereby other people are not “others” but part of what one is. (from the opening page; emphasis in original). - Eileen Tabios, Blind Chatelaine's Keys
Shared identity; fellow being; neighbor; the shared, "including" the Self. - Katrin de Guia, p. 376 Kapwa: The Self in the Other (Anvil Publishing, Pasig City, 2005)
Monday, February 02, 2009
Defining "Babaylan"
Babaylan is a term identifying an indigenous Filipino religious leader, who functions as a healer, a shaman, a seer and a community "miracle-worker" (or a combination of any of those). Although the role and function of a babaylan is open to both sexes, most babaylans from the pre-hispanic era are female. Wikipedia (accessed 2/2/2009)
Who is a babaylan? The babaylans, predominantly women, were mystical women who wielded social and spiritual power in pre-colonial Philippine society before the coming of the Spanish conquerors in the 16th century. In his research on pre-colonial women, anthropologist Dr. Zeus Salazar described the babaylan as “a specialist in the fields of culture, religion, medicine and all kinds of theoretical knowledge about the phenomenon of nature.” Isis International (accessed 2/2/2009)
The tradition of women's writing in the Philippines can be traced back to the pre-hispanic era of the archipelago when, in certain communities, priestess-poets called babaylan (Bisayan) and catalonan (Tagalog) held sway in the spiritual and ritualistic lives of the people. These women provided healing, wisdom, and direction for the inhabitants of their barangays (towns) with morality stories, myths, poems, prayers, and chants - Nick Carbo, p. vii Babaylan: An Anthology of Filipina and Filipina American Writers (aunt lute books, San Francisco, 2000)
According to anthropologist Alicia Magos, in indigenous Filipino culture, which is animistic and shamanistic, the babaylan maintained the following functions in the community: They are keepers of wisdom; Folk therapists, folk philosophers; Intercede for the community and individuals - they are healers of the body by recognizing the spirits that cause illness. Thru shamanic rituals they can call back the lost or wandering soul back into the body; They communicate with ancestral spirits and the spirit world; Transmitters of culture; Stabilize social structures; The term literally means "one who serves." - Leny Strobel, p. 148 A Book of Her Own: Words and Images to Honor the Babaylan (T'boli Publishing, San Francisco, 2005)
Native psychologist-priest (also bali-an, mombaki, tawas, ma-aram); shaman - Katrin de Guia, p. 376 Kapwa: The Self in the Other (Anvil Publishing, Pasig City, 2005)
...the ma-aram, the shamans who act as intermediary between the sick and the spirit world. The ma-aram is a well-documented type of medicine man in the ethnographic literature since recorded history and it can be traced to thousands of years of prehistory because it come from alam "information, knowledge" and this word was present in the vocabulary of the ancient Philippineasians thousands of years ago. In historic times, the ma-aram is the same personality as the babaylan or baylan, who may be male or female. - Alicia P. Magos, p. v, The Enduring Ma-aram Tradition: An Ethnography of a Kinaray-a Village in Antique (New Day Publishers, Quezon City, 1992)
Babaylan is a term identifying an indigenous Filipino religious leader, who functions as a healer, a shaman, a seer and a community "miracle-worker" (or a combination of any of those). Although the role and function of a babaylan is open to both sexes, most babaylans from the pre-hispanic era are female. Wikipedia (accessed 2/2/2009)
Who is a babaylan? The babaylans, predominantly women, were mystical women who wielded social and spiritual power in pre-colonial Philippine society before the coming of the Spanish conquerors in the 16th century. In his research on pre-colonial women, anthropologist Dr. Zeus Salazar described the babaylan as “a specialist in the fields of culture, religion, medicine and all kinds of theoretical knowledge about the phenomenon of nature.” Isis International (accessed 2/2/2009)
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