No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
The Soul Boat and the Boat-Soul: An Inquiry into the Indigenous "Soul
Abstract
This paper will explore the indigenous world view in the Philippines and in particular, the concept of the soul in the animist context, as revealed in the pre-colonial rituals involving the use of the boats. These boats are commonly called by the general term bangka. The boat rituals as well as the boat terms are utilized to understand the belief system particularly in relation to beliefs about the soul and the afterlife.
... Early inhabitants of the Philippine archipelago therefore, like the general population of the Malay world, have this kind regard to the soul, which a member finds in virtually everything around. This belief was earlier explored in an animist context by Abrera (2007). Looking into the context of the employment of boats in precolonial Philippine society, according to her, the belief in a soul elucidates the presence of an array of materials within a grave. ...
... Ultimately, Abrera (2007:7) asserts that because the people believe that objects, particularly boats, have soul, they are qualified to accompany the deceased to the afterlife. Her argument is compelling enough; however, there is one thing that Abrera (2007) might have failed to expound further, yet quite evident with the direction of her paper. ...
... Early inhabitants of the Philippine archipelago therefore, like the general population of the Malay world, have this kind regard to the soul, which a member finds in virtually everything around. This belief was earlier explored in an animist context by Abrera (2007). Looking into the context of the employment of boats in pre-colonial Philippine society, according to her, the belief in a soul elucidates the presence of an array of materials within a grave. ...
This study aimed to discover and describe the truth behind superstitious beliefs. Also, to develop a boarder measure of belief that encompasses much wider, and much more diverse, forms of superstitions. There is a need for a more fine-grained understanding of the psychological functions of different superstition types, beginning with the fundamental positive versus negative distinction. It is an research used a qualitative inspired by an indigenous research methodology, pannakisarsarita. Based on the findings, the following conclusions are derived from this study. It has shown that despite a city's high level of urbanization, its citizens just cannot give up the long-standing customs they have acquired from their ancestors and forefathers. Some superstitious beliefs still exist. There are superstitious beliefs in the terms of the following: a. burial, b. healing c. harvesting d. planting and e. marriage. These beliefs guided their lives in ancient times and even today. While superstitious Beliefs of the participants affect them in terms of health, decision, and life It heals us if we believe: Parents 'decision, Grand-parents' decisions, Peers' decisions, and Faith Decisions. The Sta Cruz cultural esteem and high reverence for the deceased, marriage, planting and harvesting, and even faith healing are examples of these myths and practices. In light of the findings and conclusions of the study, the following recommendations are forwarded: The study suggests that faith healers can serve as excellent role models for secondary prevention, which involves early diagnosis and prompt treatment if properly advised to refer patients on time while maintaining their healing process, should only be non-harmful. Continue to carry out our traditions and custom regarding superstitious as part of our beliefs.
This paper is a preliminary examination of sample transcriptions and translations of the Bisayan/Waray sentences, phrases, and terms into English of Alcina’s Historia (1668). Francisco Ignacio Alcina (1610-1674) was a Jesuit missionary who spent more than thirty years learning and recording the Bisayan culture, particularly in the Samar-Leyte area, where the Waray language is spoken. Alcina’s account is considered the most complete and faithful record of the Bisayan culture upon contact with the West. Juan Bautista Muñoz, in 1784, discovered Alcina's Historia in Seville. This has come down to us as the Muñoz Text, which Lietz (1960) and Hester (1962) recognized as faithful to the original manuscript (compared with the Sant Cugat manuscript, and Lenox manuscript). This study is guided by the Postcolonial rubric (Ghandi1998; Barry 2002) which looks at colonization projects as devaluation of a nation’s culture. One of the tasks of Postcolonialism is to resurface what has been silenced, subsidiarized and marginalized. Using the dictionaries of Sanchez (1617), Mentrida (1637), de la Encarnacion (1885), Sanchez de la Rosa (1914), and Makabenta (2004), and personal knowledge as a writer/speaker of Bisayan/Waray, sentences, phrases, and terms in Alcina’s Historia are examined, verified, and annotated in light of modern, spoken Waray. In addition to semantic verification, syllabic patterns of Waray roots and words, graphemic and phonemic similarities of terms in Alcina’s, and in the various dictionaries are also examined with the use of computational methods to triangulate the results. Where discrepancy in meaning or mis-transcription is found, a more appropriate translation, or transcription is provided.
Keywords: Waray/Bisayan Culture; Waray language; Alcina; Postcolonialism; Annotation; Translation
“This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article to be published by Taylor & Francis in [South East Asia Research] on [ 2023], soon to be available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/[xxxx].”
Debra Michaels relates the story of Vonnie Cesar, a 27-year-old nurse and regular internet user from Albany, Georgia, who entered a chat room disguised as a 15-year-old teen. When a man invited her to a private chat room with him and she did enter, 7 or 8 other men followed and began sending pictures of women who had been beaten and raped, expressing they wanted to rape and spank her until she bleeds. Michaels notes, “Women on the receiving end of this graphic sexual violence on the Net have indeed reported being traumatized by the experience. While many may turn off their computers or leave a chat area if they feel attacked, they often have trouble shaking the memory that a stranger at a far-off computer terminal wanted to hurt them.” Many users however claim that what happens in chat rooms is pure fantasy.1
Every language is a valuable key to cross the threshold of different cultures, and every language is a special " lens " to view the world in different perspectives (Ansary, 2005). The diverse and multilinguistic landscape of the Philippines offers over a hundred unique ways on how to see the world, which is reflected in the equally diverse but related cultures of its many ethnolinguistic groups (EGs). This paper focuses on the culture of death and afterlife in Philippine languages, and applies the method of historical linguistics to achieve a tentative reconstruction of proto-forms related to these concepts. Ten Philippine languages, namely Ivatan, Ilocano, Kankanaey, Tina Sambal, Kapampangan, Tagalog, Bikol Polangui, Kinaray-a, Cuyunon and T " boli were gathered. Reconstructed proto-forms proposed by Charles (1974) and Paz (1981) were used as reference in this study. Thirteen proto-forms were tentatively reconstructed and a linguistic network was constructed to illustrate the semantic relationship of these words. Finally the substantial number of linguistic reconstructions on death and afterlife showed implications on the significance of this culture in the Philippine EGs, as well as the cultural similarity and unity of these groups that may prove their underlying unique identity despite their diversity (Paz, 2008).
Issues of fetal personhood have been controversial in the Philippines in the context of reproductive health debates, but little is understood about how ordinary Filipinos construct fetal and early infant personhood in the context of their everyday lives. This article draws on ethnographic research in Siquijor, a Central Visayan island with a Catholic population. Based on conversations about pregnancy and miscarriage, I show that unlike notions promoted by elites of the Catholic Church, which fix personhood to the moment of conception, local notions of personhood are processual. Significantly, ensoulment, while thought to occur at conception, is not sufficient to produce a person.
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1914. Includes bibliographical references (p. 279-282) and index.