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    721 views18 pages

    Waiting For Mariang Makiling - Rizal Reading Pigafetta

    Uploaded by

    Gina Luna
    Works of Rizal

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Rizal Reading Pigafetta ehap ou erent Lessing’ fate soet te toy and the serpent ach one wes his history = Bia Bement Pipes BER 1286 [MORE THAN THREE CENTURIES after the Hatin Antonio Piguetta ‘wrote his areative ofthe European discovery ofthe Philippines, « young Filipino named Jose Rizal read what he had to sty in the ‘riginal taba, Rizal was on his second sojourn in Europe after a short vist to the home country, a visit troubled by the controversy surtounding the appearance f his incendiary novel NOW me tanger (1887) Ha lng arived at Liverpool on 24 May 1886, he procesed t Landon and, inthe pet nine months, worked atthe Bish Museum, poring ‘over books and manuseripts in it great circular Reading Room. He sought out the hep of Orentaists lle Henry Yle, the former Beit Ish military officer who was president of Hakust Society, and Reinhold ost, irarian ofthe India Office in London. Empty Sunday after noon Rial spent the house of Dr. Rot in Primrose Hil, brows ing in oss brary or chating atta with the amble and aging niente ‘Ia tthe Betish Maseu that Rial covered Pg, Wit Ing to Marele dal Pilar on 4 Februsry 1889, he enthased: “I have here ean manuscripts that deal with the fst coming ofthe Spar- inns in the lipnes. They ae wten by companion f Magellan" “aul, Ral had reported to Ferdinand Blumentit that be ad red land coped the Pgafeta "*manuscrip." That Ril read what wat the ‘Ambrosian Codex published in Milan by Carlo Amore in 1800 was remarkable. A Spanish translation ofthe Amore, besad onthe 1801 French edition of the text, appeared aly in 1890." gales secount impressed Rial. Lamenting that he did not Ihave th time to translate the text “on account of my numerous shores," he urged del Par to get one ofthe Fipinos in Made 10 study elie which he sad, with his customary ex for languages, an be learnel in one month) and translate the discovery account to ‘Tagalog or Spanish "so that it may be know how we wer in 1520."* ial reading Pigafetta in Europe's premier repository of know edge inthe fogbound heart of empire isa striking kage of a key ‘moment in postcolonial history: The clonind tacks dwn his lst past in the archives ofthe colonaing West. Iisa moment sf with ks, mystifations, and opportanies, How Rizal ot, fo he mater ‘lipino intelectual like Fedro Paterno, TH. Pardo de Tavera, and Isabela de los Reyes) read Wester sources, with what motives orto hat effet, i an interesting problem In understanding the genesis of rationalist historiography a well asthe power and limits ofthat hegemonic discursive formation Edward Sai calls “Orientalism. "= ‘HE PIGAPETTA NARRATIVE, the fest ebstntal European report on the Philippines, was just one of mary Wester sources Rial ea. lt his ft Buropen sojourn (1882-1887), Rial was aad driven by 4 large appetite for learning. Bven a he grappled with his medical studles andthe writing of Nol me tang, he was ite bythe neo to devourall that Europe's storehouse of lesing hat offer. Reading ‘is travel etters—breathless etaloguts of things scen in Pars, Bering Heidelberg, Viena—one i stuck by the viiy with which he ed to consume what Burope hed acsmlated of her past andthe wel He studied lngungs with the same huge: (Rtench, Geman, Hogs, alan, Duteb—ventytwo languages inal ie ad), convinced that studying a language “wl open fo you the treasures of «country that 1s the knowles, the laring, treasured inthe language" It was not an aimless hanger. For Ria, Knowledge was, above all, knowledge a his country's serice, On his second gear in Bu rope, he was already tying With the idea ofa calection of ens ‘on the Philippines to which members of the Citculo Hispane” Flipin in Spain would contribute. The book did not materialize, tnd Rizal himsalf was on the move, leaving Madd for Pars tt jens et ing fr arog Mating: xn ie Cer toy, ‘Qs iy ones ce aa ry Pes 202 19685 to continue his medical studies and work onthe Nol (half of ‘which e had witten in Medel, «fourth in Pas, and the remain erin Germany Germany—"the great lberatory af Oriental studies,” a country ‘ical would call "my scientific mother county"—gave hm a great ea of stimulation" He was mostly contemptuous of Spanish echo lassi and had problems accessing Spanish archives, Traveling thvough Heidelber, Leipig and Bevin, he olested books, sited ‘museums and libraries, nd corresponded sith Buropesn scholars Wino had dove work om Asia. Important stimulation came fom Ferdinand Blumentt, an Austrian schoolaaser who was Ria’s senior by eight yeas and with vehom he was to maintain a deep friendship util his dath* Hearing of Blumentit' interest fo the Plippines (the Austrian started publsing on Plipineethole- cal topics in 1879), Rizal wrote to him from Heldeberg in 1886, and subsequently visited the Blumentritt family in Leitmerits (Bohemia, then a sate of Austria-Hungary) ‘With Bhumeatit's help, Rizal entered the word of Buropean COnientalist scholarship." Im 1886 and 1887, he came to know Hendrik Kern, a professor of Sanshit at the University of Leiden A.B. Meyer, dretor of the Bthnopraphie Museum in Dresden; Withelm Jest, Univesity of Bern professor who had published fon the Plippines; and Fedor Jago, a naturalist who had traveled to Southeast Asi inchdig the Plippines) fr the ethnological elle ons ofthe Berlin Museum. Jagotnvite him othe metings ofthe (Geographical Society in Bern and inrduced him ooter scolar, notably Rudolf Vchow, president of the Bein Socey for Anthro. pology, Ethnology, and Prehistory (Berliner Gesellschaft far “Anthropologie, Ethologe und Urgesclchte). An eminent patholo- fist and member of the Reichstag (1880-1898), Virchow was an Intellectual gan in hs time. His work with Adalf Bastian in eth ogy and the billing of Beris's Royal Bthpelopcal Museum and AnthropolgialSciety in the 1880s “founded” German anthopol- fo. Through Virhow, Rizal became a member ofthe Anthropolog- fal Society, attended lectures on topics ike Mecea and ancient Japenese tb, apd in April 1887 red s paper in German before the soley onthe at of Tagalog verification, Stimulted by these experience, Rizal vos rimming with ideas and plans. He looked into pedagogical methods in the school of ss ‘Sony. He spoke of devoting himslfon hs seturn to the Philip pines, fo trasating Buropean class into Tagalog. He found time {o tansate Schlle’s Wuheb Tell nd the tale of Hane Christian Andersen. Sach was the excitement of leaning tht he dreamed of Jehan, dl no as et exit 1 woul eo ha, his ie, only nthe magia of fio ater than the sesence bso dd Ril feel the aon nara i hi annotated Morga and La Soldaridad aie, Raa mined alec and European sures for proof of lng history." Carving ‘ot for Mlipinos space atonomos and apart fom Spanish colonia im, he argued that the Spaniards did ot “scovt” the Philip ies The een ofthe archipelago, he say had aleay been "eported in Earope as ery atthe fist century B.C. by Lambulia (Gamboa Gresk who reached the Malay region and wrote an Sevan this woyape Ton Batts Tai and Chao Juha Ma 1 Ral se cle othe Philppine. tlemy's Geograph nd ‘Sion ied tat point not ely to plasms Hh Cleon, Jo, and Hesne, but Minds, Leyte, and Cau, Lesions nthe atenthe ‘cefury Meetor wold mape or vague references In the wntngs of ‘Mares Polo, Odore of Fordenone, and Ladovco dl Varthema were Invoked or imagined by Rizal and the nationalists as wcfrences to the Philipines ‘The Flipine propagandists were on thin ground since sources ‘were sparse and speculative. While mor sands and entepots ike Ja and Sumatra) appear in the Buropean record before the fi teenth century there js no clear reference in this esr tothe Phil 'ppines pir tothe Magelan expedition. While the Portuguese, and possibly other voyagers from Furope and the Middle Bat, had vie ted the Philipines before Magellan's coming, the fis European reference to the archipelago appears only in the Portuguese Tome Pie's Suma Oriental (2513-1815). While the sllaed eordincten ‘of Piclmy’s Gespraphia—he fist general description of Southeast Asia before the fitenth century—mark out what we now know at the cost of peninsular Southeast Asa, many ofits place names are ‘identifiable. Hence, elms were made onthe bess of dubious soares (sch a the apparently apocryphal lambulus) othe wishful reading of strange place names in medieval geographies, ‘his “ong histon;” Rizal andthe nationalists as reveled in the people's mythology and geneslogies that, unfortunatly the Spun ish mssonariesextzpated and destroyed. While the argent cf ast rchivesis not quite convincing —and the strinng to ser the ane “te eyes of Europe stems desperate—viht important isthe state. ‘4 move not so mich to nd erigns a crest autonomous tine and ‘pace outside the fame of econia ue. Magellan dt not dnsover the Philippines. History doesnot begin with clonal, ‘The move to x the limits af clonality is suggested in Rias tempt at historical perodization forthe 1889 Pars congress hich he chooses the year 1808 to mark “the loss of Philppine sutonomy and her incorporation inthe Spanish nation efeeg to fhe fist time the Philipines was granted representation inthe Spanish ‘Cotes (1810-1813) aguns the background of the rench invasion of Spain and the calapse ofthe monarchy. Rica's curious che of this historical timeline—highlging what was a bit ad lage ‘symbolic concession tothe eolony (making her a constitutional fart of metropolitan Spain to rally support against rence) expreroct the time's Plipin reformist discoutse on onstitatonal repeeont, ton At the same time, however, it canbe read a sign ofthat ine Palle to restict and delimit the horizon of eslonll rae %0 More significant in this play of historical eames isthe move to connect the Philippines oan ancient non-European civilization, Riel ‘explored hypotheses about the shared racal and ivlzational or ins of Flipinos, Sumatrans, Polynesians, and even he Japanese, He Inguired Into connections among Philippine and Maly langusge= ‘and the links that could be drawn fom the study of customs and Imaterial culture in the Malay region and wider Asian world. Un daunted by the fact thatthe study of Southeast Asian precelonlal history at this time (and long after) was «foray into.a dense, pobingval, and multiracial maze, Rial examined the avalatle evi. ‘ence and worked farioualy on an impressive array of sources In several languages, from British historical and anthropological sc- counts ofthe Malay archipelago (William Marsden, Thomas Stam ford Raffles, John Cavfrd), to Dutch and Portuguese texts Joao de Barros, Francois Valentin, FW. Junghubn), to German philological studies (Humboldt, ran Bop, Max Maller.” Time and reamstance revented Rial fom developing his eae more systematically or fly butt is lear in what intlectual ection he wt turned. ‘At the same time, Rzal mined sources for prof ofthe “high level” of native eutae in precatact times. He sleans statements fom Baropean reports o argue thatthe islands were endowed with natural wealth and had a dynamic local economy, early Inhabitants ‘wer dled and experienced in warfare and long-distance trade ad Indigenous notions of justice were superior o Spanish clonal pac te. Rizal empaszes the superiority of "ancent morality” and i ‘vokes Western soures to pont t element neatly religous belies that showed how precolonalFlipins had a developed system of ideas about the supernatural that had parallels in the cvillzations of Greece, Japa, and Chia. Ile quotes Piatti in Htalian (os, else were, be won also wate Greek, the better fr aithoriative elec) {0 show thatthe early Plipins were “peaceful, noble, respec,” siting the courtesy and ceremony with which the inatitans re- ‘ved Magen and his men. In dealing with enti of such na- tive practices as debt slavery and th lw value plaed on chastity, he contests these as exaggerations and points to how the sate vices faze tobe found in Burope isl. ‘AL several points, Ril is not above overarguing his case (as some of his contemporaries pointed out), misreading his sources (whether innocent o intentional) by seleetiely highlighting cet, leaving out others, or displacing contents, Annotating Morga, for instance, he roundly assors that before the Spanish coming “the Indios had schools where they learned to read and wit in Tagalog, ln hich al of theta were skilled" sewhere, he ays Evers one, fnlend and foe alte, admits that every Plipino even before the ar rival ofthe Spaniards knew how to read and write." ‘The third theme in Rial'scounteshistry isthe existence of a precolonia “nationality” The elation beeen Spain and the Philip pines, Ria argues, began witha pac Between equals, Like MAL el Pilar and other early nationalists, Rizal represented the pacto de sangre, the blood compact between Spanish conquistadors and local hictans inthe sntenth century, as eiprocdl pat of rendship and alliance between two peoples. What the Baropean conqust, dors used a2 seal of subordination and vasalage is urn sround 154 moral contrac between equals. Though Rizal doesnot elaborate ‘on “nationality” facionaidad), hei obvioutlyevoking—ia the Ro. ‘mantic, Herderian sense ofthe Volkgestan erga cultural ety ‘ther than a distinet pales formation, Aseribing agency to this “nation,” Rizal redefines the meal and politcal grounds ofthe Span tsh-Flipino encounter. The Russeauan thee ofthe “ontac" with its posioning of the native as colons interlace, appears ‘ot only in Rizal but runs trough both elite and popula disourees In the anticoonil strug ‘A fourth thome deals withthe “cultural loss" wrought by colo: lal. Mining fugitive releroces in Western sources, Rizal erues ‘hat colonials caused the degeneration of Flipino sk in ship. bldg, weaving, pottery, metallurgy, and agriculture, When Mors ‘mentions tht early Fines seat sk to Japan, Real wry remark “In those tines the Philipines exported sik to Japan rom where the best now comes.” Old industies and local morality dling’ because ofthe abuses and disincentives of colonial rule. Summing up the effect of Spanish conquest, he writes that “the Philppines ‘was depopulated, impoverished, and retarded, astounded by her retamarphoss, with no more confidence in her pas, sl without faith in her present, and without any fatering hope nthe future "= Tn alsin the image of 2 “igh” culture aborted in its development by the intervention of colonialism, Rial appropriates the discourse ‘f evolution Spanish Orientals used to represent preclona lr pines a a savage and degenerate race raed by instinct, who owe 9 the missionaries what they now have of tolture and civiltion."* Rial reverses the higviow eategorzations,relaterpeting the evel tionary thesis te eondema ealoniliom, Rizal's aguments were determined by and deployed against the COrientalt representation of the Phiippiner. The theme of “ng ‘istory” counter the colonials denial ofa history fo lipinos ou side the framewerk of Spanish rule. The theme of "high culture” answers the lonaist deniration ofthe integrity and aie of native calture. The theme of ancient national” undercores a preeistent identity that clonal hadwnated and erased, “Curl ee” pnts to the taumnaof elon and sets the bass for an aged of ooo ey and selfaserton. In covstruting a noble ad autonomous pt, Rial and the nationalists pointed to 3 eld of potentiality and prom ise that colosalism suppressed. More important, by contrting the image of separate, integral ister and eultare, Pilipino nation alist ought ino play the agency ofa “nator with a past, presen, and fatue, a nation to which Spain had o peak IV TRACING THE GINEALOGY of Rita's scholarship, itis intresting to consider how iti shaped by, and to what extent t subverts, the promises of “Onentalism.” Bric Hobsbawm has said that for those In the world outside "uropeancapalism, the calenge was “the choice between a doomed resistance in terms of ther ancent traditions and ways, and a trau- alle press of seizing the weapons ofthe west and turang them _agsins the conquerors: of understanding and maniplating ‘progress ‘henselves."* zal snned the weapons ef the West. He drew energy from the dramatic expansion of knowedge pro duction In Burope in the nineteenth century. He red etalogel, linguistic, an historia texts produced by Europeans, conse such lmperal institutions ax the British Museum and Bibliotheque "Nationale; jlna learned societies in Belin, contibute to Orientalist publications (ke Londons Trubers Ros, ete by Rein ost) 8nd corresponded with, leaned fom, and aided German, British, French, and Dutch scholars. He was more ent in Spanish than “Tagalg, dort hs spech with Wester cle allusion, did his ‘est workin a Europea form (the novel) ardently embraced th hu mani dea of Rouscean and Volare, and spoke with conviction of the “laws of history" andthe Inaoable march of Science and Progress «6 Ik wat not in London or Bet, however, that Ril fist discov. red Burope. In his teens, he was exposed to Vig, Cicero, and Dante, end read Cesare Gants Historia unioera! (1836-1840) and the works of Chateaubriand and Dumas. His education atthe ‘Ateneo and at Santo Tomas in Manila opened doors to world of GGreco.tinleaming and Western since No matter how narrow and “nareoizing thls education may have ben as Rial often sd), he cleanly learned from I, quichened by the posible of know! ‘ge glimpsed as well as knowledge suppresced, Rial cme frm a brvleged home. Their house in Calamba, he wrote, had brary of ‘more than a thousand volumes, Even as his mothe, cultured ad fluent in Spanish, warned him ofthe dangers for “native” who “aspires for too much learning, sch warnings only stoked his desire for knowledge even more. Despite the fct that the colony was inthe backoraters of «decrepit empire, Manila as not «dead! outpost of Burope. Rizal sald that while the majority of the books for sale in Manta were “religious end aarotsng in characte," the works of Dumas, Sue, Hugo, and Seller were rend" ‘4s member of a “subject race,” Rizal lived the contaditons between what modern edication promised and colonial fe dened. He did not have to go to Bure to kaow about errs, bss, and ‘ect in Buropeansepresenttions ofthe Phlippines.Repiving toa ‘charge by ViconteBarrantes that his is“ pit twisted by a Germen education,” Rial says thatthe Spaniard could not possibly know ‘hat he knows you di you would et say that Iam “a spit tse by a German education,” for the spit tht breathes in me I hve ad Since cid belore lating the Pilippines, before I hed lard ‘word of German. My spirit "twisted because T have bee eat ‘mong injustices and abuses, becuse sine a child | have seen many sir stupialy and because too have sufleed. My “ested ‘pis is the product ofthat constant ison of moral ideas sue umbing before the powerful realty of abuses, ararinss, ye cries, fares, vnlnc, and cher ile pains.” Explaining the genesis of the Noli to Fr Pablo Pstllson 11 [November 1802, he wrote: "No German Kaew about my work be foreits publication, neither Blamentit nor Virchow, no ago, nor Joest with whom I deal inthe societies t which I belonged “The novel wat moved, e said, nt by personal rancor or "German Inspiration” but by 4 clear vision of the realy of my motherland, the vivid memory ‘of what was happening, and a sfficient dexterity to Judge the ‘ology in such away that not only could I pain the event but lsodlvine the ftur, Inasmuch a even now I seeing relied with such acuracy what I ealled novel that can say that I ‘tend performance of my own werk, taking part int" ‘Though Rizal privileges, at times strident, personal experience and “the native's point of view." he was ineseapably shaped by Burope. Given his ambition, clonal schooling, andthe distbetion ‘of world knowledge atthe time, it was inevitable that he would turn to Burop. He saw the value of Sana, Arabi, Chines, Japanese, and Malay sources but discovered them largely by way of Europe. ‘his sid, however, the intellectial tnerary be fllowed was not a simple move frm the margins the metropolis, falling to that other side of Orentaliem he puts outide the ambit of Orntaliom, Edward Sai notes the gret imbalance isthe flow of Westerners eastwards against Hasterers going west as well 15 the radical dispartes in the reason, purpose and effect of these ‘moves. Wile Westemers traveled to the Orient (conquer and oc (ips, administer colonies, extract wealth, game at posession, of ‘reat fantasies of te Other (and, In those fantasies, themactves), “the Bastern aveer in the West were there fo let fem and to ape at an avanced culture" ‘The realty Ie mave complex than the image Europe mesmerized Rizal as he traveled though her cities but he was no ordinary tue fat Almost obuesive in his need to encompass the wordy he was ‘well informed in the history of Europe and methodical in the way he explored her cities, walking up and down gede of street, a modern Ppaftta complete with a Basdoer and a pedometer The sense af "outsideness” and diference never leith aor the constant connec: tions he made between this place and home. Describing a Pais de- partment store in eter to his family, he wate: “It occupies an fete Block with all the floors ofthe building a large a the space between our house and the telegraph office.” The halls of Litem 6s bourg Place are “full of Grecian, Reman, and Etruscan jars and amphorae... 20 numerous thet there are enough for the whole province of Lana,” Then again “Pll with magnient houses the fate area of Calambe, Cabeyso, and Santa Rosa an you'l have Paris mor o ess. Al these may simplybe the inncent deve to ‘ake the foreign imaginable; yet this tacking to and fr betacen the alien andthe homey is expressive aswell of the impulse to maintain perspective, to contain the alien and Rep ita bay In viewing what in many ways wae Burope's imperial lot this Agrant accumulation ofthe wevls riches, twas neither emty aor anger Rizal felt but sadness at the coldnest of the grandeur that ‘emained—and, poignant, sadness at his own county inl ity, Wherever he went he was often mistaken for Jopenese (nd, of fone occasion, playfully assumed the role of ene, impressing some tourists with his knowledge of the lives of Japanese artis) View. Jing an exhibition of sled military trophies fom all ver the woild tthe Museum of Artillery In Pars, be wrote: “It seems incredible but the costumes and weapons af the savages ofthe small sands of Borneo are found there but these ofthe Philippines ee not even remembered "= What gale was not ast victimhood but that it should go nace vowed. It was preity the ned to astert pence and vislity ‘hat impel Rial to raise his country rom ts pst, to summon fet, se pus in his preface to Morg,“the shadow of the cation of ‘ur ancestor” that colonialism had erased rom memory BEADING EUROPEAN TEXTS, Rial was sensitive to the limits of these sourees—discontinuous, debased, written out ofa variety of pit Josophies, written ffom the outsde. He appreciated that hey r- uted strategies ofreading-and plain raiding If he was to ett {om them what he needed: Writing to Blmentitt about the Morga book, he sl ‘Morga isan excellent book. It could besa that Morga is & learned modem explore. He has nothing of the supertialty ‘and exaggeration so peculiar to the Spaniards of today. He writes very simply, But in reading him one must know how to read beeen the lines, beciuse he had been governor general of the Philipines and later justice ofthe Inquistion © CCommesting on Withelm von Humbolt’s study on Malsyo- ‘Polynesian lngusges, fe remarked that Humboldt allowed hnset te be led tao much by his Spanish source who, “though a good author, has however committed pardonable erors fr being for goes" “Tam sure that Humbeld's genius, ba be consulted beter covered important connections between our [thors would have language." Reading between the lines, against the grain; riding texts for swsable data (source mining” even misteading Rial shetched the beginnings ofa Philippine antiolonial story: Alt othe bias of those who speak of the Philipines from a place of “author,” Rizal was, withthe rarest exception, contemptsous ofthe scholar ship of Spaniards writing on the cslony, particulary the religous and thore traveling chroniclers who “retain only thot time in ‘the Philippines” and “spend this bri time among Spaniards." He igravitated towards the scholarship of countries without poli Interests inthe Philippines, sch ae Germany and Atria, He praised Blumen, cizen ofa countey that i not “a colonies” for the Austin's disinterested Some write history to rls oto Mater the sprt oftheir ‘ation, to depreciate or lower that of thelr enemies ers to Support lita, religious, or theoretical opinions with histor Cal facts Which they adept and mutilate to suit thei convenience, tnd otbers «a Ite better not to speak of ther ends and orposest ‘rom Betinon 12 January 1887, he wrote to Blumentit We ae indebted to Geman and Baglish scholars fr lting 2 lite light penetrate our dark county. I realy marvelous that these strangers, without having vated our country, do not Judge us secording to deep-rooted prejudioes, ether do, but ‘rather wily iberal criterion and in «humaritatian sense” Beri, Pai, and London were the capitals of nineteenth-cen- tury Oriental Scholarship (beside which Madrid was parochial and lethargic. Rizal relished the atmosphere of intellectual freed in these places, Bled In Dapitan, he yearned for “the incessant and or Indelatigable sient lite of ized Burope where everything ix discussed, where everything is placed in doubt, and nothing i a. cepted without previous examination, previous aalyis~the Ife of the societies of linguistics, ethnography, geomaphy, medicine, and archaclogy. "| od Rizal allowed exiberance to ecloud the fet that England tnd France, the greatest empires ofthe time, were not innocent of the wrong be condemned in Spain? At the ime of Risa’s vs, Ger ‘many was going through a miltarist and expansionist phase rooted Im a latent colonialisn—what a shor calls “a kind of colonialism ‘without eolonies"—tht had been building up as part of the forma tin ofa German “rational spirit” in the eighteenth and lneteenth centuries Chancellor Oto von Bismarck had just conslidated the ‘German Empire with a victory over the Pench in 1870. In 1882, the German Colonial Association was formed, pressure group that ‘endeavored to convince Blsmarck ofthe necesity to acquire orign possessions forthe Reich In 1834-1885 (on the eve of Rica's at), Germany annesed colonies in Afric and the Pacific and Bis marc threst himself into the wold stage by organizing the Belin Conference of 1884, which forged framework fora more cord. ‘ated scramble for feritores in Africa among such powers a8 Eo ‘land, France, Belg, and Germany Rial entered Germany ata time when a romantic, burgeis Neral was sill popular ameng German iateletuals, Sach men ss Virchow, Rasta, and Blumentitteciaed Bismarekan colo. ils, espousing liberal notions ofthe “payehic unity of masking,” that peoples around the weld were bound together by fundamental ilies and fellowed the same pattems of ealtural evolution © Goran scholarship on the Philippines, wht ite of i existed at the tim, was unencumbered by any vet pots Interet inthe country and largely limited to technical stad in linguistic, botany, and zooog. Rial was not politely naive. planing to is parents is plans {o go to Germany in 1885, he ited not only the practicalities of living costs and the presence of god professors in Germany he si that learning about the country would be useful because ofthe ‘Caroline question” (Bismarck's annesatonist ambitions) and Germany’s increasing commercial intrest n Ania, Rial wrote “tis necessary that we prepare for what may happen so that we hall ot tbe more exploited than we are now." Despite these reservation, however, it isevdent that th excitement of German inteletalife |e Rizal to take avery geneous vew of German liberalism. Ral was aware that coloniaizm was a world phenomenon and {at Hlipines shared conditions of oppression vith peoples else ‘where, Ae Hipinas dent de cen aio shows, fe was an acute be server ofthe expansialst ambitions of the world’s industaliing countries. Yet he was detached in his view of world policy, An plode Mlatrates this: Rizal was tanaing on the Sex Canal in June 1882, on the way to Spain, when the Urabi Pasha uprising fagnns the Rheive andthe Pranct-Brish presene In Bayptbegen Teaming abovt the dietrbances from a Turkish quarantine officer ‘with whom he conversed In French, Rizal shows he understood the meaning of he ufoing events (which would lead tothe British oc pation of Hyp et he relates the experience in eters home with no ‘all ace of voyeuristic pleasre and cosmopatitan owing = ‘As he could be distant in his view ofthe word, he was single- sinded and impassioned in is pursuit of the Plpino cause In large pat, he used the intellectual achievements, liberal democratic pl ‘Sex, and “ronal” ealonial polices of countries lie France’ nd England as lever in is tack apne Spanish coloniliem. He appre: lated the realty of Intr-Buropean rivalry and Knew that Burope ‘wae not homogensous or monolithic. In exposing Spanish slule 4nd the holowness of what mast have seemed to many in the colony great and unshakeable power, Rial fequently compared fin an Interesting sppropration of Europe's own evolatonis discoure) “laggare” and “backward Spaln with the more “modes” countries ‘of northern and western Europe zal’ lestion inthe scholar worl of Burope is impetant x asseatng his elation to Baropean Oriental. Rial was novelist before he was scholar and, asthe ater, an amateur rater than 8 spells. He was trained 36 an ophthalmologist and not as a his- ‘orlan, linguist, or anthropologist. His medical teining—under the time's leading ophthalmologists, Louls de Wecker and Otto Becker— isan aspect of his intelectual formation that has not been adequately ‘commented pon. Yet, reading his lineal notes, one aleady cued tothe style and discipline with which he approached the “scence” cof tociety and history Seribblng an inter residency notes “Clin Cal history ithe aeration of pathological event with thelr anteced- © nts and inl outcome which have ocsred inpatient. Tobe good it must be methodical, true, accurate and brik" Breaking down the components of clinical anaysie—anamneis diagnosis, propre. sis, treatment, managemeat-he foreshadows the log with which he would disset the problems of clonal society. ln the noes tat have survived its iteresting—given the Mterary use to which be tthe diseaso—that many of the cases he examined were carlo mas.) The clinical temper is shown In his fondness for medicophysiclogical analogies and the image of society ass organ. Jsm, as when he writes of colonialism: ‘The existence of foreign body in another endowed with strength and activity ie against all natural and moral laws. Se ‘ence teaches us that elter i is assimilated t destroys the or. anism, itis eliminated, or itis eneyte. © ‘Aplymath, Ral re fom many surx combing theo pasion of nats withthe metal amature fader Hes ‘nhs cement in inceentroentary Baer enol fda hich tees of atu lence wre oper arena Vo ‘er themes phan He warfarin ak ante a ‘lent preparation gave hi tat detached propmatic beat es taking prescipions far a ation tl armed wth tat eer Able assurance that be ld deal with he Gorman hoe er rather han ents. "He was» named clocts, trading fells, moving at he arpa of Burope'slearpd res. Thongh be joel lesne ae tein Bet, hs elton with thee sce wre emo ie ‘sug on a ate informany cota forte spo oe tnens and ala, contbutr of ares and pinay dats Te Bote derble retin he stack were relatos of tcp and par. Is fitng tat hs closest sotton was with se "pberalfigre in Ocenia, «recuse scholar i's snl Als ta fn who dt not ony ty the Phillpotts ‘identified with it. ee < me alalatesto Blumen is amaing Sst ecounter withthe famous Vicon" "The scolar Vvhow tld me tng tat he ised tse ehnopepialy Ril did ot ines bat replied hat I was wig to submit to his study forthe lone of 0 Science and promised to introduce to him also another example, my compatiot"— referring a hie eraveing competion, Maximo Viel, fan even mare “uate” specimen than Rizal" Virchow I what i now called a "physical anteopelogit” and had published «study ‘on gpot shall; formal portrait ofthe man shows him standing in ‘is stad lef hand resting on burn skull, righthand hong e caliper for cranial measurement.” Virchow vas 2 man to be ad ‘nue, the node fa dynamic politically engaged sient, but the ‘yung Flipin didnot come to Biope to study atthe fet of irchow (though he was abvioulythriled by the experience of having beer ‘with the eminent scientist and other German scolers wel nto the right after «meeting of the Berlin Geographical Sole). Rial yas fon the hunt toler het he could and se what served his purpse He ke, t0,thit such “networks” as he built, and the leasing ‘sind, were useful for ceating that “nathority” wth whic to hal lenge the “authority” ofthe cols expert in Spain ae there. Rizal was an amateur uninhibited by the professional or ideo- logical consains of a discipline o “el.” He vas all ver the place He was into comparative linguists (studying Malay and Phi Ippinelngunges like Bsayan, Subanon, and Mangyen; working on a “Tagalog grammar; planning “universal” dictionary of Philppine langues and dialects}; he corespanded with collegues on cartog- raphy and geography; maintained an active interest in the natal scienes (doing inventories of seashell, callecting botanical spec- mons; wroteon sch topics as Tagalog poetry and popular religion, ‘compiled nots on such aeana asthe speciation for constructing riltary parapets: and, even in ext in Dapltan, ted to keep up ‘with hs teary eesdings, asking a frend in Europe to send him books by Rusian waiters. He di exercees in reading and writing Arabic scripts and Egyptian hierog'yphs and even copied fragments ofthe Zend vest, the sacred bock the translation of whlch by the renchman AnguetilDupetra Ia 1771, fe considered ane of the founding acts ofthe Orentalit renaissance i Europe" Rial em- braced the word of earning as his own. RIZAL SPECULATED on issues curent in Burope’s academic cirles— the origins o races and languages, evolution and diffusions, he nature of progress and the unity af human civilization. He was, however a theorist or systema nthe manner that Pedro Paterno n and labo de os Reyes aspired to be}; e neither had the space noe inclination to craft himself sone. He knew of Chtles Darwin (and, like Bastian and Virhow, was skeptical of orthodox Darwinism) but there is no reference to hi having actually read Org ofthe Spies (2859) oy, for that matter, the bok Kar! Marx was sleving over at {he Britsh Museum some thirty years before Rial got there, tique of Political Esonamy (1859). What mattered was the dit and direction of his ltellectual patie. Strategically leated, armed with a purpose, Rizal creatively ‘engaged Orientalst knowledge. He wsed Europe's high-minded En. Lightenment rhetoric against Barope and invoked her authority to Ldermine that sime authority. edi not mater the was ese of It tall that Goethe and Chateaubriand exeentilized the Fast, th: ing t into tapestry for their own pivat imagining, Rial drank of thelr sublimites to nourish his own dreams, Antonia Figafeta' be ign sistenthcentury view ofthe Bisayans may have more to do ‘with the courtly conventions ofthe Italian Renaissance than iseyan realities, while Thomas Stamford Ralls enyelopedic knowledge Of the Malay archipelago was fed by British expansionist sims in the Bast Indies (and, not least, Raffles ov career ambitions), This id not prevent Rizal from dislodging them fom their history and ‘sing them fr his, ‘Trough readings or sheer osmosis, Rizal lenmed hisorcim fom Johann Gottied Herder, comparative Unites from such loners as Humboldt, Bugene Burnout, and Franz Bopp, and at ‘ropology from German ethnologist Todor Waite (author ofthe ‘monumental Anthropol de Natrvoker (1859-1972), hich Ral wanted to translate), He proceeded to se this learning for his own purposes, giving to crrent dens his own particular infection he Steezed the Uberti implications of Flipno culture inthe srugle against colonial, He was attracted to comparative linguists since this was « uted fl n the nineteenth centary fr nvetiating te iene tity and relationships of eutures. Where Buropeanphileogit, pat ticularly the French, were enamored with grand classfentory and ‘voltionary systems at he ape of wick stood Burope), Rial must have drawn inspiration from the more romantic, pluralist views of ‘Wibelm von Humboldt. The German savant did not nly sty ‘Malayo-Polynesian languages wen everybody el it semed, was ” mining Sanskrit), he promoted the view tht “every language as 2 Stractre worthy of study and every language has the infinite re ‘cures to asilate the richest and lofts ides.” Rial raat have ‘warmed to Humbold’s thesis that languages “he work of ations,” roa f the split and individuality ofa people ‘The comparative study of languages, the exact establishment cof the manifold ways in which innumerable peoples resolve the Same tasks of language formation that lad upan them as men, Toes all higher interest if t doesnot leave tothe pint st which language Ss connested with the shaping of the nation’s ment il took a comparatist approach to fatues of race and cultare but where the Buropean Orientalist employed the method to pe lege Indo-European or Aryan supereiy Rizal used it to advance his ‘own people's clans to anterior. The satey is ustrated in what seers an incoctous contribution to Trbners Record Guly 1889) in ‘which he compared the Tagalog apd Japanese versions ofthe fable of the tortoise andthe monkey. Specuating on questios of origins, he ‘surmised thatthe Taglog version solder (it has "more piloxopby, ‘more plies of orm,” while the Japanese version has “more cit [ation and, 2 to speak, more diplomatic urape"; suggested the post of the Malay erg ofthe Japanese people; and raised the feed fr staying more versions of the ale in the Malay archipelago, “The anciency ofthe tale, he concluded, shows tat, before Spanish ‘colonialism, there was “en extinct cvliatlon, common to all the races which lve i that region (., the Par Bast.“ In addresing arange of ies wvhether public education, popu: lar religiosity othe Filipino prsonality—Rizal adopted a historcst approach that undermined Orientlin’sestetialising tendencies Dring from the ideas of Herder and the German romantic, he luaced not only perceived weaknesses inthe Mlipino character, ike Indlence and spay, to “natural laws” (uch asthe effect ofc mate) but, more imprtantly, the dynames of soil practice, packing “Flin defects" a the effect of oppressive clonal elites land te ack of “freedom” and “national sentiment. ‘Wille Orenalists deployed theories of race to confer superior fty onthe European, Rial didnot only astert racial equality but B wed the racalist discourse to blame colonialism fr distortions in te development of races. Thre ie no such thing ts some racee being horn more inteligent chan others, he angued,intlience fea function of socal and hstorieal development. “Races wih have ‘een obliged to work with thelr brains on account of eertain spesal mations, have developed them mere, then have transmitted theme to their descendants who later have continued on ey ete” The srowth of intligence requires "centuries of stragge” aa the “wise embinations”ofUbet, law and traditions offre thought Imp Hendy dismissing the prejudies of race, he says: “lathe mater of sethetcs each race ha its own dea Right as no skin nor hot Te sno easy tas to trace the genealogy of «perce ideas, yet lt lear that, despite Rials disclaimer, 4 “German education Jndlunce his views. Rizal's stayin Spain simed Is iberal sent ‘ents, but his raves in norther and western Burope brought hin into the very center of Western “modernity” athe time, in Partin, Jar Germany ofthe 1880s." Already drawn tothe liberal pasion of Goethe; esting, and Schiler, Rizal entered Germany when cuit _sties were dominated bythe ideas of Herder Wilhelm and Alesander ‘umboet, Bastian, and Vigehow, This was the “Burope” Rela ‘mired, the intellectual ite out of which he would erigue that ther “Burope" that Spanish colonials represented, This incidentally the same nexus out of which came Franz Bows, whe trained under ‘Vigchow and Bastian and was about the sme ages Ria, When Rizal was in Bertin, Boas was fishing fedora British Cals bia, studying the Kaul Indians, and would soon decide to elo ‘sate tothe Unite States, where he became one af the fers of American anthropology Rial was influenced not jut by some generac, difse “Bu ‘opean humanism” (or Orientalism) but a specific arcilton of {his humanism, a nineteenth century German historia and etno Joplal tradition tht sought to reconcile the Enlightenment ue for Universal criteria and essentalang statements about human tatore ith the Romantic interest in ditterential histories andthe specific $y of caltural creations * eas in thie formation Rial must ave {ound particulary productive inclode «pluralist nation of enguae, interallycobereat nationalities moving towards » common “hu ‘maniy." arial equality premised onthe “pyehic unity of man. ” ind” as opposed tothe racist views of hakrs ke Brest Renan tnd Atha e Gobinens s tlnn’ even tha explains

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