Asian Journal of Women's Studies

ISSN: 1225-9276 (Print) 2377-004X (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rajw20

Mothers, wives, and farmers: Stories of women

‘gone mad’

Kenette Jean Millondaga

To cite this article: Kenette Jean Millondaga (2018) Mothers, wives, and farmers:
Stories of women ‘gone mad’, Asian Journal of Women's Studies, 24:3, 396-412, DOI:
10.1080/12259276.2018.1498304

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/12259276.2018.1498304

Published online: 20 Aug 2018.

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ASIAN JOURNAL OF WOMEN’S STUDIES
2018, VOL. 24, NO. 3, 396–412
https://doi.org/10.1080/12259276.2018.1498304

VOICES FROM ASIAN FEMINIST ACTIVISM

Mothers, wives, and farmers: Stories of women ‘gone

mad’
Kenette Jean MILLONDAGA
Department of Social Sciences, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of the
Philippines Mindanao

ABSTRACT
Loosely translated as postpartum depression or psychosis, bughat is often
perceived as a natural reaction of women to pregnancy and childbirth in
some rural areas of the Philippines. Previous studies on bughat also illustrate
the phenomenon. However, during my five-month research in rice-farming
and Hiligaynon settlers’ communities in Pigcawayan, North Cotabato,
Mindanao, bughat seemed to have gone beyond the confines of pregnancy,
childbirth, or postpartum recovery. Extreme forms of it drove women into
temporary or permanent states of mental imbalance. This was the embodied
reaction of women to the situation of rice farming communities that rely on
people’s manual labor, had gendered community relations, and where
women faced multiple burdens. It demonstrates the limited strength and
capacities of women in fulfilling their roles as mothers, wives, nurturers, and
farmers. However, because this condition is perceived and labeled as such,
women do not seek or receive proper medical intervention even if they suffer
bughat or are already in a state of mental impairment. The prevalence of
extreme cases among women from poor households is also a manifestation of
the socio-economic and political conditions in Mindanao.

KEYWORDS Peasant women; Mindanao; madness; postpartum; pregnancy

Introduction
Men and women, young and old alike, experience bughat, loosely translated
as postpartum depression or psychosis, after they engage in activities that are
makabughat (actions that may cause bughat) (Lieban, 1978, as cited in Tan,
2008; Payne, 1985). Bughat is equated to binat, a condition that usually
occurs when a person engages in long and heavy work while still recovering
from an illness (Tan, 2008). It is also almost synonymous with relapse—a
medical condition or illness—that manifests before a person reaches a
stage of complete recovery and the alleviation of symptoms from a previous
or current illness. Various factors are attributed to relapse, including not eating

CONTACT Kenette Jean MILLONDAGA kenettejean@gmail.com

© 2018 Asian Center for Women's Studies, Ewha Womans University
 ASIAN JOURNAL OF WOMEN’S STUDIES 397

on time, repeated bouts of hunger, non-observance of food prohibitions, or

after tedious work in the fields (Cabotaje, 1976; Payne, 1985).
Earlier studies argue that bughat is a natural bodily reaction of women to
childbirth, part of postpartum recovery, and related to women’s reproductive
system (see Hart, 1965; Lieban, 1978). Lieban (1978) already underscored the
gendered dimension of bughat wherein he emphasized that the roles and
social position of women made them more susceptible to experiencing
bughat compared to men. Moreover, pregnancy and childbirth bring irrevers-
ible changes in a woman’s body that may lead to this and it is expressed in the
“form of body aches and pains” (Lieban, 1978, as cited in Tan, 2008, p. 110).
Moreover, Tan (2008) has argued that pregnant and postpartum women are
considered to be susceptible to illness because of the changes, not only in
their physical but also in “metaphysical states” (p. 109). Here, such changes
are associated with the emotional and psychological stresses experienced
by new mothers.
Exploring the perceptions of women, their husbands, traditional healers,
and modern medical practitioners, Harold Alfred Marshall’s (2001) unpub-
lished thesis entitled, Perspectives of Bughat in a Farming Community in
Negros Occidental, broadened causes of bughat to the “physical and emotional
stress, diet, environment, and climate changes” that women experience. He
further added that “poverty, gender inequality, and the status of women in
the community” (Marshall, 2001, p. 91) leads to its occurrence. However, Mar-
shall (2001) framed his analysis of the phenomenon as a culture-bound syn-
drome, a framework that has been criticized as a conceptual mistake, a
form of cultural reductionism, and an “othering” (Hahn, 1995).
At present, bughat is loosely translated as postpartum depression or psy-
chosis. In 2015, former Philippine Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago filed
Senate Bill 2821 or an Act to Provide for Research on Postpartum Depression
and Psychosis to conduct research on the said phenomenon as it affects
women and mothers. Based on the statistical count in 2004, there “were
126,826 cases of postpartum depression in the Philippines” and when left
undiagnosed/untreated led to “further depression, substance abuse, loss of
employment, divorce and further social alienation, self-destructive behavior,
or even suicide” (Defensor-Santiago, 2015, pp. 1–2). The said Senate Bill,
however, is still pending in the Committee on Health and Demography
since June 2015.
The studies mentioned above (see Hart, 1965; Lieban, 1978; Marshall, 2001;
Payne, 1985; Tan, 2008) may have been outdated, but they are worth citing in
this study as they pioneered in illustrating the gendered differences in the
experience of bughat and the conditions that can lead to the illness as well
as the societal impositions and prohibitions that have been created to
prevent its occurrence. However, these studies are limited in terms of under-
standing this as a bodily reaction in women because of their roles as farmers,
398 K. J. MILLONDAGA

mothers, and wives that are embedded within the wider economic, political,
and cultural context. They also failed to extend their analyses into taking
account of gendered relations and the patriarchal context within which
bughat occurs and the greater susceptibility of women to it compared to
men. Moreover, translating bughat as postpartum depression/psychosis is
also limiting because it frames it as a condition that is only related to preg-
nancy and childbirth.
The narratives I gathered from the field indicate that bughat can be under-
stood as women’s bodily expression in the same way Nancy Scheper-Hughes
and the American Council of Learned Societies (1992) explored nervoso as a
manifestation of poor people’s condition in response to hunger, scarcity,
chronic suffering, and sickness in a Brazilian community. Kathryn Oths’
(1999) exploration of an Andean illness named debilidad that can also be
likened to bughat is a “generalized debility, a physical, emotional, and spiritual
exhaustion that is attributed to various stressful conditions and life events”
(Oths, 1999, p. 291) experienced mostly by women during their post-repro-
ductive years. Oths (1999) found that in Northern Peru, women experienced
debilidad due to the accumulated hardships caused by pressures on their
reproductive and productive responsibilities. Furthermore, she argued that
women are subjected to triple oppression as “citizens of the third world, pea-
sants, and subordinate in status to men” (Oths, 1999, p. 305). As she puts it, the
prominence of debilidad among women compared to men is an “embodiment
of a life lived harshly, not simply a metaphor for discontent” (Oths, 1999,
p. 309). Moreover, Mari Clark’s (1989) exploration of nevra (nerves) in Greek
villages can also be likened to bughat. It describes the bodily reaction of
women who suffer emotional instability, distress, failed relationships, and
fatigue, as a result of the pressures they face in male-headed households.
Clark (1989) found that rapid changes in the socio-economic activities of
Greek villages introduced new kinds of stressors. The economy shifted from
a family-centric unit, to an individualized and career-oriented one. She has
argued that people used nevra to describe their personal conditions and
serves as a “metaphor for an antagonistic behavior” (Clark, 1989, p. 231) in
a competitive environment. Like nervoso, debilidad, and nevra, bughat can
be viewed as a sign of people’s life conditions and uncover their cultural
and social views, using the three-tiered framework of Scheper-Hughes and
Lock (1987) that connects the individual body, the social body, and the
body politic.
This study examines bughat as experienced by women and the causes that
drive them into a state of mental instability. It will then be interpreted based
on the experience of these women. Specifically, the study looks at how
women’s social status and gendered relations in the community contribute
to suffering such a condition. Guided by the works of Scheper-Hughes and
Lock (1987), bughat can be understood as a bodily, social, and political
 ASIAN JOURNAL OF WOMEN’S STUDIES 399

phenomenon, conditioned by one’s class, social status, and sex. It is an embo-

diment of inequality (Nguyen & Peschard, 2003), which articulates and
expresses the status and roles of women in agricultural communities. Further-
more, I argue that bughat is not limited to health and medical conditions
alone; rather, it is a category and condition that is actively defined by the
members of the community. To fully understand it, I first focus on the experi-
ences of three women, Lala, Gereliza, and Anita from Barangay Tico, Munici-
pality of Magpet, during a month of fieldwork. Later I encountered Neneng,
Emma, and Analiza, who were my key informants from the Municipality of Pig-
cawayan, where I did fieldwork for five months. All these women were
suffering from extreme cases of bughat. They could not speak because of
their condition and so I talked to their family members, neighbors, traditional
healers, and Barangay (village) Health Workers who knew their histories.

Fieldwork and field site

My interest in studying bughat began when I was directing the summer
anthropological field school in Barangay Tico, in one of the barangays (smal-
lest administrative units) of the Municipality of Magpet, in North Cotabato1.
Barangay Tico is the ancestral domain of an indigenous people’s group,
Obo-Manobo. During our one-month stay in the area, I often heard women
in Tico use the term bughat (nosennat in Obo-Manobo2) to describe the
state of ill health of women after childbirth. I was not keenly interested to
look into it until I heard the stories of Lala, Gereliza, and Anita3. Their con-
ditions fit many of the signs and symptoms of the Obo Manobo’s definition
of bughat.
I met Gereliza when some students were conducting a household survey.
She was well dressed when she approached me to ask where I came from. I
answered some of her questions casually while we walked together to the
nearest house where a student was interviewing. Our conversation continued
until a young girl inside the house made a bodily sign by twirling her finger
near her temple, to signal that Gereliza was crazy. Later, I asked around
about her and learned that she had worked in Kidapawan City until her
relationship with her husband turned sour. She had a miscarriage and after
several months, her husband left her. According to her sister, the doctor
told them that she was mentally ill. Her behavior could be managed if she
took her medicine regularly, which her family could not afford. Most of the
time, she would be seen roaming around the community in her best dress,
talking to herself.
I first saw Lala during the celebration of a barangay fiesta in Tico. She was
half-smiling when she took center-stage before the opening of a beauty
contest in the barangay. She was suffering from an extreme case of bughat.
The people familiar with the case of Lala said that she exhibited what they
400 K. J. MILLONDAGA

say are its symptoms after she discovered her husband’s extramarital affair.
She refused to eat, stopped taking care of her children and herself, and
over time exhibited changes in her personality and mental state. Community
members said that Lala had mood swings, no longer attended to her personal
welfare such as eating, bathing, and changing her clothes. She also could not
function any longer as a mother and did not attend to the needs of her chil-
dren and had stopped caring for them. Lala did not receive any medical care
as her family could not afford it. I never had the chance to meet Anita during
our month-long stay in Tico. Like Lala and Gereliza, Anita started suffering
from bughat after learning that her husband was having an affair. Like Lala,
she never received any medical attention. In several instances, according to
the people of Tico, she would be seen roaming around the neighborhood naked.
I started my fieldwork in my hometown, in Pigcawayan, North Cotabato
before the start of harvest season in 2016-17. Stored rice kept by farmers
had been consumed and work was no longer available to the men and
women who were dependent on the landowners who paid them on a daily
basis. They had to wait until the rice was ready for harvest. Farmers were
hoping for a good harvest following the seven-month drought or El Niño.
During this time, they kept on talking about their struggles to make both
ends meet. These conditions made the fieldwork challenging. I conducted
fieldwork from August 2016 to January 2017, with follow-up visits between
the months of April and June 2017 to fill some gaps in data that were ident-
ified in the course of writing4. During fieldwork, I focused my study on five
rice-producing, contiguous barangays5. The area expanded as I started follow-
ing the stories of women who had experienced or were still experiencing
extreme and chronic bughat. I had visited a total of eight barangays or villages
by the end of my fieldwork.
Pigcawayan is an agricultural municipality. Most people are farmers who
engage in wet-rice agriculture, corn production, and other high-valued agri-
cultural products such as banana, mango, rubber, sugar cane, etc. (Municipal-
ity of Pigcawayan, 2010). Majority of the farmers were peasants whose land
ownership and participation in production varied, which implied their econ-
omic status, position in the community, power, and privileges. Most of
them were tenants and farm laborers. Tenants are farmers who have rights
to till the land but do not own it; during harvest time, they apportion a
certain share of the produce to the landowners. On the other hand, farm
laborers are those who cultivate the land but do not own the land they till.
Farm laborers are also directly under the authority of landowners.
In a Municipality such as Pigcawayan, the rice cultivation cycle sets the
rhythm of life and the nature of economic activities starting from land prep-
aration to transplanting, hand weeding, and harvesting. Rice matures and
becomes ready to be harvested within a three-month period. The seasons
for planting and harvesting have changed greatly in recent years. The start
 ASIAN JOURNAL OF WOMEN’S STUDIES 401

of planting has become dependent on the irrigation and water supply

rationed by the local government. Without water or in case of extreme
weather conditions, agricultural lands are left untilled and unproductive. At
most, farmers can only plant and harvest twice a year.

Stories of women ‘gone mad’: Narratives of Analiza, Neneng,

and Emma6
Analiza, Neneng, and Emma were experiencing alternating episodes of
disease and good health; their conditions and associated signs and symptoms
fit the Hiligaynon definition of bughat that led persons into states of tempor-
ary or permanent mental impairment. In this section, I briefly present the
socio-economic background of these women, the onset and progression of
their bughat as well as the medical techniques used to address their condition.
I will also illustrate how their suffering was connected with issues of landless-
ness, poverty, scarcity of food, gender-based violence, and inadequate
medical and social services in peasant communities.

Socio-economic background and the problem of landlessness in

peasant communities
Analiza, Neneng, and Emma were farmers, wives, and mothers. While they
were well, they worked on other people’s farms as temporary and seasonal
workers, especially when the demand for labor peaked during the stage of
transplanting rice and hand weeding, earning between P200.00 and 250.007
per day. The three women also sold food or vegetables or did the laundry
for well-off families to augment the needs of their own families. Other than
Analiza’s husband, who owned a small piece of land, Neneng and Emma
and their husbands were landless. Their husbands worked as tenant farmers
or farm laborers for the landed families of Pigcawayan. In several instances,
they and their children helped their menfolk to perform all the farm work.
Apart from these tasks, their primary roles as mothers and wives required
them to do all domestic chores, rear their young children, and ensure that
their husbands’ needs were met.
At a young age, Analiza was trained to do heavy manual work—she knew
how to prepare rice fields by tilling and flattening the soil and later thresh and
haul palay (rice) during harvest and post-harvest processes. In the community,
she was a known as a hardworking woman. She and her husband Lito were
both farmers. They owned a half hectare of agricultural land that Lito had
inherited from his parents. When all the work on their own field was done,
they worked on other people’s lands to earn more money. During the
harvest season, Analiza manually gathered the uncollected loose palay in
the field, while Lito joined the main group of harvesters.
402 K. J. MILLONDAGA

Neneng used to work as a salesperson in a local bakeshop. When she

married Jun-jun, she sold food in the neighborhood and did laundry for
well-off families. She was also in-charge of the housework, including chopping
firewood, collecting water, and taking care of their young child. Meanwhile,
Jun-jun worked as a tenant farmer for a landed family in Pigcawayan where
he earned 200.00 pesos a day. The landowner allowed them to till a portion
of his land where they had planted corn.
At a young age, Emma worked in her relatives’ home in a nearby province
so she could go to a nearby school. After finishing her elementary education,
she worked as a house help in Bukidnon in Northern Mindanao where she met
Dodong, her husband. They got married when she turned 20 and had a baby
when she was 21 years old. From Bukidnon, the couple migrated to Pigcawa-
yan after Dodong’s relative offered him work as a farm laborer. The couple
accepted the offer as life in Bukidnon was very difficult. The maize field
they cultivated was no longer productive and needed a lot of investment.
So, Emma and Dodong, both in their early forties, relied mainly on his
income as farm laborer on a 1.5 hectares rice field. The landowner provided
all the required implements and material such as fertilizers, pesticides, and
additional labor when needed. As a laborer, Dodong received 14 percent8
from the total harvest. After that he also worked on another farm for
250.00-300.00 pesos a day.

Onset of bughat
Analiza’s bughat started when she was 23 years old, a month after she gave
birth to her first-born child, Nathan. While she was recovering from pregnancy
and childbirth, she had no money, time, or energy to buy and cook her own
food, so she ate carabao meat and kalamay-hati9 that her neighbors gave her.
The main ingredient of kalamay-hati is glutinous/sticky rice, commonly kept
by farmers in their homes. Carabao meat is a cheap alternative to beef and
other meat for soups and is commonly believed to help in recovery of ill-
nesses. Analiza was unaware that eating carabao meat and sticky rice
during postpartum recovery leads to bughat, as per local belief among the
people of Pigcawayan. But food choices are limited among poor people
and so postpartum women from poor households often consume maka-
bughat food out of necessity to fill their stomachs. Analiza knew that for post-
partum recovery a woman must have a full stomach, so as to protect herself
from bughat. Moreover, having a full stomach during the postpartum period
provides a woman the energy she needs to perform manual work in the field,
care for her children, and perform domestic chores. A woman whose stomach
was empty because of hunger after delivering a child was considered to be
most susceptible to bughat tingag or the worst type of bughat, characterized
by suffering that is seen as ‘madness.’ It was also believed that on an empty
 ASIAN JOURNAL OF WOMEN’S STUDIES 403

stomach, hangin or wind/air would pass through a susceptible woman and

easily and go up to her head, causing bughat.
Neneng did not experience any indication of bughat following her first
pregnancy. However, less than three months after the birth of her second
child, she felt a sudden pain in her head. She forgot to eat her breakfast
because she was so engrossed in housework. Her experience was seen to
be related to pasar sa kaon or hunger that had not been satiated because
the time for having a meal had already passed. In peasant communities,
pasar sa kaon is a common occurrence. Farmers and family members dis-
missed their experience of hunger because they were so focused on their
work, which they needed to finish within a given period, or they may have
nothing to eat otherwise. As per local belief, such instances of hunger may
be exhibited in a form of bughat.
In Bukidnon, Northern Mindanao, Emma’s bughat started to appear after
she joined a group of men and women in harvesting maize, a month after
childbirth. Working immediately after childbirth is discouraged as the body
is not considered to have fully recovered. However, she needed to work to
earn money for her family and Dodong, Emma’s husband, ignored the signs
as she appeared and acted normally.

Progression of bughat
Analiza, Neneng, and Emma were all experiencing extreme forms of the con-
dition or bughat tingag. When they got worse, they displayed different behav-
ior and signs of madness. When her bughat started, Analiza’s body swelled up,
she had fever, and had loose bowel movements and could not get up from
her bed for several weeks. Analiza had given birth three times in consecutive
years and her bughat recurred after every child she had. The barangay health
workers advised her to space her pregnancies. She had tried using the calen-
dar method, there were times when Lito came home drunk and forced Analiza
to have sex. If she tried to refuse, he would accuse her of having an affair so
she did not resist. She tried to use an intra-uterine device (IUD) once to keep
herself from getting pregnant but felt uncomfortable and stopped using it.
She got pregnant with their fourth child and then had four more.
Her worst experience of bughat was after she had her fifth child. “She was
not in her right mind,” said Nelia, Analiza’s 82-year old mother. She stopped
taking care of her young child. Once she climbed up a coconut tree, carrying
her month-old child with one hand, but her neighbors were able to convince
her to come down. Such incidents of mental instability, which were dangerous
for her and others, over time, caused stress for her family. The mental state of
one of her children deteriorated because of severe substance abuse and he
became violent, but they chose to chain him up in their house because
they were too poor to send him to a mental health facility. In 2015, he
404 K. J. MILLONDAGA

mauled Analiza and destroyed their home appliances and so she left their
house and stayed with her mother after that. Now 58 years old, and after
having eight children, Analiza is still suffering from periods of extreme
bughat whenever she is hungry, exhausted from work, and feeling stressed
due to other problems.
When Neneng’s bughat worsened, she talked incessantly until the wee
hours of the morning in words that were incomprehensible. “She talks in
Tagalog. She talks in random languages and even in Chinese” according
to her mother-in-law, Ine. She would walk around anywhere at any
time, including late at night and in the early hours of the morning. She
would fold their clothes, only to unfold them and fold them back again.
Neneng admitted that her “head was spinning,” and would stop only if
she walked outside. Every time her bughat recurred, Neneng exhibited
violent behavior. “She would fight back; she nags; she punches; she
pulls my hair. I let her do that; I do not fight her back because her
head/consciousness is different,” said Thelma, Neneng’s mother. She
would wander around naked in the house and on the farm. On several
occasions Thelma took care of Neneng and noticed bruises on her arms
and learned from her granddaughter that her husband Jun-jun and
Neneng would “wrestle with each other,” suggesting the possibility of
physical violence.
During bughat, Emma walked anywhere at any time of the day. Sometimes,
she slept in the talipapa (small, temporary market). She would become
mindful of her physical appearance and carried a mirror, lipstick, baby
powder, lotion, and hairbrush with her. Once, during the barangay fiesta,
she danced nonstop in the community disco. She also hit a young child
with a stick and slammed a pail against the water pump. She joined classes
in the nearby elementary school, acting like one of the pupils, while both tea-
chers and students were afraid of her, for fear that she may attack them. Also,
family members and neighbors suspected that Emma had thrown her young
child out from the window, resulting in the child’s death. One night, her
husband Dodong heard her talking to someone non-stop, mentioning
names, places, as well as her experiences randomly. Whenever Emma’s
bughat recurred, her sexual inhibitions disappeared. She would challenge
Dodong to have sex with her. Without proper control over herself she
would then become pregnant.

Medical choices
Women resorted to traditional preventive10 techniques to prevent bughat11.
These methods were traditional and usually undertaken with the supervision
of traditional healers. Neneng tried several traditional herbal remedies and a
birth attendant assisted her in performing these such as post-delivery baths12.
 ASIAN JOURNAL OF WOMEN’S STUDIES 405

She also took himughat or a traditional liquid remedy13 that she drank from
time to time to prevent bughat. These methods, however, were ineffective
when the woman was hungry. Once bughat started, Analiza resorted to
such traditional remedies, seeking the help of a traditional midwife or birth
attendant to steam bathe or massage her, but had stopped as the midwife
had died.
When Neneng’s condition worsened, Jun-jun took her to several traditional
healers. Their diagnosis was bughat tingag. The healers explained that
Neneng’s condition had become too bad to be treated by traditional
methods. At the height of extreme bughat, Analiza, Neneng, and Emma wan-
dered around the village, making it difficult for family members to ensure their
safety. Therefore, they had to lock or chain them inside their homes some-
times, for example, Neneng’s parents chained her inside their home as this
was the only way they knew how to restrain her from wandering about,
ensure her safety, and get some peace of mind while they were busy
working in the field. When Analiza and Emma’s behaviors became uncontrol-
lable, they were left outside, to wander and roam around the village. Family
and community members kept a look out to ensure their safety and keep
note of their whereabouts.
In the absence of modern medical care and facilities to address their con-
dition, immediate family members took care of such bughat sufferers.
Neneng’s mother, Thelma, took care of her, washed her everyday, gave her
food, and massaged her regularly. She also gave her special steam and
smoke baths, using traditional medications such as incense that produced
smoke that the local people believed had properties to dispel bad spirits
that could cause bughat. Alongside, she gave her vitamins, which she believed
could help Neneng sleep well. She was able to seek medical intervention from
the hospital as well. Her stuttering voice and shaking hands were a few of the
side effects of the medicines she was taking to cure her bughat. To afford her
daily sustenance and medication, Neneng’s parents decided to lease their
agricultural land.
Analiza also used traditional methods such as steam baths and massage
but only for a while. Whenever she felt her bughat was about to recur, she
walked outside her house so that she could sweat. She also took paraceta-
mol or Gardan, over-the-counter drugs that were popular among women
to cure bughat. Once, her mother gave her four tablets of Gardan, which
she consumed all at once. Meanwhile, Emma was given a regular shot of
Depo-provera. Although this was not seen to be a solution for bughat, it
was the only effective way to prevent her pregnancy. By preventing this,
Emma had the chance to regain her health. Depo-provera was the only
recourse her family could see in order to alleviate her bughat and her
suffering.
406 K. J. MILLONDAGA

Discussion and analysis

From the stories of the three women in Barangay Tico and from the women I
met and interviewed in the course of my longer fieldwork in Pigcawayan,
bughat was a common experience among women regardless of ethnicity.
These shared physical manifestations and symptoms of bughat could be
attributed to the shared commonalities of women’s condition in Mindanao
in an economy based on manual labor that also allowed the perpetuation
of socio-cultural prejudices against women. From these stories, it was
evident bughat was a phenomenon that connected the physical, social, and
political body (Scheper-Hughes & Lock, 1987). Although anyone was suscep-
tible to bughat, regardless of gender and class, women suffered it more fre-
quently because of their burdens as mothers, wives, and farmers. Moreover,
among women from poor households, bughat can be understood as an
embodiment of poverty and scarcity.
From the data I gathered from the field and other studies, bughat can be
classified as follows: (a) gunhat or bughat or relapse, which referred to a
cycle of good and ill health with the same signs and symptoms or an illness
sprung from an old illness; (b) bughat sa pagbata was related to the belief
that the body undergoes changes during pregnancy, childbirth, and possible
violation of postpartum prohibitions. This condition was exhibited by Analiza
(see story above); (c) bughat sa kusog that occurred due to excessive physical
labor and exhaustion of the body, commonly observed among hardworking
men and women. Women invoked the possibility of suffering from this kind
of bughat whenever they felt exhausted due to productive and reproductive
work; (d) bughat sa gutom was commonly experienced due to irregular eating
habits or hunger, as seen in the case of Neneng; and (e) bughat tingag, the
worst kind of bughat, due to which men and women may experience
‘madness.’ This is an extreme type of bughat characterized by a temporary
or permanent state of mental impairment, illustrated by the cases of
Analiza, Neneng, and Emma.
Bughat affected certain body parts. It changed women’s physical body due
to weight loss, caused swelling of the body, and altered their mental states. It
disabled women and they could neither work nor think properly. In extreme
cases, bughat sufferers were temporarily considered unproductive members
of the household and society. People believed that such bughat was con-
nected to hangin (air/wind). It started because of bodily changes after child-
birth, neglect in the postpartum stage, hunger, or a combination of such
reasons. During the postpartum period, women often described the hollow-
ness/emptiness they felt in their stomach. This was why some of them tied
abdominal girdles around their stomachs. A hollow or empty stomach due
to childbirth or hunger was believed to allow the easy passage of hangin.
Once neglected, this was occupied by hangin that entered through
 ASIAN JOURNAL OF WOMEN’S STUDIES 407

women’s bodily openings such as skin pores, anus or vagina. When it reached
the head, it was seen to result in bughat that was very difficult to cure, could
cause ‘madness’ or even death. This is described as “tayhon sa hangin” (air
entering the body) and “hampak sa hangin” (struck by the wind/air). Although
air or hangin is needed in the human body, people believed that its presence
must be felt in the proper places. Food is needed, but only the right types;
social relations are needed, but only if they do not cause stress; work is
needed, but only if it does not abuse the body. Health and wellbeing thus
becomes a process of negotiation with one’s social relations and physical
environment.
In Pigcawayan, the process of rice farming relied on the manual labor of
men and women. In households of tenant farmers, any able-bodied and
healthy member was a source of labor or the means to earn money. Hence,
it was common to hear adult men and women farmers lament “lawas lang
ang kapital,” which literally meant “the body is the only capital,” in this
sense, an investment. Women from farm-dependent households needed to
have healthy bodies so they could perform both productive work on farms
and at home, as well as the reproductive work of childbirth and child
rearing. The expression, “lawas lang ang capital,” captured the realities of a
rice farming community and poor peasants and how their bodies, through
their labor, was their only capital or means to earn money to ensure survival
and escape poverty. In this sense, the farmer’s body is instrumental in that it
aids agricultural production and is thereby commoditized according to a cor-
responding daily value. Rice farming has turned farmers’ labor into an instru-
ment to meet the demands of the market to produce more palay. The
continuing reliance on poor farmers’ labor led to exhausted bodies. Bughat,
then was the reaction of poor peasants to the alienating nature of their
work and labor. It indicates the reality that no matter how hard they
worked, they remained poor.
Bughat has become a shared metaphor used by women to express their
experience of physical exhaustion, hunger, poverty, and gendered relations
in the community. Women easily admitted to their experience of hunger as
a personal shortcoming. On further scrutiny, hunger in peasant communities
intensified when all the stored rice had been consumed and as the harvest
season approached. During this time, work then would no longer be available
as the farmers await harvest. To sustain themselves, the men travelled to
nearby municipalities where the harvest season had already started to
work, while the women stayed at home in-charge of all domestic tasks and
often had to be creative to sustain themselves. In this period, loan sharks
offered loans to women, which they had to pay back in the harvest season.
The entire scenario denotes the seasonality of hunger felt by poor farmers
in these rice-producing communities. Hence, women from poor households
were ‘driven mad’ by extreme bughat, not only because of childbirth and
408 K. J. MILLONDAGA

hangin, but due to hunger while they were in the course of postpartum recov-
ery. It may seem ironic but hunger was common among these rice-producing
communities.
Women articulated how their socio-economic condition caused bughat, but
these connections were not utilized by them to organize themselves to seek
policy reforms and demand better public health services. This may be related
to the way bughat is seen as a phenomenon that is merely personal, reproduc-
tive, and maternal, hence, domestic and non-political. Moreover, since bughat
takes place in the body, it is often reduced to being an individual problem
rather than reflective of the wider socio-economic and political conditions.
The causes of bughat, which include the multiple burdens of women and gen-
dered relations, all products of economic, social, and political structures, are also
understood as private and individual matters. Perhaps, the cultural expectations
among peasants in rice-farming communities to rely on their own labor and
capacities for addressing their own situation reinforce such perceptions.
Due to their difficult situations, women from poor households are also
prone to gender-based violence, therefore, they continue to undergo
neglect, physical violence and emotional and psychological violence. It
would take repeated interviews before women are able to link bughat to
their experience of domestic violence. As such, the number of cases filed in
court in the Municipality of Pigcawayan for gender-based violence was only
10 percent. What women labeled as bughat were sometimes stories of vio-
lence they were trying to conceal.
When women could no longer bear the bughat, they sought medical help
in public health clinics located in the municipal centers. However, medical
professionals such as midwives, nurses, and doctors identified bughat as a tra-
ditional and non-medical condition. They treated the signs and symptoms
(such as headache, body ache, dizziness) of bughat in their own ways,
rather than viewing it as a medical or psychiatric condition. This conflicting
perception between bughat sufferers and medical professionals discouraged
women from seeking medical intervention.
The dismissive treatment of medical professionals regarding bughat
limited their key responsibility to learn more about such cases and contribute
to the learning process and knowledge-base of medical and health pro-
fessions in general. Thus, as public servants, they have failed to provide an
adequate and cost-effective program that can involve families and commu-
nities. Therefore, bughat does not receive the immediate attention of health
care professionals or protection in state laws for adequate food provision
for peasant communities.
Moreover, medical services available for the poor are also inadequate. The
entire municipality had only one public medical doctor and no public hospital.
Hence, poor women continued to utilize traditional healing techniques to
address bughat. These were readily available cures that were effective, had
 ASIAN JOURNAL OF WOMEN’S STUDIES 409

no side effects, and were cheap. They also utilized these traditional methods
to protect themselves from the possibility of bughat the moment they
decided to participate in any productive work, especially after childbirth.
Those who suffer extreme bughat and display symptoms of psychosis do
not receive medical attention. Family members are forced to restrain and
chain such persons to ensure their safety. The locality and the entire province
of North Cotabato do not have special care programs, services, or facilities to
address the conditions of women suffering from extreme bughat, which illus-
trates the insufficiency of modern medical care available to them.
Bughat is suggestive of the tensions in the body and social relations among
peasant communities. It can be interpreted as the safest way to register dis-
content. For poor women, it is a malaise due to their socio-economic con-
dition and gendered relations in the community. At the same time, it is a
material expression of women who tend to see it as linked to their maternal
and reproductive functions. They also consider it as a personal and domestic
concern. This tension will continue to exist so long as bughat is not addressed
as an issue regarding the health of women and peasants and is rooted in the
socio-economic, political, and cultural conditions of people and society. Once
people address bughat holistically, they will also start to unmask the econ-
omic, political, and cultural issues that continue to persist in peasant commu-
nities such as poverty, reliance on manual labor, patriarchy, and the multiple
burdens of women.

Conclusion
In farming communities, people’s wellbeing is determined by their access to
land and agricultural implements. However, the issue of landlessness is still a
perennial problem among the rice farming communities of the Philippines,
discussed here. Therefore, recurring bughat also reflects the persisting state
of scarcity – of land, food, and medical services –in peasant communities of
Mindanao. As illustrated in the stories recounted in this paper, women who
have experienced and are still experiencing bughat tend to recall their life
stories, their participation in both productive and reproductive work, and
certain abusive habits that may have had ill effects on their body. Bughat is
not a spontaneous occurrence but is part of the accumulated experience of
illness experienced by men and women that is linked to their poverty and par-
ticipation in production. To be specific, women tend to be impacted by this
due to their status as women, their burden in fulfilling their productive and
reproductive roles, to gendered relations, and as citizens of a nation where
agriculture remains labor dependent and backward.
Earlier studies that have focused or made mention of bughat (see Lieban,
1978; Marshall, 2001; Payne, 1985; Tan, 2008) have emphasized it as a conse-
quence of pregnancy and childbirth. However, as this study suggests, the
410 K. J. MILLONDAGA

phenomenon is intertwined with people’s cultural, socio-economic, and pol-

itical contexts. Understanding bodily experiences such as bughat as a cultural
and medical condition makes for a contribution to cross-cultural studies focus-
ing on bodily phenomena that require explanation regarding the intersection
of medical, cultural, political, and socio-economic dimensions. Studies on
bughat, nervoso, nevra, or delibidad are ways to understand and offer possible
solutions to address these conditions holistically.

Notes
1. The Supervised Field Research took place last June 25-July 25, 2015. The data
written here were gathered during that time along with the anthropology stu-
dents namely Eden Genesis Floreindo, Allin Joy Camile, Sharmaine Jardinel,
Kim Reina Toyongan, and Therese Claudine Tinio. Supervised Field Research is
part of the curriculum of the BA Anthropology program of the University of
the Philippines Mindanao.
2. Obo Manobo is the self-ascribed identity of the indigenous people in Barangay
Tico. However, one should be aware that the Obo Manobo I am referring to is the
same group labeled by Cole (1913), Tiu (2005), and Hayase (2007) as Obo
Bagobo. According to them, there are three sub-groups under Bagobo,
namely Tagabawa, Obo, Guiangan/Jangan/Klata.
3. Names are all fictional to protect the identity of these women.
4. This paper is part of my master’s thesis submitted to the faculty members of
Ateneo de Davao University, Davao City, Philippines.
5. Smallest administrative unit.
6. These are pseudonyms.
7. Roughly US $4-$5.
8. Fourteen sacks for every 100.
9. A local delicacy that is made of mixing glutinous rice flour, sugar, and coconut milk.
10. There are several practices during the first childbirth that are believed to prevent
the occurrence of bughat. These activities include panubangan or doing light
domestic activities and eating small amounts of food during postpartum recov-
ery such as postpartum delivery baths, steam baths, whole body massage, and
observing postpartum sex prohibitions. These methods are usually done with
the assistance of traditional healers like paltira or the traditional birth attend-
ants/midwives.
11. Traditional methods used by women every time their bughat recurred such as
steam and smoke baths, etc.
12. Commonly assisted by a traditional birth attendant, she bathes a new mother
seven or nine days after childbirth with a mix of different herbal plants in
warm water.
13. A curative resort that is made from fresh or dried traditional herbal plants satu-
rated in a tonic wine. These herbal plants are boiled and taken regularly.

Acknowledgements
My deepest gratitude to my mentors from the Department of Anthropology, Ateneo de
Davao University, Dr. Alvin S. Concha, MD, Prof. Agusto B. Gatmaytan, Prof. Leah
 ASIAN JOURNAL OF WOMEN’S STUDIES 411

H. Vidal, Prof. Ulysses Cabayao, SJ, and Prof. Eizel Hilario-Patiño. To my colleagues from
the Department of Social Sciences and Prof. John B. Bengan of Department of Huma-
nities for their support and encouragement. My heartfelt thanks to men and women
farmers, traditional health workers, and Municipal Health Workers, Rural Health Unit
of Pigcawayan who shared their stories and welcomed me in their homes without
hesitation.

Notes on contributor
Kenette Jean I. MILLONDAGA is an instructor from the Department of Social Sciences,
University of the Philippines Mindanao. She teaches Mindanao peoples and cultures
and introductory courses in Anthropology. Her research interests include women’s
health, migration, and indigenous peoples of Mindanao. Kenette Jean was a participant
of the 13th Ewha Global Empowerment Program of the Asian Center for Women’s
Studies, Ewha Womans University. Email: kenettejean@gmail.com

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ABSTRACT IN TAGALOG
Isanasalin bilang depresyon o pagkabaliw matapos ang panganganak, madalas
na tinitingnan ang bughat (binat sa Tagalog) bilang natural na reaksyon kaakibat
ng pagbubuntis at panganganak ng mga kababaihang naninirahan sa mga
kanayunan ng Pilipinas. Natukoy narin ito ng mga naunang pag-aaral ukol sa
bughat. Subalit, sa limang buwan na pag-aaral sa mga sakahan at komunidad
ng mga migranteng Hiligaynon sa Munisipyo ng Pigcawayan, North Cotabato,
Mindanao, maaring tingnan ang bughat lampas sa balangkas ng pagbubuntis,
panganganak, at pagbawi ng lakas matapos ang panganganak. Ang
pinakamalalang anyo ng bughat ay nagiging dahilan ng temporaryo o
permanenteng pagkasira ng bait. Ang ganitong kalagayan ay maaring
kumakatawan sa reaksyon ng mga kababaihan sa kanilang sitwasyon kung
saan ang pagsasaka ay patuloy na nakasalalay sa manwal na lakas-paggawa,
relasyon na nakabatay sa kasarian, at humaharap sa sabay-sabay na pasanin.
Ang bughat ay siyang nagpapatunay sa limitadong kakayahan ng mga
kababihan upang gampanan ang kanilang mga tungkolin bilang nanay,
asawa, tagapangalaga, at magsasaka. Ngunit, dahil ang nasabing kondisyon
ay nauunawaan bilang at tinuturing na bughat, maraming kababaihan ang
kadalasang hindi pumupunta o nakakatanggap ng mga medikal na
interbensyon kahit na sila ay nagdurusa o nasa estado na ng kawalan ng bait.
Karamihan sa mga mas malalang kaso ng bughat sa hanay nga mga
kababaihan na mula sa mahihirap na pamilya ay nagpapakita ng panlipunan,
ekonomiko, at politikal na konsdisyon ng Mindanaw.

KEYWORDS Pesanteng kababaihan; Mindanao; pagkasira ng bait; pagkatapos ng panganganak;

pagbubuntis