Customs of the Tagalog (Juan de Plasencia)

• background of their lifestyle, beliefs, and traditions during the early times.
• customs and beliefs of the Filipinos- reflect who we were and influence who we are today.
• Two important figures:
○ Observer (de Plasencia)- his own background, subjectivities and biases
○ Observer subject (Tagalog)- others
 Colonizer (dominant)
 Colonized (inferior)

Author's bg
• Spanish frair of Franciscan Order (spend most missionary life in the Philippines)
• Wrote several religion and linguistic books about Luzon (Doctrina Cristiana (Christian Doctrine))
• Arrived in the Philippines in 1578
• Fray Diego de oropesa (another missionary)
• Born in the early 16th century as Juan Portocarrero in Plasencia, in the region of Extremadura,
Spain
• Preaching
○ Laguna de Bay and Tayabas, Quezon (started preaching; found several towns)
○ Bulacan
○ Laguna and Rizal including
○ Caliraya
○ Majayjay
○ Nagcarlan
○ Lilio (Liliw)
○ Pila
○ Santa Cruz
○ Lumban
○ Pangil
○ Siniloan
○ Morong
○ Antipolo
○ Taytay
○ Meycauayan.
• Wrote books to promote understanding of both
○ the Spanish language among the natives, and
○ the local languages among the missionaries to facilitate the task of spreading Christianity
• Authored the first book printed in the PH (believed) -DOCTRINA CHRISTIANA (printed in both
Spanish and Tagalog)
○ Latin scripts
○ commonly used Baybayin script of the natives of the time
○ version in Chinese.
• Work
○ Relacion de las Costumbres de Los Tagalos (1589)
○ La Santina
○ Un tomo de sermones various en tagalog

Historical Context
 • Written on 1589 (spanish colonial period)
• Plasencia delayed responding to the Lordship's letter to thoroughly inform himself about the
People's request and avoid discussing conflicting reports of the Indians.
• He gathered Indians from various districts, including old men and those of capacity, to obtain
simple truths about their government, justice administration, inheritance, slaves, and dowries.
• Part of longer monographs written by the chroniclers of the Spanish expeditions to the
Philippines during the early 16th and 17th centuries. They appeared initially in Blair and
Robertson’s 55 volumes, The Philippine Islands (1903) and in the Philippine Journal of Sciences
(1958)

Historical Content
• Considered an example of friar account (by historians)
• Most common contemporaneous accounts during the early part of the Spanish period.
• Original text is kept in Archivo General de Indias in Seville, Spain. (archibo heneral de indias in
sebiya)
• Duplicate copy Archivo Franciscano Ibero-Oriental, in Madrid, Spain (archibo fransiskano ibero-
oriental, in madrid, spain)
• Philippines has the english version (volume VII of the Blair and Robertson collection)
• The text has been translated into English for the pre-Hispanic Philippines volume of the
Filipiniana Book Guild series.
• Plasencia's documents provide historical information on social system, government, laws,
inheritance, property, marriage, customs, religious beliefs, The Twelve Disciples of Darkness,
superstitious beliefs, and burial.

Political system
Government and Laws
 Barangay (unit of government)
□ Group consisting of 30-100 families
□ Governed by datu (Cheiftain)
□ Datu
 law implementation
 Ensuring peace and order
 Giving protection
along with the council of leaders, settles individual disputes in the court.
◊ The laws condemned low-born individuals who insulted chiefs' daughters
or wives, witches, and others to death, with slavery only for those who
merited the death penalty.
◊ The position is inherited by his children through succession. Legitimate
children have the whole right of property.

Judicial process and law

 Customary or written laws are implemented and announced through umalohokan
 Grp of elders approved the chiefs proposal
 Judicial process is done through the court with datu and elders
 Tagalogs practiced and believed in trial by order

Economic aspects
○ Philippines is rich and abundant in natural resources specifically in agricultural crops like
rice, sugarcane, and banana
○ Fishing is thriving since the country is an archipelago
○ Mining is the source of gold, silver, and diamonds.
○ Lumbering and ship-building were flourishing industries
Social system
○ Social class of filipinos prior to spanish colonization
 Chieftain = datu (highest)
□ Governs all; obeyed and reverenced
 Governed the Tagalogs
 Captains in their wars
 Chief of the barangay (boat in the Malay language)
 Anyone who offended the datu and his family was severely punished

 Nobles = maharlika
□ Warrior and assistant
 Free-born; doesn't pay taxes or tribute to the datu
 Accompany the dato in their war
 When married, they cannot transfer from one village to another, or one
barangay to the other, without paying a certain amount

 Commoners = aliping namamahay

□ Serve and own property
 Serve their master
 Accompany the dato in war
 Rowed for him in his travel
 Often mistaken as slaves
 Married; resided or lived in their own houses were considered lords of their
property and gold; lived away from their masters

 Slaves = aliping saguiguilir (lowest) (primary source)

□ Owns by the master
 Can be paid to the quality of work
 Serve master in his house and on his cultivated lands
 may be sold;
 unmarried; has nothing

Marriage and customs

 Paninilbihan = first courtship
 A successful courtship applicant required parental permission and met various
conditions including dowry, panghihimuyat (Nocturnal efforts), bigay-suso (pay the wet
nurse), himaraw (pay the parents) , and bribes for relatives called sambon.
 Only the legitimate child has the right to inherit the father’s properties
 Marriage from different social class are not common
 Divorcement = adultery, abandonment by the husband, insanity, and cruelty.
□ Dowry distribution depends on who initiated the divorce first
 If the wife left before childbirth, her dowry goes to the husband.;
 If wife doesn't marry after leaving, dowry of the husband returns to the wife
 If the husband left, half goes to the wife, and the rest goes to the children.
(held by grandparents)

Inheritance
○ Datu transfer to the first son
○ If 1st son die = 2nd son succeeds
○ Absence of male heir= eldest daughter becomes cheiftain

Cultural
Property
○ The chief in some villages had established fisheries with specific limits and designated river
sections for markets.
○ No one could fish without paying unless he belong to a brgy
○ The barangay owns the lands on the mountain ridges in common, rather than being divided.
○ During rice harvest, individuals or barangays can sow land cleared by clearing individuals
from other villages, regardless of their village origin.

Religious beliefs and practice

○ Immortality of soul and life after death
 Anisim = the religion of pre-colonial Filipinos
 Bathala = most powerful and maker of all things in the world
 Lic ha = sculpted idols by the people
 Star Gods = Mapolon and Balactic as weather Gods
 Dian masalanta = patron of love and generation
 Idianale and lacampati = patron of cultivated land and husbandry
○ Existence of gods
 Creator = Bathalang Maycapal
 Fire = Agni
 Agriculture = idianale
 Harvest = Lalahon
 Death = Sidapa
 Hell = siginarugan
 Rainbow = Balangaw
 Love = Diyan Masalanta
 War = Mandarangan
○ Believed in divine honors for animals, sun, moon, and seashore rocks, and believed diseases
were caused by environmental spirits' temper.
○ Anitos or Diwata = private idols with jurisdiction over mountains, fields, and seas
○ Lic ha or Larawan
 carving on ivory or gold
 Method used to preserve the memory of the deceased
○ The Worship of the Tagalogs
 Simbahan = temple or place of adoration
 Pandot = worship
□ celebrated in the large house of the chief
□ Sibi = temporary shed; purpose of sheltering assembled people
□ Nagaanitos = whole brgy; united and joined during worship

Twelve disciples of darkness

○ Spanish friars in the Philippines spread propaganda about indigenous beliefs, converting
natives to Catholicism based on oral tradition, deeming anything unChristian and evil.
 Catolonan
□ Priests, known throughout the Philippines as either men or women, were honorable
natives held by rank-holders and were generally held by people of rank.
□ the woman priest to whom the devil enters
 Mangagauay
□ Priests used their charms to induce diseases, which, due to the strength and
efficacy of witchcraft, can cause death.
□ Can induced maladies capable to cause death
  Manyisalat
□ Priests had the power to apply remedies to lovers who would abandon and dislike
their own wives, and even prevent their intercourse with them.
□ Can make lovers abandon and despise wives
 Mancocolam
□ Responsible for emitting fire at night, which was often done monthly, resulting in a
puddle of dirt and ordure that surrounded various houses.
□ can produce fire and can’t extinguish
 Hocloban
□ Originated in Catanduanes
□ Is a powerful witch known for causing death, healing, and destroying homes.
□ can heal and cause death, can destroy homes and can kill someone by raising
hands
 Silagan
□ Originated in Catanduanes
□ Consumes liver, causes violence and death
 Magtatangal
□ creature with a separate head and body that aims to display itself to people.
□ head separates and body walks
 Osuang
□ Sorcerer
□ Witness him flying and committed murders and ate the flesh of men.
 Mangagayoma
□ Make charms for lovers out of herbs, stone, and wood
□ Would infuse the heart with love
 Pangatahojan
□ Soothsayer and predict the future
□ All island
 Sonat
□ Preacher
□ Help one to die
□ Predict salvation or condemnation of the soul
 Bayoguin
□ Cotquean (kotkuyan)
□ A man with a nature resembling that of a woman or referred to as homosexual.

Ghosts and animal

□ Sitan= the demon
□ Vibit = ghost
□ Phantom = tikbalang
□ Patianac = vampiric creature in a toddler form
□ Buaya = water lizard that causese harm to people
□ Tigmamanuguin = omen bird that connects to auguries

Superstitious Beliefs
○ Maca= paradise of moral people
○ Casanaan = place of anguish
 Filipinos held superstitious beliefs
□ Tiyanak, Kapre, Tikbalang, Dwende, Aswang,
□ Amulets, charms
 Gayuma (love potion)
  Anting-anting
 Kulam
□ the spirit of the dead incarnating in animals.
□ Pre-Spanish Filipinos believed that those who die by stab, crocodile bite, or arrow,
ascend a rainbow to heaven and become gods.

Burials
○ Burying dead in certain wooden coffins, in their own houses
 Bury with the dead
□ Gold, cloth, and valuable objects
□ departed rich = well received
□ Poor = coldly
Contribution
○ the exploration of the ancient lives of the people living in central Luzon.
○ basis for historical reconstructions of Tagalog society.
○ analysis of the practices of the ancient Tagalogs and comparisons with other accounts of
succeeding periods
○ mastery of the local language and culture differences and the similarities of our culture by
then and now.
○ Filipinos realize how unique the Tagalog culture was before colonization.

Relevance
○ Contains detailed information
○ belief in mythical creatures and other superstitions
○ have a government and a set of beliefs and practices
○ Disprove the claim; locals were uncivilized and lacking in culture