Learning to Be Indigenous: Education and Social Change Among the Manobo People of the Philippines
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Learning to be Indigenous: Education and Social Change among the Manobo People of the Philippines A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of PhD Social Anthropology in the Faculty of Humanities. 2012 ANA RAISSA T. TRINIDAD SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY LIST OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................... 4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ....................................................................... 5 GLOSSARY .............................................................................................................................. 6 ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. 9 DECLARATION AND COPYRIGHT STATEMENT .............................................................. 10 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................ 11 CHAPTERS INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 12 Tagpalico, Agusan del Sur ............................................................ 13 The Philippines .............................................................................. 14 Indigenous Peoples ....................................................................... 18 The Manobo ................................................................................... 19 CHAPTER 1 – Person, Place, and Productivity ........................................................ 26 House Groupings and Domestic Routines ....................................... 26 Demographic Changes and Movement in Settlement ..................... 30 Farming ............................................................................................ 32 Sharing and Local Forms of Exchange ............................................ 35 CHAPTER 2 – Making Households and Maintaining Tagpalico as a Community of Relatives ..................................................................... 40 Recognising Relatives and Name-giving ......................................... 42 Establishing Identities ...................................................................... 44 Marriage Practices, Land Ownership, and Settlement Patterns ...... 45 Getting Married and Failed Marriages ............................................. 46 The Case of Mona ........................................................................... 49 Giving Birth and Having Children ..................................................... 52 Outsiders as Kauban (Ally) .............................................................. 53 CHAPTER 3 – Indigenous Politics and Practice: Manobo Leaders ......................... 55 The Leader as Learner ..................................................................... 55 Indigeneity ........................................................................................ 56 The Manigaon of Tagpalico .............................................................. 58 Conflict Resolution and Mediation .................................................... 62 Ritual Leaders and Speakers ........................................................... 66 Representing the Community ........................................................... 70 Links to Other Organisations ............................................................ 71 Dealing with various ‘Authorities’ ...................................................... 73 Inconsistencies ................................................................................. 75 CHAPTER 4 – The School as Military Free Zone and Mission in the Mountains ...... 77 ‘Peke nga Eskwelahan’: Issues in the Institution of the School ....... 78 The School Re-makes the Community ............................................. 85 Learning to Teach in Tagpalico ........................................................ 87 The Social Organisation of Teaching ............................................... 90 CHAPTER 5 – The School as a Place for Becoming Educated ................................. 95 Schooling as Sacrifice of Time and Money ...................................... 95 Schooling Changes Children’s Lives ............................................... 97 Getting Acquainted with School ....................................................... 98 Parents’ Participation and Children’s Aspirations .......................... 106 Literacy and Numeracy .................................................................. 108 2 CHAPTER 6 – Learning to Become ‘Indigenous’ at School ................................... 111 Learning How to Have a Cultural Identity ....................................... 112 The Mission School as an Indigenous School ................................ 115 Indigenous Values and Catholic Assumptions ............................... 119 Indigenous Education Discourse and Local Situational Practice ... 121 CHAPTER 7 – Formal Learning and School Discipline ........................................... 124 Formal Learning and Indigenous Education ................................... 124 Monthly Highlights in School .......................................................... 125 Classroom Instruction ..................................................................... 129 Daily Class Schedules .................................................................... 130 Classroom Interaction and Discipline ............................................... 132 Teachers’ Dilemma Pertaining to Classroom Discipline …………….136 Convergence of the Global and the Local …………………………….137 CHAPTER 8 – On Cultural Transmission: Theories of Learning and the Manobo …138 Cultural Transmission ...................................................................... 138 Spindler on Cultural Transmission ................................................... 140 The Spindlers’ Instrumental Model ................................................. 142 Gearing’s Theory of Cultural Transmission ..................................... 144 Other Theories of Learning: Jean Piaget ….. .................................. 147 Lev Vygotsky ................................................................................... 149 Pierre Bourdieu ................................................................................ 150 Christina Toren ................................................................................ 152 Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger ...................................................... 153 Learning ‘culture’ among the Manobo ............................................. 156 CHAPTER 9 –What Difference Education Makes in the ‘Outside World’ ............... 160 The Value of being Educated ......................................................... 163 A Group of their Own ...................................................................... 165 Lenny and her Process of Becoming Educated ............................. 166 APPENDICES Appendix 1. Kinship Diagram of Residents in Tagpalico ...................................... 170 Appendix 2. School Calendar ................................................................................ 174 Appendix 3. Elementary School Curriculum – Time Allotment ................................. 175 Appendix 4. Philippine National Anthem ................................................................. 176 Appendix 5. Filipino Pledge of Allegiance ................................................................ 177 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................... 178 Word Count: 80, 628 3 LIST OF FIGURES Figure No. Page 1 Map of Southeast Asia .............................................................................................. 13 2 Map of the Province of Agusan del Sur ........................................................................ 14 3 Map of Agusan River Basin ............................................................................................. 19 4 Some staple foods that are locally grown in Tagpalico .................................................. 29 5 Logs on their way to the buying station .......................................................................... 33 6 Spot Map of Tagpalico ................................................................................................... 39 7 Marriage ritual ................................................................................................................ 49 8 Manigaon performing a ritual ........................................................................................ 67 9 Manobo leaders attending the Datu Assembly ............................................................. 72 10 The School in the Tagpalico Community ..................................................................... 77 11 A Classroom in the Tagpalico School .......................................................................... 83 12 Teachers on their way to Tagpalico ............................................................................ 88 13 Grazing the keybow – a role that children perform outside school ............................. 97 14 Learning to participate in school .................................................................................. 98 15 Parents in the weekly pahina ....................................................................................