Scientific Authority, Nationalism, and Colonial Entanglements between Germany, Spain, and the Philippines, 1850 to 1900 Nathaniel Parker Weston A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2012 Reading Committee: Uta G. Poiger, Chair Vicente L. Rafael Lynn Thomas Program Authorized to Offer Degree: History ©Copyright 2012 Nathaniel Parker Weston University of Washington Abstract Scientific Authority, Nationalism, and Colonial Entanglements between Germany, Spain, and the Philippines, 1850 to 1900 Nathaniel Parker Weston Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Uta G. Poiger This dissertation analyzes the impact of German anthropology and natural history on colonialism and nationalism in Germany, Spain, the Philippines, and the United States during the second half of the nineteenth-century. In their scientific tracts, German authors rehearsed the construction of racial categories among colonized peoples in the years prior to the acquisition of formal colonies in Imperial Germany and portrayed their writings about Filipinos as superior to all that had been previously produced. Spanish writers subsequently translated several German studies to promote continued economic exploitation of the Philippines and uphold notions of Spaniards’ racial supremacy over Filipinos. However, Filipino authors also employed the translations, first to demand colonial reform and to examine civilizations in the Philippines before and after the arrival of the Spanish, and later to formulate nationalist arguments. By the 1880s, the writings of Filipino intellectuals found an audience in newly established German scientific associations, such as the German Society for Anthropology, Ethnology, and Prehistory, and German-language periodicals dealing with anthropology, ethnology, geography, and folklore. Into the 1890s, Filipino nationalists used scientific authority and references to German studies of the Philippines in polemics against Spanish authors who opposed colonial reform. After the U.S. defeat of Spain and refusal to grant Philippine independence in 1898, pro- and anti-imperialists in the United States also utilized evidence produced by German scholars to argue for and against colonization of the islands. Ultimately, this dissertation demonstrates that the creation and circulation of anthropological tracts and natural histories in a colonial context by foreign scholars contains the potential to support multiple imperialist and nationalist projects simultaneously. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of Figures …………………………………………………………………………… vi Introduction “Absolute Ignorance of Our Political and Social State”: German Scientific Authority, Spanish Colonialism, and Filipino Nationalism …………. 1 Chapter 1 German Naturalists in the Philippines: Constructing Race, Nature, and Colonialism …………………………………………... 22 Chapter 2 “The Most Accurate Knowledge of the Country and Its Inhabitants”: Scientific Conquest, Spanish Colonialism, and German Nationalism in the Philippines ……………………………………………………………………….. 54 Chapter 3 Imperialist Networks, Civilization, and Nationalism in German Anthropologies of the Philippines, 1869-1885 ……………………………... 94 Chapter 4 Friend and Foe: The German Janus in Spanish and Filipino Writing about the Philippines, 1869-1888 ……………………………………………. 138 Chapter 5 “We Faithfully Interpret the Feelings of the Country”: Scientific Authority and Filipino Nationalism, 1881-1900 ...…………………………. 179 Conclusion Scientific Authority, Colonialism, and Nationalism in Germany, Spain, and the Philippines ……………………………………………….. 216 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………... 229 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure Number Page A1 Rudolf Virchow, Geza Kobler, et al. …………………………………………... xi 1.1 “Life on the Water” …………………………………………………………….. 32 1.2 “Tagalogs” ……………………………………………………………………… 49 2.1 detail of Jagor’s map of the Philippines ……………………………………….. 67 2.2 “fortress against privateers” ……………………………………………………. 71 2.3 “Bicol naturalist in raingear” …………………………………………………… 90 3.1 detail of an image from Meyer, Weltreise ……………………………………. 104 3.2 “Civilized Negrito woman from Samal village, Bataán Province” …………… 118 3.3 “Igorrots from North Luzon” …………………………………………………. 119 4.1 “His Excellency, Mister Vicente Barrantes y Moreno” ………………………. 146 4.2 “forest of the Rio Grande basin, Mindanao” …………………………………. 154 4.3 “clay vase” ……………………………………………………………………. 167 4.4 ancient Filipino inscription …………………………………………………... 169 4.5 “Tagalog woman” …………………………………………………………….. 170 4.6 “Manuscript of ‘Noli me Tangere’” …………………………………………... 172 5.1 Fedor Jagor …………………………………………………………………… 180 5.2 signed photo of José Rizal ……………………………………………………. 186 5.3 photo of Rizal, Del Pilar, and Ponce in Madrid ……………………………… 208 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As has been observed elsewhere, history and autobiography often intersect. I did not initially enter the University of Washington Graduate History Program with the intention of studying German colonialism. Rather, like many students of modern German history, I sought to pursue questions surrounding National Socialism. To this end, much of my early coursework dealt with the Holocaust and Second World War. I ultimately composed a research paper investigating memory and Jewish identity using the Viennese author Hugo Bettauer as a case study. His situation seemed exceptional because he converted from Judaism to Christianity at the age of eighteen, published an anti-racist novel, The City without Jews (Die Stadt ohne Juden ) (1922), and edited and wrote for a magazine advocating open conversations about sexuality. 1 He was assassinated by a Nazi in 1925, some thirteen years before Germany annexed Austria, and he was my great-grandfather. 2 Due to the close proximity of Bettauer and National Socialism to me personally, however, I decided against researching a topic directly related to the Holocaust for my dissertation. Instead, I took up the not completely unrelated subject of German colonialism, which was also deeply implicated in questions surrounding race. Professor Vicente L. Rafael first alerted me to the importance of Germany to the Filipino doctor and nationalist José Rizal, who traveled to and worked in Imperial Germany during the 1880s, published his anti-colonial novel Noli me tángere in Berlin in 1887, and conducted an extensive correspondence with the Austrian ethnologist Ferdinand Blumentritt from 1886-1896. 3 1Murray G. Hall, Der Fall Bettauer (Vienna: Löcker, 1978); Hugo Bettauer, Die Stadt ohne Juden: ein Roman von übermorgen (Vienna: Gloriette-Verlag, 1922); and Hugo Bettauer, “Die erotische Revolution,” Er und Sie: Wochenschrift für Lebenskultur und Erotik , no. 1 (14 February 1924): 1. 2“New Yorker is Shot by Vienna Dentist,” New York Times , 11 March 1925; and “Hugo Bettauer Dies of Wounds,” ibid., 27 March 1925. 3The following sources were essential for understanding the Filipino nationalist’s interest in Germany: José Rizal, Diarios y memorias (Manila: Comisión Nacional del Centenario de José Rizal, 1961); José Rizal, Noli me vii With scant background in the history of the Philippines, my work was cut out for me and I immersed myself in Philippine and Southeast Asian studies. At the same time, I set about reading through the voluminous writings of Rizal and Blumentritt. 4 Basing a dissertation in history solely on the correspondence between two people began to seem too narrow in scope, however, and my advisor Professor Uta G. Poiger recommended that I attempt to locate other German-speakers who studied the Philippines and other Filipinos who may have had some connection to Germany. Very little mention of the Philippines appeared in the secondary literature on nineteenth- century Germany, but because of Rizal’s prominence, there were a good number of secondary works on Philippine history that identified German scholars who had studied the peoples of the Spanish colony. 5 I began researching the German-language scholarship on the Philippines, which was written primarily in the form of anthropology and natural history, and as I read through this material, I was astonished to discover that in addition to producing much information about Filipinos, German scholars also frequently remarked on the Spanish, often critically, and particularly regarding their apparent lack of knowledge about the Philippines. 6 I tángere: novela tagala (Berlin: Berliner Buchdruckerei-Actien-Gesellschaft, [1887]); and José Rizal, The Rizal- Blumentritt Correspondence , 2 vols. (Manila: National Historical Institute, 1992). 4The following works contain full, though not complete, bibliographies of the writings of Rizal and Blumentritt respectively: Wenceslao E. Retana, Vida y escritos del dr. José Rizal (Madrid: Librería General de Victoriano Suárez, 1907), 457-75; and La Secretaría de la Asamblea Filipina, Asamblea filipina, tercera legislatua, segundo periodo extraordinario de sesiones, documento no. 6633—A1: vida y obras de Ferdinand Blumentritt (Manila: Bureau of Printing, 1914). 5Most important among these were William Henry Scott, ed., German Travelers on the Cordillera (1860-1890) (Manila: Filipiniana Book Guild, 1975); John N. Schumacher, The Propaganda Movement: 1880-1895: The Creators of a Filipino Consciousness, the Makers of Revolution (Manila: Solidaridad Publishing House, 1973); Hermógenes E. Bacareza, A History of Philippine-German Relations (Quezon City: National Economic and Development Authority, 1980); and Resil B. Mojares, Brains of the Nation: Pedro Paterno, T.H. Pardo de Tavera, Isabelo