Fine description : ethnographic and linguistic essays 0938692852, 0938692844

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edited by

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Joel Kuipers and Ray McDermott

Fine Description

Fine Description Ethnographic and Linguistic Essays by

HAROLD C. CONKLIN edited by JOEL KUIPERS

and RAY McDERMOTT

Monograph 56/Yale Southeast Asia Studies

Univ. Library, UC Santa Cruz 2008

Yale University Southeast Asia Studies J. Joseph Errington, Chairman Marvel Kay Mansfield, Editor

Consulting Editors Hans-Dieter Evers, Universitiit Bonn Huynh Sanh Thong, Yale University Sartono Kartodirdjo, Gadjah Mada University Lim Teck Ghee, Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Malaya Alfred W. McCoy, University of Wisconsin Anthony Reid, Asian Research Institute, National University of Singapore Benjamin White, Institute for Social Studies, The Hague Alexander Woodside, University of British Columbia

Library ofCongress Catalog Cord Number: 2007-927375 International Standard Book Number: paper 0-938692-85-2 cloth 0-938692-84-4 © 2007 by Yale University Southeast Asia Studies New Haven, Connecticut o652cr82o6

Where not otherwise attributed, photographic illustrations all derive from the Conklin collection of original negatives. Distributor: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies P.O. Box 2082o6 New Haven, Connecticut o6520-82o6 U.S.A.

Printed in U.S.A.

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Contents Foreword Fine Description

IX

CHARLES 0. FRAKE

Introduction Ethnographic Responsibility

1

JOEL KUIPERS AND ltAY MCDERMOTT

I. Fieldwork Commentary: On Paying Attention CLIFFORD GEERTZ

Maling, a Hanun6o Girl (196o) A Day in Parina (196o)

31 49

II. Ethnographic Knowledge Commentary: Ethnographic Analysis

59

MYRDENE ANDERSON

Ethnography (1968) Comment on Frake (1962)

63 77

III. Lexicographical Approach Commentary: Systematic Analysis HAROLD SCHEFFLER

Lexicographical Treatment of Folk Taxonomies (1962) Ethnogenealogical Method (1964)

91 115

IV. Kinds of Color Commentary: Conklin on Color

1 55

CHARLES O. FltAKE

Hanun6o Color Categories (1955) Color Categorization (1973) v

16o

168

V. The World of Plants Commentary: Conklin's Ethnobiological Contribution

191

EUGENE HUNN

Excerpts from The Relation of Hanun6o Culture to the

Plant World (1954) Betel Chewing among the Hanun6o (1958)

1¢ 261

VI. Modes of Communication Commentary: The Ethnography of Speaking and Reading

311

DELL HYMES

Tagalog Speech Disguise (1956) Linguistic Play in Its Cultural Context (1959) Bamboo Literacy on Mindoro (1949) Doctrina Christiana, en lengua espailola y tagala. Manila, 1593 (1991) Hanun6o Music from the Philippines (1955)

313 320 329 348 356

VII. Orientation Commentary: The Quest for Meaning: Some Orientations

395

NICOLE REVEL

Des orientements, des vents, des riz ... pour une etude lexicologique des savoirs traditionnels (Orientation, Wind, and Rice: A Lexicographic Study ofTraditional Knowledge) (1988)

399

VIII. Agriculture Commentary: Kinds of Fields

411

MICHAEL DOVE

Shifting Cultivation and Succession to Grassland Climax (1959) Ethnographic Research in Ifugao (1974)

Vl

428 435

IX. The Early Years Language, Culture, and Environment: My Early Years (1998)

467

CURRICULUM VITAE

and Bibliography of Harold Conklin's Work

Index

492

509

vii

Foreword

CHARLES O. FRAKE

Fine Description

A re-presentation on the occasion of the retirement of H. C. Conklin of remarks originally presented at the 1991 American Anthropological Association meetings. An additional appropriate quotation from a high authority that appeals to an even higher authority is added here: Details are all that matters: God dwells there, and you never get to see Him if you don't struggle to get them right. - Steven Jay Gould I am convinced that real progress in the study of the history of science requires the highest specialization. In contrast to the usual lamentation, I believe that only the most intimate knowledge of details reveals some traces of the overwhelming riches of the process of intellectual life. - Otto Neugebauer, 1941:13

to pay tribute to the ethnographic work of Harold Conklin. The best way to do that is to do just what all of you have been doing today: holding up pieces of your own work that have been inspired by Conklin's example. Probably the worst thing to do would be to talk abstractly about the kind of ethnography WE ARE HERE TODAY

Prepared for the symposium HUniversal Particulars and Particular Universals in the Ethnographic Experience: Papers in Honor of Harold C. Conklin, meetings of the American Anthropological Association, Chicago, Illinois, 2 1 November 1991. N

IX

x

FOREWORD

Conklin's work exemplifies. Worse yet would be an attempt to place that kind of ethnography within the self-reflective, critical discourse about the nature of ethnography that currently pervades our discipline. But that's what I am going to try to do-if only to see if it can be done without sounding like a horrible, old-fashioned, reactionary, unrepentant, pre-post-modem, believer in the "truth." I will employ tested ethnoscientific methods in this attempt. To talk abstractly about a thing as a kind of something, the first thing that one has to do is to give the thing a name. What do we call the kind of ethnography exemplified by Conklin's work, the kind of ethnography the rest of you have been presenting to us today? Thinking about Conklin's ethnography, the first word that probably comes to mind is "detailed." I thought of "detailed description" as a label, but somehow that doesn't do justice to either the complexity or the merits of the enterprise. What I suggest as a label to enter alongside "thick description," "formal description," "narrative description," "performative description," "constructed description," "deconstructed description," and other labels for kinds of ethnography is "fine description." Ethnography so labeled is "fine" both in sense of "fine detail" and "fine art." It is meticulous in construction, but it is also grand in design. Having named our category we must now define it. We can easily do so in the currently fashionable mode by simply pointing to its prototypic member- which is, of course, the ethnography of Harold Conklin. Along with having a prototype, it is useful, as well as au courant, to give our named construction some historical depth by locating a founding ancestor, an Ibn Khaldun to our Boas, a Descartes to our Chomsky. We need not claim that our ancestor actually influenced the shape of the prototype. It is enough to show that the ancestor's work, like Democritus's theory of the atom, seems somehow, in retrospect, to have presaged certain prominent characteristics of the current category. The more obscure the ancestor, and hence the more remarkable the foretokening, the better. Quite by accident in the course of my present research in Norfolk County, England, I stumbled upon a suitably obscure precursor of fine description, a traveler through late medieval Britain named William Worcester.' Worcester was for a time a student at Oxford where he

FRAKe - Refined Description

.

Xl

was exposed to the then prevailing scholarly theory of "British" i.e., pre-Anglo-Saxon, history. This theory traced British origins back to a hero from ancient Troy, named Brutus. But, rather than joining contemporary scholars in expanding upon and trying to authenticate this now forgotten theory, our ancestor did field work. In the 47os he traveled from Norfolk to the east to Cornwall in the west, recording what he saw and heard. His notes survive,2 written in medieval Latin, on long narrow strips of durable paper folded like 3x5 cards to easily fit in his specially designed weather-proof saddle bag. But it is not only the format of his notes that foretokens fine description. Their content is a testimony to Worcester's insatiable curiosity about everything and to his fervent concern to record it all in perfect accuracy. Two descriptive techniques stand out in his notes. First he measured things. Here is an excerpt from his description of a Norfolk abbey now in ruins: Memorandum that the length of the abbey church of Hulme from the east window to the west door, with the choir reckoned in, is 148 of my steps, and the width of the choir and presbytery is 17 steps ... the length of the high altar at the east is 17 spans measured from the thumb to the middle finger. (p. 225)

This kind of attention to the details of dimension was unprecedented in the writings of his time. From Worcester's extensive notes on the layout of Bristol, a plan of that medieval port city has been reconstructed. Of more interest to us is that Worcester talked to people and recorded what they had to say, no matter what. He talked to a lawyer of Tavistock who was an authority on West Country Saints; a sailor who knew Scotland and Ireland; an Avon ferryman who knew the Bristol Channel mileages, a porter of Bristol Castle; a man doing the leadwork on the roof of St. Mary Redcliffe; the masons building St. Stephen's Church, Bristol; a Shropshire man who knew the upper Severn; a merchant of Dublin who could tell him about Ireland and the Isle of Man and a chance acquaintance who knew Scandinavia. (Kendrick i950:29-33)

Here is some of what he recorded from his conversation with the Avon ferryman: Black Stones are in the Severn at Hollow Backs, 4 miles from Bristol beyond Hung Road, where ships and boats wait for the new tide. And the said small rocks are covered by the sea when the tide begins to

xii

FOREWORD

flow from the Severn up to Bristol by King Road, Hung Road, Ghyston Cliff, and ; no sooner has the flow of the sea begun than all the ships at the Hollow Backs from Spain, Portugal, Bordeaux, Bayonne, Gascony, Aquitaine, Brittany, Iceland, Ireland, Wales and other parts weigh their anchors and set sail for Bristol. (p. 303)

This description fits in well with what one can learn from Bristol port records. Worcester also defines for us the sailor's measure of distance, the kenning, known from late medieval pilot books: "From the Holms to Lundy Island, 2 kennings or sights [duo kennyngs jd est twey syghts], each of 20 miles." We have no idea of what Worcester's purpose in all this was. Perhaps he needed none. What we have here appears to be little more than an interesting curiosity in the story of the human struggle to describe human activity. So, how in this enlightened era of critical selfreflection could an ethnographer pick out as worthy of mention, let alone of admiration, this kind of seemingly mindless effort to record any kind of detail with no apparent attention to literary device, theoretical relevance, or practical use? Long ago-way back there in my graduate student days-we learned that description had to be informed by theory. "Mere description" was not only not enough; it was, in theory, impossible. More recently we have had impressed upon us the extent to which we can create the cultures we describe in the process of writing the description. Culture is not an object out there to be measured and displayed; it is a text to be interpreted, first by the natives and second, in Geertz's vivid image, by the ethnographer working over the shoulder of the natives as they read their cultural texts. What Geertz soon learned, however, was that there was someone standing behind him looking over his shoulder-in fact there were several such voyeurs (it has come to be rather crowded behind Geertz's shoulder.) One of the most notable of Geertz's over-theshoulder readers was James Clifford who, in watching Geertz transcribe his reading of the Balinese reading of their cockfight, catches him in a quick retreat from initial self-reference toward the traditional voiceless rhetoric of objective science. But standing behind Clifford was yet another over-the-shoulder reader, Paul Rabinow, who catches Clifford doing the same thing in his tran-

PRAI). There are three good reasons for bringing Conklin's writings together. 1. None of his papers are currently available in bookstores. Until Fine Description, five of the papers would have been almost impossible to find, another ten could be found only at a major library, and the Atlas has been out of print (used copies sell for hundreds of dollars). Now most of Conklin's work can be at everyone's fingertips: Fine Description offers his most important essays, maps from the Atlas, and selections from his dissertation on Hanun6o Culture in Relation to the Plant World (Conklin 1954). Hanun6o Agriculture (Conklin 1957) is still available in a reprint edition. With availability comes the possibility of overview and a new appreciation. For those who know parts of Conklin's work, there is good news: the essays in Fine Description offer together what is available in only small doses if they are read one at OVl!R THB COURSB OF FIFTY YEARS

1

INTRODUCTION

a time. Conklin brings an unusually fierce commitment to detail in his ethnographic work. He is the master of what Charles Frake, in his Foreword to this book, calls "fine description." Conklin's lust for particulars has made his descriptions both unusual and well appreciated by specialists in various fields. Most of his publications are the result of years of work in a specialized field of inquiry, and each one displays the respect with which he approaches a phenomenon, the rigor with which he tries to understand it, and the responsibility with which he represents it. Now is the time to see them as a whole. Together, they display a lifetime of respect, rigor, and responsibility. 2. The writings are as startlingly impressive now as when first published. The essays remain principled and focused on findings. Conklin rarely sets out to win an argument. He writes deliberately for future generations with little concern for who won what argument. He writes instead for those with a passionate desire to recover, represent, and preserve knowledge of how the Hanun6o and Ifugao worked, talked, thought, and played. The result is that anyone wanting to know about indigenous agricultural systems, ethnobotany, ethnographic method, the relation of language to culture, and the specifics of a wide range of cultural practices from organizing kin, courtship, and the daily round to ways of speaking, writing, and playing music can find in this volume at least one classic formulation and a well analyzed example. The Hanun6o seemed to have appreciated Conklin' s desire for specifics as much as his colleagues. Masaru Miyamoto, a Japanese ethnographer who followed Conklin into fieldwork with the Hanun6o, published a glossary of Hanun6o terms (Miyamoto 1986). One of the terms was transliterated into Japanese as 'konkirin'' and translated as 'hakushi no koto', or roughly, 'things related to knowledge'. It is a term the Japanese use in this century for the title of doctorate, but it has a long history as an honorific term; in China of the T'ang dynasty, it was used to describe 'the Catholic gentleman'. Conklin had become a word in Hanun6o, a word for the very thing he studied, the very thing he most respected about the Hanun6o, the very thing about which he has taught us so much: things related to knowledge. 3. Precisely because of their near timelessness, there are controversies in contemporary social sciences that can be adjudicated or

KUIPERS & MCDERMOTI' -

Ethnographic Responsibility

3

dismissed by following Conklin's lead. Whereas the social sciences are overwhelmed with arguments from one or another side of various unnecessary and even false dichotomies, Conklin's work is focused on the culturally specific activities and materials with which people build busy, productive, and often coherent lives together. Whereas some think it important to argue the relative importance of culture over biology, description over theory, quantitative over qualitative research, and even reality over social construction or vice versa, Conklin offers exquisite descriptions of the world at work by using whatever means necessary and available. Ethnographers have higher responsibilities than arguing with each other. One greater responsibility is to represent ways of life with full attention to the ingenuity and complexity they demand. Conklin has bowed to this responsibility more fully than anyone before and likely since, and his writings must be appreciated for their duty to detail in context. Before exploring the range of Conklin's work and its contributions, we can offer an orienting example of Conklin thinking out loud about an object taken from the field.

Thinking about Things Conklin insists that we, as ethnographers, respect the phenomena we describe. One of us (JK) distinctly remembers a session of the ethnography class (also mentioned by Myrdene Anderson in her introductory comment to Conklin's two papers on ethnography) that illustrates this point well. As we entered the seminar room in 51 Hillhouse, there on the table lay a long, rope-like vine, probably rattan. Its bark had been stripped, and one end had been fashioned into a hook. As our class of about a dozen or so students filed around the table, and took our seats, we contemplated this strange thing in front of us. When Conklin entered the room, he asked us to consider this thing and try to imagine how we might label it. Various terms, such as 'vine', 'rope', and other terms, were suggested, but these were quickly dismissed as inadequate, given that it had clearly been fashioned for some more specific use. Finally he told us a bit more about its use. As we suspected, the vine came from the Philippines,

4

INTRODUCTION

the Ilongot area in Luzon, and was used by local farmers for getting from treetop to treetop when trimming the upper branches of large trees in preparation of a swidden field for use (M. Rosaldo 198; R. Rosaldo 198). He gave us the name of the item in the Philippine language (taberuk), and I recall being surprised at hearing how short and simple the word sounded, given the complex and challenging activity in which it played a role. We glanced through pictures of the men using the vine to get from tree to tree. The activity looked dangerous, exciting, and useful. Conklin asked us to imagine that we were preparing a dictionary and needed to provide an English gloss for this item. How would we do it? Several students groped at definitional, descriptive statements, which he quickly rejected. He did not want a description or definitional statement, but a brief gloss such as one might find in a dictionary. Finally one brave student suggested a phrase, 'tree transfer rope'. I remember the silence in the room after he said it, and Conklin's narrowed eyes. At first hearing, such a phrase did indeed sound like a gloss, but it violated several of Conklin's criteria. A gloss, always enclosed in single quotes, had to be accurate and precise-it had to provide as much information about the distinctive features of the object and its associated activities as possible. It had to be economical, in the sense that it had to be short and highly informative about the functionality of the object in question. It also had to be valid for the culture using it-the framework and units of translation had to be derived from the culture of the language in question, not from the m eta-language, in this case English: "transferring" was what we thought they were doing, but likely not how the locals perceived the activity of which the vine was a key part. Finally, Conklin looked for elegance in the descriptive phrases. This unfortunate, ugly locution had none of these qualities, and we all knew it. It sounded bad; it wasn't a rope or even regarded as one; and the actors involved in the activity didn't see themselves as merely "transferring" from tree to tree. Conklin let us struggle on. Finally, as we began to ask more about the cultural context in which the 'tree trimming' took place, we began to feel we were getting closer. We learned there was in fact an

KUIPERS

& MCDERMOTT -

Ethnographic Responsibility

5

English term for this kind of pruning, called 'pollarding'. An important meaning of the term comes from animal husbandry, where it refers to the pruning of the horns of a goat, sheep, ox, or water buffalo. Much as the horns of the water buffalo are trimmed, the large upper branches of a large tree are cut back above a swidden plot to allow light to reach the forest floor. With great relief, we all agreed, it would be a 'pollarding vine'. We stared at the scrawny piece of vegetative matter sprawling across the table, and it seemed somehow transformed before our eyes, an object now of great respect and appreciation. We had exposed this humble thing to our version of analytical rigor, struggled with it, and reached a new level of understanding it. We had also, in the process, taken on a new set of assumptions: the assumption that this task was important, because the object and its associated activities-at least for most western audiences--would become, for all intents and purposes, what we described it to be. Because such translation can never tell the full story, selecting short labels is an especially important responsibility.

The Range of Work For readers unfamiliar with Conklin's work, the range of content and technical expertise is dazzling. Most of the essays are taken from his fieldwork with the Hanun6o of Mindoro and the Ifugao of Luzon (along with one each on matters Tagalog and Tagbanuwa). With the Hanun6o, Conklin focused on agriculture, just as the Hanun6o do. A Conklin ethnography starts where the people start-with their work primarily, and with the cultural materials they develop around work. The Hanun6o lived in a difficult mountainous terrain and worked out a complex adaptation to their physical situation. To understand them, Conklin needed to know their language in detail, for there was little to report of their work without understanding the language they used to organize it. After his first fieldwork in 1946, at age 20, he prepared a Hanun6o dictionary (Conklin 1953b). He spent his second fieldwork in 1953 learning everything possible about Hanun6o relations with the plant world (Conklin 1954) and the yearly agricultural round (Conklin 1957). Both accounts were newsworthy:

6

INTRODU CTION

the plant world for its sheer volume of 1,625 distinct items and the swidden agricultural system for its precision. (See Levi-Strauss 1962 for an appreciation.) None of this was possible, of course, without the Hanun6o doing their work with each other at the right time in the right way. Social relations were involved, again w ell articulated with the language, and Conklin unpacked for his readers Hanun6o liter· acy (Conklin 1949akus) and black nito fem stems. Batik made this sewn basket of dried burl palm leaves, split rattan, and nito lacing. To keep its contents (cotton blanket, clothes) fresh-smelling, he added a fascicle of fragrant vetiver roots (?Dhas) and cut out a waterproof cover from a fallen areca palm spathe. B. Badu:i preparing bamboo flooring strips for his brother's death feast house. C. Transferring an old inscription onto a new intemode of kiliy bamboo, showing the technique of engraving the Indic-derived characters of the Hanun6o script on a ligneous surface. D. An archer's magical compound of herbs and other hunting medicine placed in an empty coconut husk and stuck in a SllraySllray or offering stick of bamboo. (Photographs by author.)

I

•

228

V. THE WORLD OF PLANTS

6. Manufacture of musical instruments, amusements: Except for the highly-valued brass dance gongs and cascabels,12 all musical and noise-making instruments are locally made from plant materials. Musical sticks, bamboojew's-harps (PL 4. D), transverse and endblown flutes, are made by either sex, but are played mostly by women. The stringed instruments and most of the others (bamboo zithers, whistles, "bugles," and slit gongs) are made and used mainly by men. Every Hanun6o knows how to play several instruments; every young man knows how to make, string, and use either a gitgit or a kudyapi. Hence, the repair and construction of instruments, and the search for good gitgit woods, sonorous musical sticks, or the best kind of thin-walled bamboo (bagllkay, Schizostachyum spp.) for lantuy flutes go on continuously. Sword beans (baray-drpay, Canavalia gladiata Oacq.) DC.) are cultivated mainly for their pods, which are used as noise-making rattles. Children often make toy instruments out of plant parts (e.g., using dry pigeon pea pods as jew's-harps). All other toys are made of carved wood, or herbaceous material such as banana petioles. Except for the slaked lime (mpug), betel chew ingredients-lit/it 'betel leaf (Piper betle L)', bO?Ja 'areca nut (Areca catechu L.), and tabilku7 (Nicotiana tabacum L.}-are carefully raised cultigens. Numerous wild plant substitutes exist for these ingredients (Conklin, 1954) but the preferred combination always consists of only the four just mentioned. Techniques of preparing, handling, and disposing of the betel quid are traditionally prescribed and, with many variations and subtle but patterned twists, constitute one of the principle avenues of indirect commwtlcation between relatives, lovers, friends, and strangers. As noted elsewhere, this masticatory is practically wtlversal among the Hanun6o and no religious feast or offering is complete without special betel preparations which help to guarantee the desired rapport with spirit forces. Tobacco is smoked occasionally, but is used more often only in the betel combination. Palm toddy from ?iyuk (Arenga pinnata (Wurmb.) Merr.), buri (Corypha elata Roxb.), and niyug (Cocos nucifera L.) is made occasionally, as is ?intus 'sugar cane wine'. However, the manufacture and use of intoxicants do not form a part of a well-established drinking complex such as exists among

Cultural Significance of Plants

229

numerous other Philippine pagan groups (cf. Fox, 1954). No rice wine is manufactured today, although some of the oldest men remember how it was done generations ago. 7. Decoration and adornment: Trade beads are the most important form of personal adornment, but scented or colorful leaves, herbs, and roots-known collectively as pamaylu (< baylu 'fragrance')-are a close rival. Such vegetable ornament is worn in the hair by women (Pl. 2, D; Pl. 4, C), tucked in men's arm bands, or elsewhere on the person. The most common forms of pamaylu are the roots of 7ahas (Andropogon zizaniodes (L.) Urban), and the leaves of burllnuy (Ocimum basilicum L.), kabalwa 7urfi!Jan (Anompanax philippinensis Harms.), and kamllyi (Ocimum sanctum L.), all of which are domesticated herbs. Women enlarge ear lobe punctures (Pl. 2, D) with tight coils of buri leaf stripping, and both sexes make necklaces from the seeds of rayrran (Cananga odorata Hook f. and Th.), tfbak (Musa sp.; see PL 2, A), kanakana7 (Cardiospermum halicacabum L.), hamuyuy (Goniothalmus spp.), baldrtan (Acronychia sp.) and from the karumata (Clausena spp.), all except the last of which are nondomesticates. Teeth are given a shiny black coating by munching on the growing tips or bark shavings from the aerial roots of ?amluy (Raphidophora spp.), often adding a layer of taplun, the soot collected by burning intemodes of 7Usuy or baglJkay (Schizostachyum spp.) Decorative color is seldom applied to Hanun6o manufactures except in the case of woven garments. However, black nito (nrtu7, Lygodium spp.) and red rattan stripping, 711kus (colored with a dye made from the roots of baykildu7 7urfi!Jan (Morinda bracteata Roxb.), do add contrastive hues when used as basketry overlay material or in providing head- and torso-bands for the women (seep. 56) and woven elements in men's arm bands. 8. Other manufacturing activities: Artifacts employed in food production, preparation, and consumption, as well as religious and medicinal objects are made largely from plant materials. These manufactures are discussed elsewhere. Hanun6o technology involves a great amount of manual activity directed toward the combination of material objects or substances by

230

V. THE WORLD OF PLANTS

means of tying, binding, lashing, weaving, sewing, dying, gluing, and careful fitting. Separation and shaping of materials is done primarily by cutting, chopping, shaving, and incising. There is a minimum of molding, nailing, pegging, or using of complex machinery. In all of these activities plant products play an important role, providing over 90 per cent of the materials combined or separated or modified, and many of the requisite tools. There is no pronounced dependence, however, on any one cluster of similar plant segregates. Certain types of bamboo, rattan, wood, and palm fiber are used extensively, but no single source provides materials used in the construction of more than 20 per cent of the total number of artifact types. Although many newly-made Hanun6o manufactures appear to be securely joined and of sturdy construction, they are mostly of a highly impermanent nature. Dwelling houses are rarely occupied for more than three years, and most other manufactures made of local materials are even less durable. Artifacts of all types are constantly being repaired or rebuilt in the local setting and from local materials. Exceptions are objects such as weaver's swords or spear shafts which are cut from hard outer palm wood. For the bulk of Hanun6o artifacts, however, weevils, other insects and vermin, plus multiple climatic conditions, more than counterbalance any apparent durability of construction. Since there is also remarkably little specialization in Hanun6o technology, the average Hanun6o is wellacquainted with the whole inventory of known Hanun6o artifact types, their component parts, the materials required in their construction, and where and how the latter may be obtained. Some specified form of bamboo is required in the construction of 148 types of Hanun6o artifacts. Wood of various sorts is used in making 141 artifact types, palm products in 109, vines in 86, and inner bark (bast) in 29. Other plant products are essential in the manufacture of 193 artifact types. The criteria governing the selection and skillful use of these specified plant materials are common knowledge among most Hanun6o.

Cultural Significance of Plants

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Superordinary Relations All uncertain (unpredictable, and usually unobservable) conditions believed by the Hanun6o to affect human life are designated here as superordinary. Specific, culturally recognized relationships between the Hanun6o and these conditions constitute superordinary relations. Potentially, such relations affect not only human lives but the existence and status of all other observable phenomena. Included in the realm of superordinary relations are cultural patterns often discussed under the rubrics magic, religion, and medicine. The areas of meaning so often associated with these terms, however, combine and overlap each other almost inextricably when applied to relevant Hanun6o ideas and practices. Hence, in this discussion they are best treated together. Before examining the significance of plant life in superordinary relations it is first necessary to define the pertinent Hanun6o concepts. To the Hanun6o, the individual, components of the universe are of two orders, the visible (including live humans, animals, plants, etc.) and the usually invisible. Invisible components have much greater potential power (which increases through time) and may be grouped into two suborders, one of personalized spirits, the other of impersonal forces. The power of the personalized spirits depends on the number and quality of the impersonal forces they control. Impersonal supernatural powers are known as dflnU!J. They may be possessed by visible components of the universe, but usually only by virtue of the controls exercised by the personalized spirits inhabiting these components. The most commonly used form of dOnu!J is known as da!Jin, the force which makes a component of either order invisible to any other similar component. To illustrate, a living Hanun6o, through his own personal spirit (or soul), may have the power of invisibility. Either he or his spirit (or both) may be said to have dil!Jin. This implies that this spirit may use its impersonal power, dm]in, either to make the physical form of the living Hanun6o invisible to other humans or to make itself "invisible" to other spirits. Many kinds of impersonal powers exist, some of which (e.g., hrri7, padllya7, 7awug) may be used malevolently by their spirit controllers.

232

V. THE WORLD OF PLANTS

Most impersonal powers are believed to be contained in specified mixtures and combinations of plant substances. One skilled in making such "medicines" (including magical formulae), and whose personal spirit (or soul) controls much impersonal supernatural power, is said to be sar;kad. One who is skilled in physical tasks like smithing, basketry, or weaving is called /antis. These terms distinguish two conceptually very different kinds of specialized skills. The suborder of personalized spirits is comprised of two distinct classes: spirits of individual humans (including ghosts) and natural spirits.13 There are two important subcategories of human spirits: (1) kalag, the souls of living humans and of deceased relatives and (2) labar;, transformed kalag which possess and use malevolent powers. Untransformed kalag of deceased humans are uncontrolable yet benign guardian spirits for whom the most respect is shown and for whom the most elaborate offerings are made. As several Hanun6o who had been exposed to some Christian religious doctrine told me kanmi pinagkadiyus kanmi mar;a nar;amatay 'our deceased relatives are our God (diyus)'. One's kalag (sometimes known also as karadwa 'soul' < duwa 'two') leaves the body during dreams and at times of illness, and enters the spirit world of potentially beneficial ghosts, kalag, and of evil, often grotesquely deformed, ghosts, labar;. All kalag are invisible counterparts of their human forms. The labar; on the other hand comprise many named subclasses, each typified by peculiarities of appearance and special techniques for causing discomfort among the living. The /abar; lumalakaw, for example, are dwarf statured and carry small vine nooses with which they are most adept in strangling humans. The labar; increase their ranks by luring the kalag of recently deceased humans away from the banwa kalag 'soul country'. The bond becomes permanent and irretractible transformation takes place once a labar; succeeds in marrying a kalag. For all their unattractive habits, labar; can be controled more directly by human action than can the kalag. Wearing scented herbs, pamar;lu, and anyone of numerous amulets of bamboo, ginger, or lubigan rhizomes (Acorus calamus L.), offers almost certain protection from most classes of labar;. Furthermore, as is shown below, the superordinary realm also includes components whose express purpose is to combat

Cultural Significance of Plants

233

these malign spirits and who can be commissioned by the action of human intermediaries (mediums) to attack particularly obnoxious labay. The class of natural spirits is also comprised of two subclasses, one of uncontrollable but respected and usually beneficent spirits; the other of specialized but mechanically controllable guardians. As kalag and /abay are historically associated with living humans, natural spirits are definitely associated with the observable environmental elements they inhabit or "possess." Natural spirits are sometimes referred to as "the people of such and such an element" (e.g., tawu sa danum 'water people'). More often, however, they are called "possessors" of such elements or forces (e.g., 7dpu7 danum [?dpu? 'owner; spirit possessor')). Uncontrollable natural spirits include the spirit possessors or "souls" of individual plants, rocks, bodies of water, and the like. The other subclass of natural spirits includes the personalized spirit possessors of three special kinds of unseen power (diinilv, piira7, tihul) believed to reside in unusuallyfonned, da.rk-colored stones. These spirits are the potential labayfighters mentioned above. The kalag of deceased relatives and the spirit-possessors of most natural elements are given periodic offerings, and are beseeched to guard over the physical beings they represent. In the event of human failure to show them proper respect, these spirits may retaliate by permitting labay activities which they (the kalag) might otherwise divert. The special classes of labatJ and their opponent natural spirits like 7dpu7 daniw do not receive such general forms of respect. They may be effectively dealt with only through the specialized activities of mediums (see below). Ghost and natural spirits, impersonal supernatural forces, men, and the observable natural elements, then, are the kinds of units which feature in superordinary relations. These relations in tum are of two types, general and specialized. General relations are those in which there is an attempt to maintain a peaceful equilibrium among the units just described. Specialized relations are those in which there is an attempt to correct any disruption of that equilibrium. Specific

2.34

V. THE WORLD OF PLANTS

knowledge of plant classification and use is required in both kinds of relations, but with much greater specialization in the latter type. All Hanun6o participate in the observance of traditional behavior (?uglllr) designed to please the ancestors and the many personalized environmental spirits, and to obtain their aid in warding off disease, war, crop failure, typhoons, and attempts to extend Filipino governmental control into Hanun6o territory. No coercion is involved however, and all activities of this sort are predicated by the desire to show respect for traditional customs and deserving spirits. Four types of ritual acts are performed for the departed kalag. 1.

kutkut--.S reports a wide variety of medicinal uses for Piper betle in different countries. Among the Hanun6o a betel leaf warmed over kamangyan incense is applied to the forehead for relieving headache pains. ln other cases where betel is used medicinally the leaf is first chewed with lime and areca seeds. Slaked lime The addition of burnt-shell lime to the alkaloid-containing vegetable ingredients provides the alkali essential to every betel chew and gives the masticatory its characteristic flavor and color. ln most parts of the betel using area, especially in coastal regions, slaked lime is manufactured locally from sea shells. It is known almost

Betel Chewing among the Hanun6o

273

universally in Malaysia by cognate terms which reflect the ProtoMalayo-Polynesian reconstruction •hapuR. 2 9 The Hanun6o equivalent is 'llpug. By Hanun6o standards, good 'llpug must be completely and finely crumbled to a powder-like consistency, pure white, strong flavored, and capable of reacting with other ingredients so as to color the chew a deep red. The first quality depends on the manufacturing process; the last three depend mainly on the type of shells used. All mollusk shells collected for making lime are called collectively 'arapugun and can be graded roughly into three groups: Shells of

i. sea

mollusks, 2 . fresh water mollusks, and 3. land snails.

Marine species on the whole are the best source in both quality and abundance. More than 40 kinds of sea shells are collected for this purpose,J0 the most valued being that of the giant Tridacna clam, manlut, a huge bivalve which often exceeds a meter in breadth. Other species furnishing excellent 'arapagun are mostly univalves of the genera Haliotis, Turbo, Conus, Terebra, A.strea, and Patella. Four types of fresh water shellsJ' are used occasionally, but are definitely a second choice because the lime produced is weaker flavored, grayish in color and must be taken in large quantities before the chew reddens. Shells of land mollusksJ> are employed for lime making only by the Hanun6o who eat the flesh of the same species. Except for those people Jiving in areas furthest from the coast and away from sizeable rivers, most Hanun6o consider both of these practices as very degenerate and in the same way they refuse to eat terrestrial mollusks (common food in the northern interior part of Mindoro) they also go without chewing entirely if provided only with land snail 'apug. They complain that the latter is acrid instead of strong tasting, fails to redden the chew, and turns the saliva into a light foam. One other inferior source of the needed alkali, and one which is resorted to only in the most remote regions, consists of lightcolored karangyan (Pometia pinnata Forst. or Aphanamixis sp.) ashes collected after a forest area containing such trees has been burned for horticultural purposes. These last two sources of alkali are treated by

274

V. THE WORLD OF PLANTS

the Yagaw Hanun6o as very poor substitutes, and of only limited use, for high quality slaked lime. For making betel lime, the Hanun6o gather a few shells on every trip to the coast. When a few handfuls or more have accumulated, a large pile of flat, crisscrossed layers of dried and almost white strips of bamboo is built up with four comer stakes to keep the strips in place. A few shells or shell fragments (those of the giant Tridacna clam must be crushed first) are spread two or three deep on top of the third or fourth bamboo layer from the ground and on top of as many successive layers as is necessary to exhaust the supply. More dry bamboo is piled above the last bed of shells until the whole structure assumes the shape of a cube, often a meter high. This is then set on fire. After intense burning for about 20 to 30 minutes and as soon as all flames die down, the lime maker carefully removes the ashes and embers above the shells with a green bamboo poker. The shells, which have not changed at all in shape, should have turned completely white. If so, they are lifted or flicked out with the poker, blown on lightly to remove dark but light-weight bamboo ashes, and placed in a container such as a bamboo tube or clay pot filled with water. Shells still showing dark patches (but'Qlin) are put aside for reburning at a future date. The good shells sizzle cool in the water until all fragments have been removed from the ashes. A fire. softened banana leaf cover is tied over the top of the vessel rim. The container is heated over a fire until all the water steams off and only the dry, finely slaked lime remains. When only a few shells are burned at a time they are wrapped in a small banana leaf packet after water cooling. At this stage the shells will fracture and crumble if pressed. Complete disintegration, however, is accomplished by placing the packet near a fire, usually under a hearth stone, for about ten minutes. Even for large quantities the whole lime-making process rarely takes more than an hour. Aside from a filled water container, the only needs are dried bamboo strips known as biiga' (preferably of lciling, Bambusa vulgaris Schrad., because of its high burning temperature) and banana leaves (dltwun; of any local form of Musa). On returning home with a large supply of lime, adult family members and visiting neighbors (i.e., relatives) are given as much as a half coconut shell (ca. 1/2 liter) full each. The bulk of what is left is

Betel Chewing among the Hanun6o

275

usually kept in a tightly covered clay pot. Lime is given away freely and is only rarely traded for beads. Although I have never witnessed such a transaction, the traditional former exchange value was one Hanun6o salup (ca. 6 liters) of lime for one string of seed beads. The present rate is reportedly one kaput (a packet containing less than 2 liters) for a string of beads or the equivalent in rice (1 salup), com (50 ears), tobacco (50 dried leaves), or bananas (5 hands). Lowland Mindoro Christians, even in Calapan, usually make their own 'tzpug. Small banana leaf packets holding about 20 cc. are available in Calapan and Manila markets for two or three centavos each.JJ Slaked lime is a pulverulent substance and hence must be kept in special, solid containers to prevent it from being lost by spilling or made useless by mixture with foreign matter. There are two methods of keeping small quantities of 'apug ready for chewing and two corresponding types of containers. With the "wet" or open method, lime is dampened with water so that it remains moist and paste-like. It is kept packed in a usually squat, wide-mouthed, uncovered or loosely-covered metal or shell container; and removal is facilitated by using a small spatula (pangurrkut). This method is common among most coastal peoples, but is rare in the mountains, partly because of the lack of suitable containers. With the "dry" or closed method, lime is kept perfectly dry in small-mouthed, tightly-plugged or capped, and frequently long-necked, or tubular containers made of ligneous materials, horn, glass, or metal. The quality of lime is not affected by water, the presence or absence of which being of importance only in keeping the lime in a readily usable state. The only completely open type of lime container used by the Hanun6o is a truncated Conus shell of the form known as dangguy (fig. 4, c). After sawing off the apex half of the shell and filing the top and bottom smooth with a steel file, the interior sections are removed by light pounding with a blunt section of steel rod or the tail of a bolo blade. When carried in one's shoulder bag, even within a kamam'an, a dangguy is usually kept in a special type of bay'ung basket only slightly larger than the shell itself, so that bits of other substances will not get into the lime and affect its flavor. Unmodified univalve sea shells known as binga' (Voluta or Harpa sp.) are also used occasionally for holding wet 'tzpug except that the orifice is plugged loosely with

V. THE WORLD OF PLANTS

a wad of cotton yam when stowed away in the kamam'an. Less than five percent of the Hanun6o possess dangguy or binga' lime holders. On the other hand, the Hanun6o use at least ten types of dry lime containers made from almost that many different materials. The average Hanun6o owns examples of at least three or four of these types and takes great care in incising, carving, and decorating many of them. Although both sexes make such containers, young men excel in this occupation, putting their artistic and creative abilities to work so that the finished product may be used not only for holding 'apug, but also as suitable gifts for their girl friends. The ten main types, roughly in order of their frequency are as follows:

1. Iuka' (fig. 3, a), an 8 to 18 centimeter long tube usually of kiling bamboo, closed at one end by a natural node and fitted with a tight plug-cap of the same material also containing one natural node. Thinner Iuka' tubes (less than 2.5 centimeters in diameter) are better lime containers because of the consequently smaller mouth which makes the shaking out of 'apug easier. 2.

binalakwas or payungan (fig. 2 and fig. 3, b), a tube similar to the Iuka' except that the mouth is plugged with a solid coil of such a material as buri (Corypha elata Roxb.) leaf stripping, or with a section of a com cob.

3. tinangkupan kiling (fig. 3, c), a tube similar to the binalakwas except that both ends are plugged with tight-fitting pieces of wood, lime being shaken out through a notch in the top plug. These first three types are all tubes of kiling bamboo. They are often inscribed with 'urakay or 'ambahan chants and decoratively incised. 4. tinangkupan sungay (fig. 4, b), a carabao-hom container the base of which is plugged with wood and a hole at the tip or top end provided with a removable cloth or husk stopper. The sides are often covered with decorative incising which is afterward rubbed with lime so that the design will show up effectively against the black horn background.

5. kalumaka (fig. 3, e), a rounded, pointed-based, one-piece container made of a stunted non-maturing coconut shell one,

Betel Chewing among the Hanun6o of the eyes of which is punched through to allow for the insertion and shaking out of lime. Decoration is usually in the form of over-all surface carving. Seeds of the pitagu (Cycas circinalis L.) are occasionally used in a similar fashion. 6. tabayag (fig. 3, d), an orange-brown, smooth-surfaced, somewhat pear-shaped gourd (l..agenaria siceraria (Mol.) Standley) grown especially for this purpose, cleaned, and provided with a tight stopper. Decoration consists of occasional shape and surface modification of the growing gourd by cord binding. 7. kagat 'alimi1ngu (fig. 4, a) a large claw of the 'alim11ngu crab (Neptunus annatus M. Edw.), the joint at the large end of which is plugged. No decoration is added. 8. garllpa (fig. 4, d), a small glass medicine or hair tonic bottle provided with a cork-like stopper or a screw top and sometimes with head and tassel decorations. 9. pamadahan (fig. 4, e), a small, squat, screw-topped, glass jar such as pomade is sold in. Both of these glass containers are obtained by purchase or trade in Christian villages. 10.

bllla masinggan, a plugged tube made from the brass casing of a 50 cal. machine gun bullet (and hence the Hanun6o name). These came into common use after World War II, in particular right after the large allied military base at San Jose had been evacuated. Today they are already somewhat of a rarity.

In addition to these ten types, 'apugan are sometimes fashioned in other ways, particularly from unusual tree or bamboo growths. I have seen more than 20 irregular wooden lime tubes carved in various phallic forms, and a few in grotesque animal shapes. Lime has a number of important secondary uses among the Hanun6o, some of which are: (1) as a mordant in dying homespun cotton thread with native-grown indigo, (2) as a topical application -with or without ginger- for relieving stomach-ache, (3) as a decorative "inlay" element for filling in designs incised on dark colored or horn surfaces, and (4) as a smoothing, softening agent to prevent kinking and bunching when spinning cotton thread by hand.

V. THE WORLD OF PLANTS

Tobacco leaf The Hanun6o include a short strip of tobacco leaf in every betel chew and it is mainly for this purpose that they grow seven separate forms of Nicotiana tabacum L., known generally as tabaku' ('awis, 'istangku, bungbuygu, lawll'an, laylay, pangdan, and pasrti). Surplus tobacco occasionally is used for trade purposes or is rolled into cigars to be smoked, but local betel requirements come first. This familiar source of nicotine and other alkaloids has long been an essential part of the betel chew in most parts of the Philippines. Professor Beyer34 believes that the tobacco plant was brought to the Archipelago from the Moluccas soon after the Portuguese had introduced it there and before the arrival of the Spaniards. A vague Hanun6o legend attributes the origin of tobacco to one of Mindoro's first human inhabitants, a beautiful maiden who drowned herself after a quarrel with her mother. Various plants grew from her head and limbs, tobacco from her body fat. Except in certain rituals (which seem to belie its separate and historically recent introduction) tobacco is treated like all other important plant crops. The species as well as the name tabllku' are ultimately of American origin. The Hanun6o sow tobacco in two ways. In the latter part of August, when it rains almost every day, the seed capsules are tied shoulder high to a pole in the middle of a clearing in which dry rice and other crops have been planted. Wind scatters the minute seeds ('oyas) over the moist soil. If not planted until September, when there is less rain, the seeds are rubbed into the soil in an area usually less than three meters square and as the weather turns very dry shade covers of poles and leaves are constructed to protect the young seedlings. They must also be watered every fourth or fifth day. Especially long bamboo water-carrying tubes are fashioned specifically for this purpose. With either method there is a chance that most of the seed will be carried off by small tigllsaw ants (Pheidologeton diversus philippinus Wheeler). To prevent this, bits of coconut meat are put in the field at the same time to distract the pests while the tobacco seeds take root, and one is careful never to mention that he is sowing tobacco lest this bit of intelligence reach tigasaw headquarters.

Betel Chewing among the Hanun6o

279

After growing for six to eight weeks, when the leaves are five or six centimeters ("three fingers") wide, the small tobacco plants are transplanted (ta/uk) about 8o centimeters ("half a span") apart. More care must be taken in weeding and caring for tobacco than in cultivating any other Hanun6o crop plant. Stems often have to be slit open in order to kill tobacco grubs, bUdug, which prevent normal leaf growth. By ritually piercing the first btidug seen, with the dorsal fin spike of a bar/Jngun fish, one is supposed to be able to scare most of the remaining grubs away. Tobacco leaf beetles, kayataw, are also a continual pest, small nwnbers of which can be killed by finger pinching, but smudge fires must be kept burning to smoke out bad infestations. When knee high, the growing tips of the tobacco plants are broken off by hand (gutlu' or bunggu') preventing flowering and seeding, and directing food that would be so conswned into the leaves. This "topping" also causes the plants to branch out at that point. These new branches are often kept in spread-out position by placing weights (stones, shells, or the opercula of certain large marine mollusks) where they begin to fork. Excess leaves are pruned and by December the first leaves can be harvested (lising). These are the poor-grade, weak-flavored higunas, i.e. leaves at the lowest stem position. They are not considered good enough for betel chewing purposes and are therefore used only for smoking ('urupsun). Among the best, strongest-flavored, largest (up to 25 x 75 cm.) leaves are the so-called tU/ung labung, located higher up on the main stem but below the first branches. These are picked during January and February along with the equally strong-flavored but smaller branch-tip leaves (pasanga) and the weaker branch-base leaves (darag pasanga). In all, a single plant may yield 100 leaves. Occasionally the branch tips are cut and a second artificial branching occurs at the tips of which grow the strong-flavored, but very small pas/Jbung (some measuring less than 10 x 30 cm.). The harvester p laces the newly picked leaves, one at a time, on the hard outer surface of a bamboo water tube and crushes their midribs by pressure-rolling (ligis) a thinner bamboo cylinder (usually a distaff handle) over them. This hastens the drying process which is accomplished by stringing the leaves through their petioles on long strips of rattan and hanging them from house rafters. After 5 to 8

V. THE WORLD OF PLANTS

days depending on the weather, the long strings (kutay) of leaves are taken down and cut off into 100-leaf sections, each such unit known as a manu (eitation is the simplest of the chants recorded (Side 1, Bands 2,4, 11). Only throe notes are used in which Eflat serves as total cen-

H1munOo Musit from lhe Philippinrs

}85

emphasizes the assonance of '11mbr!Jrnn chants. The lowering of the voire at the end of the last word signifies the cod of the piece. There are variations of the text either when said or sung. but singing encou rages more improvising both in the tex t and music. Mylovedone,Ma'liyan Don't feel so low Ourelderswillhelpus And we will ex(hange gifts Tostrengthenthebond: If things workout And all goes well WewillmEoct;iigain.

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