An Anthropologist in Paradise

I just read the latest post on Lilli's blog. It made me smile. Or how the world is anxiously trying to fulfill western phantasies...

Earthquake on Christmas Day

At 11:20 AM on December 25 - Christmas Day - we experienced an earthquake here in Mindanao. According to local news broadcasts and paper headlines, it had a strenghth of 6.2, which is quite strong apparently. I was sitting on my bed and writing on the computer when it happened. It's an odd feeling when things suddenly start moving and you don't know what's happening. It was my first time to be in an earthquake, too. Luckily, the earthquake did not cause much damage anywhere.

Hedcor Sibulan - Controversial Construction in Protected Rainforest

Below are some pictures from the construction site of the Hedcor Sibulan hydropower plant. The site of the project is within an environmentally critical area inside Mount Apo Natural Park - a priority protected area because of its unique biodiversity and last remaining patches of rainforest in Southeast Mindanao. It will never cease to amaze me that this is possible...

My House Mates

Here's a picture of me and my house mates. I've been living in a boarding house for about 4 months now, and now realize I have never really introduced them. This picture was taken at our Christmas Party. Most of my house mates are college students, but some already work too.

Sinoron Ritual - Bago-Tagabawa Culture and Tradition

So I went to Sinoron again on Friday to see the ritual at the spring. We travelled up to the source carrying a goat, two chickens and some other stuff to be used during the ritual. It was surely worth while the effort. Below is a short video. You'll see datu Udal performing the ritual; he is one of the few people who still know these traditions. The intention of the ritual is to ask permission to use the spring as a source for the new water system.

It has to be a full moon to perform the ritual, so Friday was the right time. We hiked up to the spring in the morning; it is a way of clearing your mind. I didn't catch the full meaning of the ritual (it was in Bagobo), but this is what I was able to figure out: the two chickens represent the unity between two tribal territories. The water of the spring is in Salidokun, but the water will be used by the people from Sinoron. Therefore, there is a sort of pact between the tribal leaders of both territories, represented by a male and a female chicken. The chickens have to be white; it symbolizes purity (in fact, we spent two hours looking for two white chickens :) The goat is the sacrifice of the community to Apo Sandawa, a mythic forefather of the Bagobo-Tagabawa. During the ritual, datu Udal also used 7 coins and 7 eggs, which represent the 7 days of the week. It means that the people are asking Apo Sandawa to provide water all the time (all days of the week). all through the ritual, datu Udal was asking questions to Apo Sandawa. He held a bamboo stick in his hands and, after each question, closed his eyes and stretched the stick across his breast, spreading his arms as far as he could; should one end of the stick be too short and the branch slip from his hands, then that means Apo Sandawa does not approve. If there is enough wood on both ends of the branch, then the request is approved. We also drank some jenever. Datu Udal explained this by saying that the white liquid brings whiteness of heart. (a good enough raison to drink jenever, I would say). After the ritual, the goat was cooked and eaten close to the spring.

Sinoron

The last three days I've been visiting Sinoron, an upland barangay in Santa Cruz. The people from Sinoron have started to construct a water system, and I was curious to see the source they are going to use. Little did I know that there had been an encounter between NPA rebels and the army last month. So before I knew it, 6 soldiers decided to escort me to the source to make sure I would be safe. To tell you the truth, six heavily armed soldiers on your tail does not really make one feel much safer... I was a bit embarrassed too, of course, that my visit created such a fuss. On the other hand, it's a cool experience as well.

The army did not go all the way up to the source. It's a pretty steep climb. The last few kilometres I was guided by an old man who effortlessly jumped from rock to rock on his bare feet towards the spring.


A nice thing about hiking up the mountain is that you get to see the daily life of the people. It makes you realize what enormous distances these people travel on foot just to get to their farm. Because the area has been occupied by rebels for some 20 years now, most people live downhill and travel back and forth between their farms and their houses.


On friday, the Bagobo-Tagabawa tribe is going to have a ritual at the spring to ask for the blessing of the gods for their water system. Today I witnessed the tribal council where the tribal chieftains discussed the planning for the ritual. I'm curious to see it... The picture below shows tribal cieftains Benjamin Banglos and Danilo Udal discussing the meaning of the ritual. I'll tell you more about it when I get back.

The moon, Venus and Jupiter Smile on Earth

Last Sunday I left the house in the evening and saw a strange phenomenon in the sky. The moon, Venus and Jupiter are currently set in a rare alignment and form something that looks like a smiley. The smiley can only be seen in some parts of the world and apparently, people in the United States see a frowning face (Maybe Lie, my friend in Washington, can confirm this?). Of course, this wouldn't be the Philippines if people wouldn't try to read special messages into it, so some astrologists are trying to read President Arroyo's fate in this coincidental, but funny phenomenon.