Customs of the Tagalogs (Juan de Plasencia, 1589)

Authorship and Context

• Fray Juan de Plasencia (O.S.F.); entered the Philippines in $1577$; died in $1590$.
• Collected elders and Indians from different districts to compile concise, truthful notes on government, justice, inheritance, slaves, and dowries; aimed to resolve conflicting reports.
• Wrote the two Relations as ethnographic and legal summaries of Tagalog customs; emphasis on Laguna region and surrounding tingues.

Social and Political Organization

• Dato (chief) leads and commands in wars; subject's offenses toward a dato or his family are severely punished.
• Barangay: a small political unit; typically between $30$ and $100$ houses; several barangays in a town.
• Origin of the term barangay linked to a boat (baranɡay) and a leading dato; kin-based and not subservient to one another beyond friendship.
• Three castes: nobles (maharlica), commoners, and slaves.
• Nobles (maharlica): free-born; owe no tax to the dato; accompany him in war; receive spoils; work for him when he builds houses or clears lands; some villages paid the dato a fixed tribute (e.g., $100$ gantas of rice in some places).
• Lands: divided among the barangay; irrigated lands are allocated to individuals; tanah on tingues (mountain ridges) owned communally by the barangay; land use not restricted to one village unless by purchase or inheritance.
• Land mobility and cultivation: individuals from any village may clear land and sow; no inter-barangay compulsion to abandon land.

Social Classes and Labor

• Commoners: aliping namamahay; married; work half of cultivated lands for their master; accompany him beyond the island and row for him; live in own houses and own property and gold; children inherit property; cannot be sold; cannot be made slaves by birth.
• Slaves: aliping sa guiguilir; serve master in house and on lands; may be sold; masters may grant a portion of harvest to slaves.
• Birth and status: maharlicas on both father’s and mother’s sides remain maharlicas; children of maharlicas with slaves can be freed by inheritance or ransom.
• Debt and slavery: debt can accumulate; debtors may be enslaved for failure to pay; usury is a hindrance to baptism and confession; double service may be imposed if a relative or friend pays the debt.
• Downgrading/transfer: maharlicas cannot freely move; if they marry outside their village, they pay a fine; movement between barangays is possible but costly and may provoke war if fines are not paid.

Inheritance, Dowry, and Marriage

• Inheritance: legitimate children inherit equally; dowries affect division (e.g., extra gifts to a favored son reduce the share of the others).
• Multiple wives: each wife’s children inherit from their mother; legitimate children share according to their mother’s portion.
• Children by slaves: generally do not inherit; free the mother if needed; father may be obliged to give a tael or a slave to the child’s mother; dowry is considered for the child’s inheritance.
• InaɁasava (natural) children: children by a free unmarried woman receive a third of the inheritance when there are legitimate children; if no legitimate children, natural children may inherit all.
• Adoption and inheritance: adopted children are treated as legitimate for inheritance; adoption sometimes doubles the value of the adoption payment (e.g., if $1$ tael paid, the adoptee inherits $2$ taels).
• Adultery: if the husband punishes the adulterer, the child is treated as part of the partition with the father's share; if not punished, the adulterous child may be treated as adopted and thus inherit according to adoption rules.
• Dowries: dowries are given to the wife’s parents; if the wife’s parents are living, they enjoy the dowry; on the wife's death, the dowry is divided among the children; unmarried women cannot own land or dowries in their own right.
• Divorce and dissolution: before children are born, a wife leaving to marry another may forfeit the dowry and an additional amount to the husband; if she leaves but does not remarry, the dowry is returned; if the husband leaves, he loses half the dowry and children divide the remainder; if children exist, they and their grandparents hold the dowry and fine for their use; there are village variations on these rules.
• Early practice variations: some villages returned one-half of the dowry on the death of either spouse; others did so out of piety; marriage contracts include fines for breaking arrangements.

Law, Justice, and Regulation

• Investigations and sentences: trials by dato; must be in the presence of the barangay; arbitrators chosen from other villages if aggrieved; fair and just men exist to ensure true judgment; drinking is part of arbitration ceremonies.
• Slavery as penalty: debt and certain offenses could lead to slavery; not all crimes resulted in slavery; witches and other criminals could be punished by death, with damages collected in gold if not paid promptly.
• Debt enforcement: half the lands and all produce may be used to satisfy debts; the master supplies food and clothing to the debtor and his children until the debt is paid; if debt goes unpaid, it could extend across generations; reform was urged.

Religion, Worship, and Cosmology

• No formal temples; simbahan means temple, but actual worship occurs in the large house of a chief during festivals (pandot or nagaanitos) beneath a roofed shelter with lamps and drums; the house doubles as a temple during rites for several days (often $30$ days).
• Main idol: Badhala ("all powerful" or "maker of all things"); also worshipped the sun, moon (new moon), stars (Pleiades, Great Bear, Tala for the morning star), and other idols like Lacapati and Idianale (land and husbandry).
• Water and augury: crocodiles (buaya) are revered; signs such as serpents, rats, singing birds (Tigmamanuguin), or sneezing are interpreted as omens.
• Divination and magic: divination used to determine luck of weapons; belief in a cycle of years tied to agricultural cycles and lunar months; identity of years and seasons named after Christian terms after contact with Spaniards.
• Sacrifices and priests: offerings to idols include goats, fowls, and swine; rice is cooked and offered; ceremonials led by catolonan (priest or priestess); other mystics include mangagauay, manyisalat, and pangatahojan.
• Witchcraft and disease: multiple offices with specific powers to heal or harm (e.g., mancocolam, hocloban, silagan, magtatangal, osuang, mangagayoma, pangatahojan, bayoguin); devilish possession and cult practices in Catanduanes and other islands; some rites involve tying a priest to a tree to prevent harm.
• Notable cases: violence and witchcraft documented with incidents such as a notary burial and other folk accounts.

Burial, Afterlife, and Moral Geography

• Burial customs: deceased are buried beside the house; chiefs are buried under a small porch; a boat is used as a bier; slaves feed the mourners; if the deceased was a warrior, a living slave may be tied beneath the body until death.
• Negrito (Aetas) burial: vertical pit with head left exposed; half a coconut placed as a shield; neighbors plotted retaliation against the killer of the Negrito.
• Afterlife beliefs: maca (paradise or resting village) for the just and virtuous; casanaan (a hellish place) for the wicked and those who cause harm; Bathala remains the maker of all things; there are also ghosts (vibit) and phantoms (Tigbalaang).
• Childbirth and lamentations: women who die in childbirth may be mourned as patianac; lamentation is believed to be punishment or an omen.
• Summary of infernal ministers: catolonan, sonat, mangagauay, manyisalat, mancocolam, hocloban, silagan, magtatangal, osuang, mangagayoma, pangatahojan, bayoguin; belief in demons and spirits remains until the gospel banishes them.

Closing Observations

• Plasencia expects reforms in dato authority and governance; notes that many tyrannies were possible, and reform is needed if Spaniards and Christian leaders command properly.
• The document closes with a declaration that Christian preaching has banished these practices among Tagalogs, particularly in Laguna and surrounding areas.

Quick Key Takeaways for Review

• Tagalog social order: dato, barangay, three castes (maharlica, commoners, slaves); land is shared within barangay; movement and marriage incur fines.
• Inheritance and families: legitimate vs natural children; dowries; adoption doubles the adoption payment; divorce rules vary by village.
• Debt and slavery: debt slavery is common; usury is problematic; reform urged.
• Religion and ritual: no fixed temples; religious life centered on big-house worship and a chief; many priestly offices and witches; a complex cosmology with afterlife concepts.
• Death and burial: elaborate rites; warriors’ burials involve slaves; Negrito customs differ.
• Overall: Plasencia’s account aims at a concise, organized, and reform-minded summary of Tagalog customs as observed in 1589.