Customs of the Tagalog – Comprehensive Study Notes

Learning Outcomes

Discuss religious & spiritual practices, beliefs, and superstitions of early Filipinos.
Determine the historical significance of Juan de Plasencia’s “Customs of the Tagalog.”

Key Administrative Term

Gobernadorcillo
- Municipal judge/governor during Spanish colonial era.
- Handled leadership, economic, and judicial duties at town level.

Other Early Sources (for cross-reference)

Miguel de Loarca – Relación de las Islas Filipinas (1582) – encomendero’s view of Panay/Visayas.
Fr. Pedro Chirino, S.J. – Relación de las Islas Filipinas (1604) – Jesuit missionary chronicle.
Fr. Francisco Colín, S.J. – Labor Evangélica (1663) – evangelization narrative.
Lt.-Gov. Antonio de Morga – Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (1609) – secular, eyewitness account.
Fr. Juan Delgado, S.J. – Historia General (1751) – late 17-century survey.
Fr. Francisco Ignacio Alcina, S.J. – Historia Natural de las Islas e Indios de Bisayas (1668).

(Plasencia’s work complements and sometimes predates these, supplying rare Tagalog-centric ethnography.)

Author Background – Fray Juan de Plasencia (Fray Joan de Portocarrero)

Birth: Extremadura, Spain; early $16^{th}$ c. (Siglo de Oro – flourishing of Spanish arts/literature).
Family: Portocarrero–Plasencia line; father Pedro Portocarrero, captain of a Spanish schooner; one of $7$ siblings.
Alias: “Del Convento de Villanueva de la Serena.”
Joined first batch of Franciscan missionaries.
Arrival in the Philippines: July $2, 1578$ via Cavite port (just south of Manila).

Social Stratification (Tagalog)

Datu – chieftain / war captain; ultimate civil & military authority; highly revered.
Maharlika (Nobles / Naturales / Timawa)
- Free-born; exempt from tribute/taxes.
Aliping Namamahay (Commoners)
- Live in own houses; control personal property & gold; render agricultural/labor services when summoned.
Aliping Saguiguilid (Household Slaves)
- Reside in master’s house; till the master’s fields; may be sold.

Political Unit & Governance

Barangay
- Smallest political unit; $30\text{–}100$ families incl. relatives/friends.
- Governed by a Datu; functions: law-making, adjudication, defense.
Administration of Justice
- Datu implemented laws, maintained order, protected subjects.
- Offenses often settled via fines, slavery, or ordeals supervised by spiritual specialists.

Economic Life

Primary activities: farming, hunting, fishing.
Supplemental trades: gold panning, inter-island barter.

Housing

Pre-colonial houses: raised on stilts, bamboo/wood, thatched roofs → protection from floods & pests.

Dress & Personal Adornment

Men
- Headgear: putong/turbans (color signifying rank/valor).
- Upper garment: kangan (collarless jacket) or open vest.
- Lower garment: bahag (loincloth) or cotton trousers for nobles.
Women
- Baro/Camisa (blouse) + Saya (wrap skirt).
Ornaments
- Gold pendants, beads, ear-disks, armlets (kalumbiga) – markers of wealth & status.

Language & Writing System

Major languages: Tagalog, Ilocano, Pangasinan, Kapampangan, Sugbuhanon (Cebuano), Hiligaynon, Magindanaw, Samarnon – Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) roots.
Baybayin script
- Alphabet: $3$ vowels, $14$ base consonants (each with default “-a” sound; diacritics modify to “-i/-e” or “-o/-u”).
- Writing materials: sap (ink) + pointed sticks; media = palm/banana leaves, tree bark, bamboo tubes.

Literature

Oral Genres: maxims (sabi), riddles (bugtong), boat songs (talindaw), victory songs (tagumpay), lullabies (uyayi), wedding songs (ihiman), war songs (kumintang).
Written Epics/Stories: Biag ni Lam-Ang (Ilocano), Indarapatra at Sulayman (Islamic-Maranao origin), Bidasari (Malay-influenced narrative).

Inheritance & Succession

Chieftainship: Primogeniture – eldest son; if deceased, second son; lacking males, eldest daughter.

Slavery

Routes into Slavery
- Captivity in war, debt default, inheritance, purchase, criminal conviction.
Paths to Emancipation
- Master’s forgiveness, debt repayment, condonation, display of bravery/meritorious service.

Marriage Customs

General rule: monogamy for commoners; polygyny allowed for high-rank men (political alliances).
Courtship begins with paninilbihan – groom renders household service to bride’s family.
Required Pre-marital Payments (dowry):
1. Bigay-kaya – core dowry; land, gold, or other major asset.
2. Panghihimuyat – compensation to bride’s parents for rearing her since infancy.
3. Bigay-suso – gift to wet nurse.
Grounds for Divorce: adultery, husband’s abandonment, cruelty, insanity.

Religious Structures & Worship Practices

Simbahan – communal worship house/temple.
Pandot (worship ceremony) often under Sibi (awning) for rain protection.
Naga-anitos – gatherings honoring anito (spirits/ancestors).

Pantheon of Deities

Bathala – supreme creator.
Idiyanale – agriculture.
Sidapa/Sidarapa – death.
Agni – fire.
Balangaw – rainbow.
Mandarangan – war.
Lalahon – harvest.
Siginarugan – underworld/hell.
Sacred/astral objects & beings: Sun, Moon, Stars, Pleiades ("Seven Little Goats"), Mapolon (constellation), Balatic (possibly Orion), Lic-ha, Dian Masalanta (love/fertility), Crocodile (Buaya), lightning (Bait).
Religion categorized by scholars as paganism/anitism – nature & spirit worship.

Superstitions & Magical Practices

Malevolent creatures: Aswang, Dwendé, Kapre, Tikbalang, Patianak/Tiyanak.
Amulets & charms: anting-anting, kulam (witchcraft), gayuma (love potion).

Sacrificial Rituals

Communal feast; food/offering presented before idol; purpose ranges from thanksgiving, healing, victory, to placating spirits.

Spiritual Specialists / “Distinctions among the Devils” (Plasencia’s Classification)

Catolonan / Babaylan – chief priest/priestess; healing, ritual, community leadership; usually of noble lineage.
Mangagauay – witches causing/curing illness via charms.
Manyisalat – similar to mangagauay; specialized in love-potions causing marital discord.
Mancocolam – emitted mystical fire at night (pyrokinesis).
Hocloban – more powerful witch; kill/heal by gesture alone.
Silagan – liver-eating spirit attacking people in white garments (noted in Catanduanes).
Magtatangal – self-decapitating being showing body without head/viscera at night.
Osuang – flying sorcerer/cannibal (Visayas); no Tagalog counterpart.
Mangagayoma – makers of love charms from herbs, stones, wood.
Sonat – death-bed “preacher”; guided dying person’s soul, foretold salvation/doom.
Pangatahojan – soothsayer/augur; foretold future; widespread.
Bayoguin – effeminate male priest ("cotquean"); gender-variant ritual role.

Mourning & Burial Practices

Deceased placed in carved wooden coffin, buried under the house with cloth, gold, personal valuables → belief in continuity of status in afterlife.
Fires lit beneath dwelling; armed sentinels guard against sorcerers/body-snatchers.
Professional mourners hired to amplify grief; wailing, dirges, lamentations.
Variants: tree burials, secondary jar burials (noted elsewhere in archipelago).

Significance to Philippine History & Historiography

Provides firsthand $16^{th}$ -century ethnographic snapshot of Tagalog socio-political structures before heavy Hispanic reshaping.
Highlights indigenous governance (barangay), customary law, and rich spiritual worldview, enabling comparative studies with Visayan/Mindanao cultures and later colonial transformations.
Source helps deconstruct “savage pagan” stereotypes by revealing organized social classes, codified dowry/divorce, literacy (Baybayin), and sophisticated ritual specialists.
Informs debates on continuity vs. rupture: which customs survived Spanish proselytization, which syncretized (e.g., Babaylan → folk-Catholic healers).
Ethical reflection: underscores need to respect pre-colonial belief systems instead of viewing them solely through colonial moral lens (e.g., labeling Babaylan roles as “devil worship”).

Numerical / Statistical Highlights

Barangay size: $(30\text{–}100)$ families.
Baybayin characters: $3$ vowels + $14$ base consonants.
Arrival date: $02 \text{ July } 1578$ .
Author’s century: $16^{th}$ .

Practical / Modern Relevance

Terms like datu, barangay, babaylan remain in contemporary Filipino vocabulary, illustrating cultural persistence.
Understanding dowry systems & inheritance clarifies modern property traditions (e.g., bigay-kaya proto-concept for ari-arian transfer).
Folk beliefs (aswang, anting-anting) continue to influence Philippine literature, film, and public consciousness.
Recognition of pre-colonial writing counters myth that Spaniards “taught Filipinos to write,” supporting cultural pride and advocacy for Baybayin revival.