(This took a while to upload am quite sorry, But this presentation was made a year ago.)
Gender equality
Before Colonialism in the Philippines, there was equality in female and male relationships when it came to marriage where a woman could keep all her assets before and after the divorce both spectrums were considered equal in status.
Men and women also share the same jobs regarded as feminine and masculine in modern times, like basket weaving, farming, and raising children.
Gender and celebration
In the Pre-Colonial Philippines Queer people were Celebrated and Hailed as special and a blessing by the Gods in Kapampangan Culture.
Certain terms like Binabae (Tagalog/Filipino) or Binabayin (Kapangpangan) Meaning men acting, dressing, and dancing like a woman are now used as slander or derogatory terms in modern times.
But this was seen by My ancestors as a Blessing and not as a Sumpa/Curse and this ideology was ingrained in the Culture as a blessing from mother nature, comparing it to Gender bending animals such as Mud Crabs and Fishes, they saw the fluidity of gender as a natural thing in nature. And seeing the gender fluidity in Mother Nature they saw it as Normal and were Treasured in the Community.
Babaylan
A Babaylan is a collective term for Female Shamans they have spiritual connections to Diwata’s (gods) and spirits often exorcising evil ghosts and spirits. They are second to the hierarchy after the Royalty. Exorcising evil spirits is a part of their job performing healing rituals, helping with Births, making medicine and fighting is a part of their job, therefore making them well respected in the community.
But male Babaylan do exist, they act like Female Babaylan, Dancing Performing rituals helping with the births, making medicine, exorcising evil ghosts, and having the normal responsibilities of a female Babaylan. Male Babaylan Married Women and Men and had intercouse with them functioning like a proper relationship.
It even said in Spanish records that you won't know if a Babaylan is male unless you are told, based on the way they act and speak. They are amazing examples of Transgender people in Filipino history, Proving that they have existed before the modern/current era.
Gods
Gender when it comes to gods is fluid and changes over time. This is considered as a natural course of events in a god's existence, some being seen as a woman in a certain village and some being seen as a man in others, But the main deity that most people call in the country to this day is the creator of the heavens and earth “Bathala” a genderless god being not a father and not a mother but a provider to their subjects an Agender god.
Clearing up the modern comparison of “Bathala” they are often regarded as a father in the modern era because of Catholicism, or being called Jesus by most Filipinos, but “Bathala” and Jesus are not the same God.
Filipino cultures like the Kapangpangan see that Gender Fluidity in the gods changes based on time or is considered androgynous or Non-binary.
One of those gods is “Lakapati” the god of good harvest and fertility they are regarded as androgynous, intersex, or a transgender god. According to myths and legends, they are one of the kindest deities. People offer sacrifices to them before they plant a new field.
Pronouns in the language
In European countries like the Philippines Colonizer separation between genders is heavily enforced, but before they colonized the Philippines Gender was seen as a means of meaning and like finding your true self, It was held in high regard.
If you look at a Spanish dictionary there are words for inanimate objects stating their Gender, like Casito and Casita these words mean the same thing, A house. But in Tagalog/Filipino most words that are not influenced by the Spaniards are gender neutral especially pronouns.
I could refer to a person and not worry if I am missgender-ing them. Some of these pronouns are for example:
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Was lucky to grab the last copy of Where the Leaves Fall issue 16 in this shop in the UK. On the cover is Nahia Lloren in a gorgeous pink baru or blouse, photographed by one of my favorite Philippine biodiversity advocates Celine Murillo. She also wrote the article for the magazine.
Nahia is part of Cebu-based Karakoa Productions, a team of pre-colonial/Philippine heritage advocates who conduct workshops online and offline.
My favorite line in Celine's article is:
"Adorned with the Earth's bounties were our bodies: gold for our limbs, crushed pearls for our skin, vines and root crops for our teeth, the flower essence of Styrax for fragrance, and silk and cotton for our garbs..."
In honor of Filipino heritage month, I aim to learn more about the culture where my mom's (and dad's dad) family grew up in.
My mom is from the Philippines and grew up there, and my dad's dad grew up there. My dad has visited twice, and I have never been.
I have family that live there and family FROM there, yet I never engaged with the culture all too much because this is sadly America, lol.
Day 2: Pre-colonial Filipina
I want to make this EXTREMELY clear!! If this in any way offends any one, I WILL take it down and apologize for my actions right away if anyone feels that this is offensive in ANY way. PLEASE feel free to give me corrections!
Pre-colonial Philippines was home to many native people and native customs. Women are seen as equal to men and have equal saying in things like marriage, divorce, ownership of land, judicial punishment, and trade. Different regions had different customs and everyone looked different- yet beautiful. Women often wear gold earrings, gold necklaces, gold bracelets, and gold-woven fabrics; gold is seen as a protective device against unwanted or evil spirits from entering the body. Heirlooms of pure gold would be passed down from generation to generation because it is extremely important. Women also have many tattoos upon their body, each telling a story and their history. Their long hair also serves as a way of telling their history and their ancestor's history.
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very stoked to share this piece that I worked on for The Islands of #SinaUna ✨🌿
#SinaUna is a wonderful, Filipino-led 5e D&D campaign book based on pre-colonial Philippines! Find more info and pre-order here 👉 https://bit.ly/2AAiRxX
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Cafe Ohlone will reopen at UC Berkeley's Hearst Museum in November.
When Cafe Ohlone shut its doors last summer, its owners promised they would be back before long. Now, a year later, the world's only Ohlone restaurant is gearing up for a triumphant return: Owners Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino announced earlier this month that the restaurant will reopen in Berkeley this November.
The new, larger incarnation of the restaurant will be located in the outdoor courtyard of UC Berkeley’s Hearst Museum of Anthropology. It will continue to serve the pre-colonial dishes the original Cafe Ohlone was known for—the kind you’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere else in the Bay Area, like venison meatballs, chia seed bread and cold, luxuriously silky acorn soup. What will be new, however, is the introduction of dishes that evoke more recent periods in Ohlone history. And, perhaps most significantly, Medina and Trevino hope the courtyard restaurant will usher in a new era of cooperation with an institution that has, historically, inflicted great pain on the Ohlone people—including thousands of ancestral remains and sacred objects that the Hearst Museum has not yet returned to the Ohlone people.
“We have a very complex and not necessarily positive history, up until recently, with the Hearst,” Medina says. “They want to do the right thing, but they need to know how to do the right thing.”
Aesthetic dentistry was a common practice in pre-colonial Philippines. Records state that some Filipinos described undecorated teeth as chewed coconut meat. Common practices included:
1. Sangka: filing the teeth
There were different filing traditions. E.g. filing the front teeth down to make them even, filing teeth in a pointy shape, filing grooves in teeth
2. Colouring the teeth
The teeth were painted black by chewing anipay root and red by using red ant eggs. On top of that, flowers were used to paint both the teeth and fingernails.
3. Preserving teeth with a tar based coating
4. Pusad: gold decorations
This included both simple gold decorations (dots), but also more complex designs
