El matrimonio

Quivido T. Oregines and Edvilla R. Talaroc

INTRODUCTION

The Mamanua are a little-known ethnic group in the Philippines, but significant from the perspective of their cultural historical background as well as their current struggle for cultural survival. This present paper is an offshoot of an ongoing larger ethnological study conducted jointly by the Institute for Ethnology of the University of Freiburg, Germany, and the Research Institute for Mindanao Culture of Xavier University, Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines.

Our present paper aims to show the interconnectedness and consequences of the various factors that brought about changes in the Mamanua cultural and physical environment as well as their adaptive responses to these modifications.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS AND DEMOGRAPHY OF THE MAMANUA

Generally classified as the first inhabitants in this area, the Mamanua distinguish themselves from their neighbors through their physical appearance, language and culture.

The Mamanua are living in the Caraga Region in the Northeastern part of Mindanao around Lake Mainit. The region comprises the four provinces of Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur, with the urban centers of Butuan and Surigao. This area covers vast agricultural lands in the lowlands and mountainous areas, which are still extensively covered by forest and are richly endowed with mineral resources.

The Mamanua utilize various resources from the different environments, by foraging and farming, simultaneously or successively. They show certain socioeconomic behaviors characteristic of hunting gathering bands, such as high spatial mobility in their search for available resources.

Traditionally for the Mamanua, Lake Mainit and the adjacent mountain areas have always been the center of their homeland. From this point, the settlement dispersion of the Mamanua extends to the South in the Cordillera of the Diwata Mountains and to the Northeast in some parts to the coast. The forest remains up to the present a main source for the Mamanua livelihood, for foraging and upland farming, in the same way that the lake offers a rich fishing ground. The Mamanua also show a strong orientation to the rivers, noticeable in their selection of settlement locations, their means of livelihood, and their oral tradition.

The once highly mobile people have now become sedentary and only a few of them are still constantly moving within relatively short distances away from their previous settlements. The present Mamanua settlements are now located either at the town centers or along the towns’ fringes. Now most of the houses are patterned after those of their Visayan neighbors. In some places, they keep their traditional circular settlement structure with a vacant space in the middle for social and ceremonial functions.

Out a total of 113 identified settlements recorded by the research team, ninety are with population data altogether having a total of around ten thousand persons. This number comprises more than two thousand households.

CULTURE CONTACT AND EFFECTS

Indigenous neighbors: Manobo and Surigaonon The Manobo

While the Lake Mainit originally was purely a Mamanua domain, the mountainous hinterlands were shared with the Agusan Manobo, especially in the area of Mt. Mabaho, referred to by the Mamanua as Mt. Panlabaw.

The Agusanon Manobo are the closest neighbors of the Mamanua. These groups have a historically ambivalent relationship. The Mamanua and the Manobo shared overlapping territories, although maintaining a certain spatial distance from each other in the settlements. In the past, animosity and constant feuding characterized the relationship of the Mamanua with their Manobo neighbors. Despite their many hostile confrontations, however, both groups had formed alliances against the Moro raiders between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Alliances were also built through intermarriage that produced offspring called

kolibug: the term the Mamanua use to refer to a child of mixed Mamanua-Manobo parentage.

Especially among the kolibug, bilingualism in both the Mamanua and Manobo languages is common.

A probable result of this alliance was the role of the Manobo as middlemen in the trading transactions of upland and lowland products. The Mamanua had supplied forest products to traders in exchange for materials coming from the Manobo such as iron tools. Their interactions in various spheres led to some sharing of many cultural traits. For example, a Mamanua head of the band now usually assume the role and title of a datu (chief); thus adopting the institution from the more structured Manobo sociopolitical system.

Today, it is common to find the Mamanua and the Manobo living together in the settlements and having joint economic, social, educational and political activities. Thus, the once ambivalent relationship has in the recent years evolved into one that exhibits commonality, solidarity and unity in many domains of life.

Particularly in relation to the other ethnolinguistic groups, a common sense of belonging now exists between the Mamanua and the Manobo, who classify themselves under the tribu category. From the outsiders’ perspective, such as that of the government or the Christian churches, they are often considered as one group. This feeling of oneness has been reinforced by their recent combined efforts to acquire their ancestral lands as a single group. Thus, through the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA) they were jointly granted the Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claim (CADC). In the Santigao-Jabonga area, for example, they now manage a land area of around 2,000 ha.

The Surigaonon

Culture contact between the Mamanua and the coastal and lowland population in Northeastern Mindanao was already established long before the arrival of the Spaniards.

Around Lake Mainit and in the lowland they shared the habitat with the Surigaonon residents, who were also wet rice cultivators. The Surigaonon consider themselves as the lumad

(natives, indigenous peoples) of Surigao. They are culturally and linguistically related to the people from the Visayas Islands (Scott 1994: p. 161). However, the Mamanua perceive the

Surigaonon as their culturally closest neighbors, next to the Manobo. They also speak the Surigaonon language as their linguafranca in Surigao.

The long relationship of the Mamanua with the Surigaonon could be characterized as stable. Their partnership with them was long established through the exchange of both lowland and upland products and their recognition of each other’s resource base and property concepts. Thus, while the Mamanua continue to live a highly mobile lifestyle in accordance with their hunting and gathering means of subsistence, the sedentary Surigaonon gradually established legal ownership of the flatlands primarily through the homestead where they introduced wet-rice cultivation and coconut plantation. This stable relationship has been extended up to the present times through their participation in the lowland market transactions wherein the Mamanua remain to be the dependable suppliers of wood and non-wood forest products. The Mamanua are also often providing labor for farming and household chores of the Surigaonon.

Their economic relationship brought concomitant social relations such as patronage. Many Surigaonon function as baptismal sponsors of the Mamanua as well as the latter’s source of assistance for different emergency situations. The few cases of intermarriage generally involved Mamanua women and Surigaonon men.

Chinese traders and early nineteenth century missionaries

Although little is known about the Mamanua, the outside influences of Northeastern Mindanao in history are relatively well documented in old records, providing some useful information about this ethnic group.

Chinese sources from the eleventh century confirm intensive trade activities with Butuan. Boats, the so-called balanghais dated from fourth (320 AD) to the thirteenth century (1250 AD), affirm the importance of Butuan as trading place. The Mamanua may have already delivered some of the forest products that were among the exported commodities demanded by the Chinese market.

Sources from the Spanish period report about the Mamanua fleeing to the mountains for refuge because of Moro raids in Northeastern Mindanao from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. The missionaries in the nineteenth century not only baptized the Mamanua but also (re-)settled them along the lake.

Migrants and settlers

From the 1900s onwards, the Mamanua were slowly pushed back to the mountains due to the influx of Visayan migrants who gradually occupied (either through legitimate or deceitful means) the lowlands along the shore. They continuously arrived in Northeastern Mindanao from the Visayas Islands in small numbers and settled in the Mamanua area. The Mamanua generally classify them under the generic Visayan category although they are aware of the different cultural practices of these diverse ethnolinguistic groups.

Towards the middle and the second half of the twentieth century, due to population pressure, a larger number of Visayan migrants in search of job opportunities or fertile lands came to settle in Northeastern Mindanao. In the beginning, the Mamanua accommodated the Visayan migrants by moving further to the hinterlands and by providing labor in clearing the forested areas. Through friendly persuasion or outright deception, some Visayan gradually acquired ownership of the lands of the Mamanua, thus eventually earning the label of land grabbers. Upon the arrival of the Visayan migrants, the Mamanua men have become constant

source of help for the Visayans. If in the past the Mamanua were hired as assistants only to the Visayan carpenters, now they have become skilled enough to do basic construction activities on their own.

In contrast to the Visayan migrants who came with no or few relatives and therefore had to earn their living mainly for themselves, the Mamanua are guided by the principle of sharing in accordance with their collectivistic orientation. In addition, unlike the Visayans who generally make long-term plans in relation to their complex technology, the Mamanua prefer immediacy in the satisfaction of their basic needs.

OTHER CHANGE FACTORS

Mining and logging

Mines (which started operation in the 1930s) and logging concessions (in the 1940s) also caused further displacement. Many of these companies are now gone but the havoc on the physical environment and on the lives of the Mamanua remained. Moreover, the destruction caused by logging concessionaires resulted in soil erosion and deprived the people of their livelihood. The logged-over areas attracted the land-seeking lowland farmers who eventually pushed the Mamanua away from their ancestral lands.

Despite the denudation of the forest, the Mamanua continue to hunt using traditional hunting instruments and sell the game to their Visayan neighbors. In the middle of the twentieth century, Visayan furniture makers started purchasing rattan poles from the Mamanua. However, Visayan businessmen almost always take advantage of the Mamanua by giving low prices or partial payments in cash or in kind. Today, foreign companies have their buying stations and furniture factories in the Mamanua area. However, rattan has become scarce.

Government and non-government programs and services

Along with the resettlement program of the Philippine government, such as the homestead program that brought landless people to selected areas in Mindanao, individual families also came on their own to settle in Mindanao. Their intrusion brought about tremendous change in many aspects of the Mamanua way of life.

In the sociopolitical sphere, persons representing the local and national governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or the local Christian churches encouraged the Mamanua to become sedentary by highlighting the benefits of education, hygiene and sanitation. The Mamanua are now involved in governance at the barangay level. A few individuals now occupy important positions in the local council or as tribal representative in the local, regional and national levels. Similarly, few Mamanua individuals function as local church leaders particularly among the Pentecostal and Baptist churches and thus exercise some degree of influence among their constituents.

Republic Act 8371 created the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) to administer the affairs of indigenous peoples. In our research area, several NCIP service centers have direct contact and are accessible to the Mamanua and Manobo. This agency provides livelihood programs, occasional medical and legal services, conducts weddings and trainings, recognizes local leaders, facilitates community organizing and conflict resolution,

and stimulates involvement in cultural presentations during big events such as town or city fiestas. The NCIP also assists the tribes in applying for the CADC.

War and insurgency

During the World War II, the Mamanua fled to the mountains to escape from the Japanese invaders. When the war was over, however, many Visayan had claimed the deserted lowland previously occupied by the Mamanua.

In the 1970s during the Martial Law regime, peace and order conditions in the mountains were unstable. Mamanua areas were targets of military bombings and operations, thus driving them out of this region. This situation also resulted in massive evacuation of mountain dwellers to the settlements within the sight of the military and with the military’s advice not to return to the danger zones. As a result many Mamanua came down to the lowlands also motivated by the depletion of the forest resources and the desire to educate their children.

Up to the present, the Mamanua area in the mountains of the Caraga Region is widely known as rebel grounds. For some of them, this means being actively involved in the insurgents’ activities or operations. However, a handful of Mamanua had also joined the military, particularly the Civilian Armed Forces Government Unit (CAFGU).

The problem of insurgency contributed to the displacement of the Mamanua. Their new settlements are generally located far from the main sources of livelihood. Thus, some people resort to non-traditional means of securing a living such as through begging in the urban centers.

CONCLUSION

Contacts with several groups and the technology these groups brought with them contributed to the alterations of the Mamanua physical environment and way of life. The influx of Visayan settlers and the establishment of infrastructure by the government and private entities in the lowland triggered a rapid modernization process. The changing economic patterns of the Mamanua draw them even much closer to their non-Mamanua neighbors: working as partners with Manobo in managing their ancestral domain, as farm and household laborers for the Surigaonon, and also as hired farm, domestic, mining and logging workers for the Visayan.

Through the years, continuous interactions with these neighbors not only caused significant changes in the Mamanua environment but also had impact on the Mamanua evolving perception of their own identity and sense of group consciousness. Today, the Mamanua are rapidly being incorporated into mainstream Visayan culture, but still retain some indigenous traits. Now sedentary, they creatively interact with their non-Mamanua neighbors, adapting strategies by cementing economic, social and political relationships and utilizing their network of individuals and their linkages to various institutions and stakeholders. They have no choice but to participate in the cash economy: they are involved in the market as suppliers of non-timber forest products to entrepreneurs.

With growing sense of pride of their Mamanua identity and empowered by higher education, some individuals gradually stand out now as articulate representatives of their ethnic group. These individuals stand to assert and exercise their rights to self-determination, ancestral domains, and government services. The Mamanua meet with great flexibility the

challenges of their constantly transforming cultural and natural terrain, demonstrating their survival ability.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

SACRED RESOURCES, SACRED FOREST: THEIR RELEVANCE FOR NATURAL