Read Ebook: The Manóbos of Mindanáo Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences Volume XXIII First Memoir by Garvan John M

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A division of a race composed of an aggregate of individuals of a kind and of a common origin, agreeing among themselves in, and distinguished from their congeners by physical characteristics, dress, and ornaments; the nature of the communities which they form; peculiarities of house architecture; methods of hunting, fishing, and carrying on agriculture; character and importance of manufacture; practices relative to war and the taking of heads of enemies; arms used in warfare; music and dancing, and marriage and burial customs; but not constituting a political unit subject to the control of any single individual nor necessarily speaking the same dialect.

Philip. Journ. Sci., 1: 803, 1906.

PRESENT USE OF THE WORD "MAN?BO"

Tuna Bay is on the southern coast of Mindan?o, about halfway between Sarangani Bay and Parang Bay.

THE DERIVATION AND ORIGINAL APPLICATION OF THE WORD "MAN?BO"

Blair and Robertson, 41: 153, 1906.

The author refers to the mountains in the vicinity of L?ano, a town that stood down the river from the present Veru?la and which was abandoned when the region subsided.

Fr. Jacinto Juanmarti's Diccionario Moro Magindan?o-Espa?ol , 125.

My authority for this derivation is a work by Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera on The Origin of Philippine Tribal Names.

Origin of Malayan Filipinos, a paper read before the Philippine Academy, Manila, Nov. 1, 1911.

Father F. Combes, S. J., says that the owners, that is, the autochthonic natives of Mindan?o, were called Man?bos and Manan?pes. In a footnote referring to Manan?pes, it is stated, and appears very reasonable and probable, that the above-mentioned term is not a tribal designation but merely an appellation of contempt used on account of the low culture possessed by the autochthons at that time.

Historia de Mindan?o y Jolo . Ed. Retana .

The following extract from Dr. N. M. Saleeby bears out the above opinion:

The Origin of the Malayan Filipinos, a paper read before the Philippine Academy on Nov. 1, 1911.

These aborigines are often referred to in S?lu and Mindan?o as Manubus, the original inhabitants of S?lu Islands, the Budanuns, were called Manubus also. So were the forefathers of the Magindan?o Moros. The most aboriginal hill tribes of Mindan?o, who number about 60,000 souls or more, are called Manubus.

The idea that the original owners were called Man?bos is the opinion of San Antonio also, as expressed in his Cronicas. Such a supposition might serve also to explain the wide distribution of the different Man?bo people in Mindan?o, for, besides occupying the regions above-mentioned, they are found on the main tributaries of the Rio Grande de Kotab?to--the Bata?gan, the Bikt?sa, the Luan, the Narkanitan, etc., and especially on the River Pula?gi--on nearly all the influents of the last-named stream, and on the Hi?goog River in the Province of Misamis. As we shall see later on, even in the Ag?san Valley, the Man?bos were gradually split on the west side of the river by the ingress, as of some huge wedge, of the Banu?ons. Crossing the eastern Cordillera, a tremendous mass of towering pinnacles--the home of the Mam?nuas--we find Man?bos occupying the upper reaches of the Rivers Hubo, Marih?tag, Kagw?it, T?go, T?ndag, and Kant?lan, on the Pacific coast. I questioned the Man?bos of the rivers T?go and Hubo as to their genealogy and former habitat and found that their parents, and even some of themselves, had lived on the river Kasila?an, but that, owing to the hostility of the Banu?ons, they had fled to the river W?-Wa. At the time of the coming of the Catholic missionaries in 1875, these Man?bos made their way across the lofty eastern Cordillera in an attempt to escape from the missionary activities. These two migrations are a forcible example of what may have taken place in the rest of Mindan?o to bring about such a wide distribution of what was, perhaps, originally one people. Each migration led to the formation of a new group from which, as from a new nucleus, a new tribe may have developed in the course of time.

Blair and Robertson, 40: 315, 1906.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE MAN?BOS IN EASTERN MINDAN?O IN THE AG?SAN VALLEY

See tribal map.

The reason for the insertion of this last clause is that the people inhabiting the mountains at the headwaters of the above rivers have the same physical types, dress, and weapons as the Buk?dnons, if I may judge from my slight acquaintance with the latter.

ON THE EASTERN SIDE OF THE PACIFIC CORDILLERA

In this region I include the upper waters of the Lia?ga, Hubo, Oteiza, Marih?tag, Kagw?it, T?go, T?ndag, and Kant?lan Rivers.

ON THE PENINSULA OF SAN AGUSTIN

As to the Man?bos of Libag?non, it is probable that they have more or less the same cultural and linguistic characteristics as the Man?bos that form the subject matter of this paper, but, as I did not visit them nor get satisfactory information regarding them, I prefer to leave them untouched until further investigation.

Of the Man?bos of the lower half of the peninsula of San Agustin, I know absolutely nothing except that they are known as Man?bos. I noted, however, in perusing the Jesuit letters that there were in the year 1891 not only Man?bos but Moros, Bil?ns, and Tagaka?los in that region.

THE MAM?NUAS, OR NEGRITOS, AND NEGRITO-MAN?BO HALF-BREEDS

The Mam?nuas, or Negritos, and Negrito-Man?bo half-breeds of Mindan?o occupy the mountains from Anao-aon near Surigao down to the break in the eastern Cordillera, northwest of Lia?ga. They also inhabit a small range that extends in a northeasterly direction from the Cordillera to Point Kawit on the east coast.

The second report as to the existence of Negritos I heard on the Bagl?san River, a tributary of the S?lug River. The chiefs whom I questioned had never visited the Negritos but had purchased from the Tugawanons many Negrito slaves whom they had sold to the Mand?yas of the Kati'il and Kar?ga Rivers. This statement was probably true, for I saw one slave, a full-blooded Negrito girl, on the upper Kar?ga during my last trip and received from her my third and most convincing report of the existence of Negritos other than the Mam?nuas of the eastern Cordillera. She had been captured, she said, by the Man?bos of Libag?non and sold to the Debab?ons . She could not describe the place where her people live, but she gave me the following information about them. They are all like herself, and they have no houses nor crops, because they are afraid of the Man?bos that surround them. Their food is the core of the green rattan and of fishtail palm, the flesh of wild boar, deer, and python, and such fish and grubs, etc., as they find in their wanderings. They sleep anywhere; sometimes even in trees, if they have seen strange footprints.

The Tugawanons were described by my S?lug authorities as a people that lived at the headwaters of the River Libag?non on a tributary called Tugawan. They were described as a people of medium stature, as fair as the Mans?kas, very warlike, enemies of the reported Negritos, very numerous, and speaking an At?s dialect. Perhaps the term Tugawanon is only a local name for a branch of the At?s tribe.

Their weapons are bows and arrows, lances, daggers, and bolos. According to her description, the bolos are long and thin, straight on one side and curved on the other. The men purchase them from the At?s in exchange for beeswax. The people are numerous, but they live far apart, roaming through the forests and mountains, and meeting one another only occasionally.

The statements of this slave girl correspond in every particular with the report that I received on the upper S?lug, except that the S?lug people called these Negritos Tugmaya and said that they live beyond a mountain that is at the headwaters of the Libag?non River.

Putting together these three reports and assuming the truth of them, the habitat of these Negritos must be the slopes of Mount Panombaian, which is situated between, and is probably the source of, the Rivers Tigwa , S?bud , and Libag?non .

Une Mission aux Philippines, 346, 1887.

Called also It?s.

THE BANU?ONS

The Banu?ons, probably an extension of the Buk?dnons of the Buk?dnon subprovince. They occupy the upper parts of the Rivers Lami?ga, Kandiisan, Hawilian, and ?hut, and the whole of the River Ma?sam, together with the mountainous region beyond the headwaters of these rivers, and probably extend over to the Buk?dnons.

Also called Higaunon or Higagaun, probably "the Hadgaguanes--a people untamed and ferocious"--to whom the Jesuits preached shortly after the year 1596. These may be the people whom Pigaffetta, in his First Voyage Around the World calls Benaian and whom he describes as "shaggy and living at a cape near a river in the islands of Butu?n and Kar?ga--great fighters and archers--eating only raw human hearts with the juice of oranges or lemons" .

THE MA?GGU??GANS

This tribe occupies the towns of Tagusab and Pilar on the upper Ag?san, the range between the S?lug and the Ag?san, the headwaters of the M?nat River, and the water-shed between the M?nat and the Mawab. The physical type of many of them bespeaks an admixture of Negrito blood, and their timidity and, on occasions, their utter lack of good judgment, brand them as the lowest people, after the Mam?nuas, in eastern Mindan?o. One authority, a Jesuit missionary, I think, estimated their number at 30,000. An estimate, based on the reports of the people of Compostela, places their number at 10,000 just before my departure from the Ag?san Valley in 1910. The decrease, if the two estimates are correct, is probably due to intertribal and interclan wars.

THE MANS?KAS

THE DEBAB?ONS

The Debab?ons are probably a hybrid group forming a dialect group with the Man?bos of the Ihaw?n and Ba?bo, and a culture group in dress and other features with the Mand?yas. They claim relationship with Man?bos, and follow Man?bo religious beliefs and practices to a great extent. For this reason I have retained the name that they apply to themselves, until their tribal identity can be clearly determined. They inhabit the upper half of the S?lug River Valley and the country that lies to the west of it as far as the Ba?bo River.

THE MAND?YAS

These form the greatest and best tribe in eastern Mindan?o. One who visits the Mand?yas of the middle Kati'il can not fail to be struck with the fairness of complexion, the brownness of the hair, the diminutiveness of the hands and feet, and the large eyes with long lashes that are characteristic of many of these people. Here and there, too, one finds a distinctly Caucasian type. In psychological characteristics they stand out still more sharply from any tribe or group of people that I know in eastern Mindan?o. Shrewd and diplomatic on the one hand, they are an affectionate, good-natured and straight-forward people, with little of the timidity and cautiousness of the Man?bo. Their religious instincts are so highly developed that they are inclined to be fanatical at times.

Zu?iga in Estadismo notes the fairness of complexion of the Taga-balo?yes, a tribe living in the mountains of Balooy in Kar?ga.

Father Manual Buzeta in Diccionario geogr?fico-estad?stico-hist?rico de las Islas Filipinas makes the same observation, but M. Felix Renouard de Sainte Croix in Voyage commercial et politique aux Indes Orientales goes further still by drawing attention to these people as meriting distinction for superior mentality.

The Jesuit missionary Pastells in 1883 writes that the people above Manresa are perhaps of Moro origin but bettered by a strain of noble blood, which their very appearance seems to him to indicate. In support of this view he cites the authority of Santayana, who claims Japanese descent for them and repudiates the opinion of those who attribute Hollandish descent. In a footnote, the above celebrated missionary and scholar adds that the town of Kinablangan owes its origin to a party of Europeans who were shipwrecked on Point Bagoso and took up their abode in that place, intermarrying with the natives. I was informed by a Bis?ya trader, the only one that ever went among the mountain Mand?yas, that he had seen a circular, clocklike article with strange letters upon it in a settlement on the middle Kati'il. The following year I made every effort to see it, but I could not prevail upon the possessors to show it to me. They asserted that they had lost it. It is probable that this object was a ship's compass.

On the whole, the impression made upon me in my long and intimate dealings with the Mand?yas of the Kati'il, Manorigao, and Kar?ga Rivers is that they are a brave, intelligent, clean, frank people that with proper handling might be brought to a high state of civilization. They are looked up to by Man?bos, Ma?ggu??gans, Mans?kas, and Debab?ons as being a superior and more ancient race, and considered by the Bis?yas of the Ag?san Valley as a people of much more intelligence and fair-dealing than any other tribe. The Mand?yas consist of four branches:

THE T?GUM BRANCH

These occupy the country from near the mouth of the T?gum to the confluence of the S?lug and Libag?non Rivers, or perhaps a little farther up both of the last-mentioned rivers. It is probable that the Debab?ons farther up are the issue of Man?bos and T?gum Mand?yas.

THE AG?SAN VALLEY BRANCH

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