The Manóbos of Mindanáo | Page 4

on the fraud The sacred
traffic Religious tours The whistling scheme Pretended chastity and
austerity The end of the movement Similar movements in former years
APPENDIX
Historical references to the Manóbos of eastern Mindanao Early history
up to 1875 From 1875 to 1910 Methods adopted by the missionaries in
the Christianization of the Manóbos The secret of missionary success
Explanation of plates


PART I. DESCRIPTIVE

CHAPTER I
CLASSIFICATION AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF
MANÓBOS AND OTHER PEOPLES IN EASTERN MINDANÁO
EXPLANATION OF TERMS
Throughout this monograph I have used the term "eastern Mindanáo"
to include that part of Mindanáo that is east of the central Cordillera as
far south as the headwaters of the River Libagánon, east of the River
Tágum and its influent the Libagánon, and east of the gulf of Davao.
THE TERM "TRIBE"
The word "tribe" is used in the sense in which Dean C. Worcester
defines and uses it in his article on The non-Christian Tribes of
Northern Luzon:[1]
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.
[1] Philip. Journ. Sci., 1: 803, 1906.
PRESENT USE OF THE WORD "MANÓBO"
The word "Manóbo" seems to be a generic name for people of greatly
divergent culture, physical type, and language. Thus it is applied to the
people that dwell in the mountains of the lower half of Point San

Agustin as well as to those people whose habitat is on the southern part
of the Sarangani Peninsula. Those, again, that occupy the hinterland of
Tuna Bay[2] come under the same designation. So it might seem that
the word was originally used to designate the pagan as distinguished
from the Mohammedanized people of Mindanáo, much as the name
Harafóras or Alfúros was applied by the early writers to the pagans to
distinguish them from the Moros.
[2] Tuna Bay is on the southern coast of Mindanáo, about halfway
between Sarangani Bay and Parang Bay.
In the Agúsan Valley the term manóbo is used very frequently by
Christian and by Christianized peoples, and sometimes by pagans
themselves, to denote that the individual in question is still unbaptized,
whether he be tribally a Mandáya, a Mañgguáñgan, or of some other
group. I have been told by Mandáyas on several occasions that they
were still manóbo, that is, still unbaptized.
Then, again, the word is frequently used by those who are really
Manóbos as a term of contempt for their fellow tribesmen who live in
remoter regions and who are not as well off in a worldly or a culture[sic]
way as they are. Thus I have heard Manóbos of the upper Agúsan refer
to their fellow-tribesmen of Libagánon as Manóbos, with evident
contempt in the voice. I asked them what they themselves were, and in
answer was informed that they were Agusánon--that is, upper Agúsan
people--not Manóbos.
THE DERIVATION AND ORIGINAL APPLICATION OF THE
WORD "MANÓBO"
One of the earliest references that I find to the Manóbos of the Agúsan
Valley is in the General History of the Discalced Augustinian Fathers
(1661-1699) by Father Pedro de San Francisco de Assis.[3] The author
says that "the mountains of that territory[4] are inhabited by a nation of
Indians, heathens for the greater part, called Manóbos, a word
signifying in that language, as if we should say here, robust or very
numerous people." I have so far found no word in the Manóbo dialect
that verifies the correctness of the above statement. It may be said,

however, in favor of this derivation that manúsia is the word for "man"
or "mankind" in the Malay, Moro (Magindanáo), and Tirurái languages.
In Bagóbo, a dialect that shows very close resemblance to Manóbo, the
word Manóbo means "man," and in Magindanáo Moro it means
"mountain people,"[5] and is applied by the Moros to all the mountain
people of Mindanáo. It might be maintained, therefore, with some
semblance of reason that the word Manóbo means simply "people."
Some of the early historians use the words Manóbo, Mansúba, Manúbo.
These three forms indicate the derivation to be from a prefix man,
signifying "people" or "dweller," and súba, a river. From the form
Manúbo, however, we might conclude that the word is made up of man
("people"), and húbo ("naked"), therefore meaning the "naked people."
The former