Mindanaotoday.com | Incivility, historical nuances, and indigenous history
By: RAI Bollozos Sanchez
WE praise and take pride in the indigenous art of tattooing Apo Whang-od.
Yet, we do not teach our students the History of the intricacy of “batuk” or “patik” because we deem teaching having a tattoo during the pre-colonial period was a status of barbarity. Isn’t it hypocrisy?
I have been teaching Philippine History to college students for quite a while now.
However, familiar to them is the understanding of the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in the Visayas Islands from March to May 1521 only describes the introduction of Christianity and the infamous Battle in which he died.
However, there is the beauty behind the grand historical narrative, the “Indigenous History” of our early Filipino ancestors.
Since time immemorial, the basic historical teaching of History has been confined to Christianity’s grand historical narrative and Magellan’s death.
Nevertheless, the shared and common idea of incivility circumvents the notion. Common in the classrooms, our pre-colonial Filipino ancestors, were uncivilized and barbaric.
For me, how Philippine History is taught, in many instances, is typically Eurocentric. I will define its basic description.
EUROCENTRISM – is a tendency to interpret the world in terms of European or Anglo-American values and experiences (Merriam-Webster, n.d.).
Our students and teachers share this cultural perspective in understanding our pre-colonial History.
Through the years, teaching Filipino pre-colonial history has been Eurocentric and has not positively changed since.
The teaching of Magellan’s expedition in the Visayas islands has been the “coming of Christianity, while how the latter saved the pre-colonial Filipinos from Barbarity” is textbook and, in a sense, Eurocentric.
Though it won’t negate the importance of Magellan’s arrival in the Visayas islands, the celebration of the First Easter Mass and the conversion of Humabon to Christianity in 1521 have historical importance.
In much sense, Christianity never flourished at this time in our History as Magellan failed the expedition.
He died in the Battle of Mactan (April 27, 1521), and many of the remaining crew of the expedition were poisoned and killed during the Massacre in Cebu on May 1, 1521.
However, the importance of the Magellan expedition gave us an intricate description of our pre-colonial ancestors.
Their indigenous faith and belief, social-political structures, language, and the beauty of the Visayan social culture were all documented and written by Antonio Pigafetta.
Magellan’s missionary chronicler documented in writing these beautiful practices of the indigenous Visayans.
Though the perspective is Eurocentric, Antonio Pigafetta wrote a primal source that could best vividly describe our INDIGENOUS HISTORY.
This is essential because primary sources in Philippine History before and during Spanish colonization were written by foreign outsiders, like the Chinese, in their maps, annals, and Spanish ethnographic publications.
While the Indigenous Filipinos then translated their History orally.
The Spanish missionaries, for example, extensively wrote about what they observed during their stay in indigenous villages, especially during the early stages of their colonization of the Philippines.
History teachers, there is beauty behind the grand historical narrative if you read and understand that early Spanish colonial documents can be a repository of our INDIGENOUS HISTORY.
Suppose you avoid the general historical description and learn to read among the nuances.
In that case, there is the beauty behind Western colonial historiography, and these are, again, INDIGENOUS FILIPINO HISTORY!
However, if you as a Filipino teacher will never take toil and pride in reading the beautiful historical nuances from these Spanish colonial documents, and will remain to the grand narrative.
Our student’s historical perspective will remain Eurocentric. Therefore, they will become UNFILIPINO.
Always remember, there is the essence in historical teaching, especially the nuances and the extensive understanding of primary sources in Philippine History; therefore, it is essential to all FILIPINOS. (MT)
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