The document outlines the evolution of Philippine anthropology from the 19th century to contemporary practices, highlighting key figures, methodologies, and the discipline's historical context within colonial power dynamics. It discusses the transition from early ethnological studies to modern approaches, including indigenization and public anthropology. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of adapting anthropological perspectives to fit Philippine social conditions and critiques colonial legacies.

1. GANITO ANG
ANTROPOLOHIYA NOON,
PAANO KAYA NGAYON?
Notes on the Practice and Teaching of Philippine Anthropology
Jessie G. Varquez, Jr.
Department of Social Sciences, UPLB
DSS Friday School Extension Project
28 October 2016

2. Outline
• Antropolohiya / Aghamtao 101
• 19th century ethnological studies
• 20th century American anthropology
• UP Anthropology
• Ugnayang Pang-Aghamtao
• Anthropology outside UP / Public Anthropology
• Some monographs on Philippine anthropology
• Anthropology elsewhere

3. Antropolohiya / Aghamtao 101
anthropos + logos
• ... a discipline of infinite curiosity about human beings. (Ember)
• ... the exploration of human diversity in time and space. (Kottak)
• … the most liberating of all the sciences. (Haviland)
Fieldwork as key research method (participant observation)
‘holistic’ and comparative
Broader in scope, both geographically and historically

4. ‘child of
imperialism’
“In practice, anthropology flourished in the context of
conqueror-conquered relations concomitant with the West’s
conquest of the non-Western world. This conqueror-
conquered relationship made possible the practical and
analytic separation between, on the one hand, the native
peoples of Africa, America and Asia as objects of
investigation, and, on the other hand, Western anthropologists
as the investigating subjects.” (Bennagen 2010)

5. ScupinandDeCorse2012

6. 19th century ethnological studies
Jose Rizal
• Dapitan exile: Annotation of
Sucesos de las Islas
Filipinas
• language studies and
surface exploration
Jose Burgos
• Estado de Fiipinas a la
Llegada de los Españoles
(1864)
• Estudios sobre la
Arqueologia de Manila a la
Llegada de los Españoles
(1871)

7. 19th century ethnological studies
Isabelo delos Reyes
• El Folklore Filipino (1889)
• Filipinas: articulos varios
sobre etnografia, historia,
costumbres del pais (1887)
• La Religion Antiqua de los
Filipinos (1909)
T.H. Pardo de Tavera
• El Sanscrito en la Lengua
Tagalog (1887)
• Las Costumbres de los
Tagalos de Filipinas, según
el Padre Plasencia (1892)

8. Ferdinand Blumentritt,
1890. Mapa Etnografico
del Archipielago Filipino

9. 20th century American anthropology
• Unilineal cultural evolutionism
• Conducted ethnological survey focusing on “mountain dwelling”
and “non-Christian” indigenous groups
• Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes (BNCT)
• David P. Barrows (PhD anthropology) and Dean C. Worcester
(zoologist)
• “a vital agency during the American colonial regime in the
Philippines having supplied much of the cultural and racial
justification for American presence in the country” (Tatel 2010)

10. 1930
1963

11. 1913

13. ABicol ofAlbay Province ACagayan of Isabela Province
ATagalog of Rizal Province ANegrito-Tagalog of Bataan Province

17. H. Otley Beyer
• Established the UP
Department of Anthropology
• “a geologist by training, who
arrived in the country in 1905,
employed as an ethnologist by
the Office of Ethnological
Survey of the Bureau of
Education under David P.
Barrows” (Tatel 2010)
• Taught first anthropology
course in 1914, established the
department in 1917, and retired
in 1954
• succeeded by Marcelo Tangco,
who is considered the first
formally-trained Filipino
physical anthropologist

18. Beyer’s studies
• Outline Review of
Philippine Archaeology by
Islands and Provinces
(1949)
• Philippine Tektites: A
Contribution to the Study
of Tektite Problem in
General, in the Light of
both Past and Recent
Discoveries (1961)
• The Philippine Saga: A
Pictorial History of the
Archipelago since Time
Began (1947, with Jaime
C. De Veyra)
“Wave Migration Theory”
“First came the Java Man,
and then the “little people” –
Australoid Sakai, Negritos,
and Proto-Malays – followed
by two waves of Indonesian –
Type A and Type B – with a
smaller wave of Papuans,
who were succeeded in turn
by separate Northern and
Southern Malay waves, and
finally the Jar Burial People.”
PASSE. INCORRECT

19. Post-Beyer notable Filipino
anthropologists
• Marcelo Tangco
• Mario Zamora
• Juan Francisco
• Moises Bello
• Alfredo Evangelista
• F. Landa Jocano
• E. Arsenio ManueL
1973

20. 70s-80s: Indigenization
• “Aghamtao”; linguistic turn
• Sikolohiyang Pilipino ni Virgilio Enriquez
• Pantayong Pananaw ni Zeus Salazar
• Pilipinolohiya ni Prospero Covar
• “Asianization of Anthropology”
This perspective to Asianize anthropology and the
other sciences was the logical consequence of the
recognition of the inadequacy of Western models,
hypotheses and theories. (Bennagen 1980)

22. Ponciano Bennagen
• Department chair from 1970s-1980s
• First to write MA thesis in Filipino
• Member, 1986 Constitutional Commission
1977 1996

23. Ugnayang Pang-Aghamtao, Inc. (UGAT)
• Repressive regime
• Activism at UP
• Philippines Social Science
Council
• Critique of colonial legacy
• Peoples as objects; as “others”
• Critique of Development

24. Ugnayang Pang-Aghamtao, Inc. (UGAT)
formal organization of anthropologists in a
conscious effort to create a more appropriate
anthropology, i.e., attuned to the conditions,
needs and visions of Philippine society
(Bennagen 1978 :1-2)
Forum on the Pantabangan and Chico Dam
Project (1978)
The International Conference on the Tasaday
and other Urgent Anthropological Issues (1986)
First Conference of the Ancestral Domain:
Human Rights and the Ancestral Domain (1983)

26. Anthropology outside UP
Ateneo de Manila U
Silliman U
San Carlos U
Xavier U
U of Southeastern Phil

27. Some examples of contemporary Philippine
anthropology and Filipino anthropologists
Cordillera Studies
June Prill-Bret
Understanding Philippine Culture
and Society for K-12
Jojo Bersales and Zona Amper
Environmental concerns
Enrique Oracion
Mindanao culture and archaeology
Linda Burton
Peace and development in
Mindanao
Fr. Albert Alejo and Rufa Guiam
Heritage studies and advocacy
Butch Zialcita
Drugs and addiction
Leonardo Estacio
Legal anthropology
Gus Gatmaytan
Philippine prehistory
Armand Mijares
Educational anthropology
Eufracio Abaya
Maritime anthropology
Maria Mangahas and Chim Zayas
Source: P.L. Bennagen (pers. comm.)

28. Public anthropology

29. “Public anthropology”
Source: Eufracio Abaya’s
presentation at the World
Council of Anthropological
Associations in New Delhi,
India. 2012.

30. Some monographs by Filipino anthropologists
1987
2000
2007

31. Some monographs by Filipino anthropologists
1968
1976

32. Some monographs by Filipino anthropologists
2013
2008
2011

33. Some monographs on Philippine anthropology
2001
1970
1964

34. Anthropology elsewhere

35. Anthropology elsewhere

36. GANITO ANG
ANTROPOLOHIYA NOON,
PAANO KAYA NGAYON?
Maraming salamat po sa pakikinig!

37. References
Abaya, Eufracio; Ma. Luisa Lucas-Fernan and Daisy Y. Noval-Morales. 1999. “Shifting Terms of
Engagement: A Review of the History of Anthropology,” in Virginia Miralao (ed.). The Philippine
Social Science in the Life of the Nation. Quezon City: Philippine Social Science Research
Council.
Alatas, Syed Farid. 2005. “Indigenization: Features and problems.” In van Bremen, Jan, Eyal
Ben-Ari and Syed Farid Alatas (eds) Asian Anthropology. London and New York: Routledge.
Bennagen, Poncianno L. 1980. “The Asianization of anthropology”. Asian Studies, 18: 1–26.
Tan, Michael L. 2010. “Philippine Anthropology in a Post-Anthropology Age”. In Tigno, Jorge V.
(ed.) Philippine Social Science Discourse. Quezon City: College of Social Sciences and
Philosophy.
Scupin, Raymond and Christopher R. DeCorse. 2012. Anthropology: A Global Perspective.
Seventh edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Tatel, Carlos P. Jr. 2010. “Anthropology at the University of the Philippines: Examining
Institutional History and Academic Dependency in a Southeast Asian University.” In Syed Farid
Alatas and Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff (eds.) Academic Dependency in the Social Sciences:
Structural Reality and Intellectual Challenges. New Delhi: Manohar Publishers.
Zamora, Mario D. “Cultural Anthropology in the Philippines - 1900-1983: Perspectives,
Problems, and Prospectsr..”