Sunday, August 18, 2013

Most Common Bagobo Animals

In any Bagobo community, you will always find the following animals:

1. Horse - Kuda

Kuda

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

The Bagobo Numbers


Let's count the Bagobo way:


1 - Sab-bad

2 - Duwa

3 - Tal-lo

4 - Ap-pat

5 - Lima (stress on the first syllable)

Saturday, June 22, 2013

The Early Bagobo Society


Traditional Bagobo society was divided into three classes.

  1. Magani – the warrior class

The Datu was the chief magani who inherited his position from his ancestors. He did not enjoy special privilege except for the title and rank. His main function was to be a judge, arbiter, and a defender of the tribe. The magani who should have killed at least 2 persons was allowed to wear blood-red clothes and a headkerchief called tangkulu, and he was allowed to possess a small bag for betel nut and lime which was considered a property of the spirits.

If the magani was held in high esteem,  a man called the matalo was scorned by the Bagobo society because he had never killed a person and had no desire to fight.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Bagobo 101

Ulo means head or hair

The following are Bagobo terms which mean the same in Tagalog dialect:

 
  1. Hagdan  - stairs
  2. Ulo – head (which can also mean hair)
  3. Pinggan – plates
  4. Aso – dog
  5. Kagat – bite (but it is pronounced differently from the Tagalog term – the stress is on the first syllable)  
  6. Labas – outside; go out

Let's use them in sentences:

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Life with the Bagobos


My Mother - 1951
I grew up in the midst of the Bagobos in the highlands of Davao. My mother was a  Bagoba and my father a Pampangueño.

Growing up with a father from Luzon, we learned the art of “mano po” – taking the hands of the elders and touching it  to our forehead – it’s a sign of respect.

We learned that elders are not to be addressed by their names. My father got the shock of his life when my mother’s small nephew called him by his name. “Walang respeto,” he says.

We call our eldest sister “attê” (the Kapampangan term is supposed to be "achê" but thanks to my inability to say the "ch" when I was small -- it became “attê” instead). We call older brothers “kuya” -- but I am not getting into the culture of my father’s people. I want to explore my mother’s ancestry.