the devils, familiars, and spaniards reading

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Devils, Famillars and Spaniards: Spheres of Power and the Supernatural in the World ofSeberina Candelaria and Her Village in Early 19th Century PhilippinesAuthor(s): Greg BankoffSource: Journal of Social History, Vol. 33, No. 1 (Autumn, 1999), pp. 37-55Published by: Oxford University Press

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2/20

DEVILS,

FAMILIARS AND SPANIARDS: SPHERES OF

POWER

AND THE SUPERNATURAL

IN THE

WORLD

OF

SEBERINA CANDELARIA

AND HER

VILLAGE

IN EARLY

19TH CENTURY

PHILIPPINES

By

Greg

Bankoff The

University

of

Auckland

Historians

are

rarely

permitted

insight

into the inner

world

of

the

imagination

of those

long

dead.

While

the

activities

and deeds of a

prominent

few are well

documented, the jumble of desires, fears and beliefs with which they perceived

and

attempted

to

make

sense of

the

world around them is little understood.

This

is

especially

so in

the case of the common

people

whose

lives,

let alone

thoughts,

are often

the

subject

of

historical

speculation, especially

in the non-

western world where

written records

are

few and

their

preservation haphazard.

The

trial, then,

of

Seberina Candelaria is

deserving

of our

attention in

all

these

respects.

She is a

young

woman

aged

twenty-two,

otherwise

historically

unre-

markable,

illiterate,

from a

largely

insignificant

rural

community,

Obando,

north

of

Malabon

and west of

Polo,

in

the

province

of Bulacan on the

archipelago's

principal

island of

Luzon,

who,

in

1808,

is

arraigned

before

an

ecclesiastical

court accused of

associating

with the Devil who

appears

to her in the form of

a

demonic

familiar. The detailed

transcripts

of

this

case,

that extend

to

nearly

seventy closely

hand-written

pages,

contain not

only

Seberina's

compelling

ac?

count

of

how she

entered into

compact

with the

Devil,

but also the evidence of

her

neighbours

and

fellow

villagers

who

sought

to

know

the

future

or

that which

was

hidden

from

them

by currying

favour with

her

familiar. As the case

unfolds,

the

proceedings

also

provide

insight

into

the beliefs and

opinions

of

her exam-

iners,

revealing

to

what

extent the

Enlightenment

had

penetrated

ecclesiastical

views

in the

Philippines by

the turn of the

nineteenth

century.

While

the nature of the

power

structure within

municipalities

has been the

object

of considerable

scholarship,1

the

question

of dissent and

opposition

in

the

village

has

received

far

less attention

apart

from the

figure

ofthe tulisan or

bandit

as social

avenger.2

But

James

Scott and Michael Adas

write about another

type

of

resistance,

those

commonplace

forms

of

protest

that

popular

struggle

takes

when

it does not seek to

openly

confrbnt the forces

that

dominate.

What

the

former

calls

weapons

of

the weak3

and

the

latter avoidance

protest

include4: foot

dragging,

dissimulation,

false

compliance,

pilfering,

feigned ignorance,

slander,

arson,

sabotage

and the like.

These models have

subsequently

been

applied

to

more

contemporary

rural conditions

in

the

Philippines.

However,

Scott carried this notion

of

a dissonant

political

culture

one

step

further

to embrace not

only

actions but also the

alternative

meanings

given

to

public

texts

and those

words

of

anger, revenge

or self-assertion

spoken

by

sub-

ordinates

out

of

earshot

of their

betters.6

These

hidden

transcripts

most

certainly

masked acts of

defiance

but also functioned "as a barrier

and

a veil that the dom?

inant

find

difficult or

impossible

to

penetrate."7

Here the

scholar stands

poised

at the

threshold of

historical

consciousness,

how

people perceived

the world

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3/20

38

journal

of

social

history

fall 1999

around them

in

the

past,

where sources that had been

previously

sparse

now

become

virtually

non-existent. The

Philippines,

in

this

respect,

is

actually

more

fortuanate than many other societies in Southeast Asia, in that a considerable

body

of

early

lexicological

and vernacular

religious

material has survived from

which

fascinating insights

into the

popular imagination

have been inferred.8 But

sources such as the detailed

transcripts

of a

trial

for

demonic

possession

remain

rare

and are

deserving

of

close historical

scrutiny.9

Witches and devils

Before

examining

the case

of

Seberina

Candelaria

to

see

what

light

it sheds

on

the

supernatural

beliefs

ofa rural

Tagalog

community

in the

early

nineteenth

century, the concept of witchcraft both in western and indigenous societies

requires

some

explanation

and

historical elaboration. The

witch has

alternately

either been

regarded

as

primarily

a

delusional

figure

or

been

accepted

as fact

in

Christianised

Europe.10

The existence of

the Devil

was not doubted

before

the

scientific

rationalism of the

nineteenth

century

but his

powers

have been

variously

assessed at

different

times.

Thus

the

thesis that demonic

action was

real

but

essentially psychological

or

spiritual

in

character,

sometimes referred

to

as

the

Augustinian

doctrine,

prevailed

throughout

much

ofthe Middle

Ages.

Weak

minds,

particularly,

it was

thought,

those of

women,

were liable to be

deceived

by

blandishments and vain

imaginings.11

Gradually

this view

was

replaced

by

one in

which theologians, beginning with Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth

century,

no

longer

believed

that

the Devil's

power

was

limited

to

simply

the mentai

sphere

but had a

real

existence

in

the

form of

magic performed

by practitioners

in

the

black

arts who

worshipped

and

entered

into

a

covenant or

pact

with the

Devil.

By

the

late fifteenth

century,

witches,

far

from

being poor

deluded

individuals,

were now

considered

dangerous

criminals

who

used

their

powers

of

enchant-

ment,

spell

and

sorcery

to

bring

about

death,

disease and

misfortune to

their

neighbours.

While

there

were

marked

variations

among

countries and even

among regions,

the

systematic

persecution

of

witches came

to

be

regarded

not

only

as a

religious

duty

but

as

the civic

responsibility

of

ecclesiastical

authorities.

The

publication

of Matteus

Makficarum

(Hammer

of

Witches)

in

1487

estab?

lished

witchcraft as

primarily

a

social

crime

of

malefice and

provided

the

manual

by

which

the

great

witch-hunts

ofthe

sixteenth and

seventeenth

centuries

were

conducted,

reaching

a

climax

between

1575-1650.12

Prosecutions

continued

into the

early

eighteenth

century

until

beliefs in

the

actual

demonic

powers

of

the

witch

were

supplanted

by

the

conviction,

borne

ofthe

Enlightenment,

that

witchcraft

was

simply

the

popular derangement

of

ignorant

people,

only

to

be

finally

dismissed as

pure

fantasy

in the

twentieth

century.13

One of

the

principal

debates in

the

historiography

of

European

witchcraft

was

prompted

by

Margaret

Murray's

assertion

that

the

witch,

rather

than

being

a fabrication,

actually

belonged

to a

pre-Christian

Dianic

fertility

cult that had

survived in

certain

remote

regions

of

the

continent.14

She

claims

that

the

ex?

istence

of

this

religion

was

responsible

for

the

extraordinary

consistency

over

time

and

place

in

the

beliefs

and

rituals

associated

with

witchcraft

as

manifest in

trial

confessions.

Murray's

ideas

were

not

accepted,

her

evidence

questioned

and

she

accused

of

having

"invented

a

religion

for

the

purposes

of

her

argument."15



4/20

DEVILS,

FAMILIARS AND

SPANIARDS 39

But no such

simple

refutations

can be

made

in

the case of the

Philippines.

Un?

like

other

societies

within

Southeast

Asia where

there

has been a

notable

lack

of detailed accounts of witchcraft and sorcery in the ethnographic literature,16

there is

substantial evidence

of

malign

magical

practices

surviving

the

enforced

Christianisation of the colonial

period

and

still

influencing

social

behaviour

in

the mid

twentieth

century.17

An

important aspect

ofthe

Spanish

conquest

and

incorporation

ofthe

Philip?

pines,

largely

overlooked

by

historians,

is that

these

events

took

place

at the

height

of

the

great

witchcraft

persecutions.

While

more witches

were burnt at

the stake

in France and

Germany,

nonetheless

there

were

notable

witchcraft tri?

als

in

Spain

at the start ofthe

sixteenth and

seventeenth

centuries,

especially

in

the

Basque provinces.18

The

prevalent

theological opinion

on

witchcraft

must

have influenced the way in which the early missionary fathers viewed the reli?

gious

practices they

encountered

in

the

islands after 1565.

More

especially,

the

disappointing

experience

ofthe

Americas,

where idolatrous

practices

thrived de?

spite

the

early

enthusiasm

with which

tens

of

thousands of

indigenous

peoples

had flocked to

seemingly

embrace the

Holy

Faith,

must

have

proved

a

salutary

admonition

to

many.

As

apostasy

was

increasingly

seen as

the DeviFs

handiwork,

local

inhabitants were no

longer regarded

as

ignorant

simpletons

but as mem?

bers

of a

counter-Church with its

own

parodies

of

Christian rites:

'excrements*

instead of

sacraments,

female

as

opposed

to

male

ministers.19 It is from a

theo?

logical

perspective

formulated

in

the

context

ofthe

great

European

witch-hunts

and confirmed

by

their recent

experience

in the Americas that the

missionary

orders embarked on the

conversion of the

Philippines

and

approached

the reli?

gious practices

ofthe

archipeiago's

inhabitants. What

they

found,

of

course,

only

seemed to

confirm the worst of their

fears,

with

many

of the

early

missionaries

regarding

the Indios as

being

in the

DeviPs

service.20

Early

accounts ofthe

islands

suggest

that the

various

peoples

of Luzon and

the

Visayas

were

mainly

Animist,

venerating

the

spirits

of

nature and those of

their

ancestors

while

placating

a host of

malevolent

ones.21 There were

reportedly

no

temples

or

gathering

places

set

apart

for

worship

though

certain

topographical

features

or

groves

were held to be the

preserve

of

particular

spirits.22

Sacred

effi-

gies,

however,

were

commonplace

and

revered in

most homes

being

referred to

variousiy

as

anitos or

divitas

and

being variously

associated

with

war, health,

agri?

culture,

fisheries and

the like and to which

sacrifice

and

offerings

of

perfume

and

food

were

made.23

More

important

ceremonies

were

performed by

a

numerous

class

of

professional

celebrants,

mainly

women,

known

as

catalonans

(Tagalog)

or

babayknes

(Visayan)

in

private

homes

or at

feasts

in

specially prepared

bowers

erected for

that

purpose

close to

the host's house.24

Though many

priestesses

evidently

inherited their

office,

ties

of

kinship

might

also be

adoptive

and all

served a

noviciate

before

officiating

at

rituals,

for

which services

they

were

paid,

reference

being

made

to their rich

attire,

jewels

and wealth.25

The central feature of

these

ceremonies

was

the moment at which

the

priest-

ess

entered

a

trance where

her

body

would

become

possessed by

the

spirit

being

evoked or

placated.26

Sometimes these actions

might

be

quite

violent

affairs,

reference

being

made to

them

hurled

to

the

ground

foaming

at

the

mouth,

staring wildly,

with their

hair

standing

on end.27 In

these

states,

the

priestesses

would

communicate

with the

participants,

interpreting

signs

and



5/20

40

journal

of

social

history

fail

1999

omens

and

answering

questions,

though

their

responses

were often

capable

of

various

interpretations.28

Dance

and

song

were

important

elements ofthe

ritual,

precipitating the reverie, and would be performed by celebrants to the accom-

paniment

of

bell,

gong

and

kettle-drum,29

the cadence of which was

described

as harsh and

irregular.30

Onlookers,

meanwhile,

would

drink themselves into

states of

complete

inebriation.31

Apart

from

divination and

auguries usually

performed

on

animal

entrails,32

the

priestesses

were

also consulted as

physicians.33

Evidently,

many

had

extensive

knowledge

of

herbs

whose

properties

were used

medicinally

to

cure disease

which,

no

doubt,

contributed

to

their status.34

But

their station in

indigenous

society

remains more

difficult

to

gauge. Spanish

missionary

sources

attempt

to

decry

their

influence: Fr

Colin

contending

that

"they

were not

honoured

or

esteemed"

but considered "an idle lot who lived by the sweat of others."35 Pedro Careen, on

the

other

hand,

while

dismissing

the

priestesses

as "a band

of

worthless

women,"

goes

on to

deplore

their

"tyrannical

hold"

upon

the

village

"by

various

means

and

plots compelling many

to

repair

to

them

upon every

occasion."36

However,

their

function

as

intermediaries with

the

spirit

world,

often on behalf

of

the

sick,

combined

with their

medicinal

skills,

confirm the role

of these

women as

shamans whose

importance

would be

considerable

especially

within

societies

without

highly

developed superordinate

forms of

social

control.

Certainly

most of the

missionary

fathers

thought

these

women

dangerous

influences and

considered

them

responsible

for

the

regular

incidences

of

apostasy

with which

they

had to contend. In the first

place,

the

priestesses

were held to

derive their

powers

from

the

Devil

with

whom

they

were

in

communication.37

They

were

blamed for the

governmental

and

religious

institutions ofthe

country

"founded on

tradition,

and on

custom

introduced

by

the

Devil

himself"

through

their

offices.38 All

the

inhabitants,

therefore,

were

'in

the

service ofthe

devil,'

"a

people

abandoned

by

the hand

of God and

governed by

the

devil

in

accordance

with his

laws."39

Despite

the

initial

willingness

of

many

indigenous

people

to

embrace

Christianitv,

apostasy

was

rife and

priests

were

urged

to

be

on

their

guard

against

backsliders.40

Many pre-Christian

rites were

maintained in

secret41

under

a veil

of

silence

and

subterfuge

to

conceal

such

worship

from

the notice

of local

priests.4

On some other

occasions,

however,

their

practice

provided

the

nucleus

about which

more

serious

opposition

to

Spanish

rule

coalesced,

as

in

the

revolt

on

Bohol in

1622.43

Spanish

authorities

were

uniformly

hostile to

the

maintenance

of

pre-Christ?

ian

practices.

Parishioners

were

urged

to

abjure

such

rites

and

denounce

all

sorcerers, witches,

magicians

and

apostates

on

pain

of

being

'punished

most

severely'.44

In

particular,

children,

receiving

instruction in

the local

convento,

were

exhorted

to

report

the

activities of

their

parents

and

elders to the

parish

priest

and

then

often

used to

desecrate

sacred artefacts

by

throwing

them

into

the

privies

and

urinating

and

defecating

over

them.45 In

the

most extreme

cases,

there is also evidence that some

celebrants

were

bumt "in

order

that,

by

the

light

of

that

fire,

the

blindness in

which

the

divata

had

kept

them

deluded

might

be

removed."46

Despite

the

severity

of

Spanish

responses

on

occasions

and

the

increasing

consolidation

of

the

colonial

regime

during

the

seventeenth

and

eighteenth

centuries,

there is

no

indication

that

pre-Christian

rites

and

practices

ceased,



6/20

DEVILS,

FAMILIARS AND

SPANIARDS

41

though

they certainly

became more clandestine.

Incidences

of

such

worship

uncovered

among

the Zambals in

1683 were said to involve 'the

principal people

ofthe village\47 Mid eighteenth century Augustinian and Dominican missions to

the

Visayan

islands

report

the

presence

of *wizards*

able to

change

themselves

into

crocodiles or other animals to

commit

murder,

and of sorcerers

whose

magic

is

able

to cause

or

cure

various sicknesses.48

A

fascinating

account ofthe

continuing

widespread

prevalence

of

these

beliefs and

practices

is

contained in a

supplement

to El

Renodmtento,

a Manila

newspaper,

written

by Jose

Nunez

in 1905.49 The

author

recounts

his

own

experiences

with

regard

to witchcraft and

the existence

of

witches which he

calls

mangkukukms.

Remaining entirely sceptical

himself

("I

have

not

come

to believe

in,

or to be

convinced

of,

the

existence

of

witches

in

Filipinas"),

he

nonetheless concludes that

"such beliefs

continue

to exist

in

the popular mind."50

Nor have these

kinds of beliefs

apparently disappeared

as a

result of the

dra?

matic

political,

social and

economic

upheavals

of

the

twentieth

century.

The

anthropologist,

Richard

Lieban,

recorded

111

cases

of

sorcery

and

malign magic

in

Cebu,

the

Philippines'

second

largest

city,

and on

the

neighbouring

island

of

Negros

during

the 1960s.51

Moreover,

there

appears

to

be a

remarkable conti?

nuity

in

the

types

and forms of

practices

described

by

these authors

spanning

the

centuries from the initial

accounts of the

early

Spanish

missionary

fathers

to

Lieban*s

study

four

hundred

years

later.

In

other

words,

far

from

being

sup-

planted

by

the

introduction and near universal

adoption

of

Christianity

in the

northern and central islands of the archipelago, the evidence

suggests

that such

beliefs remained

commonplace

in

many

parts

of

the

Philippines,

especially

in

rural

areas.

It is

in

this

context, then,

that

the

circumstances

surrounding

the

trial of

Seberina

Candelaria need

to be

considered.

The

supernatural

world

of Seberina

Candelaria

Charges accusing

Seberina of

consorting

with

a

duende or

demon familiar

were

laid before

the vicario

fordneo,

the

bishop's

representative

at the district

level

and

the lowest

level of the

judicial

structure in

ecclesiastical

matters,

in

the

casa

parroquial

of

Obando on

4

June

1808.52

It was averred

that

her

familiar

was

able to

determine the

identity

of

thieves,

the

whereabouts of

lost

items

and

other marvels

during

nightly gatherings

held in

the

town

and

throughout

the

district.

Many people

had

been

attracted to

these

assemblies,

bringing

with them

money

and

candles

as

offerings

in

the

hope

of

securing

an

auspicious

response

to

their

questions.

As a

result of

these

allegations,

the

judge

ordered

the

arrest

and

confinement,

incommunicado,

of

Seberina,

her

husband,

Sebastian,

and their

various

accomplices

while an

investigation

of these

events was

made.53

The

evidence

collected

during

the course

ofthe

inquiry

includes the frank

and

detailed

statement of the

defendant

herself,

and this

provides

one

of

those rare

opportunities

enabling

the

reader to enter into

the

consciousness

of

someone

alive two centuries

ago

and

to

experience

the

world,

if for

however

briefly,

as

she

did.

Seberina

describes how

she was followed one

day

as she

was

returning

home

from

Polo,

the nearest

town,

after

prayers.

As

her

pursuer

drew close

by,

she

perceived

it "to

be a man or such

she took it to

be"

and she

addressed

him,

asking

him

why

he was

following

her

in this manner

when

she was a

married woman.



7/20

42

journal

of social

history

fall 1999

He

responded by making

crude

aspersions casting

doubt

on

her marital

status,

and then the two

proceeded

on

their

way

as before.

Nothing

else

untoward took

place until Seberina approached the house of her mother-in-law when a nearby

tree

suddenly began

to shake so

violently

that

she

thought

it would fall on

top

of her.

Other

strange

things

then

began

to

happen:

sand

was

continually flung

about

the house and

objects

mysteriously

moved

but

there

was no more

sign

of

the

man. Some

days

later,

however,

a small

figure,

no

bigger

than half

a vara

(1

vara

=

0.836

metres),

appeared

to

her

while

she was

working

in

the

family

field

(sementera).5*

He

offered her a

golden

rosary

and

a

purse

of

money

and

grew

angry

when she refused

them,

pinching

her,

throwing

sand into

her

eyes

and

calling

her

mad. After

this,

he

appeared

most

days

at

sunset,

telling

her

that he

was

a

demon familiar and

that his name was

Isac.55

When Seberina returned to Obando, the familiar followed. From this time on,

Isac conversed with

her

frequently,

answering any question

she

put

to

him.

Soon

the news

spread

and

people

started

coming

to the

house

to consult

him,

offering

money

in

return

for

information about the

whereabouts

of

lost or stolen

items.

Few, however,

claimed to

have

seen

the

familiar,

and

those

that did

reported

only

a

shape dimly perceived

in

a dark

corner.

Certainly,

there are no

other

descriptions

of his

appearance.

But

everyone

heard him:

witnesses' testimonies

describe a

great variety

of

voices?thick

and

muffled,

thin

and

clear,

small 'as

if

faked

by

someone'. Often

these voices

appeared

to

originate

outside

the

room,

from

beneath the floor or

above the

ceiling.

Sometimes

Isac

sang,

entertaining

his audience with verses from

popular

or amorous ballads

though

it was not

always

possible

'to

understand what

he said in

his

song'.

At

other

times,

he

would abuse

them,

mouthing

'kitchen

remarks',

making

obscene allusions

to his

and their

genitalia,

and

commenting

on the

activities of

spouses

in

the

absence

of

their

partners.

Usually

he

danced:

both

the

executed

steps

of

formal

dances

but

also wild

cavorts and

capers

to the

sound of castanets

and drum.

Again

these

activities were

mainly

heard rather

than

seen,

taking place

in a

darkened

alcove or

nook where

visibility

was

poor.

However,

several

witnesses

insist

that

it

was

impossible

for

Seberina to

have

played

a role in

the

production

of

these

sounds

and that she

could

always

be

seen at some

distance from

where the

noise

emanated. All these

gatherings

took

place

after

dark.56

Isac's

reputation

spread

and

presently

Seberina

was

invited to

homes

in

Polo

and

throughout

the

district as

he

only

appeared

when

she was

present.

On

these

visits,

all

manner

of

questions

were

put

to the

familiar.

Many

inquiries

had to do

with

stray

animals or

other

lost

items.

One man

returned on

three

consecutive

nights

seeking

the

whereabouts of a

missing

horse,

having

failed each

time

to

find

the

beast at the

designated

location.

Many

apparently

believed

the

familiar

had

the

power

to

move

things,

asking

him

to return

missing

goods

from

whence

they

had

come.

Others

asked

after their

loved

ones:

whether

they

were

safe,

had

they

been

arrested,

were

they

on

their

way

home.

Or

they

were

concerned

about their health. There are indications that

Seberina

also

acted

as a

healer,

though

her

performance

in

this role

does not

seem

to

have

been

directly

related

to

the

familiar

but

rather

to

have

been

strengthened

through

her

association

with

him.57

While

Seberina's

visits

conferred

a

certain

local

notoriety

on

her,

they

may

also

have

become

something

of a

necessity.

Her

husband,

Sebastian,

arrested



8/20

DEVILS,

FAMILIARS AND SPANIARDS

43

along

with her but

against

whom

charges

were

subsequently dropped,

had

begun

to

beat

her. He

wanted

an end to these

nightly

entertainments

in

what was his

mother's house. Perhaps, too, there was a degree of maternal rivalry or pressure.

Seberina tried to

put

a

stop

to these visitations

"but

she did

not

know how

to

and

he

[the familiar]

always

came

anyhow."58

Events

now

begin

to elude her

control.

People

in

the

village

and

the

surrounding

district

become

alarmed.

The

evidence

of

Fulgencio

de San

Juan,

a

local

chorister,

clearly

strikes the

note

of

unease

that

many

felt

despite

due reservations that should be

given

to the nature

of

his

occupation

and the context

ofthe

venue in which he

spoke.

A

witness

to

one

of

these

nightly

events,

he

says

how:

"seeing

the

futility

of

these

happenings,

some

false,

others

true,

and that

in

all cases that

it

might

be

wrong

to be

present

at such

gatherings

...

he left."59

Others, however,

were not content

with

merely

withdrawing: the fiscal, Don Luis Navarro, known as Maestro Luis, denounces

her to

the

parish

priest

and she

is

arrested.60

But

the matter does not

end

with

Seberina's confinement

to the stocks

in

the local

casa real or town hall. Isac

pursues

her even

there,

exchanging

filthy

innuendoes with the

guards

over

possible

marriage partners

for Alin

Vela,

the

viilage's bieja

hca

('mad

old

woman')

and

other

such inanities. On the next

night,

she

confronts

him,

demanding

an

explanation

for

her

present sufferings,

including,

it

seems,

a

whipping. Finally,

she tells him to leave her alone

and

begins

to

recite the Creed. Pandemonium

then breaks

out.

There is a

deafening

noise,

so

loud

that

the

guard

outside

thought

that

'the

house was

failing

down',

as Isac hurls a

large

piece

of wood at her (described

by

the

jailer

as 'too

heavy

for

Seberina to have

handled'),

missing

but

hitting

the door. She cries out for

help

as he

begins

to lift the

stocks but the

guard

arrives

at this

moment

with a

light

to

find her

"trembling

all over her

body

and

so cold

that

he

thought

she was at

her

last breath."61

And from that

moment

on

she never

sees

nor

hears from Isac

again.

The

supernatural

world

of the

village

The

testimony

of

Seberina Candelaria

provides

valuable

insight

into the world

view

ofthe

rural

population

ofthe

Philippines

at

the start ofa

century

of

change

and

transition

that was to

prove

so

influential

in

shaping

that

society.

It also

raises

serious

questions

about the

degree

to which

Christianity

had

displaced

earlier

beliefs

after

more than

200

years

of

friar

evangelisation

and

mission

in

the

archipelago,

suggesting

the

continuance

of

another

level of

reality

that

was

only

lightly,

if

at

all,

touched

by

the

ministrations of the

Church.

But the

priest

was himself an

important part

of

the

village

world,

and the deliberations

of

Seberina's

inquisitors

disclose much about

their attitudes

and

perspectives

and,

in

the

process,

indicate the

increasing

gulf

that

separated

them from their

parishioners.

An

essential first

step

in this

inquiry

is

to

consider the extent to which

Seberina

Candelaria's views

represent

those

of

the

majority

rural

population

at

the

time:

to

determine that she

was

not

simply

a

delusional

psychotic

but

that

her

lore

formed

part

ofa wider

belief

system

shared

by

many

if

not most of her

neighbours.

More

significant

than

simply

the

number of

people

who

evidently

attended the

nightly

gatherings

is

the

social

status

of

those who came to ask

questions

of

the

familiar.

The

identity

of

those called to

give testimony

at

Seberina's

trial



9/20

44

journal

of social

history

fall

1999

reveals that

many belonged

to

the

principalia

or local

village

elite,

precisely

the

people

one

might

expect

to

have been most

exposed

to

Christianity

and

Hispanic culture over the last two centuries.

One

of the

principal

venues

for

Seberina and

Isac

was

the home

of

Don

Fernando

Caguia,

the

gobernadorcilk

or

municipal

administrator and

magistrate

of

Obando. In

particular,

his

wife

was

very

solicitous of her

husband's

health

and

good

fortune.

Among

the

distinguished

visitors to the

house was

Don

Josef

Thoribio of

Polo,

better

known

as

Captain Biyo,

who came on four

consecutive

nights

to

inquire

after the

whereabouts of his

dead

son's

horse.

Biyo

recounts

how he came

to Obando

to

light

a candle

to

Santa Clara in

the

church

there

but,

after

hearing

the

news and

seeing

the

'great

concourse of

people'

at Don

Femando's,

had

decided to

ask

the

familiar on his own

behalf. After

paying

two

reaks to Seberina, he was told the animal could be found in Bigaa but, unable

to locate the

beast

there

he

returned a

second and

then

a

third time to

be told it

had moved

to

Tinaferos and then Santol.

Angrily, Biyo

returned on

yet

a

fourth

night

offering

to

pay

two

pesos

if

the

familiar would

tell him

for certain where

the

horse was

or

have

it

brought

back to him.62

Seberina

mentions

another

occasion when

she was

invited to

the house of

a

certain

Captain

Pasqual

Castila in Polo

who

wanted to

consult the

familiar

over

some

missing

goods.63

Nor were

the local

police

above

such

consultations,

even if

their

inquiries

were

ofa

somewhat

more basic

and

cruder nature. All in

all,

a

picture

emerges

of a

community

in

and

around

Obando that

accepts

the

existence ofa supernatural realm inhabited by both

malign

and benevolent

spirits

with

which it

was

possible

to

communicate

through

the medium of

familiars

like

Isac.

For

the

young,

such

impressions

were

only

reinforced

by

the

seeming

endorsement

given

by

their

elders and

betters. The

chorister,

Fulgencio

de

San

Juan,

despite

his

misgivings

about

attending

such

gatherings,

felt

that

they

had

been

"authorised

by

the

presence

of

many

from

the

principalia."64

The

actions

of

prominent

members of the

community

like

Captain

Biyo

speak

louder

than

any

reservation

which witnesses

may

have

expressed

at a

legal

hearing

before

the

vicario

foraneo, who,

after

all,

was

also a

priest.

The

participation

of

the

principalia

in the

maintenance

of such

practices

remains

intriguing.

Earlier evidence

suggests

a

fairly

close

relationship

between

celebrants at

pre-Hispanic

religious

ceremonies and

local

elites. An

account

written in 1683

specifically

identifies native

priests

or

babaylanes

as

drawn

from

the

'principal people

ofthe

village'.65

Certainly

the cleric

involved in

Seberina's

case

expresses

deep

concern

about

the

extent

of

the

elite's

role,

even

accusing

the

gobernadorcillo

and

principales

of

Obando

as her

'accomplices'.

The

vicario

foraneo blames

the

prevalence

of

these

types

of

cases on

the

fact

that

municipal

officers were

Indios

and,

the

more

one

reprimanded

or

exhorted

them

to take

firmer

action,

"the

more

they

are

the first

to

hide

such

things."66

Possession

by

a

demonic

familiar,

then,

was

evidently

not

regarded by

this

churchman

as

unique

or

particularly

exceptional.

Instances of

similar

and

related

practices

are also

revealed in

the

vicario

foraneo's

report

to

the

archbishop

in

Manila.

While

a

missionary

in

the

uplands,

he

had

come

upon

another

case

whereby

an

eight

year

old

girl

had

been

possessed

by

a

demonic

familiar

who

appeared

to

her in

the

shape

ofa

'black

(Negrito)

child'.

He

describes how

this

spirit

managed

to win

the

confidence

and

trust

ofthe

child,



10/20

DEVILS,


45

becoming

its

friend and

playmate

"but without

losing

any

occasion on

which

to instruct her in the

most obscene entertainments."

It took the

priest

over

two

years to convince the girl about the nature and true identity of her companion

and to teach her to

conduct herself "with all the

judgement

of

a

good

christian

adult."

The

priest

then

consoles

himself

with the reflection that her

death,

at

the

age

of

ten,

was

an

occasion of much edification to the entire mission.67

In

still

another

part

of his letter to the

prelate,

the

priest

relates what he

knows

about

other

forms of divination

commonly practised

within his

parish.

In

particular,

he recounts

how

people

who have

lost

things

or

had them stolen

will

frequently

consult a diviner who

places

a

light

in

the

middle ofa reed

tray

or

sieve

(bilao)

about which are

placed

playing

cards and other

objects.

The

whereabouts

of

missing

items are inferred

from the inclination

ofthe

flame

towards

the

objects

on the bilao.68 Similar practices were witnessed by Antonio Mozo and Tomas

Ortiz

during

the

eighteenth

century

but,

in

these

instances,

the

divinations

were

performed by

shaking

the sieve.69 Far from

being

a

world

in

which such ideas

were

considered to be

arcane relics of

customary

tradition,

the vicario foraneo's

report suggests

that

many

indigenous people

held

a more

diverse world

view

than

might

be

supposed

from their

outward

adherence to

Christianity.

This

impression

receives further

reinforcement

by

a

comparison

of the activ?

ities

surrounding

Seberina's

possession

as related

in

the

transcripts

of her

trial

with the accounts of

ritual

practices performed by

babaylanes

as described

by

the

early

missionary

fathers.

The

importance

of music

is

particularly

evident to both

but so is the

apparent

strange

symmetry

of harmonics between the instruments

despite

the

separation

of

centuries:

the often

uncoordinated

beat

of castanets

and drum to which

Isac

performed

70

and

the

irregular

cadence of

bell,

gong

and kettle-drum to which

the

priestesses

danced.71

Song,

too,

appears

to

play

a

central

role

in

both

descriptions.

Several witnesses

make

mention ofthe

familiar

singing

a broad

range

of

verses from canticles

to amorous

tunes,72

and

song

was

also a noted

part

ofthe ceremonies at which

babaylanes

were

celebrants.73

Again

many

of

those

who

testified

at the trial

of

Seberina

remarked on the unusual char?

acteristics

of the

familiar's voice

just

as an

earlier

report

describes

such voices as

emanating

from

*a hollow

reed'.74 Given

these similarities and those of

venue

(private

homes),

activity

(divination)

and

participation

(including

local

digni-

taries),

there would

appear

to be some

doubt

as

to

how Seberina

was

regarded

by

her

local

community:

as

a woman

possessed

by

a

demonic

familiar

within

a

Christian

cosmology

of God and the

Devil,

as

an

officiating

celebrant within a

tradition of

customary

beliefs with its

origins

in the

pre-Hispanic period,

or

as

something

of both.

Even the outward

manifestations of

Christianity may

need

examination

as

being

more

in

the minds of

Seberina's sacerdotal interlocutors

than

in

her own

or

those

of her

fellow

villagers.

However,

such an

interpretation gives

insufficient

recognition

to

the

impact

of

centuries of Christian

evangelisation

in

the

Philippines

and to the

way

in which

elements

of

power

external

to those societies were often

selectively incorpo?

rated within local

communities to create new

cosmologies

that were neither

wholly foreign

nor

wholly

customary.

Dieter

Bartels

argues

that

the

Ambonese

responded

to

Europeans by

absorbing

elements ofthe newcomers' beliefs

thought

to

confer

access

to

sources

of

power previously

unknown,

eventually syncretising

them into

a

system

in

which traditional

elements

were

preserved.

Rather than



11/20

46

journal

of

social

history

fall 1999

invalidating

customary

beliefs,

such new

knowledge

served

only

to enrich the

Ambonese

conceptualisation

of

the

universe,

so that elements

of

both

systems

were retained without any apparent contradiction.75

Certainly,

there

are

aspects

of both

customary

and

Christian

beliefs in

Sebe-

rina's case. In

response

to

repeated

questions

about Isac's

identity,

she

eventually

calls

him a

'tianac',

a

mischievous and diminutive

sprite

or dwarf common

to

the

folklore of

Tagalog,

Bikol

and

Visayan

traditions

and described

by

both

Mozo

and

Ortiz in the

eighteenth

century.76

Indeed,

there are a number of

striking

similarities

between

Seberina's

experience

with

Isac and

the

explanation

of such

phenomena

given by

Tomas

Ortiz.

The

patianacs

whom

some

also call

a

goblin

(but

it is

only

their

invention,

dream,

or imagination) must be the genius or devil who generally plays with them as also

with

many

others,

when

losing

the

faith,

they espouse

his

cause,

become familiar

with

him,

or

become

subject

to him.

They

attribute

to

this

being

the ill

success of

births,

and

say

that in order to harm

them

and cause their

destruction,

he

enters

or

hides

in

some tree

or in

any

other

place

near

the

house

ofa woman

who

is

about

to

give

birth,

and there

they sing

like

those who wander

about,

etc.77

However,

despite

her evident

association of

the familiar

with a

figure

from in?

digenous

cosmology,

she can

only

succeed in

liberating

herself from his

influence

through

recourse

to the Christian

profession

of

faith,

by

reciting

the

Creed.

These two

belief

systems,

the

native

and the

foreign,

become even

further

blurred in the form of

Isac

himself.

While

the

figure

of a tianak is

variously

depicted

as dark

with

horns,

fangs,

long pointed

ears and

angular

features,78

Seberina's

familiar is

imbued with

all the

characteristics of her

colonial

'masters'.

She

describes

him as

dressed like

a

Spaniard,

wearing

a

beret and

bearing

a

pah

or

staff of

office.79 Nor

does

Isac

simply

perform

just

any

old

dance but

specifically

k

marcha,

the

boiero and

fandangos,

all

eminently Spanish

steps

and

all to the

accompaniment

of

castanets.80 It

would seem

that

devils,

familiars and

Spaniards

had

become

one?at

least

in

the

cosmology

of

Seberina

Candelaria

and

her

village.

A

somewhat

similar

transcultural

association

has

been

noted

among

medieval

Christian

communities

in

Europe

to

whom

the Devil

was

often

manifested as a

Moor.81

But more

is

going

on here

than

simply

the

'colonisation

ofthe

indigenous

spirit

world' as

Hispanic

and

Christian forms take

on

shape

and

substance within

local

belief

systems.

The

very

symbols

of

Spanish

power,

both

its secular

might

and

spiritual

prowess,

have

been

appropriated

and

incorporated

into

native

concepts

of

power.

At

their

initial

meeting

on

the road

from

Polo,

Seberina is

offered

a

rosary,

a

visible

manifestation

of

the

power

of the

Catholic

Church,

by

Isac

whom

she

perceives

to

be

a

tianak,

an

indigenous

malevolent

sprite

but who

wears

European

clothes

and

bears

the staff of

colonial

office.

The

fact that

Seberina

may

be

representative

ofa

long

tradition

of

female

intermediaries with

the

spirit

world

known

all

over the

archipelago

from

pre-Christian

times

should

not

obscure an

appreciation

of

her

ability

to

tap

these new

sources

of

power,

ones,

moreover,

that

were

external to

her

community

and

whose

acquisition

conferred

on

her a

higher

status

than

she

had

enjoyed

previously.

While

priestly

office

was

mainly

limited to

elite

groups

within

society,

such

restrictions

may

have



12/20

DEVILS,


47

had no

weight

when

it

came to

tapping previously

unknown sources

of

power.

Thus,

as

Bartels notes

on

Ambon,

"new

powers

can be

attained

by

anyone,

regardless of previous position in society and this can have a great effect on the

social

structure."82

It

may

be no

coincidence that the

person

who

eventually

denounced

Seberina to

the

authorities was a member ofthe

principalia,

Maestro

Luis,

who

might

have felt that

his

own and his

peer's

influence

in

the

community

was

increasingly being

eroded

by

the

sway

of

this woman.83

The

possibility

of

competition

between Seberina and a local

authority

struc?

ture

dominated

by

men

raises another

aspect

of her

appropriation

and

incorpo?

ration

of new

sources

of

power.

The

conquistadures

brought

with

them

a

very

dif?

ferent

concept

of

gender

construction that

emphasised

Catholic

mother-centred

definitions of womanhood

and

affected

relations

between

the

sexes,

restricting

women's activities largely to the private sphere. The public sphere was defined as

masculine.

In

other

words,

the

Spanish

colonisation ofthe

Philippines

involved

not

only

the

physical subjugation

of

the

indigenous

peoples

to

Europeans

but

also the

cultural

subjugation

of

women to

men.84

Few women

wielded

any

form

of

public power

within colonial

society

and what little

they

did

exercise

was

mainly

dependent

on their intimate

access to men

in

positions

of

authority,

such

as the mistress of a

parish

priest.85

Not

only

is Seberina

able to

tap

into

Hispanic

and

Christian forms of

secular

and

spiritual

power

but

she uses

this

new

source

to

give

her

greater

influence

outside a male

dominated

authority

structure. Her familiar is

male,

and,

while

he does not always exactly do her

bidding,

she is nonetheless the

only

means

by

which he

is able to

manifest

himself to the local

community.

Moreover,

he

bears a

palo,

the

symbol

of

colonial

authority

at the

municipal

level

and vested

in

the

office of the

gobemadorcillo,

the

most

important

male

figure

within her

immediate

sphere.

As

Seberina

becomes a

centre

or

focal

point

of an

alternative

means

of

accessing

power

within

her

village,

she,

intentionally

or

otherwise,

invests

herself with the

symbols

and

trappings

of

recognised

authority.

At

any

event,

her activities are

increasingly

seen as a

threat

to

the male

monopolisation

of

power

wielded

by

the

gobemadorcillo

and

ultimately

the

parish

priest.

Not

that

the secular

and

spiritual

were

clearly

differentiated within

her

mind:

Isac

both

bears a staff of office and offers her a

rosary.

In a short

period

of

several

months,

Seberina

comes to exercise a

form of

influence

that

a

young

woman of

twenty-

two

could not

hope usually

to

have in her

community.

Ultimately,

however,

she

transgresses

too

many

boundaries and is

brought

low.

Beaten and

admonished

by

her

husband,

denounced

by

Maestro Luis and

imprisoned,

assaulted and

then

abandoned

by

Isac,

Seberina is

found

by

the

guard

cold

and

quivering

on

the

floor of

her

prison

cell,

a

forlorn and

rather

pathetic

figure.

Where

in all these

happenings

surrounding

the

case

of

Seberina

Candelaria at

Obando is

the

Spanish priest?

Despite

the

fact that

he has

long

been

considered

the

most

knowledgeable

of

royal

officials,

versed in

the

language

and

customs of

the

indigenous

peoples through

long

residence

in

one

locality,

he

seems

a

very

remote

and

distant

figure:

unaware,

unless

so

informed,

of

the

activities of his

parishioners;

understanding

little

of the belief

systems

by

which

members of

his

flock

made sense and

operated

in

the

world

about them.

While the

outward

forms

of

Hispanic

power

and

Christianity

may

have

been

integrated

into an

indigenous



13/20

48

journal

of

social

history

fall

1999

cosmology,

the

priest

remained

an outsider: a

potent symbol,

certainly,

in much

the

same

way

as a sacred

grove,

an ancestral shrine or a

hallowed

landmark but

external to the daily round of the village.

The

distance

between

priest

and his

congregation only

widened

in

the

eigh?

teenth

century

as

the effect ofthe

Enlightenment increasingly

influenced

Euro?

pean perceptions

of

supernatural phenomena

and

witchcraft came

to be

viewed

as more

delusional,

the

product

of the mind rather than

of

magic

and the black

arts.86

While the

early missionary

fathers had decried the

foul

works ofthe Devil

in

the

archipelago,

Seberina's

examiners take

a

somewhat more 'scientific' view

of

the

affair,

one indicative

of

the extent

to

which the ideas of

the

Enlight?

enment had

already

penetrated

the

rural

Philippines

by

1808.

To Fr

Casimiro

Tembleque,

parish priest

of

Obando,

Seberina's

familiar

is

nothing

more than

"the delusions of a 'weak mind' (fantasia debil) so common to her sex" and he

initially

counsels her

simply

to "arm

herself with

the shield of

faith,"

blesses

and

admonishes her to hear mass

frequently,

take communion

and recite the

rosary.

Later, however,

when he discovers that

the case

is

well known

through?

out

the

locality,

he

realises firmer

action is

called for. Even

so,

he refers to

the

situation as a

"strange

case

...

difficult to believe in

without

such

evident

proofs"

but feels that

it

"should be dealt with

by

the full

rigour

of

the

law,

since

not

only

does it

deal with

a loss of faith

...

but

its

consequences

are

very prej-

udicial

to

public

morals

and

good

order."87 In

other

words,

Seberina

should

be

proceeded

against

not

only

because

of

anxiety

about

her or her fellow

vil?

lagers' immortal souls but because her actions disturb public order within the

community

As

a

more

rationalist

approach

permeated

Catholic

theology during

the

nine?

teenth

century,

concern

over

uncovering

the demonic

practices

associated with

witches is

replaced

by

a

conceptualisation

of the

Devil

as

the

arch-beguiler,

the

spinner

of

deceits

and the

master of

duplicity against

whom the

unwary

need to

be

constantly

on their

guard.

As mental

delusion

supplants

witchcraft,

the

gap

between the

Spanish

priest

and

his

indigenous

parishioners,

between

a

system

of

beliefs imbued

with the

new ideas ofthe

Enlightenment

and

a

native

cosmol?

ogy

that

has

selectively

appropriated

and

incorporated

Hispanic

and

Christian

symbols, would only appear to have widened.

Conclusion

The

case of

Seberina Candelaria

and

others like her

make the

historian

more

aware

of the

complexities

of

writing

colonial

histories

that are unable

to

pen-

etrate the

surface

layer

of

historical

representation

and fail to

reach

beyond

the

level

of

action

to the

realm

of

consciousness.

Here,

of

course,

the

ground

becomes

very

slippery. James

Scott

identifies one

path

through

this

morass

by

focusing

on

what

he calls

the

hidden

transcripts

or

the

alternative

meanings

given to

public

texts that can cloak a dissonant

political

culture behind a veil of

seeming

compliance.

According

to

this

mode of

analysis,

the

events

that

take

place

in

Obando

can

certainly

be

interpreted

as

representative

of

a

latent

hos-

tility

against

a

colonial

order

sustained

behind

the

facade

of

Christianity:

devils,



14/20

DEVILS,

FAMILIARS

AND

SPANIARDS

49

familiars and

Spaniards

are,

after

all,

one in

Seberina's consciousness. And the

widespread

attendance

at the

nightly gatherings,

the

conspiracy

of silence that

surrounds these activities for months, and the evident isolation and relative

impotence

of

the

priest

only

east

serious

doubts

over the

penetration

and effec-

tiveness of

Spanish

rule

in

the

Philippines

after more than two

hundred

years

of

colonisation and

evangelisation.

But

there would also

appear

to be

so

much more

going

on

here than

simply

popular

defiance

at

a

colonial

system:

Scott's hidden

transcripts

seem a useful

but

somewhat crude

analytical

device if

confined

purely

to

examining

the

relations

between

ethnic,

racial or

class

groups

in

Obando. Seberina's case is

not

only

about

domination and the forms

of resistance between

indigenous

peoples

and

the

Spanish

but is

also

about

gender

relations

in her

community.

Possession

by

a

demonic familiar grants her the opportunity to manipulate an alternative source

of

influence outside the

male

dominated

authority

structure that

was not

usually

available to women

of her

age

and

position

in that

society.

Ultimately

it will

also create a

backlash

that overwhelms and

then crushes her.

However,

in

the final

analysis,

the

case

of Seberina

Candelaria

is

about how

power

is

abstracted

in

a

rural

community

during

the

late

eighteenth

and

early

nineteenth

century

Philippines.

And

here,

perhaps,

is its most

valuable histor?

ical

insight.

Far from

overtuming

the

previous

belief

systems,

it

suggests

that

the forms and

symbols

of

Christianity

had

themselves been

appropriated

and

incorporated

within a

pre-Hispanic mythology

and

tradition of

mainly

female

priestesses.

The result was neither

wholly

indigenous

nor

wholly

exotic but the

formation of a

hybrid

cosmology.

Moreover,

this

cosmology

was,

in

some

ways,

even

further

removed from the ideas

ofthe

Enlightenment

than

the

Christianity

ofthe

early

missionary

fathers,

who had

at

least

shared

with their

converts more

ofa

belief

in

the

supernatural

means of

manipulating reality.

Nor is

it

possible

to

gauge just

how

commonplace

such

hybrid

cosmologies

were

given

the relative

paucity

of

the

historical record for

the

period.

Jerry

Bentley

argues

that the

simple

effort

to communicate

any

beliefs

and

values

across

cultural

boundaries

"almost

inevitably

entailed a certain

amount of

syn?

cretism,

since the

explanation

of

foreign

concepts required

some

degree

of

comparison

and

assimilatation to familiar

ideas."88 If

such is

the

case,

then

the

encounter between

Christianity

and

indigenous

belief

systems

did not in?

volve

the wholesale

acceptance

of

an

alien

religious system

by

the

native

pop?

ulations

of

the

archiplegao,

but rather

its selective

adoption

and

adaption

in

which

the former's

original

elements

were

fractured,

restated in

new

terms,

en-

dowed with

different

meanings,

and

assembled

in

a

new

way

that

made

sense

and

gave

significance

to

the

latter's

cultural

point

of view.89

Colonial

society,

then,

may

have been

full of

'Seberinas'

whose

existence, however,

remained

hidden to all

but the most

discerning among Spanish

religious

and secular

authorities.

Whether Seberina

Candelaria herself was a

bored

young

woman

seeking

local

notoriety

and

importance

within

her

community,

a

psychotic

who heard

voices,

or a

latter-day priestess

in the

time-honoured tradition of the

babaylanes

is a

matter of

personal

and,

perhaps,

cultural

interpretation.

However,

not

only

does



15/20

50

journal

of

social

history

fall 1999

her

case

permit

the historian a rare

glimpse

into the inner world of a

young

woman and the

imagination

of her

fellow

villagers

alive

nearly

two

hundred

years ago, but it also raises serious doubts about the extent of Spanish control

over

the rural

Philippines.

Department of

History

Private

Bag

92019

Auckkmd,

New Zealand

ENDNOTES

1. Greg Bankoff, "Big Fish in Small Ponds: the Exercise of Power in a Nineteenth

Century Philippine Municipality,"

Modern Asian

Studies

4,

26

(1992):

679-700;

Glenn

May,

"Civic

Ritual

and

Political

Reality:

Municipal

Elections in the

Late-19th-Century

Philippines"

in A Past Revisited

(Quezon

City,

1987)

pp.

30-52;

Norman

Owen,

"The Prin-

cipalia

in

Philippine

History:

Kabikolan,

1790-1898,"

Philippines

Studies

22,3-4

(1974);

and Eliodoro

Robles,

The

Pmtippines

n

the 19th

Century

(Quezon

City,

1969).

2.

Greg

Bankoff,

"Bandits,

Banditry

and

Landscapes

of

Crime

in

19th

Century

Philip?

pines,"

Journal

of

Southeast Asian

Studies

29,

2

(1998);

Isagani

Medina,

Cavite

Before

The

Revolution

(1571-1896)

(Quezon

City,

1994)

pp.

59-105;

and David

Sturtevant,

Popular

Vprisings

in

the

Philippines

1840-1940

(Ithaca

and

London, 1976)

pp.

115-

138.

3.

James

Scott,

Weapons ofthe

Weak.

Everyday

Forms

of

Peasant

Resistance

(New

Haven,

1985)

p.

29.

4.

Michael

Adas,

"From

Footdragging

to

Flight:

The Evasive

History

of

Peasant

Avoid-

ance

Protest in South

and South-East

Asia,"

The

Journal

of

Peasant Studies

13,

2

(1986):

64-86.

5.

Brian

Fegan,"

'Tenants'

Non-Violent

Resistance

to

Landowner

Claims in a

Central

Luzon

Village,"

The

Journalof

Peasant

Studies

13,2 (1986):

87-106

and

Benedict

Kerkvliet,

"Everyday

Resistance

to

Injustice

in

a

Philippine Village,"

The

Journal

of

Peasant

Studies

13,

2

(1986):

107-123.

6.

James

Scott,

Domination

and

the Arts

of

Resistance.

Hidden

Transcripts

(New

Haven

and

London, 1990).

7.

James

Scott,

Domination

and

the

Arts

of

Resistance

p.

32.

8.

Vincente

Rafael,

Contracting

Colonialism.

Translation

and

Christian

Conversion

in

Tagabg Society

Under

Early

Spanish

Rule

(Ithaca

and

London,

1988)

and

Reynaldo

Ileto,

Pasyon

And

Revolution:

Popular

Movements

ln

The

Philippines,

1840-1910

(Quezon City,

1979).

Y

9.

These

trial

transcripts

comprise

the

initial

statements

made in

secret

by

Seberina

Candelaria and

her fellow

villagers before the ecclesiastica

the devils, familiars, and spaniards reading

Documents