Filipino shamans
Filipino shamans, commonly known as babaylan, were shamans of the various ethnic groups of the pre-colonial Philippine islands. These shamans specialized in communicating, appeasing, or harnessing the spirits of the dead and the spirits of nature. Babaylan were predominantly women serving in spiritual leadership roles; in rare instances, effeminate men adopted dress and roles commonly associated with women within indigenous spiritual practice. They were believed to have spirit guides, by which they could contact and interact with the spirits and deities and the spirit world. Their primary role were as mediums during pag-anito'' séance rituals. There were also various subtypes of babaylan specializing in the arts of healing and herbalism, divination, and sorcery.
Terminology
The most common native terms for shamans among Austronesian groups in Island Southeast Asia are balian, baylan, or cognates and spelling variants thereof. They are all derived from Proto-Western-Malayo-Polynesian *balian, meaning "shaman" or "medium". Various cognates in other non-Filipino Austronesian languages include babalian, bobolian, and bobohizan ; wadian ; belian ; belian ; walen or walyan ; balian ; bolian ; balia ; wulia or balia ; balia ; balian ; and balieng. However *balian-derived terms have largely disappeared among lowland Filipinos after Christianization in the Spanish era. Some exceptions include Bikol where it persisted and acquired the Spanish feminine suffix -a as balyana. It also survives among some Muslim Filipinos like in Maranao walian, although the meaning has shifted after Islamization.The linguist Otto Dempwolff has also theorized that *balian may have ultimately derived from Proto-Austronesian *bali with the suffix *-an, in the meaning of "one who escorts a soul to the other world ". However, the linguists Robert Blust and Stephen Trussel have noted that there is no evidence that *balian is a suffixed form, and thus believe that Dempwolff's interpretation is incorrect.
More general terms used by Spanish sources for native shamans throughout the archipelago were derived from Tagalog and Visayan anito, these include terms like maganito and anitera. However, different ethnic groups had different names for shamans, including shamans with specialized roles. These include:
- Abaknon: tambalan
- Aeta/Agta: anitu, puyang, huhak
- Bagobo: mabalian
- Balanguingui: duwarta
- Banwaon: babaiyon
- Bikol: balyán, balyán-a, balyana, paraanito, paradiwata
- Bukidnon: baylan
- Gaddang: mailang
- Hanunó'o: balyán, balyán-an
- Higaonon: baylan
- Hiligaynon: maaram
- Ibaloi: mambunong
- Ifugao: mandadawak, dawak, insupak, mon-lapu, tumunoh, alpogan, mumbaki, manalisig
- Ilocano: baglan, mangoodan, manilao, mangalag, mangngagas
- Isneg: alopogan, dorarakit, anitowan
- Itneg: mandadawak, alpogan
- Ivatan: machanitu, maymay, mamalak
- Kankana-ey: manbunong, mansib-ok, mankotom
- Kapampangan: katulunan
- Karay-a: ma-aram, mangindaloan, soliran
- Lumad: balian, balyan, mabalian
- Maguindanao: walian, pendarpa'an, pedtompan, tabib, pangagamot, ebpamangalamat
- Mamanwa: baylan, binulusan, sarok, tambajon
- Mandaya: baylan, balyan, baliyan
- Manobo: beylan, baylanen, manhuhusay, manukasey, walian or walyan, diwata
- Maranao: walian, pamomolong
- Palaw'an: belian
- Sama-Bajau: balyan, wali jinn, dukun, papagan, pawang, bomoh, kalamat, panday
- Sarangani: magbulungay
- Subanen: balian, tanguiling
- Suludnon: banawangon
- Tagalog: katalonan, manganito, sonat, anitera, lubus, manggagamot, manghuhula or pangatahoan, hilot
- Talaandig: walian
- Tausug: mangubat, pagalamat
- Tagbanwa: bawalyan, babaylan
- T'boli: tao d'mangaw, tao mulung, m'tonbu
- Visayan: babaylan, baylan, daetan, katooran, mamumuhat, makinaadmanon, diwatera, anitera, mananambal, himagan, siruhano, manghuhula or manghihila, mananabang
- Yakan: bahasa
Initiation
Most babaylan inherited their status from an older babaylan they were apprenticed to, usually a relative. In some cultures, like among the Isneg people, older shamans can choose apprentices from among the eligible young women of the village.A few, however, become babaylan after experiencing what has been termed a "shamanistic initiatory crisis". This includes serious or chronic illnesses, near-death experiences, sudden seizures and trembling, depression, strange events or behavior, bouts of insanity, and strange visions or dreams. These are regarded as encounters with the spirits, where the soul of the person is said to be journeying to the spirit world. In cases like this, it is said that a spirit chose the person, rather than the other way around.
After being chosen, shamans go through an initiation rite. These rites are meant to gain or transfer the patronage of a spirit. Among Visayans, this ritual is known as the tupad or tupadan. In cases of people with "shamanic illness", these initiation rites are regarded as the cure, where the initiate regains health or sanity by conceding to the wishes of the spirits and "answering the call". When volunteered rather than volunteering, their relatives are usually required to pay a large fee to the senior shaman for the training. Initiation rites can range from simply inducing a trance through herbs or alcohol, to inducing personal crises through physical or psychological hardship. Extreme examples of initiation rites include getting buried alive or being immersed in water overnight.
After initiation, the apprentices are then trained in the details of their role. This training includes learning about the rituals, the chants and songs, the sacrifices appropriate for each spirit, oral histories, herbs and healing practices, and magic spells, among others. They usually assist the senior shaman during ceremonies until their training is complete, which can take months to years. Each shaman can have one or more such apprentices, at varying ranks or specializations.
Spirit guides
The shaman's power to communicate with the spirit world is derived from their spirit companions that guide them and intercede for them. These spirits are usually referred to in euphemistic terms like abyan, alagad or bantay, or gabay, among other terms. Shamans have at least one abyan, with more powerful shamans having many. Certain individuals like powerful leaders or warriors are also believed to have their own abyan that give them magical powers. Abyan are also believed to guide, teach, and inspire skilled artists and craftsmen in the community.Abyan spirits can be ancestor spirits, but they are more commonly non-human spirits. Shamans either had spirit companions from birth, drew their attention during the "shamanic illness", or gained their allegiance during initiation into shamanism. Spirits are believed to be social beings, with individual quirks and personalities. The friendship of abyan depend on reciprocity. The shamans do not command them. People with abyan must regularly offer sacrifices to these spirits, usually consisting of food, alcoholic drinks, ngangà, and blood from a sacrificial animal in order to maintain good relations. This friendship of abyan, once earned, is enduring. They become, in essence, part of the family. The abyan of a deceased shaman will often "return" to a living relative who might choose to become a shaman as well.
The abyan are essential in shamanistic rituals as they prevent the shaman's soul from getting lost in the spirit world. They also communicate entreaties on behalf of the shaman to more powerful spirits or deities, as well as fight evil spirits during healing or exorcism rituals.
Sex and gender
In most Philippine ethnic groups, shamans were predominantly female due to the role of the shaman being an intrinsically feminine one. Among the minority of male shamans, most belonged to a distinct class—known as asog in the Visayas and bayok or bayog in Luzon—who adopted the voice, mannerisms, hairstyle, and dress typically associated with women. These individuals were treated socially in ways similar to women, and their status allowed them access to spiritual and religious professions.In Historia de las islas e indios de Bisayas, the Spanish historian and missionary Francisco Ignacio Alcina records that the asog became shamans by virtue of being themselves. Unlike female shamans, they neither needed to be chosen nor did they undergo initiation rites. However, not all asog trained to become shamans. Castano states that the people of Bicol would hold a thanksgiving ritual called atang that was "presided" by an "effeminate" priest called an asog. His female counterpart, called a baliana, assisted him and led the women in singing what was called the soraki, in honor of Gugurang.
Historical accounts suggest that during the precolonial period in the Philippines, female shamans predominated in the religious realm. The Bolinao Manuscript, for example, records that during an Inquisitional investigation of the shamans in the town of Bolinao, Pangasinan between 1679 and 1685, animistic paraphernalia were confiscated from 148 people. Of those, 145 were female shamans, and the remaining three were transvestite male shamans, thus highlighting the statistical imbalance between the female-to-male ratio of indigenous shamans. The anonymously-written "Manila Manuscript" also emphasized the auxiliary role of gender non-conforming male shamans in relation to the female shamans. These evidences, together with the fact that there were no written accounts of female sex/male gender identification amongst the women who exercised authority within the spiritual sphere, prove that spiritual potency was not dependent upon the identification with a neuter "third" sex/gender space, but rather on the identification with the feminine – whether the biological sex was female or male. Femininity was considered the vehicle to the spirit world during the pre-colonial era, and the male shaman's identification with the feminine reinforced the normative situation of female as shaman. While Brewer agreed that it is naïve to dismiss the existence of a principal male shaman during the precolonial era, she also argued that such cases were unusual rather than the norm, and that the statistical imbalance in favour of principal male shamans occurred as a result of the influence of the male-centered Hispano-Catholic culture, such that in the late nineteenth century and in the early years of the twentieth century, in some areas like Negros, all the babaylan were male. Lachica has also hypothesized that the disappearance of female babaylan during the late Spanish colonial period was probably the influence of the male-led Catholic church that "ousted" the female babaylan since the people were looking for parallels to the male clergy.
Babaylan can freely marry and have children, including male asog who were recorded by early Spanish colonists as being married to men. In some ethnic groups, marriage was a prerequisite for gaining full shaman status.
After the Spanish conquest of the Philippines, the practice of shamanism became clandestine due to persecution by the Catholic clergy. During this period, male shamans became predominant. Female shamans became less common, while asog were punished harshly and driven to hiding. The change in women's status and the ostracization of the asog, however, did not immediately change the originally feminine role of the shamans. Male shamans in the late 17th century still dressed as women during rituals, even though they did not do so in their day-to-day activities. Unlike the ancient asog, they did not have sexual relations with other men, and indeed, were usually married to women.