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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7/26/2019 The Devils, Familiars, And Spaniards Reading
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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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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
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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
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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,
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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.
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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
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7/26/2019 The Devils, Familiars, And Spaniards Reading
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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
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7/26/2019 The Devils, Familiars, And Spaniards Reading
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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,
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7/26/2019 The Devils, Familiars, And Spaniards Reading
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DEVILS,
FAMILIARS AND SPANIARDS
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
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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
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7/26/2019 The Devils, Familiars, And Spaniards Reading
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DEVILS,
FAMILIARS AND SPANIARDS
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
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7/26/2019 The Devils, Familiars, And Spaniards Reading
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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,
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7/26/2019 The Devils, Familiars, And Spaniards Reading
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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
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7/26/2019 The Devils, Familiars, And Spaniards Reading
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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
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Kabikolan,
1790-1898,"
Philippines
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22,3-4
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and Eliodoro
Robles,
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Pmtippines
n
the 19th
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1969).
2.
Greg
Bankoff,
"Bandits,
Banditry
and
Landscapes
of
Crime
in
19th
Century
Philip?
pines,"
Journal
of
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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
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London,
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and
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And
Revolution:
Popular
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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