Field work among the Aetas

Title

Creator

Rahmann, Rudolf

Language

English

Year

1955

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

Fr. Rudolf Rohmann, S.V.D.. talks with Mr. Maceda (his student) about the bow and arrow obtained from northern Negros. FIELD W Among volume and the first part of the second volume have appeared to date. IT IS DIFFICULT to state the exact number of Negritos in the Philippines. After a careful scrutiny of all available figures, Father Paul Schebesta, S.V.D., estimates that their total number is something like 20,000 individuals. Of these about 18,500 are found in Luzon, which are approximately divided as follows: in the mountains of Zambales 6,000; in northern Luzon 2,000; in eastern Luzon 8,000; in Bicol 2,500. The rest, about 1,500, live in the central Philippines where they are scattered over the interior of Negros and Panay, and over northeastern Mindanao. There is the question, furthermore, about the percentage of the pure and mixed blood among the Philippine Negrito population. Among the scholars deserving special merit regarding the study of the Aetas are Ferdinand Blumentritt, W. A. Reed, H. Otley Beyer, Father Morice Vanoverbergh, C.I.C.M., Robert F. Fox, and Father Paul Schebesta. When during the last decades of the past century ethnological studies were given a special impetus, it was Blumentritt, the Austrian College Director and great friend of Rizal, who spread the knowledge of the Philippine Negritos in scientific circles through the publication of data gathered from Spanish authors, especially missionaries (Blumentritt, who never visited the Philippines, published nearly two hundred and fifty papers on Philippine ethnography.) Reed studied mainly the Negritos of Zambales. To Beyer we owe the first complete statistics about the different Aeta groups, and he also went into the somewhat difficult problem of their ’racial characteristics. Father Vanoverbergh explored in a careful field work the Negritos of northern and eastern Luzon, and Fox those living on the western and northwestern lower slopes of Mt. Pinatubo in Zambales. Father Schebesta spent in 1938-39 about six months in the Philippines. He worked during this period among the Negritos of Zambales and Bicol, and he also made brief tours to groups of eastern Luzon, northern Negros, and Iloilo. However, Father Schebesta's special merit consists in the publication of his truly comprehensive three-volume work on the Negritos of Asia (Die Negrito Osiens~), i.e., the Semang of the Malay peninsula, the Andamanese, and the Aetas of the Philippines. The first It is but natural that an institution like the University of San Carlos takes a special interest in the small contigents of Negritos in its vicinity: the Mamanuas of SurigaoAgusan, the Aetas of Negros and Atis of Panay. It was gratifying that about nearly three years ago a spark was kindled in the mind of a student of the Graduate School of the University of San Carlos. Mr. Marcelino N. Maceda, who is now a Research Assistant of the Graduate School, proposed to write his Master's thesis on the Mamanuas of Northeastern Mindanao. Since his boyhood he had often seen these dark-skinned people and they had aroused his curiousity. Mr. Maceda's field work for the gathering of the material for his thesis was followed by other scientific tours to Surigao-Agusan, Negros, and Panay. These tours were partly made by the writer and Mr. Maceda in common, partly by the latter alone. Valuable ethnographic data about these small Aeta groups have been gathered and they are being prepared for publication. It is true, the culture of the VisayaAetas and the Mamanuas has, because of rather narrow contacts with their Christian and non-Christian neighbors, been more altered than that of their congeners in Luzon; but still, also these little remnants of the Negrito race in the cenPAGE 2 THE CAROLINIAN )RK he AETAS Father Paul Schebesta, S.V.D. An Indefatigable field worker. tral Philippines are in many respects heralds and living documents of a remote antiquity. From their beliefs and customs we can read off, as from a historic source as it were, elements that must have been part of a very early human civilization. It was for this reason that the late Wilhelm Schmidt, S.V.D., the founder of the Anthropos (see Carolinian Vol. XVII, No. 5, May 1954) initiated, organized, and inspired Professor H. Ofley Beyer, fhe nestor of Philippine ethnology counseling Miss Grace Wood who did field work among the Tlrurays In Mindanao. btf TZea. TZahmann, s tous importance in retracing man's development. Take, i.e., such facts as the existence of monotheism, monogamy, and private property among these oldest living representatives of human-kind. Father Schebesta writes in the er, because there investigations can be made in regions that are racially and culturally uniform, whereas in the Philippines the Negritos are scattered among other population groups, and are, consequently, largely influenced by them. Thus it has happened that whilst the existence of the Aetas has been known for centuries before that of the Semang, the latter have been much more thoroughly studied by now. Viewing the special situation of the Philippines Father Schebesta is of the opinion that the Aetas can be explored with full success only by persons who are thoroughly acquainted with land and people, and who speak several native idioms. These words of the experienced and indefatigable field worker, words of a priest-scholar who during the past three decades repeatedly carried out exemplary investigations among the Pygmies of central Africa and the Semang of the Malay peninsula, should be a challenge to a scholarly-minded young generation of the University of San Carlos, jf an extensive field work among a good number of the different pygmy races of the world. These investigations, largely carried out by competent missionaries, brought to light facts that are of a momenpublication mentioned that field work demands much severer physical hardships and privations in the Malay peninsula than in the Philippines. But, on the other hand, the rewards are greater in the formRefuse to be ill. Never tell people you are ill; never own it yourself. Illness is one of those things which man should resist, on principle at the onset. Buliver-Lyttou AUGUST, 1955 Pa g e 3

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