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    Aguilar Tracing Origins

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    Aguilar Tracing Origins

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    Aguilar Tracing Origins

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    of 31
    Tracing Origins: Mustrado Nationalism and the Racial Science of Migration Waves FILOMENO V. AGUILAR JR. Ifoaly our ancestors could be resurrected! ‘Rizal 1890, 90) Racial Science and the Quest for O:ipins [Hiscory 2s che Key to identity for the pioneers of Filipino nationhood in the lace sninereenth century, John Schumacher has recounted the struggle by which the youth= fal Busopeanized originators of Filipino nationhood —che iluzrado, literally “ealighe= ened"—reacted to the “chauvinism common to members of governing races” (1973, 191-220), Amid the onslaughe of Spanish colonial racism, these educated youths Filomeno V. Aguilar J. (fvaguilar@aceneo.rdu) is Profescor in the Depacement of Hiscory or ofthe Insticuce of Philippine Caleure at Ateneo de Manila Univesscy “This article isa revised version ofa paper fist presented a the Fourth Enropean Philippine Studies Confer=nce, Aleald de Henares, Spain, September 9-12, 2001. Iam grateful for a Visiting Reseecch Fellowship ac the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoco Universi, in the sicond half of 2001, which provided the opportunity to pursue che research project of is x pare, Tam also indebted to a research leave awarded by Jemes Cook abled cesearch in che Philippines and che United Staes. In Kyoto I received , questions, and encouragement from Caroline Sy Hay, Patricio Abinales, Authur Terry Rembo, Koji Tapia, and Yoko Hayami. Carol was execemely kind ia giving fre Lberal access to her copies of La Sulidarided sod in being a eriical zoundicg beaed for he article, while Jojo and Terry very generously shared with me useful material Acquiring = copy ai he raze 1885 report of J. Montano was incredibly easy because of the generosity of| Maviee Heez de Leraps. 1 ar graceful to Benecct Anderson, Rusell McGregor, Lily Menor, and Fe Joha N. Scheimachee, S.J, for reading earloe versions and giving me valuable sugges. ons, coeeecrioas, and advice, Tam iso grstefol co my many colleagues 1n Philippine history ‘who paricipaed in “The Macean Conversation: A Conference on the Genealogies of Philippine “History held ix Mactan, Cebu, April 46, 2003, where a version of this article wae presented and critiqued, Thanks are also dse tothe eviewers commissioned by the Joursel of Atax Stes for their emnstractive commencs and suggestions. Mose ofall, chanks yo to my baundlesely eding wife, Julie, for prodding me on to work on this article and for he thrills and peril of visiting Spain, -2he and ‘puteas and uné sharing with Tie Jornal of Asian Studies 64, no. 3 (August 2005):605-37, (© 2005 by the Association for Asian Studies, Foc 60s 606 FILOMENO V. AGUILAR JR. defended their collective pride by searching the past for dignified roors. They proposed and debated varicus approaches, which included Pedeo Paterno's extravagant claim ‘hat “anciene Tagalog civilization” had long been Christian (Schumacher 1979, 268 69), But whatever the view, iluscrados desiced to illumine theit origins in order 0 kknow themselves. Such “knowledge” was seen as vital co further political action, Understandably, a manifesr tendency to glorify ehe ancients emerged. The foremost pattie, José Rizal, aticuleced “the ilostrado nostalgia for lose origins” by constructing “a flourishing, precolonial civilization, the lost eden,” argues Reyoaldo Hero (1998, 31), "to reconstinare the unity of Philippine history” (35). Guided by European, notions of order, linearity, and racionaliey, yee himself implicaced in the “underside of hiscory.” Rizal, in Tleco's view, consciously imagined a past that effaced che differences in colonial society Diversity and divisions did mack the Spanish Philippines. Buc while seudies of this group of pioneering youth have consiclered a range of faccors and moments in the formation of national consciousness—such as class, religion, politics, economics, discourses of kinship ties, gender, and lnceraty strategies'—none fas analyzed ic in the coneexr of ninereenth-century popular and scientific theories of race and aetendant discourses of migeation-diffusion. The period's dominant paradigm of “positive science” gave rise co che belief that peoples of distinct "rac=5” moved into certitories in discrete waves of migration, Each successive and progressively moze advanced wave pushed the earlier arrivals into the interior. The exeane culeural groups encountered by European erbnologists in their “primicive” state were assumed co be “survivals,” residues thar closely approximaced the races of antiquity. Spanish friars in the Philippines had long speculated on the origins of its inhabitants (Score 1994, 9), but the firse systematic formulation of the migration-waves cheory purporting to explain the peopling of the Philippine islands with cwo races and diverse celzaral groups was sdvanced is 1882 by Ferdinand Blumencrict in Versuch einer Exhragrapbie der Philippinen (An Ateempe at Writing a Philippine Echnography). Blumentritt was a Prague-born professor of ethnology at che University of Leitmeriez in the Austro-Hungarian empire (ichrovsky 1987). In 1885 che Frenchman J. Montano published the results of his “scientific mission,” which classified and elaborated upon three races in a discussion of Philippine anchropology.? By the early 1900s, theories of migration waves pervaded the Southeast Asian region.* The timely application of the migration-waves framework to che Philippines colored the intellectual climate in which the early nationalists imagéned the past. To be sure, ia this, as in other political questions, no monolithic uniformity of ideas existed among the iluscrados. Isabelo de los Reyes (1889) expressed grave doubts +A vase literature exists om this subject. Apart from chose wocks cited elsewhere in this article, see Agoucillo 1956; Rafael 1990, Schumacher 1941; Quibuyen 1999 Osdofez 1998, ‘The question of che male elite-dominated imagining of Filipino nationhood. however, hs not been adequacely addressed. Also intriguing is the transmutation of the ilascradoe putin, OF “fatherland,” coche énang bapa. or "mochetland,” of popular national, Blumencrtr's (1980) schema of evo races, Negrito and Malay, concesced with Montauo’s (2885) framework of shree racial ypes, Negeito, Malay, and Indonesian, Montano located che Jase category mainly sa Mindanao. Isibelo de los Reyes dispated Montans’s iaccoduction of ‘Indonesian as 2 third racial caregory and supported the two-rece schena vf Blumesste (1889, 7-9). Rizal similarly subscribed ro Blamentrtt’s formulation, ‘or instance, Welver Skeat snd Charles Blagden published theic grand Pagan Races of be Malay Pencale (V906IR966, 2 vols), which explored the tcial-lingustc aostes of aber inal groups. R. J. Wilkinson (1975) also sarced co publish his hiscoriea! seches chat locaced sborigines, proco-Malsys, Malays, and Europeans in temporal-culeurl scqucree of migration TRACING ORIGINS 607 ‘whether the origins of population groups in che Philippines were ascertainable, but ‘nonecheless extempted (0 reconstruct the pre-Spanish past through the “new science” of folklote (Anderson 2000). For his part, Graciano Lépez Jaena (1951) voiced a profound ambivalence toward autochthony, as will become patent later in this article, ‘An ardent supporter of the ilustrado campaign for equality, known as the Propaganda Movement, and a respected and indefatigable contributor to the ilustrado periodical, La Soliderided (Solidarity), Blumentriet propounded key ideas chat aceracted a wide consensus arnong the educated youth. In a propitious and decisive confluence, Rizal vwas in Europe at juse che historic junceure in which he could be influenced by and in ‘urn infiucoce Blumencriet’s ethnology. Rizal's perception of che past, therefore, would be incompreheasible apart from Blumencritt, with whom he formed an indissoluble friendship. Because the iluscrados believed that there were no court chronicles, manuscripts, temples, or monuments that could illumine the past, Rizal relied on che world of science to coascruct history and define an identity. Dusing hie stay in Europe in the 1880s, he read countless “scientific” books on the Philippines.* In cheir corre- spondence, Blumencrice cold Rizal about the existence ia the British Museum of a rae copy of Antonio de Morga's Sasa de las Islas Filipinas (Events in cin: Philippine Islands), originally published in 1609 (Kramer 1998, 30; Coates 1968, 155-57). Rizal undertook te monumental project of copying and annotating Morga, his edition finally secing prine in Pacis in late 1889.* Most of the copies were sent eo Manila via Hong Kong. The book was in demand, but ie was soon banned in Manila and co} were confiscated and lestroyed. As Ambeth Ocampo pats it, the book “attained ‘rare’ and ‘out of print’ stazus wichin a year ofits publication” (1998, 185). Rizal's annotations of Morga were admittedly influenced by Blumentrice’s Versuch The edifice of pre-Hlispanic migration waves and the associaved racial-culeucal classification scheme sduumbrated by Blumentrite provided the broad template within which race, sation, and civilizarion were exercised i: the ilustrado mind, Dealing ‘with sociocultural heterogeneity was far from straightforward, however, for Rizal and other ilusttedos wrestled with the state of scientific knowledge along with the facticities of colonial life. With some of its prepositions accepted and others rejected, racial science helped confrone the fundamental exiscential questions of collective being: “Who are we? Where did we come ftom?” Like an adopted child who grew ‘Dispur de los Reyes eric thet he romansicine the pas, Rizal stressed that he read Antonio. Morg's ork seven times and srumpeced she hisorfal sours fo bar Bi {hams "On the saber ofthe hittry ofthe criti of tae selene Filipinos I eink ave fend for covet to ve ll he er of entenpnay tos, excep hac of father Place and that of another suchor hich ad been Tom” (Fors Ganson 1996, 2507, 508; emphacs in signa “Although duced 1890, Rizal's dicion of Mocgs suse have speared in princi ate 1889 (On December 28.1859. Rial wrote from Pass co Baldomere Roca sayin hat hea seat four copies ofthe Beck v0 Lip in Bacangas, Philippines (NTIC 1963, 1-113). On Decemser 5, 1885, Masine Ponce, writing to Ita from Barcelona, acknowledged tossing « copy and requested sen more to be ene to the Philippines (NEC 905, 1439). For cee

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