CULTURAL ENTRAPMENT AND

THE COLONIAL COCKPIT

• not all natives were defeated by the colonizer's spiritual
conquest; some locals fought back

• the indigenous religion continued to be practiced secretly

• precolonial elites, the shamans & the datus defended the

indigenous system that provided legitimacy to their social
positions, which the friars have taken over

shaman : healer
datu : ruler of indigenous people
• natives expressed their resistance in a
passive way, while others did so in a less
passive manner

• indios were caught in middle, as they had

to satisfy the two spheres of power - the
indigenous and the hispanic; they had to
face competing claims of loyalty and
identity
• the natives learned to fulfil two cultures by
following two religious systems, and in the
process nurtured a social practice of
cultural clash

• this clash of power and the indio's

conflicting response gave rise to the
native's gambling outlook in life
• the colonial period brought about gambling as
an expression of the natives' confused
response that simultaneously accepted and
rejected colonial realities

• gambling became an expression of indio's

contradictory relationship to colonial power; it
became a manifestation of this cultural
entrapment
• cockfighting (bulang or sabong) was among the main
games of chance

• it became a visual and exciting display of the clash of

power realms

• the language of the spiritual game simplified the

bird's color into either red (pula), the superior bird
and white (puti), the inferior one

• As a rule, only birds of equal prowess are matched and

the opposing bets were equalized before the fight
• the red stood for the indigenous powers
while the white made to assume the
colonizers

• the game became popular because of its

indirect opposition of the colonial order

• the equal bet between red and white reflected

the split between resistance and
accommodation, as well as feelings of
submission and resistance
• the gambling's message:

- hierarchy and dominance were

present, as the result of the fight
confirmed the native concept of power
(spiritually mighty)

- it allowed for the inversion of

hierarchy in the colonial society
• In the 1770s, the colonial state began
regulating the game but the meaning
generated the indios in the ritual game
was beyond the colonial control