Customs of the Tagalogs

Background
• This is a document written by Juan de Plasencia, a Spanish friar
• During the early years of Spanish colonization (1500s), friars were
instrumental in organizing communities.
• They were fast learners of Tagalog and other native languages
• They wrote report letters to their superiors, one of which is this piece.
• The Customs of the Tagalogs was written in 1589
Background: The Author
• Juan de Plasencia was born in Spain in the town of Plasencia
• Belonged to the Franciscan Order
• Arrived in the Philippines in 1577, via Mexico
• Founded several towns in Laguna de Bay area, Bulacan, and Tayabas
• Converted many natives to Christianity
• Author of “Doctrina Cristiana”, the 1st book printed in the Philippines
• This book was used in cathechism
• He wrote this from Nagcarlan in 1589. He died in Liliw, Laguna in 1590.
Read the document
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13701/13701-h/13701-
h.htm#d0e1500
Answer the following questions (by pair).
1. Juan de Plasencia didn’t call the natives “Filipinos”. What term(s)
did he use to refer to the natives?
2. How many houses comprise a barangay?
3. What is the title for the chief of a barangay?
4. What is the term for the freemen or commoners?
5. What term did the author use to refer to slaves?
6. How can a slave earn his freedom?
7. Aside from heredity, how does one become a slave?
Answer the following questions (by pair).
8. Do the natives practice divorce?
9. True or False: It is the woman who gives dowry to the man’s family.
10. What is the Tagalog term for the nobles?
11. What are the Tagalog terms for “worship”?
12. Who is the Tagalogs’ all-powerful god?
13. Aside from the all-powerful god, list at least 5 other things/gods
that the Tagalogs worship.
14. If a native is on a trip and he encounters a _________, he will go
back home because this is a bad omen.
Answer the following questions (by pair).
15. What do the natives call the priest or priestess of their native
religion?
16. List at least 3 things that the natives offer to their gods.
17. Were there gays in Tagalog society? What are they called?
18. How many kinds of “priests of the devil” did the author enumerate
and describe?
19. In what place can the “osuang” be found? Can this be found in the
Tagalog region too?
20. How do the Aetas bury their dead?
Answer the following questions (by pair).
21. How do the natives call their version of heaven? Hell?
22. What name do the natives use to refer to the demons who live in
hell?
23. What do the natives call the phantoms?
24. This belief called __________ states that “when a woman dies
during childbirth, she and the child suffered punishment, and the
lamenting woman’s voice can be heard at night”.
25. Do you believe the author’s declaration that these underworld
beliefs of the Tagalogs got successfully wiped-out by his ministry and
preaching? Why do you say so?
Answers
Synthesis
• What have we learned today?

• Recitation time