Professor Blumentritt's studies of the Philippines

by Daniel G. Brinton

PROFESSOR BLUMENTRITT’S STUDIES OF THE PHILIPPINES

By DANIEL G. BRINTON

Now that the Philippine islands are definitely ours, for a time at least, it behooves us to give them that scientific investigation which alone can afford a true guide to their proper management. Here, as everywhere, man is the most important factor in the problem of government, and a thorough acquaintance with the diverse inhabitants of the archipelago should be sought by everyone interested in its development.

At present, I wish to direct attention to the articles on the Philippines of an author who stands easily first among scientific writers upon them, and who has devoted his life to investigations concerning them—I mean Prof. Ferdinand Blumentritt.

This is the more seasonable, as very few readers are aware of the multitude of his articles, composed as they are in several languages and issued in publications widely asunder in time and place; and yet it is indispensable for everyone desirous of learning the ethnology of the Philippines to consult many of them. I have a number of these writings in my possession, besides the titles of others, making 146 in all, published since 1880.

It would be impossible to do justice to this mass of literature in the space at my disposal. I shall therefore mention only the most valuable to the anthropologist, arranging them in the same order in which I reviewed the ethnography of the Philippines in the American Anthropologist for October, 1898.

General Works.—The most extended survey of the subject is his “Ethnography of the Philippines,” printed as a supplement to Petermann’s Mittluilungen in 1882. But this, in a measure, has been supplanted by his “Alphabetic List of the Native Tribes of the Philippines,” published in the Berlin Zeitschrift für Erdkunde, 1890, with an important supplement in the same journal for 1893. The study of this list is indispensable to everyone who would acquaint himself with Philippine ethnography, and it ought to be translated and republished by our government. Under the title Las Razas del Archipélago Filipino, an early rescript of it, with a map, was printed in the Boletin of the Geographical Society of Madrid, in 1890.

Of articles of general ethnologic interest I may mention one on the census of the individual tribes (Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, etc., 1890); on the ancestor worship and religious opinions of the Malayan tribes (Mittheilungen of the Geographical Society of Vienna, 1882); on the proper names of the natives and their significance in a religious sense (Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, 1894); and on the governments of the native village communities (Globus, 1881).

The Negritos.—Concerning these aborigines, who are ethnographically most interesting, Professor Blumentritt’s articles furnish much information. Their language is discussed from missionary sources (Bijdragen, etc., 1896); those dwelling in Limay are described (Ausland, 1883), and those of Baler (Mittlieilungen of the Geographical Society of Vienna, 1884); their condition at the period of the conquest is set forth from the most authentic records (Deutsche Rundschau, 1884); recent observations upon them are summarized (Berlin Zeitschrift für Erdkunde, 1892); those of the province of Pampanga, Luzon, are described (Globus, 1882, and Mittheilungen of the Geographical Society of Vienna, 1893); those farther north are enumerated (Globus, 1884); a general article on them appeared later (Globus, 1885), and various brief notices occur in other numbers of the same journal.

Wild Tribes of Northern Luzon.—The name “Igorrotes” is applied by Spanish writers in a vague way to many wild tribes. Professor Blumentritt has endeavored to assign it a definite ethnographic meaning, which, it is to be hoped, American writers will adopt (Ausland, 1882, and in the “Alphabetic List,” already mentioned). Special studies are given on the Calingas (Ausland, 1891); the Ilocanes (ibid., 1885); the Tinguianes (Mittheilungen of the Vienna Geographical Society, 1887); the Ilongotes (Globus, 1886, and ibid., 1893); the Zambals (ibid., 1886); and the Gaddanes and Ibilaos (Mittheilungen of the Anthropological Society of Vienna, 1884).

The Tagals and Bicols.—The ancient customs of the Tagals, from the manuscript of Juan de Placencia, are narrated by Professor Blumentritt (Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1893), and their creation myths also are related (Globus, 1893). Interesting facts about the Bicols, from Father Castaño, are added (Mittheilungen of the Vienna Geographical Society, 1896).

The Bisayas.—Under this vague term we may include the natives of Mindanao and the central islands. Those of Mindanao have been studied by Professsor Blumentritt in various articles (Mittheilungen of the Vienna Geographical Society, 1886; ibid., 1891; Petermann’s Mittheilungen, 1891; Globus, vol. 71; Ausland, 1890; Zeitschrift für Erdkunde, 1896). To the natives of Palawan, several articles have been devoted (Deutsche Rundschau, 1884; Globus, 1891). The Manguianes of Mindoro, so vividly described by Professor Worcester, are depicted in an earlier notice (Globus, 1886, and also vol. 69); as are also the mountain-dwellers of the island Negros (Mittheilungen of the Vienna Geographical Society, 1890), and the natives of the Marine islands (Globus, 1884).

The Moros.—The Sulu islands and their Mohammedan inhabitants are the subjects of papers by Professor Blumentritt in the Boletin of the Geographical Society of Madrid, 1891, and in Globus, 1880, 1881, 1882. They should be the more carefully considered, as these piratical fanatics offer the most serious problem in the pacification of the islands.

This list gives but an inadequate account of this author’s profound studies of the Philippines and their conditions. He has published also numerous contributions on the dialectic Spanish there in use; on their industrial products and commercial relations; on the deposits of coal and gold; on the immigration and labor questions; on the volcanic systems; on the missions and their influence; on the causes of the revolution; on the native dialects; and on general political questions.

As no one is better informed than Professor Blumentritt on the actual mental status of the Filipinos, it will interest readers to learn that he is positive they are sufficiently advanced to be capable of independent self-government, and it is his ardent wish that this shall be the outcome of our wresting them from Spanish misrule.