I am based in Manila. I hold a Ph.D. in History from the University of Navarra with a dissertation consisting of a proposographical study of the judges of the Audiencia of Manila and their functions. After that I focused on women in the Spanish colonial Philippines, their education and the feminine ethos that permeated it. From there I have branched off to marriage in the same period, particularly the introduction of canonical marriage and its adaptation to indigenous values and customs. I am especially interested in the processes of adaptation and the intersection of normativities (European, Christian, indigenous, Southeast Asian) in colonial society. This interest has obliged me to expand my chronological scope to pre-colonial culture and society. Phone: +636386370912 Address: University of Asia and the Pacific Pearl Drive, Ortigas Center 1605 Pasig City Philippines
The historiography of women in the Philippines during the early decades of Spanish colonization s... more The historiography of women in the Philippines during the early decades of Spanish colonization seems to present more questions than answers. Localizing the inquiry into those early decades of Philippine-Spanish encounter, this paper examines Historia de las Islas e Indios de Bisayas (c. 1668- 1670) by the Jesuit Francisco Ignacio Alcina (1610-1674), who spent more than three decades in Eastern Visayas. Alcina’s work was patterned on similar works in the Americas, combining a genuine interest in indigenous society and culture with missionary zeal. The ethnographic value of this work stands out within the author’s perspective of demonstrating the development of the Visayans to a more civilized, hence Christian, society. This paper explores Alcina’s depiction of Visayan women, which in many instances is historically comparative, distinguishing between what was “antiguamente” (formerly or in olden times) and “agora” (now or the present). Alcina’s work reveals changes and continuities in the condition of women in the given period.
Central to feminine institutional education in the Spanish colonial Philippines was religious and... more Central to feminine institutional education in the Spanish colonial Philippines was religious and moral formation: the forging and practice of virtue as defining a woman's worth. This type of education sought to prepare girls and women for their primary social function of spousemother-homemaker or, to a lesser extent, for religious community life. In keeping with the feminine ideal prevalent in Hispanized societies of the period, women3 education introduced new feminine values with emphasis on purity, modesty, and seclusion. Paradoxically, enclosure and the virtues consonant with it gained public transcendence on the premise that the quality of public life depended on the ethical values of its participants whose personal lives had been shaped first in the home by women.
Preceding the general reform of basic education of 1863 was the concern to improve the education ... more Preceding the general reform of basic education of 1863 was the concern to improve the education of young women in Manila and the provinces under colonial administration. The education offered in beaterios was deemed insufficient, as it was focused on religious instruction, literacy and womanly arts. To this end, the services of the Daughters of Charity (Hijas de Caridad) were sought in view of the educational impact that their schools and method had attained in Spain. This paper studies the background of their coming to the Philippines and the educational principles that inspired their schools, exploring particularly how consonant these were with the objectives of the Escuela Municipal de Niñas de Manila and some other schools entrusted to them.
Early on in the Spanish colonization of the Philippines, a government-supported institution for t... more Early on in the Spanish colonization of the Philippines, a government-supported institution for the shelter and education of Spanish women was established in Manila. While from the outset the Colegio was intended to preserve the colonial elite by catering exclusively to women of Spanish blood, nevertheless it became the model for subsequent educational institutions forwomen in hispanized Philippines whose legacy is still felt at present. Since much of the existing literature on Santa Potenciana consists only of a brief institutional history, this paper seeks to delineate its institutional configuration and practice as well as the principles underlying these; hence, the commonalities and distinction of the Colegio from similar institutions in the Hispanic world of that period. A spectrum of textual sources, mostly from the 19th century, are used: the statutes of the Colegio, applications for admission and leaves of absence, and disciplinary cases. As further illustration of Santa Potenciana's nature and culture, the changes in the background of the women sheltered in the Colegio and glimpses of a few women who occupied administrative posts there are included in this study. Attention will be given to women's voices whenever they are expressed directly or as mediated by male voices (vested with administrative authority), which are expectedly dominant in the documentation used. Ultimately, this paper hopes to provide another window on the condition of a female sector in Spanish colonial Philippines.
A conference was held in honor of Lourdes Diaz-Trechuelo organized by the History Department of A... more A conference was held in honor of Lourdes Diaz-Trechuelo organized by the History Department of Asia and the Pacific. It gathered Filipino and Spanish historians who examined her pioneering contribution to Spanish colonial Philippine history. This particular paper draws from the editor's dissertation which was guided in part by the Diaz-Trechuelo: Ciriaco Gonzalez Carvajal's Development Programs: Promoting Prosperity in Eighteenth-Century Philippines.
Norms beyond Empire Law-Making and Local Normativities in Iberian Asia, 1500-1800, 2021
Bridewealth and brideservice were two indigenous marriage customs in the Philippines that Spanish... more Bridewealth and brideservice were two indigenous marriage customs in the Philippines that Spanish colonial authorities, both ecclesiastical and civil, considered detrimental to canonical marriage and Catholic matrimonial values. This essay examines the interpretive bases and process of normative production to regulate those customs. To the extent that sources reveal indigenous response, it analyzes the intersection of normativities from the period of contact up to the eighteenth century in various parts of Luzon. It surveys ethnographic descriptions of those practices from Spanish sources which reveal the perspective of European legal regimes that framed interpretations. It traces the colonial legalities, complemented by jurisprudence, normative literature, and archival sources mostly from the ecclesiastical tribunal of the Archdiocese of Manila. While marriage itself fell under ecclesiastical jurisdiction, bridewealth and brideprice were the object of local ecclesiastical and secular law anchored on imperial law, requiring the collaborative agency of the corresponding jurisdictions. The legal itinerary in regard to those customs indicates not only the extent to which they were regulated as they continued to be practiced. It also suggests how closely linked the level of efficacy of the law mandate was to the level of toleration or accommodation, contextualized in pastoral considerations and indigenous sociocultural tradition.
It has become commonplace to hold up Rizal for emulation in the field of education. For us today,... more It has become commonplace to hold up Rizal for emulation in the field of education. For us today, the pedagogy that he proposed a century ago is a matter of course, but it was considered avant-garde during his lifetime. The relevance of his thinking with regard to moral and civic formation and technical training continues till the present. However, the provenance of these ideas has hardly been given any treatment or touched upon. Rizal's commitment to national regeneration could account for them as their ultimate goal, but the particulars of method and content, and the radical turn of thought that we find elucidated in his post-U.S.T. (University of Santo Tomas) works, beg that other sources be scrutinized. This paper will focus on two: the Institucion Libre de Ensenanza and the German systems of basic and vocational education as they existed in the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, it does not ignore the possible influence of Rizal's own passage on Philippine schools, for t...
Through the Real Pragmática of 23 March 1776 and its derivative laws, parental permission for bet... more Through the Real Pragmática of 23 March 1776 and its derivative laws, parental permission for betrothal and marriage of minors became a civil requirement in Spain and its overseas colonies. The law primarily intended to prevent marriages of persons of unequal status with a view to preserving familial position and stability, an objective that coincided with the critical importance of parental intervention in marriage choices among Filipino natives. This extension of royal jurisdiction in marriage, which for centuries had belonged to ecclesiastical jurisdiction, confronted the Church’s defense of freedom of marriage as essential for its validity. Against the backdrop of legal-moral doctrine on freedom of consent and obedience to parents, on the one hand, and sociocultural values related to marriage on the other, this article examines how the Real Pragmática was understood and applied in the territory of the archdiocese of Manila through some cases processed in the ecclesiastical tribunal approximately in the first decade of implementation.
The School of Salamanca: A Case of Global Knowledge Production, 2021
This essay examines selected writings of two Dominican moral theologians, Juan de Paz and Francis... more This essay examines selected writings of two Dominican moral theologians, Juan de Paz and Francisco Martinez, on questions related to indigenous marriage in the Spanish colonial Philippines. The work of Paz is set into the context of his activities as professor and rector of the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, an institution which prided itself on being a purveyor of Hispanic academic tradition. It was often consulted corporately or through its individual professors on a great variety of cases and questions with a moral-legal dimension faced by public and private institutions and authorities. This article also examines Martinez’s treatises on the indigenous customs of bride wealth and wedding services against the background of the insistent injunctions against them from both secular and ecclesiastical authorities. In their interpretation and assessment of indigenous marriage and its attendant customs, these two moral theologians/Paz and Martinez proved themselves to be heirs of the discursive content and method of the School of Salamanca. They applied their command not only of moral theology but also of civil and canon law to a non-European socio-cultural context, thereby demonstrating where points of harmony as well as of dissonance with indigenous custom lay.
Philippine Confluence: Iberian, Chinese and Islamic Currents, C. 1500-1800, pp. 75 – 113. Leiden University Press., 2020
This book chapter is an incipient foray into conceptual history. It explores the connections betw... more This book chapter is an incipient foray into conceptual history. It explores the connections between binukot and recogimiento, as. an encounter of two conceptions of women’s seclusion with their respective social-religious values and contexts, and with their differentiated practices and institutional frameworks.The binukot’s similarity to some practices in island Southeast Asia will be introduced as an indication of further cross-cultural connections.
The notion and practice of claustration of women existed in pre-colonial societies in the Philippines. The secluded maiden or binukot, usually renowned for her beauty and special skills in womanly arts and knowledge of the community’s lore, was prepared to be a prize bride for a husband equally of high status. The binukot’s special location both physical and spiritual was also identified with access to the supernatural realm. The term binukot is found in lexicons of various Philippine languages from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, suggesting the continuance of the practice. The Spanish missionaries who authored those linguistic works easily associated the binukot with the Catholic cloistered nun or the beata of the beaterios-recogimientos created during the colonial period. The value of recogimiento characterized by modesty and domesticity would gain acceptance as central to the feminine ethos in colonial society. The shift in emphasis from one that sought to understand indigenous society and culture to one that explained Catholic practice is not only chronologically significant but also indicative of changing mentalities and values.
The historiography of women in the Philippines during the early decades of Spanish colonization s... more The historiography of women in the Philippines during the early decades of Spanish colonization seems to present more questions than answers. Localizing the inquiry into those early decades of Philippine-Spanish encounter, this paper examines Historia de las Islas e Indios de Bisayas (c. 1668- 1670) by the Jesuit Francisco Ignacio Alcina (1610-1674), who spent more than three decades in Eastern Visayas. Alcina’s work was patterned on similar works in the Americas, combining a genuine interest in indigenous society and culture with missionary zeal. The ethnographic value of this work stands out within the author’s perspective of demonstrating the development of the Visayans to a more civilized, hence Christian, society. This paper explores Alcina’s depiction of Visayan women, which in many instances is historically comparative, distinguishing between what was “antiguamente” (formerly or in olden times) and “agora” (now or the present). Alcina’s work reveals changes and continuities in the condition of women in the given period.
Central to feminine institutional education in the Spanish colonial Philippines was religious and... more Central to feminine institutional education in the Spanish colonial Philippines was religious and moral formation: the forging and practice of virtue as defining a woman's worth. This type of education sought to prepare girls and women for their primary social function of spousemother-homemaker or, to a lesser extent, for religious community life. In keeping with the feminine ideal prevalent in Hispanized societies of the period, women3 education introduced new feminine values with emphasis on purity, modesty, and seclusion. Paradoxically, enclosure and the virtues consonant with it gained public transcendence on the premise that the quality of public life depended on the ethical values of its participants whose personal lives had been shaped first in the home by women.
Preceding the general reform of basic education of 1863 was the concern to improve the education ... more Preceding the general reform of basic education of 1863 was the concern to improve the education of young women in Manila and the provinces under colonial administration. The education offered in beaterios was deemed insufficient, as it was focused on religious instruction, literacy and womanly arts. To this end, the services of the Daughters of Charity (Hijas de Caridad) were sought in view of the educational impact that their schools and method had attained in Spain. This paper studies the background of their coming to the Philippines and the educational principles that inspired their schools, exploring particularly how consonant these were with the objectives of the Escuela Municipal de Niñas de Manila and some other schools entrusted to them.
Early on in the Spanish colonization of the Philippines, a government-supported institution for t... more Early on in the Spanish colonization of the Philippines, a government-supported institution for the shelter and education of Spanish women was established in Manila. While from the outset the Colegio was intended to preserve the colonial elite by catering exclusively to women of Spanish blood, nevertheless it became the model for subsequent educational institutions forwomen in hispanized Philippines whose legacy is still felt at present. Since much of the existing literature on Santa Potenciana consists only of a brief institutional history, this paper seeks to delineate its institutional configuration and practice as well as the principles underlying these; hence, the commonalities and distinction of the Colegio from similar institutions in the Hispanic world of that period. A spectrum of textual sources, mostly from the 19th century, are used: the statutes of the Colegio, applications for admission and leaves of absence, and disciplinary cases. As further illustration of Santa Potenciana's nature and culture, the changes in the background of the women sheltered in the Colegio and glimpses of a few women who occupied administrative posts there are included in this study. Attention will be given to women's voices whenever they are expressed directly or as mediated by male voices (vested with administrative authority), which are expectedly dominant in the documentation used. Ultimately, this paper hopes to provide another window on the condition of a female sector in Spanish colonial Philippines.
A conference was held in honor of Lourdes Diaz-Trechuelo organized by the History Department of A... more A conference was held in honor of Lourdes Diaz-Trechuelo organized by the History Department of Asia and the Pacific. It gathered Filipino and Spanish historians who examined her pioneering contribution to Spanish colonial Philippine history. This particular paper draws from the editor's dissertation which was guided in part by the Diaz-Trechuelo: Ciriaco Gonzalez Carvajal's Development Programs: Promoting Prosperity in Eighteenth-Century Philippines.
Norms beyond Empire Law-Making and Local Normativities in Iberian Asia, 1500-1800, 2021
Bridewealth and brideservice were two indigenous marriage customs in the Philippines that Spanish... more Bridewealth and brideservice were two indigenous marriage customs in the Philippines that Spanish colonial authorities, both ecclesiastical and civil, considered detrimental to canonical marriage and Catholic matrimonial values. This essay examines the interpretive bases and process of normative production to regulate those customs. To the extent that sources reveal indigenous response, it analyzes the intersection of normativities from the period of contact up to the eighteenth century in various parts of Luzon. It surveys ethnographic descriptions of those practices from Spanish sources which reveal the perspective of European legal regimes that framed interpretations. It traces the colonial legalities, complemented by jurisprudence, normative literature, and archival sources mostly from the ecclesiastical tribunal of the Archdiocese of Manila. While marriage itself fell under ecclesiastical jurisdiction, bridewealth and brideprice were the object of local ecclesiastical and secular law anchored on imperial law, requiring the collaborative agency of the corresponding jurisdictions. The legal itinerary in regard to those customs indicates not only the extent to which they were regulated as they continued to be practiced. It also suggests how closely linked the level of efficacy of the law mandate was to the level of toleration or accommodation, contextualized in pastoral considerations and indigenous sociocultural tradition.
It has become commonplace to hold up Rizal for emulation in the field of education. For us today,... more It has become commonplace to hold up Rizal for emulation in the field of education. For us today, the pedagogy that he proposed a century ago is a matter of course, but it was considered avant-garde during his lifetime. The relevance of his thinking with regard to moral and civic formation and technical training continues till the present. However, the provenance of these ideas has hardly been given any treatment or touched upon. Rizal's commitment to national regeneration could account for them as their ultimate goal, but the particulars of method and content, and the radical turn of thought that we find elucidated in his post-U.S.T. (University of Santo Tomas) works, beg that other sources be scrutinized. This paper will focus on two: the Institucion Libre de Ensenanza and the German systems of basic and vocational education as they existed in the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, it does not ignore the possible influence of Rizal's own passage on Philippine schools, for t...
Through the Real Pragmática of 23 March 1776 and its derivative laws, parental permission for bet... more Through the Real Pragmática of 23 March 1776 and its derivative laws, parental permission for betrothal and marriage of minors became a civil requirement in Spain and its overseas colonies. The law primarily intended to prevent marriages of persons of unequal status with a view to preserving familial position and stability, an objective that coincided with the critical importance of parental intervention in marriage choices among Filipino natives. This extension of royal jurisdiction in marriage, which for centuries had belonged to ecclesiastical jurisdiction, confronted the Church’s defense of freedom of marriage as essential for its validity. Against the backdrop of legal-moral doctrine on freedom of consent and obedience to parents, on the one hand, and sociocultural values related to marriage on the other, this article examines how the Real Pragmática was understood and applied in the territory of the archdiocese of Manila through some cases processed in the ecclesiastical tribunal approximately in the first decade of implementation.
The School of Salamanca: A Case of Global Knowledge Production, 2021
This essay examines selected writings of two Dominican moral theologians, Juan de Paz and Francis... more This essay examines selected writings of two Dominican moral theologians, Juan de Paz and Francisco Martinez, on questions related to indigenous marriage in the Spanish colonial Philippines. The work of Paz is set into the context of his activities as professor and rector of the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, an institution which prided itself on being a purveyor of Hispanic academic tradition. It was often consulted corporately or through its individual professors on a great variety of cases and questions with a moral-legal dimension faced by public and private institutions and authorities. This article also examines Martinez’s treatises on the indigenous customs of bride wealth and wedding services against the background of the insistent injunctions against them from both secular and ecclesiastical authorities. In their interpretation and assessment of indigenous marriage and its attendant customs, these two moral theologians/Paz and Martinez proved themselves to be heirs of the discursive content and method of the School of Salamanca. They applied their command not only of moral theology but also of civil and canon law to a non-European socio-cultural context, thereby demonstrating where points of harmony as well as of dissonance with indigenous custom lay.
Philippine Confluence: Iberian, Chinese and Islamic Currents, C. 1500-1800, pp. 75 – 113. Leiden University Press., 2020
This book chapter is an incipient foray into conceptual history. It explores the connections betw... more This book chapter is an incipient foray into conceptual history. It explores the connections between binukot and recogimiento, as. an encounter of two conceptions of women’s seclusion with their respective social-religious values and contexts, and with their differentiated practices and institutional frameworks.The binukot’s similarity to some practices in island Southeast Asia will be introduced as an indication of further cross-cultural connections.
The notion and practice of claustration of women existed in pre-colonial societies in the Philippines. The secluded maiden or binukot, usually renowned for her beauty and special skills in womanly arts and knowledge of the community’s lore, was prepared to be a prize bride for a husband equally of high status. The binukot’s special location both physical and spiritual was also identified with access to the supernatural realm. The term binukot is found in lexicons of various Philippine languages from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, suggesting the continuance of the practice. The Spanish missionaries who authored those linguistic works easily associated the binukot with the Catholic cloistered nun or the beata of the beaterios-recogimientos created during the colonial period. The value of recogimiento characterized by modesty and domesticity would gain acceptance as central to the feminine ethos in colonial society. The shift in emphasis from one that sought to understand indigenous society and culture to one that explained Catholic practice is not only chronologically significant but also indicative of changing mentalities and values.
This brief study takes off from Norman Owen’s observation that the narrative of Filipino women pa... more This brief study takes off from Norman Owen’s observation that the narrative of Filipino women parallels that of nationalist history. It would read thus: the pre-Hispanic stage in which women enjoyed equality with men and freedoms was set back by Spanish colonialism, which relegated women to invisibility from public life. The Revolution provided the opportunity to break out of those confines, but American colonization overtook women’s incipient liberation; eventually, however, the regime gave women more freedoms and prospects for education and to be present in public life. J. Schumacher and R. Javellana have pointed to members of the nineteenth-century Propaganda Movement as having constructed such a perspective on Philippine history in their efforts to establish the roots of Filipino identity. This essay focuses on the work of Pedro Paterno, Jose Rizal, and Isabelo De los Reyes, whose writings on women in pre-Hispanic society constitute the earliest known publications on the subject by Filipinos, an incipient women’s history, if you will. Naturally, the Spanish colonial era marked the chronological limit of their historical construction. At the same time, their historical contiguity with the pre-colonial afforded them a perspective vis-à-vis their own condition as colonials, one that needs to be contextualized in the intellectual and political milieu of the late nineteenth century in Europe and the Philippines. Understanding their intellectual frameworks may contribute to the discussion on the genealogy of Filipino women’s history, and therefore furnish points of critique for examining present-day Philippine historiography in this area.
This paper is a preliminary study on two aspects of marriage as it was instituted in Spanish colo... more This paper is a preliminary study on two aspects of marriage as it was instituted in Spanish colonial Philippines. The first is freedom of the spouses in giving matrimonial consent, which is the constitutive act of marriage; and the second, unity of marriage, with its twin character of exclusivity and indissolubility. Spanish colonial government, secular and religious, had to grapple with Philippine indigenous customs considered incongruent with canonical marriage and its auxiliary values.
This study examines some of the means by which colonial authorities sought to refashion the institution of matrimony according to Spanish, Catholic norms in the late seventeenth century up to the late eighteenth. Examples of institutional means were the visita a la tierra undertaken by magistrates of the Audiencia, the diocesan visitation by the bishop, both of which enabled colonial authorities to know the situation in provincial localities; and the beaterio for women. The critical role with regard to marriage that parish priests played is included in this study insofar as it is reflected in manuals meant for their use. Matrimonial cases give some indication of the extent to which canonical marriage was recognized by the lowland indigenous population and enforced by the Catholic Church. The cases presented are illustrative, even if sketchily, of social conditions and practices among indios and mestizos de sangley. Emerging as a central concern in relation to marriage and, through marriage, to social order, are women and feminine values.
By focusing on case studies from the Iberian empires in Asia, this volume seeks to revise this na... more By focusing on case studies from the Iberian empires in Asia, this volume seeks to revise this narrative of law and empire by proposing a decentered perspective that places a multiplicity of normative arrangements at the center of observation. By focusing on the idea of normativity, it looks at the experiences of empire to understand how norms adapt to new conditions, how local communities navigate these changing normative orders, and how law-making was tied to diverse local histories, traditions, and practices. This approach allows integrating different orders of norms, from imperial law, canon law, and moral theology to local rituals, customs, and practices, as well as written traditions such as Dharmaśāstra and Smṛti, the Ritsuryō, and Confucian and Taoist philosophy. The case studies highlight these features of the relationship between law and empire by looking at China, India, Japan, and the Philippines, illustrating the ways in which the making of law in Iberian Asia drew from diverse experiences and normative knowledge beyond that of the empire to produce unique configurations of norms from place to place.
A conference was held in honor of Lourdes Diaz-Trechuelo organized by the History Department of A... more A conference was held in honor of Lourdes Diaz-Trechuelo organized by the History Department of Asia and the Pacific. It gathered Filipino and Spanish historians who examined her pioneering contribution to Spanish colonial Philippine history. This particular paper draws from the editor's dissertation which was guided in part by the Diaz-Trechuelo: Ciriaco Gonzalez Carvajal's Development Programs: Promoting Prosperity in Eighteenth-Century Philippines.
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Papers by Marya Svetlana T . Camacho
with the critical importance of parental intervention in marriage choices among Filipino natives. This extension of royal jurisdiction in marriage, which for centuries had belonged to ecclesiastical jurisdiction, confronted the Church’s defense of freedom of marriage as essential for its validity. Against the backdrop of legal-moral doctrine on freedom of consent and obedience to parents, on the one hand, and sociocultural values related to marriage on the other, this article examines how the Real Pragmática was understood and applied in the territory of the archdiocese of Manila through some cases processed in the ecclesiastical tribunal approximately in the first decade of implementation.
The notion and practice of claustration of women existed in pre-colonial societies in the Philippines. The secluded maiden or binukot, usually renowned for her beauty and special skills in womanly arts and knowledge of the community’s lore, was prepared to be a prize bride for a husband equally of high status. The binukot’s special location both physical and spiritual was also identified with access to the supernatural realm.
The term binukot is found in lexicons of various Philippine languages from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, suggesting the continuance of the practice. The Spanish missionaries who authored those linguistic works easily associated the binukot with the Catholic cloistered nun or the beata of the beaterios-recogimientos created during the colonial period. The value of recogimiento characterized by modesty and domesticity would gain acceptance as central to the feminine ethos in colonial society. The shift in emphasis from one that sought to understand indigenous society and culture to one that explained Catholic practice is not only chronologically significant but also indicative of changing mentalities and values.
with the critical importance of parental intervention in marriage choices among Filipino natives. This extension of royal jurisdiction in marriage, which for centuries had belonged to ecclesiastical jurisdiction, confronted the Church’s defense of freedom of marriage as essential for its validity. Against the backdrop of legal-moral doctrine on freedom of consent and obedience to parents, on the one hand, and sociocultural values related to marriage on the other, this article examines how the Real Pragmática was understood and applied in the territory of the archdiocese of Manila through some cases processed in the ecclesiastical tribunal approximately in the first decade of implementation.
The notion and practice of claustration of women existed in pre-colonial societies in the Philippines. The secluded maiden or binukot, usually renowned for her beauty and special skills in womanly arts and knowledge of the community’s lore, was prepared to be a prize bride for a husband equally of high status. The binukot’s special location both physical and spiritual was also identified with access to the supernatural realm.
The term binukot is found in lexicons of various Philippine languages from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, suggesting the continuance of the practice. The Spanish missionaries who authored those linguistic works easily associated the binukot with the Catholic cloistered nun or the beata of the beaterios-recogimientos created during the colonial period. The value of recogimiento characterized by modesty and domesticity would gain acceptance as central to the feminine ethos in colonial society. The shift in emphasis from one that sought to understand indigenous society and culture to one that explained Catholic practice is not only chronologically significant but also indicative of changing mentalities and values.
This study examines some of the means by which colonial authorities sought to refashion the institution of matrimony according to Spanish, Catholic norms in the late seventeenth century up to the late eighteenth. Examples of institutional means were the visita a la tierra undertaken by magistrates of the Audiencia, the diocesan visitation by the bishop, both of which enabled colonial authorities to know the situation in provincial localities; and the beaterio for women. The critical role with regard to marriage that parish priests played is included in this study insofar as it is reflected in manuals meant for their use. Matrimonial cases give some indication of the extent to which canonical marriage was recognized by the lowland indigenous population and enforced by the Catholic Church. The cases presented are illustrative, even if sketchily, of social conditions and practices among indios and mestizos de sangley. Emerging as a central concern in relation to marriage and, through marriage, to social order, are women and feminine values.