The Tasaday Tapes
Lawrence
A. Reid
Social
Science Research Institute and
Department of Linguistics
University of Hawai'i
It
is nearly a quarter of a century since the Tasaday people, a band of about twenty-six
supposedly isolated, stone-tool using hunter-gatherers, living in caves in the
rain forests of Southern Mindanao were first read about in Manila’s newspapers
(July 8, 1971), and shortly thereafter around the world in hundreds of magazine
and newspaper articles. National Geographic and NBC produced TV documentaries
which captured the imagination of their viewers and the stage was set for a
controversy that has waxed and waned until today. At issue was whether the
Tasaday were really a completely isolated group having absolutely no knowledge
of the agricultural communities that surrounded their forest home, living a
pristine, Paleolithic lifestyle since time immemorial in peace and harmony with
themselves and their environment, or whether they were a carefully selected
group of Manobo and Tboli farmers, some even well educated, who were persuaded
to participate in a well-orchestrated hoax, characterized by some as "the
most elaborate hoax perpetrated on the anthropological world since the Piltdown
Man" (Mydans 1988), or whether they were something in between these two
extreme positions.
In
1986, a conference was held at the University of the Philippines to discuss the
Tasaday. Two years later a symposium, organized by promoters of the hoax theory
was held at the International Congress on Anthropological and Ethnological
Sciences in Zagreb. I happened to attend these sessions and was intrigued that
almost nothing was being said about the language that the Tasaday were speaking
in 1971, at the time of the first contact. It seemed to me that there should be
clear evidence for or against the hoax theory from the language itself. There
had been a number of word lists taken by some of the earliest visitors to the
group, anthropologists as well as linguists, most were unpublished. Teodoro
Llamzon had collected a 200 word list in two days in July, 1971. Richard Elkins
of the Summer Institute of Linguistics collected a small body of data in four
days in August 1972, before sickness forced him to leave the area. He was
followed shortly thereafter by Carol Molony, who in two visits totaling about
two weeks recorded some 800 lexical items and some taped texts, 45 pages of
which were transcribed, translated and published.
In
1989, I was invited to participate in a symposium on the Tasaday at the 88th
Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. I presented my
findings (Reid 1992) that an examination of all of the available data from that
period gave no evidence of any hoax, but that it seemed the Tasaday were
speaking a dialect of the Manobo language spoken in Cotabato, as other
linguists had already claimed.
This
however did not settle the question of how isolated the group had been from
other Manobos. Little was known of the form of the language spoken in Blit, the
nearest agricultural community to the Tasaday caves. Could the Tasaday`have
been speaking Blit Manobo? The answer would have to come from doing fieldwork
with both Tasaday and Blit speakers. This research was begun in 1993, when I
was able to spend approximately three months living with the Tasaday. Although
many of the Tasaday have married wives from Blit (they call the place Tan*
Bayi "Land of the Women") and consequently now speak the Manobo
language of Blit, the Tasaday claim that the language they spoke before was
different, and not mutually intelligible with Blit Manobo. I worked primarily
with the man Belayem, alongside a speaker of Blit Manobo, Mafalu Dudim, the
half brother of Belayem’s two Blit wives. Belayem gave me hundreds of terms
that were supposedly used by the Tasaday before 1971, and which were claimed by
Mafalu to be unknown to him as a speaker of Blit. Although, as reported in Reid
(1998), a number of these terms were
probably coined by Belayem to accentuate the difference between the two
dialects and to authenticate himself as Tasaday, there were also a number of
terms that had cognates in languages elsewhere in the Philippines, but which
were no longer found in either Manobo or any other language that Belayem could
possibly have been in contact with.
As
part of the endeavor to discover as much as possible about the form of the
language spoken in 1971, I decided to try to examine some of the tapes that had
been made in the caves within days after outsiders had first visited the
Tasaday cave site in March, 1972. John Nance, the reporter who accompanied
Elizalde on most of the visits to the Tasaday in the early 1970’s reports in
his book, The Gentle Tasaday (Nance 1988:150):
On
the fourth afternoon of the visit [3/26/72] Elizalde thought of leaving a tape
recorder running in the cave when we were not there. He borrowed a small
portable unit from Fernandez and put it inside a black leather bag with some
clothes. Mai and Dafal took it to the cave in the evening and said they were
putting Manda’s wet clothing beside the fire to dry. Just before departing Mai
switched on the recorder; its microphone rested against a small opening in the
zipper. Mai fetched the machine later and then he, Igna, and Elizalde huddled
for more than two hours over the thirty-minute tape. By midnight they had
completed it, Mai and Igna translating and Elizalde writing everything down by
flashlight. It was painstaking work and there were many uncertainties, but the
results were fascinating. Elizalde immediately sent to Manila for a larger
recorder and a supply of tapes that would record for two hours on each side.
After they arrived, several hours of each day were spent rigging up the machine
and transcribing what it recorded.
The
next sixteen pages of Nance’s book contain "all that was written down by
Elizalde at the time of the original transcription" (ibid. p. 151)
of five recording sessions between 3/26/72 and 4/1/72. Two weeks later,
Elizalde and several others including Nance again visited the caves (referred
to as the second expedition) and five more recording sessions (eight hours of
tape) took place between 4/18/72 and 4/22/72. Translations of some of these
tapes are also given by Nance (ibid. p. 199-211). Following these two
expeditions, Nance states that this "candid" recording technique was
only used twice in visits over the following eighteen months for a total of
three hours of tape (ibid. p. 152). No translations have appeared of any
of the latter recordings. As is very quickly apparent, no transcription was
ever made of the language that the Tasaday were using on the recordings. Only
translations of the tapes are given. So, although they were invaluable for
providing clues as to what the Tasaday were talking about when outsiders
weren’t around, they give us no information at all about how they were saying
it.
In
commenting on the taped conversations that Nance described, Gerald Berreman an
anthropologist at the University of California, Berkeley, and one of the
leading proponents of the hoax theory, characterizes the conversations as
"ludicrously improbable", containing "inanities...enough to
exceed one’s tolerance for conversational implausibility" (Berreman
1992:34-35). Noting that the tapes had reportedly been lost, he implies that
the "transcriptions" may not be real. He says, "If the
transcriptions are authentic, the Tasaday must have been hard up for
conversational fare" (ibid. p. 35). Oswald Iten, a Swiss freelance
reporter, and one of the leading skeptics of the Tasaday, similarly faults
Elizalde and Nance for failing to provide "inquiring scientists" with
tapes (Iten 1992:48). Berreman acknowledges that Nance, in the "Afterward"
of the 1988 edition of his book The Gentle Tasaday, reports that
Elizalde "now claims to have found the tapes..." He further notes,
"If so--and as of May 1992 they have not appeared--we will be interested
to learn what they contain and in what language (and whether, if produced, the
ones "found" in fact date from March-April, 1972.) (Berreman
1988:335.)
I
have no idea why the tapes were not made available earlier. I was told when I
first inquired that I could have access to them whenever I was ready to use
them. However, Berreman does have a valid criticism. I have received copies of
only three hours of tapes, on two cassettes, only one of which is labeled, and
that inadequately. The remaining tapes, of which there must be at least ten
hours worth, have still not seen the light of day. There can be no question,
however that the tapes that I have examined are absolutely genuine, implausible
as the contents may seem to a Berreman or an Iten. They are clearly not
fabrications. The conversations on them are in no way staged, and provide
significant insights into the enormous impact that exposure to Elizalde and his
retinue of associates had on an extremely unsophisticated band of forest
dwellers.
The
transcription and translation of the tapes that were provided to me was done
over a period of several weeks in June and July, 1995, first in Kematu, a
village close to the township of Tboli, then in Tafal, a Bisayan
"Christian" settlement at the end of a former logging road, high in
the mountains and a half day’s hike from Blit, and finally in Blit itself.
I
had originally planned to do the transcription and translation of the tapes
either in Blit or in Magtu Ilingan, the small valley where a number of Tasaday
families presently live. However, municipal officials in Tboli would not give
permission to enter the Tasaday Reservation, claiming that there had been
recent reports of Muslim rebel activity in the area. A messenger was therefore
sent into Tasaday to request some of the men to come out to work with me.
Kematu was not a good location to listen to tapes however. It is located in a
narrow valley with a single road leading to a gold mining area at the head of
the valley, and there was a constant stream of noisy motorcycles racing back
and forth carrying miners and their families to the market in Tboli. Although
there was an excellent water supply and ready access to the market (not a minor
consideration when feeding 8-10 people three times a day), the Tasaday were not
happy there, often complaining of the noise and of being unable to check on
their animal traps in their forest home.
When
they would no longer stay there, I arranged for them to return to their homes
and to meet me in Tafal, to the west of the Tasaday Reservation, a week or so
later. The Tasaday were not comfortable in this place either. Tafal is
primarily a frontier settlement of Bisayans originally from Iloilo, usually
referred to as "Christians" to distinguish them from Manobos and
Tbolis, the so-called "tribal" people, and from the Muslims, who
constitute the major population of several adjoining provinces. The Tasaday
call the Christians maghalén, a borrowing of the term maghalin
which in some of the Bisayan languages means "to move from a place
permanently" and is specifically applied to the families that have
migrated to Mindanao (Wolff 1972:292). Because of the settlers’ reputation for
attempting to carve out their farms from some of the peripheral areas of the
Tasaday Reservation, the less the Tasaday have to do with these people the
better they like it. Although in this area, the Tasaday are not considered to
be a hoax, they tend to be treated as though they were forest freaks, little
better than animals. I had considerable difficulty arranging a dry floor for
them to sleep on, and food for them to eat. After a few weeks of this, they
left, and in order for me to finish the work I had planned to do I had to
follow them to Blit, where I was finally able to complete the work.
In
Kematu, the primary Tasaday assistants were Mahayag and the brothers Adug and
Gintuy, who were accompanied by two of their Blit wives, Dili and Sita. In
Tafal and subsequently in Blit, Adug, Gintuy and Belayem were the main Tasaday
assistants. Assisting as translators in Kematu were Antonio Lugan, a native Tboli
and a resident of Kematu, who had lived with the Tasaday as a school teacher,
and who, in addition to his Tboli mother tongue, could speak Blit Manobo, some
Tagalog and a little English; and Igna Kilam, a Sdaf Manobo woman who had acted
as a translator into Ilonggo or Tagalog during the initial contacts with the
Tasaday in the early 70’s. In Tafal, Tulingan Labi assisted as a translator. In
addition to his native Manobo, he could speak some Tagalog and some Ilonggo,
the main language of the Bisayan settlers in Tafal. His wife, Bol, the daughter
of Datu' Dudim of Blit by his first wife Kelaya, also assisted. In Blit, Mafalu
Dudim, the Blit half brother of Belayem’s two wives, Sindi' and Soleh, acted as
a translator. He could speak some Tagalog and had been my main Blit Manobo
assistant during my fieldwork in 1994. Finally, Renilda Sison, a young woman
from Tafal, who could speak Ilonggo, standard Tagalog and some English also
assisted as a cook and interpreter from the non-standard Tagalog of my other
assistants to the standard form with which I was more familiar. I am extremely
grateful to each of these assistants for the roles that they played in helping
me achieve my goals.
It
should be noted that communication with the Tasaday during fieldwork was
primarily through the language that they commonly use now, that is Blit Manobo.
However my control of that language is weak, the result of only three months
exposure to it in 1994. Explanations given to me in Blit of terms that I did
not know were often well beyond my capacity to interpret, hence the need for
interpreters. The situation was complicated for me by the fact that I could not
find a Blit who had any knowledge of English, beyond basic greetings and the
like, and further, that it is Ilonggo (which I do not understand) which is the
main trade language in the area. Tagalog is not used as a trade language,
however many Blit believe that they can speak the language, because of
continuously hearing it over the radio, and from the schooling that some have
been exposed to. However the form of Tagalog that they use is far from the
Tagalog which I know. It is a form of Tagalog, shorn of much of its rich verbal
affixation, and without any reduplication, processes which are so important in
Tagalog to mark aspect and what is commonly called "focus", and often
without the benefit of the ubiquitous case marking forms which enable Tagalogs
to determine who is doing what to whom and with what. Blit and Tasaday have a
very limited set of verbal affixes, aspect is not commonly marked in the verb,
and case is marked by word order rather than by determiners. Tagalog
explanations of Tasaday sentences therefore often turned out to be word for
word substitutions of Tagalog lexical items for the Tasaday terms, and often
left me little wiser than I was before the explanation.
The
two tapes made available to me are marked CAVE TAPE (1) MARCH 30 [COPY], and
CAVE TAPE (2) 3RD TRIP [COPY]. The first tape is recorded on both sides of a
120 min. cassette tape, and probably constitutes a single recording session. It
may be the final tape recorded at the end of the first expedition that was
taken by Elizalde to the caves. The second tape is clearly labeled as having
been made on the third expedition, which lasted from 5/14/72 to about 5/21/72
(Nance 1988:224-239).
Both
tapes were obviously recorded in an enclosed area with considerable echo,
almost certainly the main cave. The first tape, especially, has continuing
interference from environmental noises. Most prominent is the relentless high
pitched song of forest insects. It was probably made at night. Combined with
the insect noise is the ubiquitous sound of splashing water, apparently from
the small waterfall that is located beside the caves. To these noises are added
the sounds of children playing, a sick child persistently crying, the frequent
coughing of several of the adult men, the sounds of chopping, and beating, all
complicated by cross conversation between individuals located at varying
distances from the recorder, and often talking at the same time. Mai Tuan, the
individual who provided the translations that Nance used, is said to have
remarked that "it was the hardest work (like that) he had ever done"
(Nance 1988:469).
In
order to enhance the quality of the tapes, I had some of the higher frequencies
filtered out by technicians at the University of Hawaii prior to taking them
back to the Philippines for transcription. Although this eased somewhat the
difficulty of interpreting some of the conversations, there was still much that
neither I, nor the Tasaday who worked with me on the transcriptions could
decipher. One further complication was that Belayem, who at the time the tapes
were recorded was probably a young man in his mid-twenties, and was one of the
main speakers on the tapes, was, and still is, an extremely eloquent
individual, frequently speaking with great emotion, speed and intensity, making
it difficult to transcribe everything that he said.
If
one reads through the translations of the tapes, it quickly becomes obvious
that there is a lot of unconnected discourse. There are a number of reasons for
this. The main reason is that there are many places on the tapes that are
completely unintelligible, for the reasons discussed above. Often only snatches
of conversation, or parts of single utterances could be clearly heard. Gaps of
this sort are indicated in the transcriptions by a series of connected periods.
Another reason is that in the middle of a sublime peroration by Belayem or
Mahayag about the depth of their feelings for the person they had been told to
call Momo' Dakel Diwata' Tasaday "Great Uncle Master of the
Tasaday" someone would tell someone to get firewood, or pass the betel
chew, or to pick up a crying child, or some other completely unrelated mundane
comment.
A
third reason is that the meaning of some parts are still obscure, and the
closest translation that I was able to get simply did not have any logical
connection with what went before it. It is quite obvious that there is a
considerable amount of metaphorical speech, a characteristic feature of all of
the languages of the area. People, for example, are compared to trees, and
their children to the branches of a tree, or to a stream with its tributaries.
Belayem, at that time still childless, likens himself to a Caryota palm,
without branches. At another point he compares himself to a small hardwood
tree. It is probable that some of the otherwise semantically anomalous
utterances have metaphorical interpretations, which if known, would make the
connection with their contexts quite obvious. Another possible reason is that
we did not hear the tape correctly, and consequently came up with an incorrect
translation.
Despite
these problems of understanding, there are large sections which are clearly
understood and which provide us with invaluable insights into the impact that
exposure to the modern world in the form of Elizalde, and his friends, and
their way of life was having on the Tasaday.
Although
the tapes that I have do not seem to be the source of any of the translations
that are given in Nance’s book, the themes that appear in them are precisely
those that are discussed by him and which provoked such amusement and disbelief
in Berreman. These themes include the following (all quotations are taken from
Side 1, of Cave Tape 1, unless otherwise noted):
Apart
from the various mundane comments that are scattered through the conversations,
everything else that is said is either directly or indirectly related to their
experience with Elizalde. Their meeting with him constituted what amounted to a
sublime religious experience. Even the sound of the voices of the outsiders
coming up from the forest floor below the caves, stimulates Belayem to break
out into ecstatic song.
Belayem: 126.
What shall I sing about? 127. My thoughts desire Big Uncle Master of the
Tasaday. 128.This is now my song. 129. That is why, Lefonok, this is now the
one thing that I shall sing about this month. 130. I am experiencing this love.
131. It would be better for us if Mahayag were here. ..... 132. Tomorrow, you
will tell Mahayag. 133. Nanaa, nanaa. 134. Big Uncle Master of the Tasaday.
135. This is my news. 136. He is not here. 137. Kuletow has just arrived. 138.
Oh Kuletow, today we Tasaday are watching over, ayo duyuy. 139.
Where have you been, Gintuy? 140. Where have you been today? 141. Where is
Udelen? 142. I have something to sing to you. 143. I already finished making
the stone ax. 144. We are beginning to feel sad. 145. Oh, Dula, now, Big Uncle
is near. 146. I have to wait around now. 147. Tay ye Big Uncle, tay
ye Big Uncle. 148. [We] have to wait around now. 149. That is why all
the children ... 150. It would be good if Bilengan were here. 151. Toy
ye nanaa nanaa. 152. Belayem is worried, named a Tasaday disek
ligbalud tree. 153. Yo, Belayem is beginning to worry now.
Belayem
and Mahayag, the two main speakers, see in Elizalde’s actions a pattern of love
toward them. They repeat over and over again that it is his actions that
motivate their love and devotion toward him. The evidence of Elizalde’s love,
they say, is the fact that he slept with them in the caves.
Belayem: 313.
If Big Uncle Master of the Tasaday loses interest our feelings will be
devastated. 314. What we like about Big Uncle Master of the Tasaday, we did not
shift our gaze from him when he slept with us in our place here in the caves.
315. That is the true sign that he really entered into our hearts, he slept
with us already. 317. Even though, if he did not take us into, into his
feelings, into the heart of Big Uncle Master of the Tasaday, he would not yet
have slept with us, oh, Mahayag.
9. He would not have slept here in the cave
if his love for us was small.
334. Even so, if he didn’t demonstrate to us
his love for us, he would never have slept with us, Big Uncle Master of the Tasaday.
335. There is the place where he slept, the place where he stayed, Mahayag.
For
Belayem particularly, it was the provision of a wife for him in the person of
Sindi' that inspired his devotion to Elizalde.
Belayem: 18. As for us, Sindi', you already married me,
Belayem. 19. I, Belayem, am your husband, Sindi'. 20. Isn’t this so, Lefonok?
24. That is why we are already married, Sindi', because of Big Uncle Master of
the Tasaday. 26. Even though his thoughts [for us] are small, he loves us, Big
Uncle Master of the Tasaday. 27. He would not have married us, Sindi', sister
of Friend Short-One. 28. Big Uncle Master of the Tasaday married [us] ... 29.
That is why, Big Uncle Master of the Tasaday, he is not different [from us].
73. This, Sindi', you married me, Belayem.
74. Belayem is my name. 75. Belayem, a person who digs yams, digs yams. ... 76.
That is why, it is only one [thing], Sindi', our thoughts, our thoughts should
always be on Big Uncle Master of the Tasaday. 77. It is only one [thing],
Lefonok, our thoughts should always be on Big Uncle Master of the Tasaday.
Dul expresses the depth of her feelings
for Elizalde in the following words:
Dul (from Tape1, Side2): 428. If Big Uncle Master of the Tasaday
leaves me, I will always cry. 429. I will lose consciousness.
Belayem:
430.
That’s how we all feel, Dul.
Elizalde’s
message of conservation of their forest resources, conveyed through Mai Tuan
("Friend Short-One"), and interpreted by the Tasaday to include even
the crabs, frogs, tadpoles and little fishes of the streams, became for them
the sacred word, to be carried with them day and night, never to be forgotten.
Mahayag:
379. You see Big Uncle Master of the
Tasaday is here with us. 380. Now, [about] those words that he said to us,
don’t ever let them go, don’t ever leave them. 381. Don’t ever forget them.
382. Those things that Big Uncle Master of the Tasaday said to us. 383.
"All of the things here in your mountain, all of the things in your place,
don’t give away your wild animals. 384. Don’t give away your palm pith. 385.
Don’t give away your male monkeys, your monkeys, ..
Mahayag:
387.
"… your wild yams, your tadpoles, all of the things that you eat here in
your mountain. 388. [If you do] there will be no more [food] to distribute when
[we] go [to get some]. 389. There will be no more tadpoles. 390. There will be
no more fishing. 391 When there are no more outsiders with us, wherever they
come from." 392. Ha! 393. That is what he says to us now, Belayem. 395. We
must always take care of these things now. 396. We must never misplace the
words of our Brother Short-One [that he said] to us Tasaday people when Big
Uncle Master of the Tasaday arrived here.
398. Now, what we are saying to all of
us now, to all of our male companions, listen to what I have told you, these words
to you. 411. Prepare now to emulate
me. 412. You see now this Caryota palm starch here in our mountain. 413.
Brother Short-One wants that we do not take it for distributing to even one
person staying here. 414. Not one person should eat it. 415. Because [if we do]
the palm starch will be depleted from our mountain. 416. The result for us who
are the owners of it, our yams will be depleted from our mountain, that is what
the result would be for us owners. 417. The palms would be depleted. 418. The
things that we own here, here in this mountain would be used up. 419. The fish
in the streams would be all gone, the palm pith would be all gone. 420. Isn’t
that right, Belayem? 421. If we use up all the palm pith here in the mountain,
we who are the owners of it, we people who live here in these caves. 422. Since
long ago, we have stayed here. 423. This place where our ancestors stayed
before is now the place where we stay. 424. That is why we stay inside here.
425.
We will never again leave from here.
For
Belayem, everything was to be shared with only one other person, Elizalde.
Belayem:
494. The words of Big Uncle Master of
the Tasaday, the words of Brother Short-One. 496. Your rattan, don’t deplete
it. 498. Your yams, don’t deplete them. 500. Your palm starch, don’t deplete
it. 502. Don’t distribute your palm starch to other people. 504. It cannot be
shared with other people. 505. All is for Big Uncle Master of the Tasaday, the
palm starch, the tadpoles, the frogs, the crabs. 507. Your monkeys. 509. All of
the fish, all of the little fish of the Tasaday. 511. The little things that
are eaten here in Tasaday. 513. Yams, the little things that are eaten. 514.
Especially the palm starch. 515. Especially the trees. 517. Especially our
trees, there is none that can be given away. 518. Especially our rattan, there
is none that can be taken. 520. Our rattan, our trees, our Tasaday mountain,
our Tasaday tadpoles, our Tasaday frogs, our Tasaday crabs.
523. Let’s sleep now. 525. Let us carry
[those words] when we go to sleep, Mahayag. 527. When we wake up, let us carry
them when we are awake. 529. When we leave to go to make palm starch, let us
carry them when we go to make palm starch. 531. When we eat, let us always eat
those words of Big Uncle Master of the Tasaday. 533. When we are making spear
traps, let us always dwell on those words of Brother Short-One. 535. Now, when
we make monkey traps, always, always let us not leave them behind, Mahayag,
those words of Brother Short-One. 537. Our yams, our palm starch, our tadpoles,
our fish, all of the fish, every one of our fish. 538. Those, we must never
leave them behind, those words of Big Uncle Master of the Tasaday. 539. Hey!
540. What do we call Big Uncle Master of the Tasaday, if we leave them behind,
Mahayag? 542. Those words of Big Uncle Master of the Tasaday, of Brother
Short-One. 543. Hey! 544. Where did you hear this from, these words to conserve
the fish, words to conserve the yams, words to conserve the monkeys, words to
conserve the tadpoles, words to conserve the trees, words to conserve the rattan,
words to conserve the wild animals, Mahayag? 546. There was only one person
whom we saw come out from where we stay, from these caves. 547. That one is Big
Uncle Master of the Tasaday.
It
seems that not everyone was as enamored of their new Master as were Belayem and
Mahayag. There was some discontent, apparently because they felt the need to
stay in the caves while the outsiders were around. They could not freely go out
to get food, as was their custom.
Belayem:
84. Let us not keep going out. 85. When
Big Uncle goes home then we can go out. 86. That is also what we like about Big
Uncle Master of the Tasaday. 87. There is no other way [to think about it], he
is your father. 88. It is only he, Big Body. 89. You know, I’ll also be
different, Sindi'. 90. It doesn’t matter if all my companions leave me.... 91.
[While] all of my companions go out to get food, to extract palm pith, I will
stay [here, in the cave]. 93. Just that, Lefonok. 94. If it is up to me, that
is truly [what will happen], Sindi', even if it is just us, Lefonok, we will
surely stay here.
549. Hey! 550. So that is the only thing
that we will talk about to all the children, to the men, to all the women. 551.
We will talk about it to them. 552. This is the only thing you [should] do, you
[should] laugh. 553. This is the only thing you [should] do, you [should] be
happy. 554. Why are you not happy? 555. Why are you not laughing? 556. Why do
you appear sad? 557. Why are you frowning, when our father, Big Uncle Master of
the Tasaday is here?
The
need for unity in the face of change is a consistent theme. Elizalde’s appearance
had apparently introduced the seeds of discontent, and both Belayem and Mahayag
exhort their companions to put aside their differences and to act and speak as
one, and to become one with the Master himself.
Belayem: 258.
Bilengan is not here, he is making palm starch. 259. Hey! 260. As for our
feelings, there is no other than to focus our feelings, to be one with Big Uncle
Master of the Tasaday. 261. To be one with Big Uncle Master of the Tasaday.
262. That’s why we should focus our feelings.
282. Hey! 283. All of our sisters. 284.
This [should] still be your thoughts, unite your thoughts. 285. Especially us
men, let us unite our thoughts. ... 289. The women here, Dul, Dula, Itet,
Sikey, four of them here. 290. Not including Ginun, she is somewhat deaf. 291.
Ginun is the fifth among us. 292. Now ... unite your thoughts, Dul. 294. Unite
your thoughts, Sister Dula. 300. Unite your thoughts, that’s also how your
thoughts [should be]. 301. Don’t distance yourself from Big Uncle Master of the
Tasaday. 302. Teach the children. 303. As for us men, let us not distance our
thoughts from the thoughts of Big Uncle Master of the Tasaday. 304. Hey! 305.
That is why, that is really true, Big Uncle Master of the Tasaday, his love for
us, Big Uncle Master of the Tasaday. 306. Why did he come here to be with us in
our place? 307. So that, so that the people would be as one. 308. We saw him
here in this place where we stay. 330. Hey! 331. Let us not distance our
feelings from him, he did not distance himself from us, Mahayag. 332. He showed
it to us, that true love of his for us.
437. That is why, now, because of this,
unite [our] feelings, let us make our thoughts clear to Big Uncle Master of the
Tasaday. 438. Now, Mahayag, let us focus our feelings, the feelings of the
women, the feelings of the men. 439. Now, Mahayag, don’t ignore it, don’t
disobey it. 440. Now, in this place of ours here, let our feelings be united.
441. And all the women, all the women, and all the men, let the men be as one,
also let the women be as one. 442. When a woman speaks, let only one speak.
443. When a man speaks, let only one speak, [rather than] several speaking.
444. Now! 445. And the words of that person, now. 446. [Even if] our place will
be all used up. 447. [Even if] the people’s feelings be all consumed, [nevertheless,
I] will not ever again be tired of teaching their words.
Old ways die hard, however, and even Belayem is not averse to
being critical about one of the absent members of the group.
Belayem (from Tape 1, Side 2): 92.
The women also, (they) are full of love, the children are also loving,
completely united. 93. (But) Bilengan is somewhat different. 94. He has a
disposition, Bilengan has a strange disposition. 95. He wants to be first. 96.
He acts impatiently. 97. Mahayag, on the other hand, doesn’t have that trait of
trying to be first. 98. And Udelen has a personality that makes us laugh.
Belayem: 130. One of our companions, Bilengan, has bad
feelings toward us. 131. As for (his) feelings, when he acts impatiently, he is
like a young child. 132. He is really still like a child. 133. Even though he
is the oldest among us, Lefonok, he is really like a child, (this) old man of
ours.
A
major theme of the tapes is food, as one should expect from a people whose
existence depended on continual forays through the rain forest to acquire it.
In these three hours of recorded conversation, there are forty-two references
to biking "yam", and about thirty references to basag
"Caryota palm", from which they extracted a sago-like starch called natek.
It should be noted that there is not a single mention of cultivation, or of
cultivated foods, such as corn, sweet potato, taro or other foods with which
they are now familiar. The only mention of rice is in the context of the food
that Elizalde had brought for them, which they referred to then (and still do)
as natek Momo' Dakel "the palm starch of Big Uncle
[Elizalde]".
Belayem’s earliest childhood memories after the death of his
mother and father are of the foods that his caretakers gave him.
Belayem (from Tape 1, Side 2): 110.
If it were not for you Kuletow who took care of me when I was small ... when I
was small. 111. You carried me on your back on top of the bundles of yams. 113.
Kuletow carried me on his back on top of the packages of palm starch. 114.
Kuletow took care of me when I was small, when my father ... Salibuku ... died.
115. This Kuletow, the one who took care of me before Mahayag grew up. 116.
Then, Mahayag raised me.
Belayem:
123. Hey! 124. Sikey! 125. Sikey
raised me on tadpoles, the tadpoles of the Tasaday. 126. As for Kuletow, he fed
me the heads of Tasaday monkeys. 127. Kuletow raised me on Tasaday palm starch.
128. Kuletow raised me on Tasaday yams. 129. That’s why, we feel the same way.
Belayem’s
sole interests, he claims, were always activities related to the search for
food. When characterizing himself to his new wife Sindi', he calls himself a
"digger of yams". Similarly Mahayag talks of the search for food as
the only thing that they know anything about.
Belayem:
69. What interests us is the making of
noose traps. 70. What interests us is the making of monkey traps, the making of
spear traps, the making of palm starch, and digging yams.
73.
This, Sindi', you married me, Belayem. 74. Belayem is my name. 75. Belayem, a
person who digs yams, digs yams.
Mahayag:
465. One thing we know is the making of
pig traps. 466. Another thing we know is the making of spear traps. 467.
Another is the making of snare traps. 469. When [we] make snare traps, the only
thing we think about is going to check the snare traps. 471. To check the pig
traps, the only thing we think about is checking the pig traps. 472. The only
thing we think about is checking the monkey traps.
The
arrival of Elizalde had interfered with the daily business of getting food, so
that several of the group were becoming disgruntled. Belayem and Mahayag try to
ease the problem by suggesting that they go out to get food, as long as they
return to the caves, so that they will be around should Elizalde want to visit
them.
Belayem:
100. We will go and get wood grubs, and
we will return. 101. We will go to dig yams, as long as we return.
Mahayag:
432. Even if it is night when we go to
look for Caryota palms we will return home from the place where we went. 433.
We will just come back here.
There is extensive discussion about the felling of palms so that
they do not end up leaning against other trees, and the best places to look for
yams that are easy to dig out.
Mahayag (from Tape 1, Side 2): 184. ... in the place where we go to look for yams.
185. In the place where we fell palms. 186. You watch me when you fell a palm.
187. If it doesn’t fall so that it leans against a tree, you say that the pith
will be good (for making starch). 189. We say that the starch will be good, if
it doesn’t fall against a tree, if it doesn’t lean (against a tree). 190. When
we dig yams, if the hole isn’t deep, we feel good. 192. When we dig yams, some
are not already growing deep in the earth, some are situated on top of a rock.
194. The place that is not deep, is where you should dig. 196. (If we do) that,
we will feel happy. 197. We will not be tired digging. 198. We will not be
tired extracting (the yam). 199. If there is one, we will fell a palm tree.
203. If you see that, whenever you go to dig yams, it is growing along the top
of a rock. 205. The earth on top of that is not deep, only as deep as your
armpit, just dig it out. 207. It’s too bad, your feelings are good there, (but)
you have to wait here. 208. You will not ... eat yams today.
Belayem:
241. Just like what Mahayag said.
242. The yams that are under the roots (of a tree), yams that are under the
buttress roots (of a tree), these yams could still be gotten. 243. Before, it
was difficult to dig the root of a yam. 244. Right, it was difficult to dig the
root of a yam, (when it grew) under the roots (of a tree), under the buttress
roots (of a tree), before. 245. Honey bees. 246. [We] climbed up the trunk of
the tree. 247. (The tree) was felled and leaned against (another tree). 248. It
was felled against (another tree). 249. It was felled leaning like this. 250.
Always leaning. 252. That’s why, ... we help one another. 253. Hey!. 254.
Today, Mahayag. 256. ... the feelings of felling a Caryota palm, whenever we do
that, we see the place where it will fall on the ground, Mahayag.
Belayem: 296. You see now, when
the children leave to go to dig yams, it’s just the top that they get. 298.
When the children go to make palm starch, when they fell the palm, it leans
against a tree. 299. Because (they) do not know how to fell a tree, (they should)
watch Mahayag, whenever (he does it) it always falls straight to the ground, it
doesn’t lean against a tree. 301. That is why, a child says, how can he do that
whenever he fells a palm? 302. That is why, I think, there is someone who is
showing pity.
The Tasaday quickly became accustomed to the sacks of rice and
other food supplies that Elizalde brought in for them, although they mention
that it gave them stomach problems when they first ate it. They also were
appreciative of the medical assistance that he provided for them.
Sindi' (from Tape 1, Side 2): 475.
The food is piled up.
Belayem:
476.
I wonder what it is that Big Uncle eats. 477. What about the tadpoles (we ate)
before? 478. We have good thoughts. 479. We have good feelings. 480. We never
saw medicine for stomach ache. 481. We got stomach ache before. 482. It was the
first time for us to eat them. 483. We don’t [get stomach ache] now.
Belayem:
485.
We got accustomed to it already...
Odo'
: 486.
We already got tired of it.
Belayem:
487.
Yams and palm starch are what we are accustomed to. 488. Also the rice
[literally, palm starch] of Big Uncle. 489. Big Uncle has his rice. 490. If I
do not eat again the rice of Big Uncle, I will not feel good. 491. Those things
of ours ... they make us feel as though we will die. 492. We have already
become accustomed to this, to this rice of Big Uncle.
Mahayag:
493.
We have already become accustomed to its taste.
Belayem:
494.
Big Uncle seems to have been (here) a long time.
It
was clear even from the earliest wordlists, that Tasaday was a Manobo language,
but that there were a number of basic lexical items that they were using which
were unique. These included the words peglo'on "sun", and sebang
"moon". Both of these terms occur in the tapes. The equivalent Blit
Manobo terms, respectively agdaw and bulan, are not found at all.
|
|
129. Ya kena' di, Leponok, igkani n*
seba'en naken tinulon sebang sini. 130. Aken kinambang kehidu sini.
|
128. This is now my
song. 129. That is why, Lefonok, this is now the one thing that I shall sing
about this month. 130. I am experiencing this love. |
|
Be |
From Tape 2: 633. Sa guwa'en iling'iling diya' peglo'on,
sa guwa'en medagtung, sa guwa'en sadek, sadek, guwa'en layag, sadu peglo'on,
sak guwa'en senang, sak guwa'en sebang. 634. Tibubu ki pa endag
pigtu'u sak senang sebang. 635. Tibubu ki pa endag pigtu'u sak senang peglo'on,
sak landaw peglo'on. 636. Sak layag sebang, enda' nekuwa di
dalem ilib. |
633. What [we] say,
for example about the daytime, what [we] say is that [they] fall, those what
[we] call rays of the sun, and what [we] call the light of what [we] call the
moon. 634. We still doubt that the light of the moon is real. 635. We still
doubt that the light of the sun, the brightness of the sun is real. 636. The
moon’s rays, they do not light up the inside of the cave. |
An
interesting Tasaday semantic development noted in the above paragraph is the
term layag "rays of the sun". In other languages of the
Philippines, including Cotabato Manobo, the term means "sail of a
boat".
The
Tasaday term kelu'ku' "cough" (MboBl buha') occurs once
on the tapes. This term has cognates in a number of non-Manobo languages of the
Philippines. This term was first elicited during my first visit with the
Tasaday in 1990. Molony and Tuan (1976:76) report the Blit term buha', a
form which also occurs on the tapes.
|
|
14. Ma'en ko kelu'ku'? 15. Ubus
kag ka'en ubud Kakay Leponok? |
14. Why are you coughing?
15. Did you already finish eating the palm pith, Friend Lefonok?
|
|
|
365. Enda' naken, dakel a buha'.
|
365. Not me, I have
a bad cough. |
|
|
366. Apay pa buha'
pa'a pe'anagan. |
366. Even though you
still have a cough, [you can do it] slowly. |
There
is discussion about the merits of using their newly acquired flashlights when
they go to catch frogs. The term that they used for flashlight is the common
Cotabato Manobo kulinsung "fire-making bow". The semantic
extension to include any object that makes light is unique to Tasaday.
|
|
39. Medo'o sakit si medo'o duma ta
taw*. ... 40. Ula'an ok du'en kulinsung ..... 41. Mapi'on siya dakel kulinsung.
|
39. Many of our
companions have problems. ... 40. It’s no use if there is a flashlight [that
has no batteries] .... 41. The big light is good. |
|
|
42. Ugpa' da' niko.
43. Enda' iseg di mepi'on siya dakel kulinsung, meda'et siya. .....
|
42. It’s the one
that is with you. 43. The big light isn’t really good, it’s bad [for hunting
for frogs at night]. |
Belayem
and Mahayag commonly use metaphors to refer to themselves. At one point Belayem
calls himself by the name of a small hardwood tree disek ligbalud,
the name of which is not known in Blit. Similarly, Mahayag, often calls himself
Mahayag Bulul literally "Clear Mountain" (i.e., a mountain
that has no trees growing on it) neither part of which is used in Blit.
|
|
152. Luminaban Belayem, pinengadanan disek
ligbalud Tasaday. 153. Yo pe'edung lumaba' Belayem igkani. |
152. Belayem is
worried, named a Tasaday disek ligbalud tree. 153. Yo,
Belayem is beginning to worry now. . |
|
|
376. Migkagi a, aken idu Mahayag
Bulul a. |
376. I will speak, I
who am Mahayag Bulul "Clear Mountain". |
Another
Tasaday metaphor is the term pekelamag "sexual intercourse",
literally "make the wind blow". Mahayag in the following exchange
claims that the rice that Elizalde had provided for them had aphrodisiac
effects. Similarly, the term for "rice", still used today by the
Tasaday, natek i Momo' Dakel literally means "palm starch of Big
Uncle", and is a unique Tasaday metaphor.
|
|
From Tape
1, Side 2 |
|
|
Be |
504. Kinadaman ta de sini natek i Momo'
Dakel. |
504. We have already
become accustomed to this rice of Big Uncle. |
|
Ma |
505. Mepi'on n* siya
i pekelamag! |
505. It is good for
making love! |
A
variety of other expressions which Blit speakers claimed were not used by them,
also occur. One of these is the expression muwang (kal*) which always
appears immediately before a conditional prepositional phrase (having either of
the prepositions amuk or ok "if") expressing either an
explicit or an implied negative condition.
|
|
7. Muwang amuk pinede'isek de
kehidu di kenita, kowa, Leponok. |
7. It’s too bad if he
has already reduced his love for us, what do you say, Lefonok. |
|
|
26. Muwang kal* ok de'isek pedu
di, kehidu di kenita, Momo' Dakel Diwata' Tasaday. |
26. Even though his
thoughts [for us] are small, he loves us, Big Uncle Master of the Tasaday
|
|
|
263. Muwang kal*, amuk tig
de'isek kehidu kenita diya' Tasaday, enda' pesawa?en di si Sindi' si Belayem.
|
263. If not for this,
if he only had a small love for us Tasaday, he would not have married Sindi'
to Belayem. |
|
|
317. Muwang kal*, amuk enda' iglahuk
di kita diya', diya' atay, diya' atay di, diya' pusung di Momo' Dakel Diwata'
Tasaday, enda' pa tumudug di diya' kenita, o, Mahayag. |
317. Even though, if
he did not take us into, into his feelings, into the heart of Big Uncle Master
of the Tasaday, he would not yet have slept with us, oh, Mahayag.
|
|
|
334. Muwang kal*, amuk enda'
igtulu' di du kenita i kehidu di du kenita, Momo' Dakel Diwata' Tasaday,
enda' tumudug di polo diya' kenita. |
334. Even so, if he
didn’t demonstrate to us his love for us, he would never have slept with us,
Big Uncle Master of the Tasaday. . |
Belayem
on several occasions used the term agut which is not used in Blit and is
possibly unique to Tasaday. At least in some contexts it seems to function as a
conditional preposition translatable as "if".
|
|
549. H*! 550. Agut, siya da'a i
kagi'en ta diya' langun bata', me'ama, langun bayi. 551. Kagi'en ta diya'
kagda. |
549. Hey! 550. So
that is the only thing that we will talk about to all the children, to the men,
to all the women. 551. We will talk about it to them |
|
|
From Tape 1, Side 2: 118. Ya kena' di, kowa Mahayag i! 119. Agut
diya'en ta, kowa Kuletow, agut diya'en ta kowa palan ki lukes, palan
ki lukes si egoh di sini, Kuletow. |
118. That’s why,
Mahayag! 119. If we act like that, Kuletow, if we act like old people, we
would all be old now, Kuletow. |
|
|
154. Agut, kowa Mahayag, aken
Belayem, amuk metawa ki sigoh di sini. 155. Metawa ki. |
154. If, Mahayag, I
am Belayem, today we will be laughing. 155. We will be laughing.
|
|
Be |
From Tape 2: 373. Agut si Kakay De'isek Lawa, si Kakay De'isek
Lawa, yag ha'a du sak Tasapeng, nekesepak naken iy*. |
373. If Friend
Small-Body [Dafal], Friend Small-Body does not go to see the Tasafeng, I will
insist on it. |
|
Be |
401. Medo'o tumigdag batu iya. 402.
Tako si Kakay Mapoko', agut si Kakay De'isek Lawa, Kakay Igna, ok si Momo'
Dakel Diwata' Tasaday egha'a Tasapeng, na, w*, ipanawi ko Momo' Dakel.
|
401. There are many
steep cliffs there. 402. You see Friend Short-One, if Friend Small-Body,
Friend Igna, or Big Uncle Master of the Tasaday (wants to go) to see the
Tasafeng, now, you take Big Uncle. |
A
commonly occurring Tasaday phrase used on the tape by three of the male members
of the group, hunan di "that is why", literally "reason
of it", is a phonologically reduced form of Cotabato Manobo huenan di
"therefore".
|
|
423. Kena' di ugpa' do' tapay tupu' ta
egoh anay kena' ta ugpa' sini. 424. Ini hunan di si egoh
umugpa' ki dalem. |
423. This place
where our ancestors stayed before is now the place where we stay. 424. That
is why we stay inside here. |
|
|
437. Ya hunan di, sini
egoh di sini, dana' di de, sigba'en sini pedu pebohol ta kita pedu si Momo'
Dakel Diwata' Tasaday. |
437. That is why,
now, because of this, unite [our] feelings, let us make our thoughts clear to
Big Uncle Master of the Tasaday. |
|
|
447. Ubus pedu ta etaw, enda' de uman
de neletig du'u, tulu' du kagda kagi. 448. Kowa Mahayag. 449. Na! 450. Ya hunan
di hi, Mahayag. |
447. [Even if] the
people’s feelings be all consumed, [nevertheless, I] will not ever again be tired
of teaching their words. 448. Mahayag. 449. Now! 450. That is why, Mahayag. |
|
|
597. Du'en du ma dumineg ko, ya
hunan di du'en ketulengan. 598. Ya hunan di, si egoh ...
|
597. The things that
you heard, because of that there is understanding. 598. Because of
that, now ... |
It
seems clear from the above examples (and from a number of others that there is
no room to include) that the Tasaday were not simply using the dialect of
Manobo spoken in Blit. They were not a group of Blit farmers acting out a cave
man stunt for outsiders, as has been frequently suggested by skeptics.
Nevertheless the language is much closer to Blit Manobo than what the Tasaday
claim today to have been the case when they were first contacted by Elizalde.
It is noteworthy that a number of commonly used terms that are today claimed to
have been uniquely Tasaday are not found on the tapes. Their Blit equivalents
however are used. These include kundom "eat" (MboBl ka'en);
melawis "tree" (MboBl kayu); tebulan
"water, stream" (MboBl wayeg); megemoto
"frog" (MboBl. bakbak); lumitay "monkey"
(MboBl. ubal); and beliboy "child" (MboBl bata').
|
|
412. Tako si egoh di sini natek dalem
sini tuduk ta sini. 413. Ungaya' si Kakay Mapoko' enda' umunut umun ta da'
seba'en etaw ugpa'. 414. Enda' ka'enen di seba'en etaw. 415. Balu'
me'ami' natek k* dalem sini tuduk. |
412. You see now
this palm starch here in our mountain. 413. Brother Short-One wants that we
do not take it for distributing to even one person staying here. 414. Not one
person should eat it. 415. Because [if we do] the palm starch will be
depleted from our mountain |
|
|
30. Kuwa ko sadu kayu!
|
30. Get some
[fire]wood! |
|
|
537. Nita ma de biking, nita ma de natek,
nita bitog, seda' wayeg, langun seda' wayeg, palan de nita
seda' wayeg. |
537. Our yams, our
palm starch, our tadpoles, our fish in the streams, all of the fish, every
one of our fish. |
|
|
505. Palan diya' si Momo' Dakel
Diwata' Tasaday sini natek, sini bitog, sini bakbak, sini kiyumang.
|
505. All is for Big
Uncle Master of the Tasaday, the palm starch, the tadpoles, the frogs, the
crabs. |
|
|
507. Sini ubal
yu. |
507. Your monkeys.
|
|
|
From Tape 1, Side 2: 368. Asal ini kagi ku kagda sini du i
de'isek bata'. |
368. I’ll just talk
to these little children. |
The
Tasaday claim that they stopped using their older forms in order to enhance
communication with Dafal, and with his father Mindal, before him, and
subsequently with the Blit wives with whom they have intermarried. The tapes
show that this language shift had pretty much been completed prior to the
events of 1972, and thus prior to the arrival of Sindi', the first Blit wife.
This raises the question as to whether contact with Blit was taking place prior
to the arrival of Elizalde, as Headland (1992:218) suggests, probably in order
to acquire domesticated foods, such as rice, in exchange for forest products.
But no-one in Blit with whom I talked remembers such contact prior to 1972.
Datu' Dudim claims that he had seen the Tasaday during hunting trips in the forest,
but they had fled from him. The Tasaday likewise continue to claim that they
had not seen or tasted rice prior to Elizalde’s visits, and the discussion on
the tapes about rice supports the contention that this was a newly acquired
food. I find no independent evidence on the tapes to support the claim that
they had been contacting Blit on a regular basis prior to 1972.
There
is one term that occurs on both tapes, that suggests that the Tasaday had been
in contact with groups outside the rain forest. It is ép*'
"owner", apparently a borrowing of Spanish jepe "person
in authority", found in many languages of the Philippines. Belayem claims
that he learned the word from his father, Salibuku, and not from either Dafal
or his father Mindal, the hunters who are said to have introduced the Tasaday
to the techniques of hunting and first given them metal tools. The
term is used only with reference to the spirit owners of the rain forest plants
and animal life, and of the caves themselves.
|
|
(From Tape 1, Side 2): 329. Ya keti'ig di, du'en matupu' ... du'en
matupu' nemula...330. H*. 331. Sa du'en pemula biking, du'en pemula basag.
332. Tako palas buyu nanam pedemdem dalem kagpa', ép*' basag sigoh di
sini, kowa Leponok. 333. Sini, du'en ma ép*' usa, dalem ketalunan,
medo'o usa. 334. ƒmp*' basag, du'en. 335. H*! 336. Nanam kediyu' pedu
di, Mahayag, ép*' biking. |
329. It is known
that there are ancestral ... ancestral plant spirits. 330 Hey! 331. There is
a spirit that makes yams grow, there is a spirit that makes Caryota palms
grow. 332. You see, when it appears, in our hearts we start to feel good,
(because of) the owner of the palms, Lefonok 333. Now, there is also the
spirit that owns the wild animals in the forest, all the wild animals. 334.
There is also a spirit that owns the palms. 335. Hey! 336. It seems, Mahayag,
that the owner of the yams is beginning to be sad. |
The
purpose of this investigation was to try to determine whether at the time of
the first visit of Elizalde and his companions the language of the Tasaday was
as distinct from the Manobo dialect of Blit as has been claimed. As reported in
Reid (to appear) Belayem had provided me during my research in 1994 with over
750 forms, that according to my Blit consultants were not known in that area.
Some of these I was able to show were cognate with forms found in languages
elsewhere in the Philippines, others were cognate with other dialects of
Cotabato Manobo, specifically with the Kulaman Valley dialect for which there
is an unpublished dictionary available. There were however a considerable
number of terms that were unique. A number of these I was able to show were
probably recent coinages, which were explained as follows (ibid p.12):
"I consider the efforts that Belayem went to in order to
"create" differences between his Tasaday language and that of Blit
were for the purpose of attempting to validate himself and the other members of
the group as a distinct ethnolinguistic group." It was suggested that the
tapes would probably contain some of the distinct Tasaday terms that Belayem
had provided, but certainly not the wide range of different terms that he is
currently using.
The
result of the examination of the tapes confirms what had been suspected. Does
this mean then that the Tasaday were acting out a hoax? No, it does not. There
is ample evidence that the Tasaday were using a form of language in a number of
respects lexically distinct from Blit, although its phonology and major
syntactic patterns conform to those found in Blit, and other dialects of
Cotabato Manobo.
In
Reid (to appear) it is noted that a number of interesting parallels can be
drawn between the Tasaday in Southeast Asia and another ethnolinguistic group
that has recently been described – the Minor Mlabri, an "evasive" and
"extremely shy" group of hunter-gatherers (only eleven surviving
members), living in the border area between North Thailand and Laos (Rischel
1995). In many parts of the description of this group one could replace the
name Minor Mlabri with Tasaday without doing violence to the facts. Rischel
describes them as follows, "They have in the past lived on food they could
find by moving about in the dense forests of the high mountains without
settling for more than a few days in any particular place. Until recently their
shyness and ability to hide in the forest has prevented their culture and
language from being exposed to outsiders except for a few encounters with
expeditions" (ibid. p. 23). He cites Boeles (1963:150) description
of them as "…. a group of people who have not known a stone age and thus
have no pottery, who do not make their own clothing, who do not practice agriculture,
who do not build houses, and who do not wear ornaments." He suggests that,
"their culture may even reflect regressions from more developed
stages to a survival culture" (ibid. p. 22).
There
is another, larger group of Mlabri (the "b -Mlabri"), previously
studied by Rischel, hence the term Minor Mlabri (or "a -Mlabri") for
the smaller group that he describes. The larger group have given up a
hunter-gatherer life-style. Rischel says that they are "rapidly adjusting
to peasant life since it is becoming impossible to sustain life on the things
they can gather in the forest. The a -Mlabri on the other hand, still prefer to
stay in the forest as much as possible in an attempt to survive as part-time
hunter-gatherers" (ibid. p. 36).
The
relationship between the two Mlabri groups parallels in several respects the
relationship between the Tasaday and the Blit groups. Rischel states (bold face
added),
The
relationship between the two varieties of Mlabri is enigmatic. On my first encounter
with speakers of Minor Mlabri, I was intrigued by the paradoxical situation
that a large proportion of the words they used in everyday communication were
totally unknown to me although they clearly spoke the very language I had been
studying for several years together with my colleagues. I was further intrigued
by finding that there was virtually no difference in segmental phonology
between the two varieties of Mlabri although they differed strikingly in
prosody (rhythm and intonation) as well as lexicon. …
Structurally,
the two kinds of Mlabri are so extremely close that one may speak of
sub-dialects of one dialect. The two varieties have almost the same
phonology and morphology, and to the extent that lexical material is
shared, it occurs in largely the same phonological shape… . There are segmental
differences between a -Mlabri and b -Mlabri in the pronunciation of several
words, but there is also idiolectal variation… . The lexical differences may
have at least three different causes. They may in some cases reflect the
existence of synonymous (or near-synonymous) word pairs in Old Mlabri. Synonymy
was then lost as one variety retained only one word, and the other variety
retained only the other synonym: … there are several instances where one variety
of Mlabri has an ordinary Mon-Khmer etymon whereas the other variety has a word
exhibiting peculiar features, suggesting that it is a deliberate innovation…
. Often a word used in one variety is known but considered obsolete or
stigmatized by speakers of the other variety. In several instances speakers
even deny any knowledge of a word used by the other group. The linguistics
attitudes toward lexical materials is a complex issue… . The differences in
lexicon are so great that one would not expect easy intercommunication between
the two groups… . This lexical divergence, as contrasted with the
structural similarity of the two varieties of Mlabri, must be recent but is so
strong that it suggests an effort to mark the distinction between the a -
and b -Mlabri (ibid. pp. 16, 26-27).
The
linguistic characteristics noted by Rischel which distinguish the two Mlabri
dialects are precisely those that are found between Blit and Tasaday, viz.,
almost identical phonology and morphology, lexicon which is very divergent
between the two groups suggesting, at least in some cases, (relatively) recent
deliberate innovation in order to mark the difference between the two groups.
The two situations, are however not completely parallel. The two Mlabri groups
continue to avoid one another and to maintain their linguistic distinctiveness,
whereas the Blit and the Tasaday now intermarry, and are merging as a single
group, with the children of Tasaday families studying in school in Blit, and
speaking Blit Manobo in the home rather than the using the Tasaday forms of
their parents, just as the children of mixed Tasaday-Blit families do.
Berreman, Gerald D. 1992 The
Tasaday: stone age survivors, or space age fakes? In: Thomas N. Headland, ed.
The Tasaday Controversy: Assessing the Evidence. Special Publication No.
28, Scholarly Series, pp. 21-39. Washington, DC: The American Anthropological
Association.
Iten, Oswald. 1992 The
"Tasaday" and the press. In: Thomas N. Headland, ed. The Tasaday
Controversy: Assessing the Evidence. Special Publication No. 28, Scholarly
Series, pp. 40-58. Washington, DC: The American Anthropological Association.
Headland, Thomas N. ed. 1992 The
Tasaday Controversy: Assessing the Evidence. Special Publication No. 28,
Scholarly Series. Washington, DC: The American Anthropological Association.
Molony, Carol H. and Dad Tuan. 1976.
Further studies on the Tasaday language: Texts and vocabulary. In: D.E. Yen and
John Nance, eds., Further Studies on the Tasaday, PANAMIN
Foundation Research Series No. 2, pp. 13-96. Makati, Rizal: Panamin Foundation.
Inc. Reprinted in: Virginia Dandan, ed., Readings on the Tasaday.
Publication No. 1, pp. 85-168. Manila: Tasaday Community Care Foundation, Inc.
1989.
Mydans, Seth. 1988 20th
century lawsuit asserts stone age identity. New York Times, October
29:4.
Nance, John 1988 The Gentle
Tasaday. 2nd Edition. Boston: David R. Godine.
Reid, Lawrence A. 1992 The Tasaday
language: a key to Tasaday prehistory. In: Thomas N. Headland, ed. The Tasaday
Controversy: Assessing the Evidence. Special Publication No. 28, Scholarly
Series, pp. 180-193. Washington, DC: The American Anthropological Association.
______. 1993 Another look at the
language of the Tasaday. Keynote Lecture presented to the 3rd Annual
Conference of the Southeast Asian Linguistic Society, Honolulu, Hawaii, May
10-17.
______. 1998 Archaeological
linguistics: Tracking down the Tasaday language. In: Roger Blench, ed.,
Proceedings of the 3rd World Congress of Archaeologists, New Delhi,
India. Dec 4-11, 1994.
Rischel, Jřrgen. 1995 Minor
Mlabri: A Hunter-Gatherer Language of Northern Indochina, Museum Tusculanum
Press, University of Copenhagen.
Wolff, John U. 1972. A dictionary
of Cebuano Visayan. Philippine Journal of Linguistics Special Monograph No.
4. Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines.
Yen, D.E. 1976. The ethnobotany of
Tasaday: II. Plant names of the Tasaday, Manobo Blit and Kemato Tboli. In: D.E.
Yen and John Nance, eds., Further Studies on the Tasaday, PANAMIN
Foundation Research Series No. 2, pp. 137-158. Makati, Rizal: Panamin
Foundation. Inc. Reprinted in: Virginia Dandan, ed., Readings on the Tasaday.
Publication No. 1, pp. 209-230. Manila: Tasaday Community Care Foundation, Inc.
1989.
Please send
comments to : reid@aa.tufs.co.jp
1999ƒD Lawrence A. Reid