Anthropologist's Learning Journey

Anthropologist's have pets!

2009-05-27T16:43:00.000-07:00

This anthropologist chose cats and dogs. We once tried birds, but we had tough luck in caring for them. I also wanted a pet fish but my wife did not like the idea. Keeping them in fish tank is not her idea of caring for pet. As a proponent of community-based coastal resource management, it is not appealing to her, to put fish in fish tank. My argument that keeping fish in tanks can be a good ex-situ conservation and may be actually helping preserve biodiversity of the fish. It can also enhace the feng sui of the house. End of story for my fish pets.

At present we have two dogs and at least eight cats and kittens. One of the dogs was named Fred and the other Pogs. The Cats include three mother cat named Shyder, Tabby and Fungus. Shyder has three kittens named Shydo, Ranma and Meji. The mother cat Tabby has Lolotz, and Winre. Mother cat named fungus has Hibari. My children, Ray, Robin, Renee and Raya were responsible for giving them their names. There is a story behind each names. Names also changes if they think it does not suit the pet. In my journey as anthropologist, I encounter this practice among the Ayta of Tarlac, who change the names of their kids if they become sickly.

Fred and George were orphan female puppies my daughter Renee adopted from Calauan, Laguna. They were about a week old when she got them. We took turn in feeding them using tsupon (baby feeding bottle). Its almost the same as caring for human babies. Waking up at 3:00 am to mix the milk and feed them. We gradually introduced puppy food and later they ate left over food from our dining table. The food is not exactly left-over since we normally reserve portion of our ulam (main dish) and rice for them. Unfortunately George died before her first birthday.

The name Fred and George were taken from the two character in J. K. Rowlin’s Harry Potter series. Fred and George Weasly are twins just like the puppies. They have other co-sibling, their whereabouts we don’t know. Because of their uncanny similarities, we decided to call them Fred and George. My wife preferred male dogs to female dogs and it was our first time to adapt two female dogs. We tried to fool her by giving the dogs male names.

Our first dog Shadow and our second dog were named Chance after the characters from the movie Homeward Bound. Both dog died before we moved out of our house in Castlespring Heights. Shadow was 12 years old and Chance was a little more than a year old when they died. The pair Fred and Pogs reminds me of Shadow and Chance in their demeanor and disposition.

Just like in the movie Marley and Me, dogs and most pets provides important lessons in life. It provides my children something to be responsible about. Everyday routine such as feeding the dog and scooping the poops are important tasks that cannot be taken for granted. Otherwise, it would be a disaster.

To know about the rest of what anthropologist do, visit my blog, Anthropologist’s Learning Journey and Mario D. Zamora Journal.

My other blogs about the indigenous peoples of Mindoro, Iraya Journal, and the people, culture, society and environment of Western Visayas, check out, WV Magazine.

Iraya Mangyan and Solidarity Economy

2009-05-01T00:46:00.009-07:00

Iraya Mangyans of Mindoro offers some insight on indigenous property concept and how said concept can contribute in laying the foundation of solidarity economy.

Ben R. Quinonez, wrote that every community of people has a notion of property or possession. Indigenous people, for example, may not truly understand how natural resources could become the private property of private individuals. They could only regard what they have produced as their own possession or property. They may have difficulty understanding how resources of nature which are not made by their own hands could become their own possession.

Ruben Martinez (2008) explains that the indigenous concept of property ownership among the Mangyan in Mindoro, Philippines is guided by their customary laws 9. It is often described as communal and the use of the communal resources such as land is based on usufruct or use rights. The pioneer migrant communities believed that the lands are not owned and as public domain, they can apply for homestead or register the land in their name. Thus, the earlier migrants settled in the coastal areas of Mindoro, mostly along river banks, where they developed the lands into rich agricultural production areas.

Martinez further notes that Mangyan and Traditional peasant communities identify 'mehura' as their proof of ownership. 'Mehura', a Spanish term for land improvement, is also found in other peasant communities in Mindoro, Zambales and even in Tablas and Panay. Mangyan nevertheless incorporated mehura as part of their customary laws. For them, Mehura is important in preserving their heritage. In the past, Mangyan are predominantly hunters and gatherers. They did not plant permanent crops. It was only in the recent years that Mangyan begun cultivating their lands and planting perennial crops such as fruit trees. ‘Papeles’ are documents that certify ownership of land.

The integration and assimilation of the Mangyan to the mainstream economy modified their property ownership. While preserving their own indigenous concept of communal ownership and usufruct rights within their own ancestral domain, they have to also take cognizance of the instruments of ownership issued by the state such as the certificate of land title, stewardship agreement and other instruments that have been used to deprive them of their land. Mangyan have learned that land can be bought or sold through deed of sale or assignment, it can be mortgaged and “papeles” (documents) are proof of such transactions.

Ruben Z. Martinez, 2008. “Sandugo: Incipient Solidarity Economy in Mindoro”. Unpublished document. Manila: May 2008

Benjamin R. Quinonez, Facets of Solidarity Economy. Paper Presented at the

Tokyo Seminar on Human Responsibility and Solidarity Economy, September 28, 2008, Waseda University, Tokyo

http://www.aa4se.com/downloads/FACETS%20OF%20SOLIDARITY%20ECONOMY.pdf

Iraya Mangyan Revisited

2009-04-30T04:37:00.000-07:00

Anthropologist develops an attachment to their fieldwork area in the course of their rites of passage. My rites of passage as an anthropologist started in Barangay Kaagutayan, San Teodoro, Oriental Mindoro. Kaagutayan is a small settlement serving as gateway to the different Iraya Settlement in the mountainous interior of San Teodoro. Aside from completing the field research on economic exchange among the Iraya Mangyan and the Tagalog in San Teodoro for Dela Salle University Research Center, I also completed several seminar papers for my graduate courses in anthropology at the University of the Philippines.

From 1983 to 1998, I have been returning to this site. Kaagutayan become one of the exposure site for my undergraduate students at the University of the Philippines Manila, It also become part of the OTRADEV Iraya Integrated Development Program, and the site for an NCCA Research Project on Customary Laws. I have accumulated enormous field notes, photographs and personal journal. These become the source of my dissertation which I submitted to the College of Social Science and Philosophy of the University of the Philippines Diliman.

Links below provide some of the papers written about the Iraya Mangyan.

Iraya Journal - http://www.geocities.com/rzmartinez/index.html
Katutubong Batas Iraya - http://www.geocities.com/rzmartinez/custom.html
Background information about the Iraya Mangyan - http://katutubo.blogspot.com/

What's up for practicing anthropologist?

2009-04-30T01:42:00.000-07:00

Practicing anthropologist faces complex issues and concern in the course of their work. Unlike traditional anthropologist, who often studies culture other than their own and engage in fieldwork amongst the people they study. Traditional anthropologist gather information about the community, their culture, and environment utilizing field methods such as participant-observation, key-informant interviews, and other unobtrusive but nevertheless extractive methods.

Practicing anthropologist, of the participatory oriented and politically correct variant, often tries to balance the different cultural sensibilities, political correctness and methodological rigor of systematic and scientific research. Some of the sensibilities include consideration for gender sensibilities, class and ethnicity. Without appearing too patronizing or romanticist, practicing anthropologist navigate around complex social, political, economic and ecological issues and concern.

This blog mirrors an anthropologist learning journey through personal, academic and political issues and concern. Hopefully providing lessons for other people and other anthropologist concerned with culture, society, economics, politics and ecology. The blog draws from my past studies, researches, conference papers delivered and day-to-day work. The blog is also an account of a practicing anthropologist struggle to keep ones sanity and professional integrity while navigating the real world trying to make a living.

Dr. Ruben Z. Martinez

Anthropologist (practicing)

Related blog:

Iraya Journal

Culinary Anthropology

Mario D. Zamora Journal