History of manobo culture?
"Manobo" or "Manuvu" means "person" or "people"; it may also
have been originally "Mansuba" from man (person or people) and suba
(river), hence meaning "river people." A third derivation is from
"Banobo," the name of a creek that presently flows to Pulangi River
about 2 km below Cotabato City. A fourth is from "man" meaning
"first, aboriginal" and "tuvu" meaning "grow, growth." Manobo " is
the hispanized form.
The Manobo Belong to the original stock of proto-Philippine or
proto-Austronesian people who came from South China thousands of
years ago, earlier than the Ifugao and other terrace-building
peoples of the northern Luzon. Ethnolinguist Richard
Elkins(1966)coined the term "Proto-Manobo" to designate this stock
of aboriginal non-Negritoid people of Mindanao. The first Manobo
settlers lived in northern Mindanao: Camiguin, Cagayan, and some
areas of Bukidnon and Misamis Oriental. Subgroups are:
Agusan-Surigao, Ata, Bagobo, Banwaon, Blit, Bukidnon,
Cotabato(which include the Arumanen, Kirintekan, and Livunganen),
Dibabawon, Higaonon, Ilianon, Kulamanen, Manuvu, Matigsalug, Rajah
Kabungsuan, Sarangani, Tboli, Tagabawa, Tigwa, Ubo, Umayamnon, and
western Bukidnon. Manobo languages representative of these groups
are Agusanon, Banwaon, Binukid of Mindanao, Cagayano of
Cagayancillo Island, Cotabato Manobo, Dibabawon Manobo, Eatern
Davao Manobo, Ilianon Manobo, Kidapawan, Kinamigin of Camiguin
Island, Livunganen, Magahat, Sarangani Manobo, Southern Cotabato
and Davao Manobo, Tasaday, Tagabawa, Tigwa Manobo,, Ubo of the Mt
Apo region in Davao, western Bukidnon Manobo, and western Cotabato
Manobo (Elkins 1966; Olson 1967).
The Manobo have for their neighbors the Talaandig of Bukidnon,
the Matigsalug of the middle Davao River area, the Attaw or Jangan
of the midland area which is now within the jurisdiction of Davao
City, the Tahavawa and Bilaan in the south and southeast, and the
Ilianon along the Pulangi river basin . This was the site of barter
dealings with the Muslim traders who travelled upriver into the
hinterlands.
Most Manobo inhabit the river valleys, hillsides, plateaus, and
interiors of Agusan, Bukidnon, Cotabato, Davao, Misamis Oriental,
and Surigao Del Sur. The whole Manobo population numbers 250,000
(NCCP-PACT 1988). The subgroup Manuvu inhabits a contiguous area
along southern Bukidnon, northeastern Cotabato, and northwestern
Davao. The Ilianon, Livunganen-Arumanen, and Kirintekan are in
northern Cotabato. The Tigwa/Tigwahanon are concentrated in
Lindagay and scattered all over the town of San Fernando, Bukidnon,
close to the border of Davao Del Norte. Tigwa may have derived from
guwa (scattered) or the Tigwa River, whose banks they inhabit. The
Umayamnon are scattered around the town of Cabalangsan, Bukidnon,
and the interiors of Agusan Del Sur. The western Bukidnon Manobo
inhabit the southwestern quarter of Bukidnon province.
The different Manobo languages belong to the Philippine
subfamily of the superfamily of the superfamily of languages called
Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian in the old literature). Some
linguists of the Summer Institute of Linguistics have discovered
that the Mindanao languages belong to a subgroup of Philippine
languages which they call the proto-Manobo. The protolanguage,
however, has not yet been reconstructed or dated.
BY: GERARD T. BUNCALAN .........
