Remembering,

Where a Queer-Filipino kid tries to navigate what Magellan couldn't.

[b33buzz]

They live in my brain eternally 😭❤️

[jvlianbashir]

when you find an academic source that’s perfect for your paper but it’s behind a pay wall

[deadmomjokes]

Deciding to cite it anyway base on the abstract, knowing your professor probably won’t go through and look up every source in works cited

[rootbeermolecule]

if you guys want to read academic papers but they’re behind a paywall, get the chrome extension Unpaywall. when you visit a site that requires you pay for their journal to view the article, the extension will look for other open access sites that will show you the article for free, and it’s all completely legal. all that money goes to the publisher, the writer of the paper gets none of it. https://unpaywall.org

[sewickedthread]

If you can find out an author’s name, contact them. They may be willing to email it to you.For free. 

[softlytea]

Check researchgate.net and academia.edu! Also authors’ professional websites.

[hornplayingphysicist]

Reblog to save a life

[borrowedfeathers]

Also if you have a friend who’s a grad student (hi there) we often have a lot more access to journals through our library accounts and we can definitely hook you up with articles. Don’t be shy about asking, we promise you’re not bugging us and we’re happy to help, we all know that struggle!

And on Twitter there’s the hashtag #icanhazpdf (yeah, goofy, but we all feel like lolcats sometimes) and if you put the author and title of the article you want in a tweet with that hashtag there’s a bot that automatically retweets it and a lot of academic folks see it. EVERY time I’ve used it I’ve gotten the goods, even for fairly obscure material.

[insomniac-arrest]

people always list important early inventions like ‘the wheel’ and ‘plow’ first, but usually never get around to one of the most important inventions of all time

you know what completely revolutionized mankind, Reginald? Fucking thread and needle, when we stopped having to be bare-ass naked all the time and could put clothe together for everything from shoes to bags to carry shit in, we could go farther, last longer, sustain ourselves in harsher conditions

domestic labor, ie ‘women’s work,’ is so undervalued that it barely touches the public’s mind on how monumental it was to be able to make things out of fabric, how game-changing the thread and needle were… wack

[dusky-phantom]

I would say textiles are the #1 best invention tbh

You can loom a cloth to protect you, keep you warm, help you carry food and kids and animals.

Looming can even tell stories and histories. There’s places in the philippines where you can look at the designs on blankets and cloth and know which regions its from, whose family it was made by and sometimes full on family history.

Textiles are also religious objects too, devotional pieces to dancing capes.

Really. Textiles, looming, sewing all have done more for humanity around the world then the wheel has done. We can do stuff w/o the wheel. Cang do shit without your clothes

[sixteenthirtyfour]

why do i keep laughing at the thought of female!spiderman…(spidergirl? spiderwoman?) getting caught without her mask on and the dude who catches her just goes on a rant about ‘fake geek girls’ and how ‘that costume isn’t even accurate oh my god’ and ‘comic-con was last week’

and her secret identity is saved because some dudebro in a batman t-shirt thinks he’s hot shit 

[diwatahan]

Ligaya’s Guide to Pilipinx Polytheism or Anito/Anituo

So after what seems like forever I have finally gotten the time to sit down and write this for all of you folks interested in learning more about our precolonial beliefs. Whether you are someone who is interested in getting started in becoming a Pilipinx Polytheist and reclaiming our precolonial beliefs and practices or just someone who is interested to know more about it cultural and reference wise. I will be doing a 101 series as a follow up of this post but for starters lets begin on where to actually start.

First and foremost before anything else, you must be willing to read. When I say read, I mean read, read, read, and just read. There is no way I can make that any more clearer, you will have to read in order to learn about what our ancestors practiced and believed in. To get involved in this spiritual path you will have to channel your inner scholar. You will be reading various records from early Spaniards, most who were friars or missionaries and getting past their judging overtones. You will be reading old dictionaries that list terms not used today or were changed to mean something over time. You will be reading scholarly papers and essays done on the research of the precolonial beliefs and of those groups who never gave them up. You will be reading articles on rural practices and beliefs, rituals still done today among farmers, fishermen, hunters, etc.

Basically, you will surround yourself with all these reading material to the point it may be very overwhelming at first, but you must persevere and read. Even then after you read them all you will still be reading, any new material that comes by, any new research or books, you will still be reading and learning new things.

With that settled and I believe I have stressed that importance quite enough, here are a list of recommended reading material from Spanish records and a few books and papers. I suggest having a notebook and pen with you to write down all your notes. Don’t forget to write down where you got your information from for future reference. Use highlighters or colored pens to mark specific words or use a color coding reference between rituals, name of deities, spiritual places, offerings, etc. Trust me it will help you in the long run. 

Spanish Texts & Dictionaries

Relacion de las Yslas Filipinas in 1582 by Miguel de Loarca (scroll down a bit for the English translation)

Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas in 1609 by Antonio de Morga 

Customs of the Tagalogs (two relations). Juan de Plasencia, O.S.F.; Manila, October 21 1589

Relacion de las Islas Filipinas (Part 1) in 1604 by Father Pedro Chirino

Relacion de las Islas Filipinas (Part 2) in 1604 by Father Pedro Chirino

The Muñoz text of Francisco Alcina’s History of the Bisayan Islands (1668), translation by Paul S. Lietz (note: The link only brings you to the page of the 4 volumes. However, only volume 3 is available online. This volume however does contain info on deities and beliefs so it is something to look at in terms of researching our mythologies. I highly suggest reading all 4 volumes of Alcina’s Historia de Las Islas e Indios de Bisayas which you can find the English translation for by the Kobak and Guiterrez editions)

Relation of the Filipinas Islands 1640 by a religious who lived there for eighteen years (Most agree that the person who wrote this account was Father Diego de Bobadilla)

Native races and their customs, from Labor Evangélica, 1663 by Francisco Colin

Historia de la provincia del Sancto Rosario de la Orden de Predicadores by Diego Aduarte, O.P.; Manila, 1640 (the only account I have come across so far that gives details on our ancestors communicating and seeing a deity, this one on the sun and war god, Apo Laki, of the Pangasinans and Sambals)

Vocabulario de la lengua Bisaya by Mateo Sanchez

Diccionario De La Lengua Bisaya, Hiligueina Y Haraya de la isla de Panay by Alonso Mentrida

The English translation of the Boxer Codex Manuscript

Other Resources: Books, Essays, Papers

Diccionario mitologico de Filipinas by Ferdinand Blumentritt

Barangay: Sixteenth-century Philippine Culture and Society by William Henry Scott

Looking for the Prehispanic Filipino by William Henry Scott

Philippines Epics and Ballads Archive by Ateneo (this has some of the actual recordings of the epic chanters but some don’t have the translations in English yet, they are only translated into Tagalog, and even some aren’t translated at all, however there are brief notes on the epics in pdf format. Also you will need to register an account but its free and you don’t need to attend a school in the Philippines to access the archive, just put in your school name in the field that asks)

Agricultural Rituals in a Philippine Barrio by F. Landa Jocano

Notes on Philippine Divinities by F. Landa Jocano

Notes on the Sulod Concept of Death, the Soul, and the Region of the Dead by F. Landa Jocano

Towards a Classification of Bisayan Folk Beliefs and Customs by Francisco Demetrio

Creation Myths Among the Early Filipinos by Francisco Demetrio

Time Keeping: Philippine Style by Victor Badillo

The Adam and Eve of the Ilocanos by Leopoldo Y. Yabes

The APO-DIOS Concept in Northern Luzon by William Henry Scott

On Human Values in Philippine Epics by Francisco Demetrio

Bakunawa and Laho by Dante L. Ambrosio

Balátik and Moropóro Stars of Philippine skies by Dante L. Ambrosio

‘Mamahi:’ Stars of Tawi-tawi by Dante L. Ambrosio

Balatik: Katutubong Bituin ng mga Pilipino by Dante L. Ambrosio

The Art of Puso: Palm Leaf Art in the Visayas in Vocabularios of the 16th to the 19th Centuries by Elmer I. Nocheseda

Filipino Myths of Death and Speciatlon: Content and Structure by J. Patrick Gray

Now that you have some reading material to go through, where do you go from there? How can we apply what we have researched into an actual practice? Well review what you have gathered. Go through those notes and look through all the forms of offerings, of rituals, etc. Start to set up your altar to your ancestors and the diwata (deities). Prepare some basic food and libations from rice, to rice cakes, to native wine, to chicken and pork. Or if you have cooked any traditional dish from the Philippines leave some aside for the ancestors to eat. If you can carve or sculpt a figure of the diwata or anito (spirits), try and do so. Decorate it with flowers, traditional cloth, and anoint it with sesame oil. Get in tune with the moon cycles and give offerings during the full moon when the diwata are out and about as it is their night. Try and commune with the deities, both the more well known ones and lesser known. Get to know them, pray to them, develop a personal connection with them. You don’t have to go through all the deities, but if there is one you specifically want to honor and pay reverence to spiritually commune with them. The gods and goddesses have never left us, they have not forgotten us like we have them, so even if we don’t know them anymore, their stories and legends lost over generations of colonization, they will show themselves to us once again. 

The basic structure of Anito is honoring the ancestors and spirits. They come first before the deities as they are closer to us, often along side us. They manipulate what happens to us, good or bad which is why we give offerings to them not only as respect but to appease them and gain their favor and protection.

Everything is sacred, the moon, the stars, the tree’s, the rivers, the sea, that rock or boulder, everything is sacred and is either a spirit or the home of a spirit. This belief still persists today in particular within the rural areas of the Philippines for example of many people saying “tabi tabi po”, when going to natural places. It basically means excuse me, excuse me, in a respectful manner letting the spirits know that you are coming through and mean no harm. Even today despite Catholicism, the belief in spirits especially in the provinces, is still prevalent today. If you haven’t already try and see the world through our ancestors eyes. See the spiritual essence in everything and respect it.

With a few basics out of the way and spoken briefly, let me remind you that we are not our ancestors. We are not living in the 15th and 16th centuries. Obviously there are a few things that we won’t do such as human sacrifice (they only did this for certain rituals and events such as before the annual mangayaw raid or with the death of a datu or rajah. Even then they were foreign slaves not local). We are not simply reconstructing their practices but reviving them to the modern day as they would have adapted them over time if colonization never took place. Not all of us live by a body of water, near rivers or the sea, which is the source of all things including when we are born and die. We can’t give our offerings laid on rafts and do our rituals by letting them flow. We don’t have a large community to come together and celebrate feasts and celebrations of harvest and planting. Most of us go to work, have a family, go to school, etc. and we can’t all sing, drink, feast, and dance around to the tunes of drums and gongs in celebration or praise to the diwata and ancestors as much as I would love for that to happen often. We must adapt the old practices to our modern lives and only then can we revive our old precolonial beliefs as a living religion and not just mentioned in old Spanish records.

[inkdot-deactivated20200219]

This weekend I was told a story which, although I’m kind of ashamed to admit it, because holy shit is it ever obvious, is kind of blowing my mind.

A friend of a friend won a free consultation with Clinton Kelly of What Not To Wear, and she was very excited, because she has a plus-size body, and wanted some tips on how to make the most of her wardrobe in a fashion culture which deliberately puts her body at a disadvantage.

Her first question for him was this: how do celebrities make a plain white t-shirt and a pair of weekend jeans look chic?  She always assumed it was because so many celebrities have, by nature or by design, very slender frames, and because they can afford very expensive clothing.  But when she watched What Not To Wear, she noticed that women of all sizes ended up in cute clothes that really fit their bodies and looked great.  She had tried to apply some guidelines from the show into her own wardrobe, but with only mixed success.  So - what gives?

His answer was that everything you will ever see on a celebrity’s body, including their outfits when they’re out and about and they just get caught by a paparazzo, has been tailored, and the same goes for everything on What Not To Wear.  Jeans, blazers, dresses - everything right down to plain t-shirts and camisoles.  He pointed out that historically, up until the last few generations, the vast majority of people either made their own clothing or had their clothing made by tailors and seamstresses.  You had your clothing made to accommodate the measurements of your individual body, and then you moved the fuck on.  Nothing on the show or in People magazine is off the rack and unaltered.  He said that what they do is ignore the actual size numbers on the tags, find something that fits an individual’s widest place, and then have it completely altered to fit.  That’s how celebrities have jeans that magically fit them all over, and the rest of us chumps can’t ever find a pair that doesn’t gape here or ride up or slouch down or have about four yards of extra fabric here and there.

I knew that having dresses and blazers altered was probably something they were doing, but to me, having alterations done generally means having my jeans hemmed and then simply living with the fact that I will always be adjusting my clothing while I’m wearing it because I have curves from here to ya-ya, some things don’t fit right, and the world is just unfair that way.  I didn’t think that having everything tailored was something that people did. 

It’s so obvious, I can’t believe I didn’t know this.  But no one ever told me.  I was told about bikini season and dieting and targeting your “problem areas” and avoiding horizontal stripes.  No one told me that Jennifer Aniston is out there wearing a bigger size of Ralph Lauren t-shirt and having it altered to fit her.

I sat there after I was told this story, and I really thought about how hard I have worked not to care about the number or the letter on the tag of my clothes, how hard I have tried to just love my body the way it is, and where I’ve succeeded and failed.  I thought about all the times I’ve stood in a fitting room and stared up at the lights and bit my lip so hard it bled, just to keep myself from crying about how nothing fits the way it’s supposed to.  No one told me that it wasn’t supposed to.  I guess I just didn’t know.  I was too busy thinking that I was the one that didn’t fit.

I thought about that, and about all the other girls and women out there whose proportions are “wrong,” who can’t find a good pair of work trousers, who can’t fill a sweater, who feel excluded and freakish and sad and frustrated because they have to go up a size, when really the size doesn’t mean anything and it never, ever did, and this is just another bullshit thing thrown in your path to make you feel shitty about yourself.

I thought about all of that, and then I thought that in elementary school, there should be a class for girls where they sit you down and tell you this stuff before you waste years of your life feeling like someone put you together wrong.

So, I have to take that and sit with it for a while.  But in the meantime, I thought perhaps I should post this, because maybe my friend, her friend, and I are the only clueless people who did not realise this, but maybe we’re not.  Maybe some of you have tried to embrace the arbitrary size you are, but still couldn’t find a cute pair of jeans, and didn’t know why.

[hungrylikethewolfie]

This post is one of those things that I will reblog every time it appears on my dash.  This is so important, and no one ever tells you about it.

[skeletree-blog]

I almost didn’t read this but then I did and I’m really glad that I did.

[theopinionatedartist]

Super important

[deafinatlyme]

Tldr: The reason clothes never “looked right on you” is because models and celebrities always had their clothes tailored to fit them perfectly.

[anti-capitalistlesbianwitch]

This is so important. If something doesn’t fit you perfectly, the problem is the clothes, not you.

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

well maybe if adoption was more accessible to single parents and lesbian couples, witches wouldn’t have to go haggling for people’s firstborns

[dailypsychologyfacts]

Depression – A Mother’s Perspective

Depression is a serious mental disorder that shouldn’t be taken lightly. It affects approximately 300 million people worldwide. It is estimated that one million people globally commit suicide. These statistics are unfortunate and shouldn’t be happening. One life lost is too much. The sad truth is that suicide catches everyone’s attention. It’s the actions leading to it that go unnoticed.

Continue Reading

[tattooedguy69]

Wow

[vcigar2]

wheres all the support for the emotional abuse victims

[vcigar2]

no, seriously. victims of emotional abuse have it hard because they do not have the physical marks or the records to “prove” to someone they were hurt and are hurting. most people will not take emotional abuse as seriously as physical abuse, saying “you should get over it” or “sticks and stones”. thats fucking bullshit.

emotional abuse victims who have been forced to do or say or be things you never wanted to, i love you.

emotional abuse victims who have been gaslighted and manipulated to the point where you no longer know what is real, i care for you.

emotional abuse victims who are told they will never be loved by anyone else and they are not a good person, you are amazing.

emotional abuse victims who feel manipulative and often catch themselves mirroring actions of their abusers and feel sick to their stomachs because theyre “turning into them”, you are not them and never will be. you are so much better than that.

emotional abuse victims who have to live every day suffering because nobody understands how messed up you are from what they said or did or made you do, you arent alone.

anyone who reads this, i care for you. please support all victims of abuse every single day because they deserve it just like they deserve the love and care those in the past have failed to provide them

[crying-g-deactivated20200417]

Thank you so much for this im actually crying

[cosmicjuicebox]

Please don’t blame yourself for your abuser’s actions. It can be hard to understand, especially when you’re younger, that it’s happening. Emotional abuse isn’t as villainous as physical abuse at first sight and registering and identifying it as such can be difficult. You’re not the problem, they are.

[klaw]

u can be nb and still describe yrself a boy or a girl

u can be nb and describe yrself as a lesbian or gay

stop making up rules that u think nb ppl have to follow

[thelittlesquigglything]

Do you have a favorite poem?

Yeah I do.

[brittany-murphy]

[gothhabiba]

interesting how white people with disabilities that make it difficult for them to navigate social situations can still manipulate social discourse against people of colour

[gothhabiba]

I’ll never criticise someone for having difficulty navigating social situations, but racism cannot be characterised merely as difficulty with navigating social situations. disability / neurodivergency may impact how racism is expressed, but it can’t make you express basic disrespect for the humanity of people of colour unless that was already present.

to use neurodivergency as an excuse for racism, and thus to imply that showing basic respect for people of colour is some kind of nuance of social ettiquette, is to dehumanise people of colour. it is to say that we shouldn’t expect to be respected as people, but should be content with the fact that most white people understand social ettiquette well enough to hide their disrespect (and even this falls apart when you consider that how we’re treated by neurotypical white people often does not differ in its essentials from how we’re treated by neurodivergent white people). not to mention that it does a disservice to disabled & neurodivergent people in general.

[violaslayvis]

Just a reminder that Trump’s Muslim ban is NOT “un-American.” America has already TWICE in its history banned ethnic minorities from immigrating once with the https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act

AND https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1924

[ithelpstodream]

I feel sick.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-strikes-nationalistic-tone-in-inaugural-speech-1484957527?tesla=y&mod=e2tw

[ahsadler]

The Bane thing isn’t that important. What IS is that Bannon, a known anti-Semite, included the line “America First. Only, always, America First.” The America First Committee was a prewar political movement that urged the United States to stay out of World War II, and was largely made up of Nazi sympathizers, who argued that a Jewish conspiracy was trying to drive the US into the war for their own benefit. There is no way that was a coincidence. It was a dog whistle for fascists.

[thelittlesquigglything]

And when I needed them most they vanished

After a long hiatus from tumblr I think that today may be the best time to come back. 

I have been thinking a great deal about the upcoming year and I think I need to get this off of my chest before I can continue to engage in work as an activist. 

I want to start by saying that I am heartbroken by what is happening in the world as I watch fascism rear its ugly head in every facet of my life. I see it in my family’s support for Duterte the murder and their support of Donald Trump. I am riddled with fear and anxiety with no one to turn to because of the greater heartbreak I am experiencing. I have watched many of, even my closest white friends take comfort in their privilege. I watched them allow themselves to be consumed by a fear that I as a QPOC have always had. I watch even my best white friends drown and break in their own surprise only to pick up the pieces and take refuge in their whiteness. I watch them take up space and suck all of the air out of a room. 

My heartbreaks because up until the night of the election, they didn’t take me seriously when I talk about losing my rights and ultimately my life. The past few months have been revealing for me in watching the ways whiteness acts in intersection with identities that are threatened. In watching the way that it is still allowed to feel the most even when there is not as much to lose. I am heartbroken because I trusted all of these white folks and when I needed them most they vanished. 

Nothing is sacred in a culture built off of white supremacy. Not family. Not friends. In whiteness sits a hollow love, a jealous love, a selfish love, and I do not know where to move on from this. 

[omarholmon]

Listen, @willtotha sent this #RockLee shirt as a christmas gift and i dunno how to act right now. Look at the young ninja getting his body stupid dumb big cause his 8 gates got gates. Look at the hand to hand specialist getting ready to main event Wrestlemania. I’d still be slamming and have an undefeated streak if I had this shirt back in 2011. Dipset would still be makin albums together if this shirt was out back then! Look at gawd. I dont care what super powers your fave has. I dont care how much merchandise they sell. I dont care. I dont care how many comic books they got. What house they got sorted to in Harry Potter. I DONT CARE! All I care about is if they can throw hands! Can they shoot the one with nothing but the beaters?! Are their arms too short to push up, pull ups, and dips with god?! This aint about hokages and titles. This aint about ships and romance. This is about henny thing is possible when that liquor gets the drunken fists out. This is about fucking ninjas up with the knuck if you buck…. and green liatards. #YallNinjasDontKnowShitBoutThatSpringTimeOfYouth