Vicente Sotto Lecture 2022 September

“Isog as Virtue in Bisayan Cultural History”
Dr. George Emmanuel R. Borrinaga

Abstract:
This lecture explores the continuities and changes in the conceptualization and practice of the cultural value of isog (ferocity/courage/bravery) across different historical periods and in relation to changing and accumulating group identities in the Visayas. Analyzing identity-based expressions and actions through a “history of sensibilities”, it examines how isog and related concepts were defined and acted upon in the colonial and post-colonial periods as documented in sources such as chronicles, ethnographies, official reports, historical/cultural essays, poems, songs, proverbs, among others. It seeks to trace the enduring significance of the isog value in the face of colonization/Christianization, the rise of anti-colonial nationalism, and post-World War II globalization/outmigration. Each of these periods generated new identities and transformed local practices and beliefs. However, these outsider-imposed identities were often paralleled by local identifications expressed through isog-denoting cultural identity labels that had originally been pejorative labels but were subsequently appropriated and repurposed to suit group survival needs (e.g., Bisaya-Cristianos as Pintados; Pilipinhon/Filipinos as Pulahan; Samar-Leyte Bisayans as Waray-Waray). It will argue that, despite major changes in the core beliefs and values of the Visayans across time, isog has remained a central virtue in contemporary Bisayan society and its plural identities owing to the multiplicity and frequency of overlapping social and environmental adversities in one of the most hazard-prone and repeatedly-colonized countries in the world.

Date: September 24, 2022

Category: Vicente Sotto Lecture Series